A Weekend, of Sorts

So my weekend consisted of getting paid and immediately spending money. (This is what happens when you go broke every two weeks.) Some went to the cats (food), and the rest went to us (food). Friday was a trip to the OG for some good pasta and fried mozza. Saturday was KFC. Sunday we had lunch at he Cactus Club Café with jette, who was stuck in our area due to traffic and got hungry. The rest of the weekend consisted of giving jette bad directions for getting back to the highway, finally putting the DVD drive I got for my birthday in my comp, laundry, washing floors, vacuuming and watching a lot of movies on the tele. And WoW. Can’t believe I almost forgot WoW.

A somewhat uneventful time, very unlike the rest of my family.

Apparently a long-time friend of the family went for triple bypass surgery recently and is now recovering at home. My grandmother had to go in to have gall stones taken care of. On a side note, she’s apparently had her gal bladder out in her twenties. I did not know this. Oh, and there was a 7 hour stand-off at my sisters apartment complex. She wasn’t allowed past the police blockade when she got home from school, so she went to see a movie. Even when she got back from that she had to convince a cop to “sneak her in” since she lived mere feet away from the police line. She said there was a sniper positioned directly across from her place. Cool and scary at the same time. Though, I think Joe still has her beat.

It Gets Kinda Squishy

I had a very cranky bus driver Thursday morning. Now lately the busses along my route to work have been very full. The route goes from a SkyTrain station past BCIT and with classes started I’m often left standing at my bus stop with many other people watching full busses ride right by us. Sometimes four or five go by before a mostly empty one finally comes along and rescues us.

Thursday however, though he had an almost full bus, the driver decided to stop and let our group on. After telling people already on the bus to move to the back three times, about 10 of us managed to get on, with the rest standing in the doorway or waiting hopefully on the sidewalk. At this point he said that we’d all have to move behind the line so he could see his mirrors before we went anywhere.

Now up to this point, I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with this behaviour. It was at this point, however, that he seemed to have become irritated. After a big sigh and with undisguised irritation in his voice he called once again for a migration to the back of the bus. Now I’m pretty tall and can see over the heads of most of the population in the GVA, and the people in that bus were doing a pretty dam good imitation of sardines. But we shuffled and squished more and another two people were able to get behind the line. This left the remainder of the group either in the doorway or still standing outside the bus.

The bus driver then yelled a one of the guys and threatened to throw him off the bus because he bumped him three times with his backpack. The guy looked somewhat startled at the rebuke and quickly removed his backpack from his shoulder. Finally, the driver looked at the people in the doorway and flatly stated again that he wouldn’t be going anywhere without being able to see the mirrors. The few people in the doorway looked pleadingly at the mass of bodies already in the bus and stepped dejectedly out onto the street to await their fate. The bus was finally moving.

Now, besides the obvious rudeness of the bus driver, my biggest problem with him was that he was willing to create the aforementioned situation and then complain about it rather than take an active approach to control it. I’ve had other drivers stop when they’ve had limited space and actually say that they can only take 3 or 4 people. I have no problem with that. It keeps the number of people on the bus at a comfortable level for the driver and allows those people who have been waiting the longest for a ride to get on with their day. I actually think it’s the best way to handle the capacity problem. I in no way agree with Mr. Cranky Bus Drivers methods. If he didn’t want to deal with an over crowded bus, he should have just kept going rather than spreading his misery to other people who just wanted a ride to wherever.

There, it’s all out of my system now. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life.

Baby Steps

So I spent my normal 2 hour WoW allotted time Tuesday evening updating Fancys website after she worked so diligently at creating as much work for me as she possibly could. It looks ok. You should check it out.

But, what was the reward for my slavery? A short lecture on how my own webpage is very out of date. Yes, I know it’s out of date. That’s why I started the Blog. And look how much trouble I’m having with this. Small steps people. Small steps. I ain’t gonna change overnight. Eventually though, it’ll happen and you can all marvel at the miracle.

Plasta-what?

Plastination. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastination It’s an interesting method used to conserve body parts. And it’s utilized in a somewhat controversial exhibit called Body Worlds.

I went this past weekend to the exhibit here in Vancouver. I was unsure about how I would feel about walking around staring at a bunch of cut up dead people put in different poses. As it turns out, the hype seemed a bit overblown compared to the actual exhibit. And in fact, the cost to get in to see the exhibit, for which the venue increased their regular price by 50%, was just too much.

Now, I do have to say that I did find it interesting to see smokers lungs, enlarged hearts, arthritic joints, replacement joints and bone pins along with specimens of healthy organs and a full skin “suit”. However, there really is only so many times you can look at a skeleton, even with musculature, no matter what pose you put them in.

Then again, maybe it’s just me. It could very well be worth it to those people who have a greater interest in the human body, or those that don’t have a lot of access to these things in books or schooling.

I guess what I’m trying so eloquently to say is, if you’re interested and have the means then go check it out. But if you don’t really care that much but feel like you should go see it because of the hype or controversy or whatever, then I’d recommend finding something else to spend your time and money on.

They Love Me! They Really Love Me!

I had my 3-month review last week at work. While the exact phrase “we love you” was not uttered, there were no negative comments. Everyone been happy with my work, including my boss, so I guess I’m doing well. Strange considering that I don’t think I’ve managed to deliver anything on time with my latest project. Then again, the whole project is a couple of weeks behind, so I don’t think they can really fault me. Anyway, happy that benefits will soon be starting, just too bad the deductions that come with them will also be starting.

It’s hard to believe it’s been three months already. It really doesn’t seem like it. It definitely doesn’t feel like we’ve been out here for six months already, but, oh yes, we have indeed. It still feel a bit like a vacation to me I guess. I’ll have to pay attention to see if I can pinpoint the time when I finally feel settled in.

Talk to ya all later.