Krammerheads Corner

Metro Vancouver is filled with the laziest litterbugs in all of Canada.

2010-08-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

As the title states, Metro Vancouver is the home of the laziest, self important, dirty filthy slobs in all of Canada. One doesn't have to look very far for proof, take the annual Celebration Of Light fireworks show. The day after each show the beaches are literally covered in debris of all types even though enough garbage cans are provided. People tend to think that the amount of garbage left behind is some sort of anomaly, that it's just because it's a special event and people aren't normally that messy. This of course is a crock of crap. The same amount of garbage that these 150,000 people make in one area is the same amount of garbage the same self important, lazy scumbags spread everywhere else they go on a daily basis.

I know because my job is to clean up after these people in my present job. Last week I encountered a man who couldn't believe how people could just toss their cigarette butts all over the place. He told me about the time when he was younger (and a smoker) when he went to live in Switzerland. On one of his first days there he was smoking in public area. He tossed his cigarette butt down onto the street and he was quickly engaged by three individuals. One older lady said to him "please don't litter, these are our streets, please pick it up." He said he was so ashamed upon hearing this that he immediately apologized and picked up and discarded his butt in a proper receptacle. He mentioned that this incident remains strong in his memory to this date. It seems is Switzerland the people have pride in the appearance in their cities.

Just today I bumped into another, albeit younger, man. He got out and told me that they need more people like me. He said he was angry at all the litter he saw around Vancouver. He then mentioned that he understands that Vancouver is a big city but he's from Toronto which is even bigger and they don't have the same amount of litter filling the streets and public areas. Having to deal with this on a daily basis who was I to argue?

Vancouver is full of lazy scumbags. Brought up by lazy scumbag parents.

A story on a job applicant.

2010-08-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'm going to tell a story on something that happened last Saturday while at work. I'm just going to relay the information and then comment on it afterward.

Just after noon the lead hand (a Filipino) I was working with was called on the radio by a supervisor (a Filipino) of another department. He asked him to return to our shop/work yard immediately. Thinking there was a job needed doing we headed over there as soon as possible. Upon arriving I saw that the supervisor was standing with a grey haired Filipino man, a younger woman and a child. They spoke in Tagalo for about 20 minutes. At first I thought that it may have been a family that either the lead hand or the supervisor knew. Soon after the conversation was over I found out differently.

My lead hand started trying to contact the supervisor in our department immediately. Since he was on a weeks vacation he could not get a hold of him. He tried numerous times. Then we spent another half an hour trying to find this man (the job applicant) in a crowded shopping mall. After wasting nearly an hour on this the man he was found and my lead hand gave him a phone number and a name and shook hands and left. It was then that the lead hand decided to tell me what was going on, although I'd already figured it out.

It turns out this 58 year old male had been in Canada for just a month and was looking for work. He had no resume, phone, nor a drivers license. I'm not sure whether he was able to speak English or not as all the conversation was in Tagalo. Now here's my comment that some will take offense to, but that's because they are non thinking people:

Isn't it wrong for this guy to jump the queue? I'm pretty sure there is a stack of resumes of people wanting a job at my workplace. Yet, my lead hand and the supervisor that was on duty that day bent over backwards, wasting an hour of work time, to accommodate a guy that wasn't really the best qualified. Hell he didn't even have a resume. But they did it because of his race.

Racism is just plain wrong. Just because it is being done by a minority doesn't make it less so. There are plenty of people who have paid lots of taxes in this country who have been looking for work for a long time now. Since this behaviour is the norm in many workplaces (hiring fellow countrymen over others) one can only wonder when the backlash will start. It will be ugly.

Heatwave continues.

2010-07-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

A lack of updates on this blog is two-fold. First it seems nobody is reading it, so really there's no need to worry about frequent updates. Secondly this heatwave in metro Vancouver is continuing.

Now I know that people from warmer cities might not consider this a heatwave, the weather network always says that the temperature in Vancouver is 24-26C and that's not hot to some people but there are a couple of things wrong with that. It's always warmer than what the weather network says. First off they measure the temperature from the weather station in Richmond, which is a flat area near water, it's not even Vancouver! If you live on the North Shore like I do it's always warmer. I also work outdoors where there is no shade...obviously warmer. Secondly as mentioned before there is a problem with air flow in my apartment, so when I get home or on my days off it is far warmer in here. Right now it's 27c with the windows open and a fan going.

The other day I was in a Future Shop store. They had a good price, well at least one lower than I've seen before, on portable air conditioners. These are the only ones allowed in my apartment. $399. I was almost tempted to buy one but for the life of me could not get the specifics of the unit off of the box. This is because all 50 of them had been stacked up against a wall with nothing but the French language side showing. Now let's forget about the fact that us Canadians are supposed to learn French in our schools.....French language classes are a joke with people unqualified to teach teaching them. Back to the topic sat hand though, why the hell would the store do that? It was obviously deliberate. The odds of accidentally stacking them with 100% of the French language side visible are astronomical.

So they lost a potential sale. Dumbasses.

Damn hot apartment.

2010-07-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

As every summer we are having out first heat wave of the year in Metro Vancouver. As is usual we hear the news anchors and weather people boasting about how great the weather is, and some idiot on these newscasts always says that they hope it continues until September. I know these people work in air conditioned studios and it's clear that they live in air conditioned homes.

Not I, or apparently anyone else in my neighbourhood. I've lived in two separate buildings on my street and know that these apartments not only have no air conditioning but they suffer from poor ventilation. That is the apartments are incredibly hot all year long. In winter I never have to turn the heat on. Not once last winter did I have to turn on my heat, and it was well over 22C (72F) all winter long. The other night when they mentioned how hot is was going to be I turned on the TV to find that it was only 17C outside. Inside my apartment, on a digital thermometer it was 27C. As I type this it is now 25C outside, but inside my apartment is 30C (86 F) and the forecast is for higher temperatures as the week progresses.

So I ask, how is it that my rent increases the most allowed by regulations each year, yet nothing is ever done to fix the obvious ventilation problems. I pay over $1,000 a month for rent and parking (unfortunately on the lower scale of overpriced living accommodations in Vancouver) yet am supposed to live in nearly unbearable conditions each summer. Of course even if I could afford an air conditioner my apartment doesn't allow them. I think they may allow portable ones, but the price of those are through the roof.

So damn you rich news anchor people. You try to sleep at night when it's 30C in your bedroom!

Professionally groomed people only?

2010-07-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

I read a lot of help wanted ads, because quite frankly I don't like my job. Quite often, regardless of the type of position you come across a help wanted ad that states that they want professionally groomed people only. That begs a few questions.

First off what exactly does that mean? Does it mean you can't cut your own hair, you must go to a professional stylist? What about beard grooming? Of course it probably means that one must cut their hair to fit the professional aspects of a job. That begs another question, if you aren't a professional why would you need a professional hair cut? The standard definition of a "professional" is someone who had a degree/diploma in the area of work they are in and makes a comfortable salary. So really if you are applying for a counter position in a fast food joint or a custodial position in a shopping mall why would you need a professional hair cut....these are not professions. They are jobs, and certainly not ones with a comfortable salary.

Yet here we are in 2010 with people hiring for these jobs that are stuck in a 1950s mentality. Does a "well groomed" person do a better job? Does Joe Blow come in to a fast food restaurant/hardware store/food court and decide he'll shop elsewhere because the guy behind the counter or the guy sweeping the floor has long hair? What about the person doing the hiring that refuses to hire people who's hairdos don't match his or her standards, do they also turn away business from people who have unprofessional hair? I don't think so.

I go into places of business and see people working who have their pants hanging halfway down their ass, people with cellphones glued to their ears having private conversations, see staff members who I know are on the job sneaking out and smoking joints on their coffee breaks, yet that is all acceptable because at least they are professionally groomed.

Ridiculous.

Littering cigarette slobs

2010-07-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

I've written about it before but these littering cigarette slobs are annoying. Not only do they litter their cigarette butts everywhere but they think nothing of tossing the cigarette packages and everything that comes in them all over the place. I wont even get into those that feel the need to spit all over the area they decide to smoke in.

The excuses these smokers give are all the same. "We wouldn't litter if we had ashtrays provided for us". Hogwash, look at where ashtrays have been installed to solve the litter problem, there's still cigarette butts tossed all around them. Smokers have this culture where they think that it's okay to litter because someone will come around later and clean it up. But guess what? You smokers have the addiction, why do you think it's other peoples responsibility to clean up after your addiction? Smokers should have to carry portable ashtrays around with them-they are available in stores.

Or better yet, the government should levy a deposit on cigarette butts just like they do with beverage containers. Smokers should have to pay a 10 cent deposit on each cigarette. Return the butts and get your money back. Sure only a percentage of smokers would do so, but a lot of those butts would be cleaned up by people needing the money.

Harmonized Sales Tax Hits BC and Ontario

2010-07-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to get into a debate on the HST, because for us middle class people struggling to get by it's bad no matter how you slice it. For people struggling to get by adding any new taxes while our paycheques remain the same means our quality of life will get worse. People who are for the new taxes are always going on about how we need them to pay for our services. It seems to me that those of us who live paycheque to paycheque use these services less than others. Drive a lot in your fancy car to and from all the events that people with money do? Those are people that need taxes for road improvements. Medical care? Seems to me that I rarely go to the doctor. When you have no money who wants to find out you have something wrong with you? The only people constantly getting hurt are the ones with all the toys. Transit improvements? Bah, other than the 5 days a week I take the bus to work for a total of 40 minutes a day, I don't use the bus other than that. I can't afford to go anywhere on my days off. On and on down the line these taxes pay for thing that mostly the wealthy enjoy...or things that I don't want to fund like special interest groups.

It's not as if I don't realize we need taxes to keep things going, but raising taxes and creating new taxes doesn't have to be the answer. First off, stop sending billions of dollars of tax money to countries that are only going to waste it, or where it ends up in the pockets of warlords. If after decades and decades of aid these countries are still in the crapper it's time to realize that it a waste of effort. Canadians who want to send aid to these countries can do it by donating it and creating their own volunteer groups. Don't spend our taxpayers money on it. How about cutting the wages of our politicians? They are overpaid and wasteful. Not only do we pay them too much but their expense accounts are outrageous. Spoiled brats acting like they are royalty. Cut out and stop other government waste, an independent auditor could have a field day going over the real books of our government. How about no more stupid G-8 and G-20 meeting held in our country. That's was a waste of billions of our tax money.

Oh, one thing. Did anyone notice that golf green fees are exempt from the HST in BC? Nothing like the politicians doing a favour for their rich buddies. I mean who needs a tax break more than the wealthy out for a day of golf?

Rich people's skewed outlook on the world

2010-07-01T00:50:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how people with money can't get a grip on things that people without money have come to terms with. People with money always assume that the way they live is the way that everyone does. Here's a few examples.

Back in the 90s I was having a discussion with a lady who was pretty high up in administration at the company I worked for. Somehow the conversation turned to high school graduation. She was lamenting that she could go on her high school vacation trip due to the fact that her father was high up in government at the time and it apparently wasn't safe for her to travel. She then asked me where I went on my graduation trip. She seemed amazed when I pointed out that my class didn't have a graduation trip, and wasn't aware of anyone who had gone on a high school trip. She was under the impression that EVERYBODY went oh high trips abroad after graduating. One case of a person with money unclear on how it is for the rest of us.

A few years ago I was lamenting to a friend on how nice it was that some people seemed to be able to go on good vacations abroad every year, when I couldn't even afford a camping trip let alone a foreign vacation.. This brought out an indignant response from him that anybody, if they put some money away each year, could afford similar vacations. I got into a heated debate, because clearly he was wrong. I couldn't figure out how someone who seemed so intelligent could be so dumb. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I found out that on paper he grossed well over $100,000 more than I did in the year we were having the argument. I think he'd have a much different opinion had he earned just over $20,000 that year. Kind of hard to put money away for a vacation when you are spending nearly all of it on rent, utilities and food. Clueless.

Then there is the guy I know who has had everything given to him on a silver platter. Born to family that has money and connections, he's not really had to work as hard as the common man to get far more than the common man will ever get. His job he has gotten from his fathers connection, and he clearly didn't pay for the condo he's bought with money from the job he has. Yet he is one of those conservatives that will ridicule the poor for not working hard enough and he will ridicule protesters and other people who try to change their world. After all what are they complaining about-he has it so good so everybody must have.

Then there was the guy who told me via the internet that all you have to do is change your attitude to be happy. He and his wife's combined salary is about a million a year. I wonder if he'd be as happy making just $20,000. I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

Great Album: Abner Jay-One Man Band.

2010-06-28T18:06:00.001-07:00

I've decided to change directions, from talking about classic album covers, to talking about classic albums. I'll start with a great one that nearly nobody has.

Abner Jay's "One Man Band". Abner Jay was born in 1921 and was the last of the musician minstrels. I bought this as a CD and it's the only one of his available for purchase. It's good soul and blues, often raunchy with song titles such as "cocaine", "VD", and "wee-wee". In between songs he tells raunchy jokes and stories. Don't be mistaken though, the songs and occasional banter is deep. Abner plays all the instrument (drums, 6 string banjo, harmonica, and occasionally chicken and cow bones for added percussion) at the same time, as obviously when they were recorded there was no multi-track recorders. He also played live this way, hence his being a one man bad. The album contains 13 songs and is available at the usual places like amazon.com and your usual good music places. I picked mine up from Companion Records, where I picked up a few of records I'll review.

If you are the type of person who listens to soulless music by the likes of Justin Bieber, then you really won't like this album as you have no taste.

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My Favourite Beers.

2010-06-26T06:43:00.001-07:00

Okay, I like beer, so what else to do than list my 10 favourites:

1. Pilsner Urquell. I love Pilsner Urquell, and can drink it all year round. It is also fairly priced considering it is an import and the worlds original Pilsener originating in 1842. I was first told about this beer by a recent Serbian immigrant who would praise it and lament that it was not sold in our area. As luck would have it withing months it hit the shelves. I picked up six cans to see what the hype was about. I will admit I drank only two before I trade the other 4 to my dad for some of his crap beer. My immature tastes were not used to the strongly hopped beer. My tastes have since matured and i love it.

2. Guinness. What can I say about Guinness? Unlike people with no taste I do not find Guinness to resemble drinking soup. For the life of me I don't understand the detractors. It's a nice smooth drink. It's a nice stout which I also like to drink year round and particularly good when attending football matches.

3. Kilkenny. Kilkenny is a nice irish cream ale that I have found does not fill you up. Back when it was affordable to drink in a pub in this country I could spend a good many hours drinking it and not get full.

4. Boddingtons Pub Ale. I like it. It used to be sold in an 8 pack sampler that I used to like to buy. The samplers are no longer available, but 4 pack of this stuff is. It's 5% alcohol as opposed to the stuff sold in Britain which is 3.5% and named Boddingtons Draught bitter.

5. Fullers London Pride. This is a nice bitter with a fair price. I find myself purchasing this quite regularly.

After this it gets a little sketchy. I do not have a lot of money to try a lot of expensive beer, let alone travel to foreign countries to try their beer. So I try to find good priced, and good flavoured import or non-imports when I feel like something different. Not crap like Molson Canadian, Budweiser etc. The rest of the list is not in any specific order.

6. Bass Pale Ale. I like pale ale's and this one seems to do the trick, while not breaking my bank account (which incidentally is already broken beyond repair).

7. Efes Pilsener. To be hones I have only tried this Turkish Pilsener twice. Once during a taste test in a liquor store, the other when I brought a six pack of it home. It's pretty good but only available in bottles. Call me unsophisticated, but I like my beer in tall cans. I can pour myself a good pint and don't have to worry about carrying heavy bottles from the liqour store, and heavy empties back. Otherwise this might become a regular purchase.

8. Smithwicks Ale. I haven't had this in ages. I do however recall that's another beer that I could spend the night drinking it the pub.

9. Tetley's English Ale. It's another fairly priced beer, that is smooth to drink, and doesn't, at least in my case, fill me up.

10. There are lots of different beer's that fall into this spot. Local breweries etc, and beers I have yet to try or afford.

Oh, and any beer that contains lime, or people put lime in.....is garbage.

Who are these Beach Boys?

2010-06-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

The Pacific National Exhibition announced today that they will have a 100th anniversary concert at the temporary Empire Fields stadium on the opening day of the PNE this year. Announced as the headliners of this concert are Bryan Adams and the Beach Boys. Who the heck are these Beach Boys?

First off the band that now tours is the "Beach Boys Band." There is only one "original" member, and that is Mike Love. Bruce Johnson is also in the band, and he's been in it long enough that he can be considered a real Beach Boy. That's it. I find it pretty hard to call the band the Beach Boys when there's no Wilson brother in the band. Carl and Dennis have passed away so it' s impossible for them to be in the group. The group continued on after the death of Dennis, and they were still the Beach Boys, but I find it hard to think of it being the same band without Carl's voice and presence being there.

The band might be passable as the Beach boys if Brian Wilson was there. Al Jardine even. Hell, if those two were there and David Marks, who replaced Jardine in the early days at the whopping age of 13 when the former left to attend college then it could still be considered the Beach Boys, I'd love to attend a concert with those guys in the band.

This group that now call themselves the Beach Boys is really nothing more than a Beach Boys cover band.

Woman suing Rogers for Ending Her Marriage

2010-06-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

A 37 year old Toronto woman is suing Rogers Communications for ruining her marriage. To make a long story short it seems that the woman, Gabriella Nagy, had her cellphone bill under her maiden name. Her husband had the families cable and TV bill under his name. He decides to add internet and home service to his account and Rogers sends him a "global" bill to his home. This bill includes Nagy's cellphone bill with the numbers she has called listed, as cellphone bills do. The husband sees a number that has been called many times that he is unfamiliar with and calls it up. The person on the other end reveals that he has been having an affair with Nagy. Needless to say this ends their marriage. So now she's suing Rogers for $600,000. But that's not all. She has started a facebook group which for the life of me I can't recall the name, in order to find others who's privacy she feels has been violated. Funny thing is, everyone that has signed up for her group has been on it calling her all sorts of names under the sun. How many different ways are there to call someone a "slut" I wonder?

So the gist of this is, the woman was cheating on her husband and he found out. Now she claims she is the victim, and Rogers must pay for ruining her marriage. The fact is that she ruined her marriage.

Case closed.

Another take on Canadian Immigration.

2010-06-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the Vancouver Sun newspaper started a 4 or 5 issue special on Filipino immigration to Canada. This is news because Filipinos are the new number one source of immigrants to Canada. I'll admit I only started reading a few paragraphs of the first article before handing it over to a Filipino co-worker who I thought would appreciate it more. I more or less can imagine the gist of how the stories went. I'd like to add some things that probably weren't in the articles and something that probably wouldn't be included in any letters to the editor if one wished to add their thoughts.

First off I have to point out that I like Filipinos. They seem to think that I'm a good guy as well. I have been promised many trips to the Philippines from co-workers if they ever win the lottery. So this isn't coming from a Filipino hater, it's coming from someone who wants to add another viewpoint.

First off employers in Canada love to hire Filipinos. Sure there's the reputation of the hard Filipino worker, but that's not the real reason that they are much sought after. Like other recent immigrants the Filipinos will work hard jobs for low pay, and they won't complain. In fact they are willing to work 2 or 3 low paying jobs to make even the lowest basic living. Employers know they can treat these employees poorly and they won't complain. What better for the employers than to hire workers they don't have to treat well or pay well, and they won't cause a fuss. Of course this has a down side, now all employees have to put up with crappy underpaying jobs because there is now a fresh new group of people willing to work them. Now speaking for myself, I resent the fact that I am now expected to find another job or two just to barely make ends meet. I resent trying to make my workplace better but find it a losing battle because nobody else will stand up for themselves.

My second point is bound to piss someone off, but I mention it because it's true. Sometimes the truth hurts, sometimes the truth pisses people off because they can't see whats wrong with it. Well here it is. Filipinos look after their own. It's an innocuous statement. I've heard this many times from my Filipino friends, not always phrased exactly as that, but expressed nevertheless. I've also seen it at work in many ways. Here's how I've observed it at work: At my workplace the majority of staff is Filipino, and it's no surprise it is that way. There are three supervisors. All three are Filipino. When a vacancy for one of those positions became available one supervisor was overheard telling another employee (in Tagalog of course) that he should apply for the job, otherwise "they'll hire a white guy from outside the workplace". The guy applied for the job, nobody else did, especially any of the few Caucasians who knew because of their race they would not get a promotion. Fast forward a couple of years. This new Filipino supervisor only hires Filipinos, because he's looking after his own. When a vacancy occurs the jobs don't even get advertised because he offers the jobs to his Filipino friends. Therefore the fact is, in reality, only Filipinos are being offered the jobs. Another of the supervisors does the same thing. Both of these supervisors also give their job interviews in Tagalog. Shocking really.

Once on the job (once again strictly speaking about my workplace) the language of choice is Tagalog. Now this may seem harmless enough, but if you are the lone English speaking employee, this can lead to an unhappy workplace. In one of the departments I don't work in at my place of work I know of two Caucasian women who had different responses to this. The first one became an angry person. Although her supervisor knew the reason why, she found it easier to have the woman fired than to admit she had a problem with the woman being excluded. The second woman asked for a transfer to another workplace. It was granted. In both cases they were replaced with....surprise....Filipinos!

In my own experience I find that I am oblivious to most of the work discussions. Most work discussions are done in Tagalog. I get to hear about the work detail last, quickly translated. When there is an odd man out and someone has to work alone, yep it's me. They'd rather work with someone who speaks their language.

Now I don't think this is isolated. You can look at many workplaces and see nearly all of the employees being Filipinos. Your first reaction might be "well nobody else will take those jobs." Think again. Those jobs aren't being advertised/offered to anybody else. Now if we reversed the races, and it was Caucasians "looking after their own" there would be howls of "racism".

So this post is going to piss people off. Too bad. I'm pissed off.

Stupid People, probably rich.

2010-06-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to identify where, but at a shopping mall they have these sliding doors. As with most of these things you have to step on a mat that is before the door and it sets off a sensor which opens the door. Most people seem to have no problem with this concept. However in this rich neighbourhood some people have more money than brains.

So on consecutive days there were these customers who decided that being rich they don't have to wait for anything, things must happen right away. So they walk up and smack their faces into the glass door, which hasn't opened yet. At this point a normal person would walk away with a lesson learned, hoping that nobody saw their stupidity. But no, entitled people have to find someone or something to blame. In this case they blame the door. Because it didn't open in a split second there must be something wrong with it. So they call up the malls customer service desk and lodge a complaint.

They must be this years co-winners of the upper class twit of the year award.

The Politics of Politics

2010-06-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

I don't have any political affiliation. I don't consider myself a liberal or conservative, right wing or left. However more and more these days it seems people have to align themselves with a political party as if it were a sports team. Read any news article online that has a comments section and you can see any news story being debated and it always seems to come down to a political argument. This of course it what politicians want. Personally I find it dangerous.

When people align themselves to parties as if they were a sports team it causes them to accept anything their party does without regards to the actual consequences of the party they support's decisions. If the elected party of the day they support decides they want to waste the taxpayers money on something frivolous, they'll accept it because the decision had to be right, it was made by the team they support. No need to question the decision, because they follow them mindlessly. On the other had if the elected party of the day makes a good decision to spend the taxpayers money on something, then those that oppose that party instantly criticize the move, because it can't be good as the opposing political party made the move.

This of course leads all parties to make bad decisions, because they know that no matter how bad a move they make, they'll always have their supporters on their side, regardless of how poor a choice was made.

Imagine how good things could be if people just voted for the best people with the best ideas running. Then when a party did get elected they based their praise/condemnation on the individual moves the ruling party made? Government might actually achieve something.

Perils of having your weekend during weekdays.

2010-06-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Having to work weekends is bad enough. It's bad enough that I don't like it, I don't want to do it, and there are better people at my workplace suited for weekends. Like married guys who don't really like sports on TV etc. The worst part is that the rest of the world working Monday to Friday don't seem to think anyone does.

This morning, on what is my equivalent to a Sunday morning I was awoken at 8 am by workers at the building next to my apartment. It sounded like they were drilling concrete with jackhammers. It turns out that they were tearing down a large tree. I'm not sure why the tree had to come down, it probably had something to do with the owner of the apartment building wanting a better view. I'm not going to get into an environmental argument though, my problem was with the noise.

As I mentioned it was 8 am on the last day of my days off. I was in bed, trying to sleep. Hoping that the noise was going to be temporary I tried to ignore it. After a half hour I shut my bedroom window-to hell with the heat. That did nothing. Then the chainsaws came out. I found myself a pair of industrial ear buds I had brought home from work. That still did nothing to deafen the noise. At this point I thought I should record the noise as proof that even inside my apartment with my windows shut that the noise as still above a safe level. I tried to sleep but to no avail. Then 90 minutes after it started it was over. Which begs a question, why couldn't they have started the job around noon if it was only a 90 minute job.

Now I know that the company hired to do the job probably had other work. But the area where I live has nothing but apartments, and sound bounces of the ones on one side of the street and hits the apartments on the other side of the street and vice versa. It's a residential area, and I'm sure the people that live here don;t all work Monday to Friday jobs. But no, in the minds of these companies and the people that schedule this work, it was a Wednesday and nobody should have been sleeping at that time.

You can bet that had they done this work at the same time on a Saturday all hell would break loose.

Family Housing.

2010-06-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

I live in an apartment building next to subsidized social family housing. In fact around 14 years ago I lived in the same building before it became a social housing building. I have nothing against subsidized housing considering the high cost of housing here in the Metro Vancouver region (hell nearly anywhere in BC due to foreign investors buying up everything because the developers are selling out the people of this country) but here are a few thoughts.

-Lots of expensive toys on the balconies of these apartments. Things I can't afford myself.

-There doesn't seem to be too many "families" hanging around the building. Lots of young adults that wear hoodies though.

-The people that live there must like the fact that the lower rent they are paying allows for them to buy more cigarettes as it appears that the whole building is occupied by smokers. In fact the grassy area between that apartment and the one I live in is littered with cigarette butts that the lazy tenants just toss off their balconies. Literally thousands of cigarette butts cover the lawn, especially in early spring before the lawns are mowed for the first time each year. Since only the subsidized family housing apartment has balconies that face between the two buildings it is clear where the butts are coming from. Good to see what they spend their savings on.

-Nearly all the apartments here on Vancouver's North Shore don't allow pets. The subsidized family housing apartment next door does. I have nothing against allowing pets, I wish all the apartments around here did, but it does lead to one thought. If the people that live in this building need subsidizing to be able to afford to afford the rent, what are they doing owning pets? Owning a pet costs money. If they can't even afford regular housing what are they doing owning pets? Okay one addition, I understand if a family came into financial trouble after already owning a pet that they'd still like to keep their pet...but I'm pretty sure most of these pets are new.

I don't have a problem with families, and other people that need social housing, getting a chance to live in these buildings. But heavy smokers, those with expensive toys, and ones who buy pets after moving into social housing...they can change their lifestyle and leave the social housing to those that really need it.

That is all.

Great Album Covers part 3: Yesterday and Today-Butcher Cover

2010-05-12T12:08:00.001-07:00

This is truly one of the greatest album covers of all time. It's the original album cover for the Beatles Canadian and American release of "Yesterday and Today". The album consisted of the Beatles wearing butcher smocks sitting down covered with pieces of meat and dismembered baby doll parts. The photo was not originally intended as an album cover, but it was used anyway. Reaction was immediate as Capitol records started receiving complaints from dealers as soon as they received the record.

Feeling the heat they decided to destroy covers that had the offending picture, which they did until they decided it was much more convenient to paste a new cover over the old one. The new cover featured the group standing around a steamer trunk. This would actually cause another controversy as some "Paul is Dead" conspiracy theorists claimed that Paul is sitting in the steamer trunk and when you tip the album cover on the side it resembles Paul in a coffin! But that's another story.

Anyway, there were some people who were lucky to get an original cover before they switched. These are known as "first state" butcher covers, which can fetch up to $40,000 US. Others tried steaming off the outer cover for the valuable original. Most times this failed. Those that managed to get the outer cover off still have a valuable collectors item.

A great cover.

A little recycling message.

2010-05-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is a message for those that throw non recyclables, or the wrong recyclables into marked recycling containers: you are morons.

I'm far from being a recycling freak but it annoys me the amount of people who basically undo what people are trying to accomplish. I'm talking about the idiots that throw paper and other crap into containers marked for bottles and cans. Those are the biggest idiots, they know that what they are throwing in the recyclable bin does not go there. Then there are the lesser idiots, those that cannot understand simple instructions on the bins. Bins marked "plastic bag recycling only" means that. It does not mean you can put plastic coat hangers, plastic bottles or any other plastic material in it. Bins marked "plastic containers" with the resin code number (the number inside the triangle) are not for putting any type of plastic in it. Bins marked "paper" mean just paper, as does bins marked "cardboard". Just because both are made from trees does not mean they go into the same bin. They all go through their own special recycling process. Plastic bags are not recycled the same as plastic bottles, etc.

People contaminate these bins thinking that when they are picked up to go to the various depots that the employees there will sort through them. Think again. This is big business, time is money. These companies are not trying to save the world, they are running a business. Most of the contents of these contaminated bins will not make it there. They will be tossed into the trash as being contaminated. I'd estimate in various major centres where there are public recycling bins, a majority of the contents get's thrown in the trash because the ignorant public felt the need to throw regular trash into the recycling bin.

So next time those of you who think you are good recyclers think about tossing you regular garbage into a recycling bin because somebody else will be sorting it out later, think again.

Sex With An Angel

2010-05-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

A person I consider a friend, Joe Rossi asked people to link to one of his music videos. Since I'm too tired to write anything at the moment I thought I'd link to it here. It's a song from his CD "A Last Fling with Decadence & Democracy" which he was kind enough to send me for free on his own dime a few years back.

Three are some still available on Amazon, and perhaps from other sources as well.

New Westminster passes "living wage" motion.

2010-05-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

I don't live there but it's nice to hear that the city of New Westminster has passed a motion that would have them adopt a "living wage" policy for all employees doing work on city owned property. This would also include those working for independent contractors.

Living wage is different than "minimum wage" which in British Columbia is the lowest in Canada at a ridiculous $8 an hour. Living wage is defined as enough to keep a family of two working adults and two children above the poverty line. According to those doing the numbers for New Westminster this equals $16.74 an hour, more than twice the minimum wage.

Nice to know that some places can still do decent things.

Things I hate about taking the bus.

2010-04-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

Things I hate about taking the bus.

1. Drivers that miss their stop. This happens more than you think. Sometimes it's because drivers are not always knowledgeable about their route and accidentally miss a street they are supposed to drive on. You'll be sitting on the bus and know the bus isn't supposed to take the turn it did, and some poor soul waiting at the bus stop on the street it missed is going to miss the bus. Sometimes, as has happened in the last couple of weeks, the driver misses the stop because he or she is too busy in conversation with one of those passengers who decides to stand next to the driver and engage him in conversation. A couple of Sundays ago I ended up waiting half an hour longer for my bus as I should have and subsequently was late for work. Usually this can be attributed to a bus breaking down and hence when the replacement bus shows up it is jam packed with two trips worth of passengers. But when the next bus showed up it only had the normal amount of passengers. Something was fishy. Then last Sunday I looked down the street and saw the same bus coming turning onto the street I was on from the wrong direction. It got to my stop and I got on and sat down next to an elderly gentleman. He told me I almost missed the bus as the driver was too busy talking to the woman standing up at the front of the bus. He then explained that the driver realized his mistake and turned around and came back. I suppose he didn't want to make the same mistake two weeks in a row.

2. Yappy cell phone talkers. It seems that at any given time there are at least half a dozen people having loud conversation on their cell phones. They really seem to have anything to say. Worse is when it's early morning and they still seem to find someone who will listen to their claptrap.

3. People who seem to have dined on garlic cloves before boarding the bus. Was it really necessary to eat that amount of garlic before boarding the bus? Are you really that oblivious?

4. People who seem to think that the price of bus face allows them to occupy two seats. You know the ones, the people sleeping while taking up two seats or the ones who think that the other seat is for their backpack or purse. Unless you paid for two seat, get you damn belongings of the other seat.

There are a lot more, but I have to go now and take the bus to work.

Great Album Covers Part 2: Morrison Hotel

2010-04-25T17:01:00.001-07:00

Another random great album cover from a great album is the Doors 1970 album "Morrison Hotel". To some it might just seem like your random album cover of a bunch of guys sitting in a window. The story behind it is a little more fun. The Morrison Hotel is an actual hotel that keyboardist Ray Manzarek had discovered while driving around with his wife, and the Doors thought it would be cool to have their picture taken underneath the hotel name in the window, what with their lead singer being Jim Morrison. The owners, like idiots, declined. In typical Doors manner they did not let this deter them. They waited until nobody was paying attention the band went inside and posed and the photographer, Henry Diltz, took a few closeup photos. He then walked across the street and snapped another shot with a telephoto lens. This is the photo that ended up as the album cover.

They then went down to skid row to the original hard rock cafe and had some beer, and took more shots, one which ended up on the back side of the album. Subsequently they named the first side of the album "Hard Rock Cafe" and the second side "Morrison Hotel".

A excellent album everyone should have.

Beer, cigarettes and marijuana.

2010-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot of letters to the editors the last couple of days since the annual 4/20 stoners event. There's been a lot of opposing views spewed forth. So I figure I'd make random comments in response to what I've read.

First off there's those people that argue that marijuana is safer than beer. This is true of course as the numbers of people who have died from over consumption or having fatal traffic accident (or other accidents fatal or not for that matter) are well documented. These same people argue that marijuana has never killed anybody (although in a letter I read today posted to two different newspapers claim that there is only one documented case of a marijuana fatality). This to me seems a little too convenient and more than slightly false. I'm sure there are some traffic accidents, some fatal that have been caused by someone too high to drive. Do I have any evidence, no. But neither do the people who claim otherwise. Surely with the number of people smoking high potency marijuana there has to be some accidents caused by it, whether it was documented or not. Secondly, sucking any kind of smoke into your lungs is bad for you. Certainly there have been cancer deaths years later. So I'm pretty sure more than one person has died from smoking pot.

The laughable comment pot smokers make that unlike alcohol people don't become dependent on it is truly funny. So those people that smoke it before work, at lunch time and after work are not dependent on it? Seems to me they are. If a person were to drink alcohol before work, at lunch time and after work he'd be called an alcoholic.

That being said, even though I don't smoke it, I'm not a hypocrite. We all have our poisons. If beer and cigarettes are legal so should marijuana. You'll never see joint butts littered all over the streets as you do empties and cigarette butts.

Great Album covers part 1Best of the Beach Boys Vol. 2

2010-04-21T13:33:00.002-07:00

I've decided to randomly post record album covers from the past that I found interesting for whatever reason. They are in no particular order. First up is the album "Beast of the Beach Boys Vol. 2". I remember as a kid in the seventies, when I was perhaps 11 or 12 my older brother had this album. I recall that he was babysitting at a friends house and I was over and he had this album on their stereo. I remember staring at these guys sitting on a log on the cover, looking at their happy faces and thinking how great it was to be these guys. Making great music, and looking so happy on the album cover.

Years later I'd find out how crappy it was to grow up as a Wilson brother with their mean bastard of a dad ruining their childhoods.

At least the music was great, and the album cover to me is a classic!