City officials have been getting flak for the slow rate of snow removal after Sunday night’s storm.

They say they’re doing it as quickly as they can, which is much faster than in any other North American city.

They say that it takes about five days to remove this much snow from every street.

They say they can’t snap their fingers and have every city worker on the street instantly.

Granted. But none of this answers my main question: why was my tiny street perfectly cleared within 12 hours, while three days after the storm, snow was still piled high on De Lorimier, Papineau, Mont-Royal and Ste-Catherine? Not to mention the fact that an entire lane of the Ville-Marie was inaccessible due to snow, until only this morning.

I want city officials to stop pointing fingers at each other and get out their shovels. I want someone to start kicking butts and taking names. I think goodwill towards men is a lot easier to achieve when you’re not aggravated into a murderous fury by the time you sit at your desk in the morning.

(image from cbc.ca)

French President Jacques Chirac passes a bill to outlaw religious symbols in schools. This move reportedly comes as an effort to facilitate integration and help ease discrimination against Jewish and Muslim students, among others.

Does this strike anyone else as misguided? Far be it for people to actually be expected to be tolerant. Is the solution to xenophobia really to simply remove anything that is foreign to the mainstream? What Chirac is doing here, is institutionalizing the intolerance.

The President says that the secularization of the state is one of his society’s greatest achievements. Granted. But I don’t think this has anything to do with the secularization of schools and state. It is being imposed to individuals.

I have tickets tomorrow at 12:30.
I have tickets Thursday night at 8:00.
I have tickets for Saturday.

It better not suck.

I know this will reveal even more of my technological naïveté, but here goes anyway. A minute ago I was checking my mail and saw a banner ad for a free Pedigree Puppy Starter Kit. In a blonde moment, I thought “Wow, what a amazing coincidence!”. Then I realized, hey, you think maybe this has to do with the sites I’ve been surfing?

Still, I retain a sense of wonder for this kind of stuff.

This weekend our company had one of its Christmas parties. One of its parties, for a company with over 20000 employees (plus their dates) has to have several. Saturday was our turn, and it was an intimate affair of 2400 people. I was eyeing the whole thing quite cynically, of course, uneasy with the idea of dolling up and chirping politely while using the right spoon to eat a tepid potage without taste.

In a feeble attempt to deny my corpofication, I got my hair done eighties punkette style, and wore my “ripped in that studied way” designer dress. Oooh. Do we dare?

Anyway, I thought my worst fears confirmed when I entered and saw a line of suits conga-ing badly to a Gloria Gaynor cover. But fate was to be kinder to us. Our group ended up seated together, right next to the generous open bar, far from the pointy-haired set. A strange but wonderful real-party-within-a-fake-party developed.

It was totally unintentional on the part of the company, and I doubt such lightning will ever strike again at future “club social” events, but we actually had fun.

You’re an Indie Pop Kid. You like songs about relationships and the prettiness of nature. You’re sentimental, but not certainly not emo.

Oh, and if you aren’t an English Major, you
should be.

You Know Yer Indie. Let’s Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla

That girl looks like such a keener. Then again, as of tonight I am finished with my Christmas shopping…

via Nika

T and I have agreed to get a doggie. After much negotiation and research, the breed for us seems to be, strangely enough… the chihuahua. So we’re casually starting to look for a baby.

The chihuahua won over the runners up, the Boston Terrier (my favorite) and the Jack Russell (T’s choice). The Boston Terrier was perfect for our lifestyle, but T really couldn’t bring himself to find it cute. As for the Jack Russell, research revealed that although highly intelligent, they’re hyper, destructive, unhappy alone and need huge dwellings with a yard.

The chihuahua offers the following:
High obedience rating and learning rate
Easily trained to use doggy litter box
Easily socialized to get along with cats and other dogs
Gets strongly attached to owners
Does not react strongly to strangers - can be trained not to bark
Can be taken many places
Happy in a small apartment
Doesn’t like to go out in winter, so no need for -40C midnight walks
Zero grooming required, no shedding
Eats for 10 bucks a month

Names that have already been suggested: Vader, Gollum, King Kong, Cujo, Doritos, Speedy, Spike, Elvis, Mini T.

Any other ideas?

(Image from dogbreedinfo.com)

… and the staff is Sofa King nice,
and the service is Sofa King good…

(merci T)

Setting: Our apartment, about once every two weeks.

Him: But I don’t wanna buy a house.
Me: We’re not putting enough money away for retirement. At this rate I’ll still be writing RFP’s at age 77. At least if we were to put our 900$ monthly rent towards property…
Him: Yeah but then I’ll have to buy a car, because we can’t afford a house near downtown so I can’t walk to work anymore.
Me: There’s good public transit from the South Shore.
Him: Yeah but you know, we’ll have to spend more money on maintenance, so it’s not really that great an investment.

When finally…
Me: Look, let’s stop having this argument over and over. Let’s go to the bank and have them show us, with numbers and stats, exactly how good or bad an investment it is. OK?
Him: Yes. Great idea. It’s a deal. Let’s not talk about this anymore.
Me: Deal.

Then, this weekend:
Him: So I saw this nice condo for sale on the corner of Rachel and Bordeaux. 1000 square feet and a terrasse. Oh, and the place next to Dave’s is for sale.
Me: Cool! Let’s drive by and get the number!
Him: But I don’t wanna buy a house…

As a follow-up to the bathroom signs post…

Apparently, in an effort to solve the problem of bathroom lineups being much longer for women than for men, some women are lobbying for a mandatory two-to-one ratio in the number of women’s rooms and men’s rooms in new constructions.

The talented Dr. Wank writes:

I guess I don’t have a problem with more women’s washrooms than men’s, as long as there are signs over the women’s mirrors that say “Your make-up is fine, get the hell out and let someone else use the space effectively”. You could put another in the stalls that says “hovering wastes time, sit on the damned seat, it’s like an adventure!”.

Oh, and just for equality, over the mirrors in the men’s washroom: “Your hair is fine and you’re not getting laid no matter where your part is anyway, you pansy gino, so get the hell out and let someone else use the space…HEY! Wash your hands, you disgusting freak!”

(Hm, if this keeps up I’ll have to send Dr. Wank in my place to Yulblog)