Month: November 2004

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And now for something completely different. I just found out earlier today that human resources has accepted the paperwork that the department submitted for my position. This means that I should be hired as permanent staff shortly. As soon as HR convenes me for an interview… for a job I already have. WTF?

Most of you reading this will already know about it, but for the few stragglers who might want to jump into the fun, here's the story.

Lady Jane (emjayne) has started a confessional post, where anonymous posting is encouraged and logging is disabled. Bare your soul, laugh at or with others, say things you'd never dare say in the open. So far, it's up to 700 comments, and it can be found here.

Have fun :D

first off:

Also, I realized that some of the pictures from Katy's trip had been deleted, and I had others that weren't on there, so that's fixed. You can go have a look at the pictures from Pointe-à-Callières online now. There are some really funky ones, like:

   

A Spanish scrapyard has come up with a smashing way of helping people take out their frustrations on modern living. For 40 euros ($52), they can pick up sledgehammers and bash away on anything from cars and computers to mobile phones and even photos of the boss.

Held in Lubia, 160 kms (100 miles) northeast of Madrid, it is described as “damage therapy”, says Reuters. One happy punter said: “I have smashed the car, my sameness and my stress… everything, it is terrific.”

The “therapy” has been organised by a group called StopStress. Along with a hammer, customers are given helmets, overalls, goggles and heavy metal music for head banging. Customers can spend up to two hours hitting away, but nobody has managed more than 30 minutes, organisers say.

“First when they arrive, they feel afraid and uncertain because we motivate people a lot so they can smash up more things,” said co-founder Jorge Arribas. “But then, after they have smashed everything you can see them more free of worry and relaxed.” He said some people brought photos of their bosses and put them on top of cars before attacking them with a hammer.

“It is brilliant, fantastic… I have got rid of all my stress,” Mariano Garcia, from Cadiz, told Reuters television.

“I smashed all parts of the car that always bother me, I have taken my revenge”. A study by the UK's University of Surrey earlier this year found that modern gadgets such as mobile phones and laptop computers were increasing levels of workplace stress.

Original link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4030795.stm

Today was a rough day. Woke up early to have breakfast with Michel and Seb. Seb is… having a rough year, to put it mildly. Between having his wife leave him in very traumatic circumstances and health problems that are causing a radical career change, life has given him a short, sharp kick to the head. It's hard to see him how he is now, because nobody deserves that and and it sucks that bad things happen to good people. Be thankful that you're in decent health, the lot of you.

Met up with my sister to go to the Salon du Livre afterwards. I walked from Lionel-Groulx to Bonaventure for a bit of exercise. It was a nice day to walk, but my thoughts were a bit grey. The fact that I was burping like an idiot really didn't help things. I've discovered that when I'm stressed, I have gas. Nothing I can really do about it, and it's really uncomfortable. I was at the salon for 2 hours with my sister and I did not stop burping for the whole time i was there. Sexay, let me tell you. Two hours is the maximum time I can be in a jam-packed place with crowds without becoming homocidally violent, so we left when we both got fed up.

Got home and talked with my sweetie for a while, which did wonders to cheer me up (thank you hun!), cooked a bit and then spent the night playing AD&D.

Nothing major planned for the upcoming week. I need to send a parcel to the UK, and that's about the only pressing thing that's on my agenda, work or otherwise. Yay.

Glaucoma Is Second Leading Cause Of Blindness

If taking a break from your computer during the day could mean saving your eyesight, would you do it?

A new study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology says too many hours in front of the computer is putting us at increased risk for glaucoma. Glaucoma is currently the second leading cause of blindness in the world. But with an aging population, glaucoma is quickly becoming a top public health challenge, Madison television statioon WISC reported.

“It's a very silent disease, and that's why it is often referred to as the sneaky thief of sight. More than half of all people who have the disease don't know it. There's no pain and vision loss is very patchy,” said Dr. John Geanon, an ophthalmologist and glaucoma specialist.

Over the next 10 years, the number of people diagnosed with glaucoma is expected to double. The study shows one big risk factor is too much time in front of a computer, specifically for people who are myopic or near-sighted.

“We've long suspected being near-sighted is a risk factor for glaucoma. We think something is structurally different with a near-sighted eye that makes that optic nerve more susceptible to damage from glaucoma,” Geanon said. The study shows those most at risk have used the computer for at least 10 years, and for four or more hours a day.

The doctor's order is to know your risk and get routine comprehensive eye exams. That's because once your vision is gone, it's too late. “There simply is no cure for most common forms of glaucoma. But, with identification and treatment it can slow down the process, so vision loss is minimal over a person's lifetime.

If you have to spend a lot of time on the computer, give your eyes a break at least every two hours. Do whatever you can to make the screen easiest to read by fixing the contrast, brightness or tilt, the station said.

My girlfriend is wonderful, and it must be said.

I finally got around to putting the last pictures of Katy's trip online. They are found here. Included are pictures form the Chinese lanterns, the Biodome, the Old Port, Mont-Royal park, the Oratoire, the Plateau, the Fine-Arts museum and pictures from our trips to Ottawa and Mont St-Brueau.

Ahh, good memories :)

I know, I know, I said I wouldn't look at US news anymore today.

But this one just blew me away:

Congress passes $800 billion debt limit hike:

With the government facing imminent default because it has depleted its authority to borrow money, the debt limit bill would pump up the federal borrowing cap to $8.18 trillion. That is 70 percent the size of the entire U.S. economy, and more than $2.4 trillion higher than the debt Bush inherited upon taking office in 2001.

So what does this mean? It means that, well, since we're broke, and the law says we can't borrow any more money, lets change the law!

Now ya see, any financial planner worth his weight in paper will tell you that borrowing more than 50% of your annual income is a surefire way to land in bankruptcy. Borrowing 70% of your GNP is not only suicidal, it's just plain stupid. Unless you're the US, apparently…

Just as a mental exercise, to try and visualize just how BIG a trillion dollars is, follow me in the following demonstration:

1 trillion = 1000 billion = 1 000 000 million = 1 000 000 000 000 = 10^12.

If you went back in time 10^12 seconds, you'd wind up in 29,705 B.C.

/end of rant. No more US politics for me today…