Savings amid tax harmonization

Recently the Ontario government agreed to harmonize the GST and PST taxes into one tax. This tax will now apply to more products and services than before because some of those products that were exempt from GST will not be exempt from the HST. In essence, this harmonization will cost each Ontario citizen more money to live. At least I can save $20 by not buying a new wallet because I am not going to have any money to put in it once this tax is implemented. Guess I’ll have to start shopping in the US soon.

Passwords

One of the programs we use at work has been set up to be fairly secure. Every 60 days or perhaps even 60 uses the program asks the user to create a new password. There are limits on what can be used and prevents recent duplications so every time I am asked to provide a new password it takes several tries before I actually stumble on one I can use. And of course this happens when my mind is not in any shape to remember a new password. Today is no exception so I have begun searching for words or terms that probably should not be allowed but are. Childish, I know, but it is all I can do to get back at the man.

One of my last passwords I chose I thought I would have no trouble remembering. It had to do with one of my biggest interests and it was even contained in a picture I used as a desktop background for a while. As it turns out I had more trouble remembering my password when it was always right in front of me than when I came up with some random word to use. Just goes to show that sometimes the most obvious is the hardest thing to see.

White noise

While trying to sleep at work this morning I realized just how much white noise there is in an office building. The hum of the cpu, the hum of air ventilation, two radio's competing for dominance from different corners of the office, the drone of people's voices while talking on the phone or to each other and noises from construction being done outside. Curiously enough there was no sound of keys being pushed.

If this stupid post is no indication for you, I am extremely bored today and have no motivation to do anything in the way of productive work. It is going to be a long, long day.

Useless Fact About Me

I realized something about me while having my blood stolen from me in the name of health. I have different views when it comes to seeing blood depending on the circumstances. I have no problem seeing blood when it is being taken from me with a needle but I don’t really enjoy seeing it from a cut, at least not in large quantities. In other words, I would make a terrible crime scene investigator, cop, health professional and any other occupation that may come into contact with large quantities of blood. Good thing I am an office bitch then, I guess.

Why Won't You Stop

The other day I went to a walk in clinic to have a spot on my back checked out. It had been bleeding for at least a day and showed no signs of stopping, even though the leak did slow down. So there I am sitting in the waiting area with no obvious signs of sickness while the others were sitting with swollen ankles/feet, swollen eye and various cough, sniffles and sneezes. I felt like quite the idiot. The spot on my back was so small and the blood was flowing so slowly that it paled in comparison to the needs of the others.

Anyhow, the spot was nothing and they pretty much had the bleeding stopped before I left but to get even with me for wasting their time, they made me take a blood test.

Stupid Is In The Air

Not sure what is special about today but there seems to be an unusually high amount of stupid people out there today. First off, a lady about a third my size decided to walk into my path needlessly (she angled into it from a safer position) and had she not taken evasive actions right away, it might have been ugly. Secondly, a few minutes later as I was exiting a building and heading down some stairs, another lady walked straight into my path. I moved to avoid her and she countered by moving in front of me again. I so wanted to continue on my path and send her back down the stairs but instead I veered to avoid this idiot. Lastly, a lady, walking on the sidewalk, stopped to allow a car to turn into a parking garage. If that was not stupid enough on its own, there was no one around her; the car would have been able to turn once she passed by.

Today is going to be one of those days.

Day and Night

I don't know what happens during the day but there is a huge difference in people on the long train ride home than on the ride in. Perhaps people get up on the wrong side of the bed every morning or maybe their tiny little brains don't function so early but the commute in to work is generally worse than the ride home (and that is saying a lot because the train ride is never a treat). I would deduce that I am the cause of my morning troubles if the ride home was as inane but since the ride home is vastly different, at the very least it is sufferable, my morning troubles are obviously a result of external factors.

I take the better of the two predicaments and sit against the side of the train, taking up as little space as a three hundred pound man can (I figure dealing with one person is less annoying than being bumped, elbowed, etc by people walking by). Inevitably the person who sits beside me has never met courtesy and snuggles up next to me (I barely get that close to my wife) and opens up a paper, flailing their elbows all the while. Being in cramped quarters the occasional elbow is somewhat understandable but generally the elbows fly all ride long. That isn’t the worst of it though. Like this morning, some people get aggressive and put some force behind the ‘bows as if I can magically make the wall beside me disappear and move over to give everyone the space they want.

It is never like that on the ride home and I generally take up more space going home. Even with taking up more space I receive far less elbows and bumps than I do in the mornings. Make sense to anyone else? Didn’t think so. There is the odd time when I get a ride full of elbows on the way home but those ‘bows are generally benign. Still annoying but it doesn’t reach irritating levels. The main irritant on the ride home is the noise but thankfully the iPod comes with volume control so that is not generally a huge concern.

I wish I lived in science fiction and could just 'beam' into work or perhaps use spells on people to make my commute more tolerable like in the tales of fantasy. The life of an Aes Sedai as created by the late Robert Jordan seems like a great life sometimes. (For those unfamiliar with Aes Sedai and are interested in the fantasy genre, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is well worth the read).

March 2009 Quotes

…a man had to look after himself. When all was said and done, that was the long and short of it.
- Robert Jordan (The Fires of Heaven)

We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
- Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here)

…for a man of sensitivity and compassion to exercise great powers in a time of crisis is a grim and agonizing thing.
- Richard Hofstadtler (The American Political Tradition)

No one axiom…can be laid down as wise and expedient for all times and circumstances.
- Thomas Jefferson

Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
- Thomas Jefferson

As with any other strong drug, true first love is really only interesting to those who have become its prisoners. And, as is true of any other strong and addicting drug, true first love is dangerous.
- Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

Fear wasn't better than respect, but by God it was better than nothing.
- Stephen King (Wolves of the Calla)

Something can be understood. Something can be divined. All cannot be known.
- Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

Our mind wishes to take in everything, yet knows it cannot. There is the paradox. Knowledge must know its own limits.
- Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

Thinking. Learning, remembering, knowing; imagining and creating new ideas; preserving and communicating knowledge over distances in time and space. Not only is it wonderful in its compass and variety: it is unique. It makes us human.
- Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

Knowledge acquired and extended for its own sake is the specific quality that makes us human.
- Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

Mankind speedily become unable to conceive diversity, when they have been for some time unaccustomed to see it.
- John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)

…for the free man there should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in the mind. So avoid compulsion, and let your children's lessons take the form of play. This will also help you to see what they are naturally fitted for.
- from The Republic of Plato, translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford

…men do right only under compulsion; no individual thinks of it as good for him personally, since he does wrong whenever he finds he has the power. Every man believes that wrongdoing pays him personally much better…
- from The Republic of Plato, translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford

…a man can live well only if he knows clearly what is the end of life, what things are of real value, and how they are to be attained. This knowledge is the moral virtue of man…and constitutes the art of living. If a man imagines that the end of life is to gain wealth or power, which are valueless in themselves, all his actions will be misdirected...It leads to the central thesis that society must be ruled by men who have learnt, by long and severe training, not only the true end of human life, but the meaning of goodness in all its forms.
- from The Republic of Plato, translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.
- J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

…what would come, would come…and he would have to meet it when it did.
- J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

Time is making fools of us again
- J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

It is important…to be able to reach many kinds of people, for each type has its own variety of use…
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

Oddity is in the mind of the receiver.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

Anything you make forbidden gains sexual attractiveness.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

At the slightest stress, human beings seemed to divide themselves into antagonistic groups.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

If we are always to draw back from change with the thought that the change may be for the worse, then there is no hope at all of ever escaping injustice.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

Emotions…are a a powerful engine of human action…
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

It does not actually take much to rouse resentment and latent fear of women in any man.
- Isaac Asimov (Prelude to Foundation)

…childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child…
- Isaac Asimov (Foundation)

…I have accomplished in life what I have intended and under what circumstances may one better die.
- Isaac Asimov (Foundation)

Violence…is the last refuge of the incompetent…
- Isaac Asimov (Foundation)

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
- Isaac Asimov (Foundation)

Memories sting when they come suddenly…
- Isaac Asimov (Foundation)