Lack Of Motivation

Being a Monday morning I have little motivation to even be at work let alone get any work done. I am usually good after an hour or so to get down to some work or at least pretend to work but today I can't seem to ward off the many distractions. My motivation to work or even pretend to work is non-existent. When I do get to work my concentration disappears on me and after a minute or less of work I revert back to surfing the web (after all there were a lot of games in the NLL over the weekend to read up and I was directed to another sports blog this morning that I can waste time reading). Perhaps I need to hook up my iPod and get some tunes going, at a reasonable volume of course. I'm even getting distracted from my distractions.

It's going to be a long day but at least it is almost half over.

A Canopy of Birds

Have you ever seen the movie The Birds? Here’s the summary from IMDb.com:

A wealthy San Francisco playgirl pursues a potential boyfriend to a small
Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of
all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with
increasing viciousness.

I was 'lucky' enough to catch the tail end of this movie one day last year after leaving work early. My supervisor mentioned this flick to me so when I saw it was on the telly I had to check it out.

While crossing the Peace Bridge en route to the HSBC Arena for the Bandits season opener I saw a sight that ripped my mind back to this movie. A flock or ten of birds were covering the bridge just about in the middle of it. They were above the light poles forming a living canopy that stretched from one side of the bridge to the other while being several feet wide. It was an awesome sight but having witnessed Alfred Hitchcock’s imagination on the screen, there was a bit of fear mixed in too, perhaps even terror. Travelling underneath this moving canopy was kind of eerie but we survived the encounter with the birds. Our car, on the other hand, needed a good washing afterwards.

What's A Few Pennies?

There is this Greek place in the underground Path system by my work that I frequent on occasion even though their pricing really irritates me. I usually get the same thing every time I go there and every time I have to scrounge around for three pennies before heading down for some grub. The reason for this is that the food and drink I usually get comes to $10.03.

I don’t think this would be too much of an irritant if they were more diligent about giving back change. I for one never carry change around with me, at least not anything less than our lovely loonie so I usually pay with bills. I used to expect them to give me the correct change but instead they never do. Instead they shortchange themselves and just give me back change to the dollar amount, losing the three cents. In and of itself that would be great but the cashier always makes a point of the three cents.

If the three cents are such a big deal why does the cashier not give back the correct change to the penny? Since this is not done, I assume the extra three cents are not overly important to the business. If this is the case, why don’t they fix their price to an even $10.00? Are they not capable of doing the math backwards? Perhaps they just like irritating people. Rounding up to five or even ten cents would be less irritating then the three cents and the attitude the cashier gives because she is too lazy to count the change.

Where Is My Burger Queen?

Well, here is my story of how I almost met my Burger Queen. It was first year at University and like most Fridays during that year me and my new found friends were drinking. My one friend lived out of town and had not yet joined us so we decided that he could drive us to Burger King quickly before he added to the bottle count…make that can count since the residence didn’t allow bottles.

While waiting for our transportation to BK, I found some props to make use of for our trip. Not sure why but there was a paper BK crown lying around the room (must have been picked up on a previous drunken adventure to BK) that I had to wear for the night. As the beer was hitting me, my creative side came out and I found a bath robe I could wear to go along with my crown. My friend showed up before I could get too creative, much to the relief of the others, and took us to BK.

Wearing the robe and crown I strolled into BK as cool as a cucumber pronouncing that I was the Burger King (come to think of it, I believe my robe was the exact same colour that the real Burger King is sporting nowadays, hmmmm). When I got to the counter I repeated that I was the Burger King and asked the lovely girl behind the counter if she would be my Burger Queen. After the bout of laughter subsided enough I placed my order, we got our food then left before the embarrassment of the adventure was realized.

That was so out of character for me that to this day I am still wondering what got into me, besides the JD that is. There are other fun stories of adventure from my first year but the rest are for others to tell besides I can’t really remember any of them.

Linked To A King

A few days back a friend wrote a note on facebook asking people to add memories of their time together. Immediately I thought of our occasional lunch trips to Burger King. Surely there are better memories than our BK trips, even though these were lots of fun, to share with her. Trying to think of better times to actually type out I stumbled on the realization that my life has been linked with the ‘king’ of burger joints for quite some time.

Way back in high school a group of us frequented the local Burger King almost daily during our spare and lunch. Lots of fun was had both at the restaurant and on the drive. Plus it was a great escape from the school area and all the crap that went with it. Then when I went to university there was a Burger King close to where I was living (and not far from the school) that I made full use of. They also gave a deal to students so that was an added bonus. That was where I almost met my Burger Queen. (A fun drinking story I will get to later). The next year one of my housemates found a BK that was open 24 hours so we were able to fill our hunger at all hours, even if it was a 20 minute drive. We frequently did at 2 or 3 in the morning. Even my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) entertained our midnight cravings of BK and drove our drunken asses the 20 minutes a few times a week.

After all this, I guess I can just go ahead and add my BK story in answer to my friend’s query. As sad as that may seem.

Groundhog Day: Another Custom With a Lost Beginning

Being curious about where the Groundhog Day custom started and having lots of extra time on my hands I decided to look it up on wikipedia. As with most of our customs, Groundhog Day has several theories on how it came to be but none are really stated as the one. Whatever the beginning is, it is pretty sad that we need an oversized rat to give us some hope that winter is ending even though these predictions are even less accurate than the ones professional forecasters give us. Winter has about six more weeks left to it regardless of what Punxsutawney Phil, Wiarton Willie, or any of their other furry counterparts have to say…or should I say what the officials at these various locations have to say.

January 2009 Quotes

Small beginnings of any good thing...are to be cherished and cultivated.
- William Dawson (former Principal of McGill)

It's only natural for people who consider themselves deprived to dislike those who seem to have everything.
- Isaac Asimov (Nemesis)

the simplest explanation is usually the truest.
- Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World)

A man must know when to retreat from a woman...but a wise man knows that sometimes he must stand and face her.
- Robert Jordan (Lord of Chaos)

Men really were…inconvenient…at times. The best of them found ways to say exactly the wrong thing at the wrong momet
- Robert Jordan (A Path of Daggers)

…every one who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit, and the fact of living in society renders it indispensable that each should be bound to observe a certain line of conduct towards the rest.
- John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)

A place for everyone and everyone in their place, chosen for them according to their talents and the needs for society.
- Robert Jordan (Lord of Chaos)

Women did strange things to a man's head.
- Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

Every man had his limits…and a man pushed to them was especially dangerous…
- Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Might as well try to drink the ocean with a spoon as argue with a lover.
- Stephen King (The Drawing of the Three)

Disappointment was never a thing you looked for, but it had a wonderful way of clearing the mind.
- Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

Wonders are many, but none,
none is more wonderous than man.
- Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

The Lord helped those who helped themselves.
- Stephen King (The Stand)

…maybe the greatest talent of all is the talent to work.
- Brian McFarlane (Best of the Original Six)

You are safe in any reasonable sense, but no one is absolutely safe.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past.
- Isaac Asimov (Foundation's Edge)

Peter: So I'm sitting in my cubicle today and I realized that ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So it means that every single day you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.

Dr. Swanson: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?

Peter: Yeah.

Dr. Swanson: Wow, that's messed up.
- from Office Space

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
- John Denver (Take Me Home, Country Roads)

The human mind naturally adapts itself to the position it occupies.
- Charles Hibbert Tupper

Some praise at morning what they blame at night;
But always think the last opinion right.
- Alexander Pope (An Essay on Criticism, Part II)

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
- Alexander Pope (An Essay on Criticism, Part II)

She saw the world through the eyes of a child
Yes she's seen it all and she knows they're all lies
- Soul Asylum (Eyes of a Child)

...a woman who had taken a man to her bed always looked at him with that light of ownership in her eyes after.
- Robert Jordan (The Fires of Heaven)

...women would believe anything about a man so long as it was bad. And the worse it was, the more they had to talk about it
- Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

A woman would do a thing until you were sure she always would, then do something else just to fuddle you.
- Robert Jordan (A Crown of Swords)

Stories have power. Gleeman's tales, and bards' epics, and rumors in the street alike. They stir passions, and change the way men see the world.
- Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)