Review: WWE TLC PPV

I don't usually see the monthly ppv's, mostly b/c they tend to suck, but with the prospect of Christian and Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match, I couldn't resist. Christian said he wanted to make it the best match of the night, and it was great. They did some wicked moves, and it was fast-paced. And then it started going downhill.

John Morrison vs. the Scottish guy endorsed by Vinnie Mac. Does that guy have another submission move? Matt Striker was trying his hardest to sell it, but really. It wasn't all too bad, was kinda exciting when Morrison got to get going. But really, this guy doesn't seem to have put in his on-screen dues to get the IC title.

Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool. Still going with that Piggie James schtick. Mickie looks like a healthy girl w/ meat on her bones. Anyways match was so-so. Nothing that couldn't be seen on regular TV.

Cena vs. Sheamus. Boring. Yawning thru the entire match. Obviously, neither of them have good ring sense b/c they could only have 1 table out at a time. Everything was so awkward. Loved how Matt Striker put it into perspective, and he's so right. It's sad how tame Jerry Lawler's become. I wish the fans started chanting "loser" when Cena was walking out.

Undertaker vs. Batista. Not so boring but was still yawning. Batista really needs to learn how to wrestle. Like honestly, would it kill you to learn a suplex or submission hold? Undertaker tried, but there's only so much he can do to sell Batista, and he's getting up there so his stamina's not so high. Happy Taker kept his title.

Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton. Woke me up. Good to see Kofi and Randy let it out. Randy hasn't had very technically challenging foes lately (*cough* Cena). Some very good moves and back-and-forth action. I'm sad Kofi lost, but they had a good match.

DX vs. Jerishow. Good match to cap the night. Exciting, very back and forth, which displays the guys' experience on crafting a match. When they were wrestling separately at the beginning, it just didn't work. I was too busy wondering what the other pair was doing. But once they got back in the ring, it was cool. I wonder if the ladder was supposed to rip in half like that. I hope Jericho's okay. That fall he took looked really nasty. You could see him try to push off the ropes, but he didn't have the traction. It was cute when Jericho was on Show's shoulders.

I went with A to see it b/c D had to work. A doesn't watch much wrestling, but it still wasn't too bad. Almost didn't make it b/c his car mysteriously died while parked in my driveway for 5 minutes. When we were about to push it back up the driveway to plug it in, it started again. So wierd. While we were wandering HMV, he decided that he just needed to pick up the Farscape boxset. I pointed out that he could wait for Boxing Day or check the prices online or at other stores, but nope, he just had to get it right then. Which completely explains how he committed the 4 of us to a trip package for SDCC, which'll cost us $1600 each. Went from sending an email out about a website that "showed" the package (I didn't have time to look at it since I was busy at work, but apparently there's not much on there anyways.) in the morning to saying that he put the deposit down on the same afternoon. Like WTF?!

Work/Play trip - Day 7

9:00
Aaaaaahhh!!!  I don't know why I'm so slow getting dressed and stuff.  Went down to breakfast at 8:30, which was supposed to be the time I was supposed to be finished eating so I could finish packing.  So I asked for a doggie bag, but they don't have any plastic utensils, so I grabbed 4 muffins, 2 French toast and 3 sausages.  Figured I'd use the coffee stirrers as chopsticks.  And I fogot my water and fruit cups.  Crap!!!  So hungry.  Greyhound stations looks as dingy as the one at home. Murasaki's down to 1 bar.  Crap, can't even listen to it while waiting to board.

13:00
Found the hotel, except the clerk tells me that there was a problem with the room so it's not ready and they booked me at another one. In another hotel!  Oh, and it's just a 15 minute walk away.  So after I finally get her to print a map and not rattle off some general directions, it's a block from the Greyhound station.  Which means I have to walk all the way back the way I came.  Great.  But apparently I'll have a "good room".  But she doesn't even know the name of this good hotel.  So I finally find it, and it's still under reservations.  And my room's up 2 flights of narrow stairs.  And the first room still had a faint smell of paint, so I ask for a different room which is bigger and has a sitting area.  But I should've looked at the bathroom size b/c it's tiny.  The shower is directly behind the door, and that's pretty much the size of it.  I can't have both elbows out w/o smashing them. And when I went to meet H, I forgot my camera, and I have to ring to be let back in, which takes 15 minutes for someone to answer the door.  I think I can guess that no one else's staying there.

23:00
We spent the day walking up the Chinatown, down to Old Port and back.  Found a ton of yaoi, so my backpack was heavy all day.  I bought so much that I filled out the membership card, but totally forgot to give it to H so she can pick me up a free book when something comes in.  D'oh!!!! ( Oct 3/10: now H doesn't live there anymore and I don't know when I'll ever get back to Montreal.  Double D'oh!!).  H has no money so we can't go into anything with admission.  Other than hockey stuff, doesn't seem to be much Montreal-specific souvenirs.  Ate at Frites Alors! which had a TinTin theme.  Wonder if they had gotten the copyright for using them. Food was pretty good, but H pointed out that I acted like an American with the waitress when she brought me a Pepsi. (I hate Pepsi).  So I tipped her really well and paid for H's meal. Saw the National Film Board cinema and it was pretty cool.  B/c it was after 17:00, we got a free hour, and got to select from 10,000 films in their catalog.  Great cheap entertainment, got to sit down in comfy chairs and lots of amazing films.  Brainwasters was disturbing, but I have to see the full poem of the "Erl-king" by Goethe.  The short was amazingly done.
After we went back to my hotel to chat.   And make plans for tomorrow.  There's no hairdryer and no floor mat in the bathroom.  No cup for brushing teeth either.  Missing a lot of stuff actually, and of course I only notice this when I'm in my pjs, so there's no way I'm opening the door for possibly non-existant night service that may or may not have toiletries.  Considering their shampoo/conditioner was in packettes, eh no. Guessing there's no amenities. And as predicted, I kept hitting the temperature control with my elbow when I was washing my hair, and there wasn't really any shelf for me to put the shampoo, conditioner, body wash I brought.  Gaahh!  And someone started smoking, so I opened the window and kept the heat up.  So tired, but we're meeting at 9:30 for breakky.

Work/Play trip - Day 6

Midnight
Woke up to find my Murasaki only @ 1/2 battery.  Guess putting it on speaker full blast didn't help. At least the room is cooled from leaving the window open all night.  And that weird smell is gone too.  I now look at the jet tub with suspicion. Seems like we haven't covered all the stuff that they wanted, w/ people starting to leave @ 11:30 a.m.  Staffing is not sinking in for me.  I'll have to play with it more, but it seems illogical w/ how you attach someone.  Well at least the Intelligence manager is now a FSWEP student.  Ha ha ha.

13:00

Went to lunch with Jane.  She seemed lonely b/c her flight doesn't leave until 19:00 and she already checked out.  Ate at the Pho restaurant again b/c it's next to the hotel.  Also could drop off all the course material and newspapers.  The drive to the Science and Technology Museum was long, and I was probably bouncing in my seat.  Good thing I got a museum map b/c it's kinda confusing, like IKEA w/o the arrows. Totally skipped past the canoes, and then went back when I was waiting for an old man to finish reading about the Titanic.  Didn't know there were so many ways to join together a canoe. Anyways, a lot of the displays were geared to kids, but it was still good. They had entire trains in there, and I tried to take a shot of one, but it involved 5 shots, and w/o a tripod or a marking line, when I tried to merge the shots together, it just looked wierd.

Actually a lot of the pics I tried to merge looked wierd.   I feel so sad I had to stand on the little kid step stool to see out the space shuttle's windows.  Took a bunch of pics of different devices and Lego display.  Spent a lot of time in the space exhibit.  I tried getting onto one of those old time bikes.  It was pretty-hard, seat-wise and agility-wise.  Took a lot of random shots, which I'm  really wishing I'd included a pic of their description plate of.  Just stuff that looked neat. Ran out of time as expected since I didn't leave the hotel until about 13:45.  Bought more gifts.  Nothing for me though.  The cool T-shirts were all in youth size.  Riding back to the hotel, I passed by a building that was for the Conference Board of Canada.  Why?!  Seems so Dilbertish.

21:00
Ate at Totoya for their all-u-can-eat sushi.  It's a bit different in that you don't order the sushi you want, but the waitress brings the trays of rolls by and you pick how many you want.  Then after you look at them all, you can request specifics for seconds/thirds etc.  So stuffed but you gotta get your $20.95 worth.  Waddled my way to the bank.  Had to get thru a bunch of people waiting for the bus.  So disgusting with people spitting on the sidewalk, dealing dope and not getting out of the way.  Thought I was going to get pickpocketted trying to get through the crowd.  Caught a cab as I walked out of the bank, so that was cool.  Finally got onto the Internet but it didn't have a USB port in the front and I forgot to charge in class. Crap.  Well, charging my phone in the room though.  Wish there was some adapter for Murasaki so I don't always have to plug it into a computer.

Work/Play trip - Day 5

13:00
Breakfast was the same stuff.  Tried the chocolate danish this time.  Not really sure what the point of getting there 15 min early.  Went into the Compensation unit, and you'd think Marilyn would stop w/ the dumb questions.  Hell no!  And then when William made a joke that a function that'd auto-calculate leave wasn't working, she picks up -my- pencil case and chucks it at him.  Highlighters fly out and Kim has to dodge out of the way.  So I hiss "Don't throw my stuff!"  Will picks up the stuff and goes to give it to Marilyn, but when he learned it was mine, he had an apologetic face.  Anyways, I'm will be so freaking glad not to sit next to her anymore.  Also disappointed that the Security field won't be used.  Like WTF?

What is this series called?

So Cecile said her niece was going to take her to the Museum of Civilization, so I asked to tag along.  But her niece doesn't get out until 17:00 and we were out by 16:00, so I was debating whether to just take the taxi to there, but I figure we could eat in the 1/2 hr.  Well the cab didn't come for 30 min, so we just took the Envirobus, then we walked to the hotel.  By now, it was almost 17:00 so I ate my bananas (as I'd finished my raisin bread at work & had some fruit sauce.  But the niece hadn't shown up by 17:40, and it turned out the niece went to the wrong hotel.  So Cecile said that she was going to meet her niece in Ottawa, and they weren't going to the museum.
Well, I call a taxi and away I went. It was free admission today (Yeah!) and the ran thru most of the permanent exhibitions.  Took a bunch of pictures of indigenous masks to use on Animal Crossing.  Yup. And took pictures of interesting clothes.  They didn't allow cameras in the special exhibits: Afghanistan, Royal Stamps (history of Canadian stamps), Northwest Company.  Which really sucks for the Afghanistan b/c it's all jewelry, pottery, carvings.  Maybe they wanted to sell their book?  But was amazing and so sad that a region w/ such a  long and beautiful history is wracked by war & the Taliban who smashed thousands of artwork.  I'm not a stamp-lover, but it was still interesting on how people developed stamps & people immediately started trying to forge or re-use them, and the govt's attempt to stop it. I just read the main text, but all the stamp examples had a clerk's handwriting that documented the attempts of creators. Spedwalked thru the NWC b/c I think I did that in history. Canada Post has a permanent exhibit. Trotted thru that one.  With 10 minutes to go, I sped thru Canadian history, got a little lost, and some looked familiar from when I went in Jr. High. Helps when you've a History degree.  With 2 minutes to go, looked up at the Canadian faces exhibit and went "Naw".  Probably would've spent only 15 minutes anyways if I had plenty of time.  Zipped thru the Boutique.  They must've thought I was crazy b/c I was whipping my head around evaluating all the merchandise w/ a glance.  They had Afghanistan jewelry, so I go Patty a wall hanging thing.  Think it's supposed to ward off the evil eye. No jewelry for me b/c didn't see any earrings.  It was a beautiful night, and if the cab wasn't coming right away, I would've check out their "Zen garden".  Didn't really see anything resembling it though.  Ate supper @ the Pho Bo Ga 777 restaurant.  I had noodle soup.  It was good.  I was the last person there, even though they close at 22:00 and it was 21:00.  Walked over to the Casino to take pictures of their Xmas decos.


22:00
Sitting in the tub w/ the bubblejet going.  My dawgs are tired.

Work/Play trip - Day 4

6:45
Didn't have a good sleep.  So tired.  Got to breakkie @ 7:30 and Becky was later than me.  But she only had toast, and I had eggs, cheese, cereal, muffin, danish, cold beef thing, tomatoes...Got everything down except for last bit of cereal by 8:02.

12:00
Such a headache, and so sleepy.  I closed my eyes thru the day.  Mostly when I finished the exercises, although also when we were navigating.  Still not thrilled w/ the recruitment module.  So much extra crap to go thru just to make a job requisition.  Oops, sorry...job opening.  Some very strange terminology. Honestly.  It feels like they're trying to make it "easier" to prevent errors but create more confusion instead.

Anyways, was trying to keep myself awake, so I opened my work email.  Aahh, so much stuff!  And then Marilyn started asking me about it, so I'm trying to explain that it's not really Outlook, but the IE creating an Outlook-like interface.  Which she didn't understand.  (Big surprise.  She asks the dumbest Qs in class).  But since she's so freaking loud, Will.i.am was waiting for us to finish. She's so annoying.  Anyways, as usual, found more L & R stuff, and my advisor confusing managers or leaving stuff behind and I'll have to clean stuff up when I get back. We finished w/ another exercise, but I just blew thru it b/c I was so annoyed w/ the email.

18:40
I took a cab to Currency museum b/c I was out by 15:40. I was going to walk to the hotel but it was raining, so I asked for a cab and swear I didn't pay in the morning. Finished it by 16:45.  Then I got turned around and went West instead of East.  I walked Sparks mall for a bit.  Popped into Zellers for Pokemon but they didn't have much except for Regigigas mini plush.  By now, I really had to use the loo so I popped into Chapters.  And yes, I got a book.  Wandered to Byward Market b/c I was hungry by now, and finally found a map post.  But still didn't make it to where I expected and one of the restaurants online wasn't on the map.  Weird.  Anyways, found that Totoyama is offering all-you-can-eat sushi on Friday for $20.  Guess where I'm going.  So I'm writing this @ Wontonmama and the lemon chicken was good.  But weird that I had to ask for rice.  Geez, it's quite Westernized in service.  And they charged me $2 for it.  *sigh*  Tom Yum Soup was good too.

20:00
Erm, why is there no CTV?  And how am I going to watch Criminal Minds?  At least I can finally see TNA.

Work/Play trip - Day 3

6:45
So do not want to wake up.  Didn't get much sleep...again.  Too warm b/c the A/C didn't work.  The others were at the restaurant at 7:00, I'm sure.  I brought raisin break, tomatoes and fruit pudding for lunch, but I still went w/ the others to the "nearby" mall.  Never would've thought of using soy sauce as salad dressing.
14:00
Moving into Staffing stuff.  It's so different from 8.0.  I don't even recognize it.  The trainer, William, went really fast too.  And then after I found a couple of mistakes on the material.  Ugh.
16:00

Went to Byward Market w/ Bhumika.  Dragged her around a bit looking for presents.  Ended up going to the National Gallery Boutique b/c the Gallery itself was closing by the time we got there.   Had dinner @ Fat Tuesdays. We weren't sure about the quality after our cutlery was dirty.  But it was delicious.  I had jambalaya.  The chicken was moist, shrimp perfectly cooked, dirty rice was yummy.
18:40
Back at the hotel.  So weird to be back so early but I'd actually gone out.  Ottawa-Gatineau is a daytime town.

Work/Play trip - Day 2

23:00
Some idiot above me started stomping around at 6:00.  And the alarm didn't really go off, so I was supposed to meet Debbie et al @ 7:15 for breakfast, but I woke up at 7:00.  Anyways still got to the course on time.

I miss People Soft, it was like it almost never left.  Seemed really straightforward, more or less.  Except there's an option to view just the record you're looking at or to see that there are more records associated with that position.  Why?!!  Just be able to see all the records instead of messing people up.
There are no eating places nearby either.  So ended up hiking with Janice to a restaurant 10+ minutes away and was late getting back b/c can't powerwalk anymore.  Well, more like keep up with her.  There's probably a reason why she was in Corporate Challenge.  So after the course, we all went to Super C to get groceries for lunch. But since I have no fridge, it ended being fruits, fruit cups and raisin bread.  The tap water here tastes like our spring run-off water.  And even the cooler water was yuck.  Had dinner with the other people who were staying at the same hotel.  Watched a lot of TV but there was no Score so no RAW.  :(

Work/Play trip - Day 1

1:30
Ugh, woke up after going to bed @ 23:00. Still thinking I haven't checked everything and I'm not sure what happened to my other pair of rechargeable AA batteries. I have 2 sets of 4 and I took a pair out of my CD player, but I don't know why since only my camera uses AA. Anyways, I got up and looked up restaurants in Byward market. I hope I can make it there. I still haven't decided which museum to go to since I'll probably only have an hour or 2 to look around. Back to bed at 2:00.

4:33
Ugh, didn't really sleep. Just closed my eyes it seems. Set my alarm for 4:45...oops, didn't turn it on though. Good thing I looked.

4:54
Oops, CD player's louder than the radio. Sooooo tired.

15:00
Got to airport on time and no problem w/ security. My seatmate turned out to work at the same building but in a different branch. He's going to Montreal for his conference. Nearly lost my Darsh. Pouch hoodies aren't secure b/c it slipped out when I was shifting in my seat. Got no sleep, but my neck is hurting from tilting to the right. Took some pics of P-chan @ Ottawa airport. It's a pretty nice airport. I had the cabbie take the scenic route, so I saw the Rideau Canal, Parliament and Byward Market. It looked farther apart on the map, but it's very walkable. There's a lot of old buildings in Ottawa but not so much in Gatineau. I went a bit crazy on the tip though b/c I was thinking of how much I gave the Edmonton cabbie so I gave him more. But my Edmonton trip was 2x longer, so yeah, it was about 40% tip. Check-in took some time since they had some issues w/ their reservation system. But apparently I go ta better suite b/c my pre-assigned one wasn't ready yet. Dumped my stuff and went to get a cab. Gaw, too tired to figure out how much change to get. And as I waited for the taxi, I wandered outside. The hotel's in a corner and kinda wierd to get into. Can't quite see where the bus stop is, although I see some come from the Lac-Leamy Casino. And I had to have the cabbie turn around b/c I forgot my camera. Went to Currency Museum b/c it's free and close to the Parliament and Byward. But the cabbie is francophone and also didn't know where it was. So I just got out and found it. It was just the next building actually. It was really interesting, and did I mention free? The exhibits were really nice and there were so many examples. Great for history geeks like me, since the history of a country is reflected in its currency. Some interesting facts: China was the first to make paper money and coins (which were based on cowrie shells & farm implements). Playing cards were used as emergeny $$ by writing values on them (fairly common occurrence actually). New France coins were rejected b/c it couldn't be used as legal tender in Old France. In 1853-1857, Canada chose to go /w the US decimal currency instead of the UK £. Armies/rebels/merchants would issue their own currency (therefore those arcade tokens are just a natural fallout), and HBC issued tokens until 1946. Newfoundland had their own curency until they joined Confederation. The whole point of issuing paper notes was to make money b/c it was likely that it wouldn't be redeemed for goods until later therefore, making it an interest-free loan. Canada started issuing coloured money in 1897, and until 1920, notes were signed by hand. Some questions that I came away with were: How do you turn beaver fur into felt? I had 2 hours and I still wans't finished reading everything, and I wasn't even examining all the coins and paper currency, or went into the Collection room. It was so dark by 5, and I walked to Parliament. There were a lot of poeple taking pictures too. The bulding look really dirty and that it had been thru a fire too. There were parts that were under scaffolding. Did more walking and there are statues and plaques everywhere. Could use some lighting in some areas. What I thought was te entrance to the subway or a bomb shelter was just a pedestrian underpass. Very pedestrian friendly.

By the time I got to Byward Market, the stalls were closing up, so I went to a restaurant instead. Found the Fish Market, and I swear when I saw their menu online, I was going to get the fish & chips. But their "Choose your meal" had an awesome appetizer and dessert for $15 more. Yes, I took pictures. The escargot was sooooo good. I thnk the basil bun was for soaking up the garlic butter and wine. The mushrooms were a bit burnt(no it really broke off as charcoal) but it still tasted so good after it soaked in the sauce for a bit. The fish was lovely. I'm not sure how gweilo eat whole fish, but I ate it the way I'm used to. Didn't take a picture of the bumbleberry pie b/c the top crust broke. But it was a delicious mix of sweet & tart. A bunch of francophones sat next to me and gave the waitress some attitude b/c she didn't know much French, so I gave her a 20% tip. Wandered some more after. But by 7, the area was dead. I thought it'd be like Whyte, but no way. Tons of restaurants. I didn't know we had a monument to peacekeepers. The bells were ringing when I took a pic of the Notre Dame Basilica. I hope more things are open on the weekdays.

20:17
Back at the hotel after finding a taxi stop. So tired, but I feel like I should be doing more stuff like going online downstairs. Just realized I forgot to bring the DS Browser. D'oh! Oh, Mythbusters!

21:39
Debbie called. We're meeting at 7:15 for breakfast and then to the building. The jet tub/shower is quite different. Not quite the time of the month to be trying it out though.

22:00
It's so freaking hot after the shower, and I can't get the A/C to work. So I'm down to my panties and using ice to cool off. I love Mythbusters, it's another episode I haven't seen! Just writing while I'm watching Discovery Channel. I heart Discovery Channel.

00:00
Gotta stop flipping channels. Criminal Minds is on, and the one where Derek's abused past is revealed. Mmmm, Shemar Moore.

Quiz: Is your Brain more Left-sided or Right-sided?

Left Sided

Your left side of the brain is more dominant than your right side. Usually, you tend to be logical and more of a thinking type. Left sided people are really reliable, and well organized. You are probably really good in school, and are probably really good at math, and/or science. You go by a routine, and dont like to have it spontaneously interrupted, unless you really need a break. You get things done, and you dont just forget about it and leave it unfinished. You'd rather be told how to do something other than someone demonstrate it. You tend to look at the whole picture, rather than details, because it needs to look good as a whole, not just in seperate parts.

10209 other people got this result! That's 17%

http://www.quizilla.teenninck.com/quizzes/15482009/is-your-brain-more-left-sided-or-right-sided

Cleaning Desk and Mind

So I've finally updated my blog on my LA trip (July 2008). It's just been sitting for a while. It was part of cleaning up my desk on the weekend. I recently bought an MP3 player, mostly b/c it's super-hard to find decently CD/MP3 players, and the 2 that I have are pretty dead. I'm back to using my older one (which had the issue of skipping, randomly stopping) for travel, and left the newer one for sleeping to b/c it had the issue of randomly repeating the same note 60x/sec until you pulled out the battery. Which was underneath the CD. So yeah, it kinda sucked. Hilariously enough, my MP3 player is from Sony who were the makers of those CD/MP3 players. Anyways, it was a result of getting a $25 coupon at their VIP event, + $20 off the MP3 player, and thinking I should enter 2001 finally. So I have the purple NWZ-S545, and have uploaded all the MP3s on my computer. Which left over 9 GB. Unfortunately Windows Media Player 11 sucks and can't play (let alone convert) any of my anime or most of my videoclips. Even though if they're .avi or .wmv. WTF?! VLC Player rules. Anyhoo, back to what I was supposed to be talking about. The store didn't have any leather cases for it, and who the hell wants to use a silicone case that'll turn my beautiful purple player into some puked-up looking thing? So I had been reusing the screen label to prevent scratches. But I lost it somewhere on my desk. Hence, the clean up.

I do have Radioshack screen protectors now, but I did boo-boo and there's dust underneath. The Radioshack/Source dealer said they eventually come off, I guess we'll see how long they last. Due to the fact that my $25 coupon only lasted that day, I had 0 research on the player. So it sat in the box for a couple of days, while I Googled. It's not bad, I did play with it a bit, and it's playing right now. I'm using it instead of Sonique b/c lots of my music are in folders, which Sonique has problems w/. The speakers aren't bad, not as good as my computer speakers, but that's expected. I'm not too thrilled w/ the fact that if you have it on music, and then switch it to pictures, you can't get back to music. Really annoying when it's on shuffle. Pretty annoyed that you can't have alarm and sleep timer on at the same time. If you set it to alarm, it immediately turns off. I've looked at some possible cases, and I'm thinking of crochetting it. The headphones will stick out of it anyways (unless it's a mega-case, in which case, how's it going to fit in a pocket?), so it just needs to be protected from scratches (a big issue apparently) and bumps. My cell's done pretty good after 3+ years.

Speaking of cell (and to think that my wrist has been hurting all day. Yesterday it was my right that would get sharp pains if I bent it a certain way. Now it's the left), I just renewed my contract. They called me for "customer satisfaction survey", which of course was the sales dept to see what they could offer. I said a new phn would be nice, but I don't like anything they had. So he was like, well I can offer you a $5CR each month. And since I'd recently looked at my plan (I'm going to be travelling soon, so wanted to know what the roaming chrg and plans were), I knew that I wasn't using that many minutes and could save so much more money if I switched. So I was like, "well how about you drop the system access fee?" (It's $6.95/month) which would give me the price of the other plan, but I'd have 150 more daytime minutes but still ppu for SMS (which I don't use much anyways). So he's like, well I can check if my mgr can authorize $10CR for 2 yr contract. So my bill's going to be lower for the next 2 yrs. I wonder if the system will forget to remove the CR once the contract's over.

*sigh* So down to the nitty-gritty. Today, one of my co-workers (someone I'd considered to have good sense and consideration) asked me if I could cover the office everyday at lunch so that everyone in their group can go at the same time. B/c it's just far too much of a hardship to not eat with your cronies every 3rd week. OMG! Get some perspective! Someone dies every 6 seconds due to hunger. Oh boo-hoo, you don't get to eat with your friends! Waah waah!

They (I'm sure it's not just her) thought that it was fair since I eat at 12:30 and they go at noon. When I pointed out that I may not eat at 12:30 all the time, due to work or such, they said that they could arrange something at that point. To which, I pointed out that we currently have a schedule where every Assistant takes turns covering the office during lunch, which helps people plan when their breaks will be. And when we're not scheduled, we can go whenever the he11 we want. I also pointed out that our Director told us that we should have an Assistant and Advisor in the office during lunch due to the fact that the RDG walked in to find an empty office. I didn't point out that the Clique never takes 30 min lunch breaks, so I'd be eating at 12:45 instead (since she's usually pretty good with coming back in the 30 minutes). But yeah, after being told that I'm the office donkey, I was so ready to leave. Even if I'm going to get training as a Superuser. It's a major tug-of-war btwn my ethics of being grateful for the opportunities I've gotten in the Dept (thus incurring a degree of loyalty) vs. the growing detest at majority of the office. Honestly, they remind me of Convergys HR. If I'd encountered them first instead of my friends at the other dept, I'd never have stayed in HR. There are good HR people, they're just not in this office!

Work: blah, Home: 3+ pellets!

I had a course yesterday about Time Management, so I missed my work friend's going-away "party". I put party in quotes because it really wasn't about her. The week before, I was going around the office, asking if anyone was doing something for her. Not that I've worked in a lot of departments, but I believe the standard going-away gift is at least a card, and some kind of gift. Since no one had circulated a card or envelope for gift donation, it made me suspect that no one was doing anything. So I talked to the "Social Committee" who was apparently not in charge of that, and then one of her advisors who said "Yeah, I guess we should do something." I was quite floored that there was so much reluctance to acknowledge someone who'd worked in the department for 7 years. Well, another advisor sent out an email saying that the "party" was going to be at a local restaurant, but my friend never got to pick the restaurant or the date. And still by Thursday, I hadn't seen any card circulation. So I bought her a gift, and made her a card. She also recieved a present from another friend. And that was it. I'd heard from our friend that at the luncheon, all they did was pay for her meal. Which was under $10. That was the amount of respect that they had for someone who wasn't in their "clique". (They'd made a big luncheon for someone's birthday and his $15 meal was paid for)

That makes me so pissed. They can't even do a simple courtesy to a fellow employee. Which is not to say that all the people who work there are like that, it's just seems like a vast majority. Technically the clique is just under half of the people in the office, but it's sickening how they've taken over. And on the large part, they are quite useless. Which I'm finding is probably one of my major peeves. I really do use "Useless!" as a major insult. Anyways, this feeling carried over into our bi-weekly meeting. Which I was late for because I forgot (I need to set my reminder so it'll go off before I leave for lunch). But it's not like I missed anything. No one (that I could see) made any notes. For the -entire- meeting. There was some stuff that they reviewed, but it was more like a reading exercise b/c there wasn't discussion on it. And I'd read it already, so even though I didn't have a copy, I knew what they were talking about. So I doodled. And made my To Do List. And prioritized them. And when they brought up the question of who'd be a super-user for a system we're getting, I really didn't care anymore. Which is hilarious b/c it's a system that'd I'd been raving about forever. But I didn't care.

B/c I don't really want to do any work for them anymore. If it weren't for my ethics and that I like the clients, I wouldn't bother putting in any effort. I've saved my advisor's butt numerous times, by doing her job and reminding her of things. (Yes, she's part of the clique) I've had my work delayed and wasted b/c I'm waiting for them to return from daily extended breaks, socializing and pointless chit-chatting. And since they spend all their time on that, I have clients asking me about the status of things, and/or directly asking me for help and advice. I had real respect for my advisor when she first started, but it's quickly dwindling to just professional respect.

So anyways back to the meeting, they were discussing the super-user, and asked who would like to do it. The manager looked at me, and I was like "Huh, wha? Oh, yeah sure I could do it since I've used it before." But it was really like, whatever. You guys really suck, and I don't want to help you. My time's been completely wasted in this 1.5 hr meeting that has no point. And of course the other assistant, who's already going to be the super-user for another system, says that he wants to do it too. Well, ya know, whatever. He can show everyone what a useless person he is as nothing gets fixed. I really need to update my resume. It's really pathetic how they've managed to turn me from someone who is dedicated, hardworking, willing to put in the extra effort to get things done...into someone who doesn't give a crap because all that effort and high ethics gets nothing. But more work dumped on me. Whereas the slackers get promoted b/c they can talk a good talk. I'm feeling the same way as I did w/ Convergys, but it's a different cause this time. B/c my hard work is rewarded...by more work. Well, at least my clients are happy. Honestly, if an interviewer asks me why I'm applying at their dept, I'd say "The clients were great, the work was interesting, but I can't stand working w/ people who don't share the same values and ethics, such as actually working and not ripping off the taxpayers by going on extended breaks and lunches."

So my little fish, which I still have not named, is eating 3+ pellets at each feeding. Actually it seems like he'll keep going for them as long as I keep feeding him. I've fed him 4 in an hour. But I have to refill my food basket a lot more, which is kinda nice. Although he won't eat the big brown ones that I got at Wal-Mart. I guess they smell too much or are too big. I dunno. I don't think I'd eat them either if I was a fish. Unfortunately that means I have a canister of food being unused. Which was precisely why I wanted to have 2 fish. See if one would eat that food. Anyways, he's getting quite knowledgable that when I'm around, I'll feed him. So he'll swim excitedly when I'm near. I've even started putting the pellet on my finger, and he'll dart at it. It's cool. He also built a bubblenest in the jar, but after the water change, it went bye-bye. I've also switched him to the larger jar. He was quite nervous in it, since I also changed the plants, but he's settled down and hence is eating again. But no bubblenest yet.

So it would seem that the other fish (the deceased one) might've had some mental problems. That fish kept flaring at himself when he was in the large jar. Ah well, maybe it's because I chose it for his tail, and didn't observe him very long. Anyways, before he died (or maybe I captured his moment of death) I took a picture of him. It was only about 4 hours after this next picture when I noticed the discolouration on his fins and tail. Apparently fish usually don't deteriorate that quickly. Anyways, I believe water quality may have been an issue. Lately the water's been smelling like it does in the spring. The fish manager at PJ's told me to double the water conditioner dosage. She also mentioned that I could get some medicine for future illnesses, but again, usually fish don't die that quickly so I shouldn't need something on hand. I also might look into gettting a theometre for the tank. The heating pad's worked pretty well, but I usually end up leaving it on low for 6 hours, so the pad might burn out. I hope not, it's about $30. And definitely hope it doesn't start an electrical fire. That would really suck.

2 New additions, 1 R.I.P. already

On Sept. 19, I bought a betta fish since PJ Pet's was having a sale. I had all the gear leftover from Akao and... *searching thru old blog posts* Feebas! I still haven't named him though. My friend suggested something Greek when I asked on Facebook for ideas. I was thinking of Rabu-Rabu or Prince Wishy-wash before I polled my friends. Although naming him Acheron would be hilarious. Unless it's a made-up name (or something from Pokemon), I always use this site for names. It is so awesome. However, he does look a bit like Milotic. At least he's still alive.

I went back to the same shop the next week (b/c they had a nice selection and lively fish unlike the one in Londonderry), and saw another one that looked like a Delta tail. He was also very lively so I picked him. Ride home was a bit more shakey since it was on Friday which meant I was also grocery shopping. Instead of a jar, I got a deep bowl, thinking that the extra volume would be good. Well, since it was good intentions, that meant that it didn't work. He kept seeing himself in the bowl's reflection, and kept flaring. Which of course stressed the heck out of him, so much that he could only do a half-hearted flare to my other fish after a few days. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them flaring because he was so worn out that I didn't want to stress him more. So on the 28th, I went to the pet store and got a bunch of plants for him, and tried to get them to cover the sides. No dice, he kept swimming behind them despite my leaf taping. So I started looking for a tank or jar, since I figured that something with vertical walls should help. That search took a few days, and he got a new home on Oct 4. By this time neither fish really ate, and my garbage can was covered with little mushy pellets of different colours. Fish M (I've gotta think of a name) would occasionally take a pellet in, but spit it back out after a few chews. But not this one. He was still acting really strange, with occasional bursts of speeds but in weirdo angles and I wasn't sure if he was still seeing himself, so I'd covered the jar (it's 96 oz. I figured the 2 gal one would be too heavy and a hazard when full of water) w/ the lid and kept the lights low. Anyways, by Oct 4 after staring at him and muttering how he's a freaky fish, I saw this. Not knowing much about fish, I figured the slime was bad and tried to rub it off him. Which of course stressed him more. Anyways, about 4 hours after I took those pictures, he was flat on the floor and didn't respond anymore. So after over $30 of accessories for a $3 fish, he's dead in 2 weeks. 1000% investment! Anyways, looks like the betta sale is over at PJ's, so it might be a while before I get another fish. Hopefully I'll have a name for the live one by then.

Very exasperated with my computer. It'll occasionally lose it's connection to the 'Net, and the only way to get it back is to put it into sleep mode. Sometimes the connection will be fine all day, other times, it'll go down in 2 minutes. Which makes me lose my sense of time since I keep on rewaking it. Missed the beginning of SYTYCD Canada because of it.

Little Update

While Facebook is acting all non-loading, I figured I'd do some more stuff on the blog. Just enlarged the fonts, and added my Fav foods at the bottom. Also changed the Adsense format. Square does not work. Considering people only stumble upon my blog as I don't advertise it, I don't think I've made any money from Adsense. Well whatever.

Trying to clean up my old computer so I'd have a backup in case anythng happened to my new one when I reinstall everything. I figured it'd be better to have a clean install for my security software. Which I bought at Boxing Day. Yes, still working on it. Although I think my old computer might be dying. Aside from lots of registry errors, I'm getting where it'll close my Windows Explorer. I also accidentally deleted the wrong game file why trying to clean it up. And after trying to find if I had any relatively recent game files burned (newest was in 2007 where I was 2 levels lower), 7 data recovery software progs later, there was no luck. So I tried to move over my latest burnt files, and now I can't see my game character and there's no audio. Oh, and I'm somewhat suspect of the burning too because I've had picture files that didn't burn correctly. At least they didn't show up write when I tried to open them on the new computer. So loads of fun. Tried Scandisking it last night, but after I left it alone too long (I have a KVM switch), it wouldn't come back on, even though it was squawking at me for too many entries. And with it being really noisy, I can't run it at night either. Not that I think it'd help. It's very strange now. That'd suck if it died. I have a fair bit of Win98 games.

New layout, 5 hours later

I'm not sure how this will work out. It originally started with me wanting to do something about the empty footer at the bottom of the page. Then I tried to fudge around with the supplied templates, and it's not as customizable as I thought. And my HTML skills are super-rusty, and don't ask me about CSS. So I went searching for templates online, about 4 templates later, I found this current one that I could modify to my liking. Some of the font colours aren't that customizable, and apply to things that I didn't expect, but it looks decent enough. Just have to add a few more gadgets, and hopefully I won't have to change it for a long time again. (apparently last time was in 2006.)

However I'm still having problems with finding a font colour that looks good on a black background with font type that also works. White will work, but then I can't see what I'm typing here. That so sucks. And I've tried using bold, but it doesn't always work. So really, the font I'd like is Arial Black, but they don't have it. Argh!

Smackdown/ECW/Superstars

So WWE returned last night, and what a show they put on! It's been years since I've been to a show, mostly because WWE cancelled after Benoit(rest his soul) killed himself and his family. Highlights of the evening:
1) seeing the wrestlers do stuff when they're not on camera. Didn't see any slip-ups or things like that, but it's more like seeing them getting helped out the ring. The guys put on a great show. Even though I was up in the 2nd level, which was probably a good 50+ m from the ring, I could hear some of the slaps. Yes, it's very obvious that they angle their moves towards the camera (I was sitting on the opposite side so I saw a lot of backs, which didn't make the greatest photos), and few of them were a bit un-convincing on their hits, but it was still awesome to scream for your favourite wrestler.
2) the massive Canadian-bias for the wrestlers. Oh yeah, lots of Y2J chants (especially when Cryme Tyme did their "Christina" bit), and a huge pop for the Hart Dynasty. Hmmm, now I'm kinda regretting I didn't buy a Hart Dynasty shirt. I really don't need another T-shirt, and I might not wear it that often, but a star is probably measured by how much merchandise they can push. I was also very tempted by the Christian shirt because it looked classy. But $30 a T-shirt was a bit painful.

• Just a note here. They completely cut out the Y2J chant during the TV show. Bastards!
  

3) fireworks. You think it's impressive on TV, it's amazing live. I was suprised when ECW's fireworks started, and my camera jumped. But it was great.
4) Jeff Hardy. Before and after the match, he went around ringside and shook people's hands and took pictures with them. That's awesome. A few of the other wrestlers did the same too, but not quite to the extent of Jeff.
5) I saw an entire episode of ECW w/o drifting off! Eh, well that's not entirely true I think. I don't recall all of the Regal/Dreamer match. But that might've been when I was trying to figure out my camera still. Finally decided to take the plunge and change it to manual, so I could play w/ the ISO. I think they're turning Shelton into a face, which will hopefully mean he'll get rid of that gawd-awful hair. Loved that there was a big Benjamin chant too.
6) I could see the big screen from my seat. Which was good because I couldn't see what they were doing sometimes. But see below's point 3 for the downfall.
7) Golddust still gets pop. His match was for Superstars. I guess they tape the rest of Superstars during RAW?

The lowlights:
1) sitting next to an obnoxious kid and his bitchy mom. The stuff that was coming out of this 7-9 year-old kid was unbelievable. He was yelling stuff like "kill him, kick him in the balls, you like boys". He even said "You from China, me no understand you" during an entirely Caucasian match. But the worst was during the women's match when he yelled "take off her shirt, pull off her pants!" Like WTF?! Sometimes the mom would tell him to stop saying something, and he'd just say "it's wrestling, I'm supposed to talk like that!". But when he did that during the women's match and she said nothing, I turned to the mother and went "did he really say take off her pants?!" She goes, "I told him to stop and I don't need parenting tips from you." When the kid asked her what we were talking about, she says "I told her to fuck off". And I was going to thank her for coming to the show and keeping his tone down. Well screw that. And of course when they leave, they kick me in the legs, and knock their popcorn all over me. There's a lot of curses I could lay on them, but I don't want a rebound. So I'll just say this, I fully expect their family to be in the headlines for some crime or another. Probably against a woman. There were 2 other 7-9 year-old kids sitting next to the obnoxious one, and they were staring at him sometimes because he was so freaking loud and yelling stupid things.
2) having a staff personnel come by twice and accuse me of videotaping the event, and said I had to erase my memory card. For one thing, what the hell am I supposed to be able to see from where I was sitting?! In order to zoom in enough to catch anything, I would need a telephoto lens and a tripod (since the shakes at that zoom level are horrible) My camera has a 10x optical zoom w/ 40x digital zoom. While at max zoom I could see their face, the pixalization was horrible. Not to mention since they're moving at a low-light level, I need ISO 400+. Which makes pretty bad movies. When they were in the middle of an aerial move, I still got blurs at ISO 800. (got some interesting effects though). Anyways, she's said since I had my camera up all the time, I must've been filming the event. Well w/ digital cameras, you can take 1000s of pictures, and since it's a sport event, there are tons of times when you have to take pictures of moves. The whole "take them now, delete the crappy ones later" effect. I also told her I'm a crappy shot so I need to take lots to get a few good ones. She still was yelling at me (mostly because it was so freaking loud in the arena), so I showed her the "awesome" shots I have... of a guy's back, someone's arm covering most of the ring, Jeff's tiny back to me, an out-of-focus shot of the ring (and what might be CM Punk on the mat). After that she was pretty apologetic and said she was going tell security that I wasn't lying (since she accused me of that when she came). After when I was watching the ring crew do take-down, while waiting for D to get out of the washroom, she apologized again to me.
3) most of the wrestlers would only face towards the videocameras when they came into the ring. Pretty annoying when you're on the other side.
4) camera took a lot of before and after the "big moves" pics, but very few during the actual impact. I had it on auto-focus continuous shot, which according to specs would take a shot every 0.7 sec. Well, apparently still not fast enough. Also because when it's in that mode, it seems to take a while to start up, so I had a lot of after shots if I didn't start pressing before the move began(people lying on the mat makes a lousy photo). Also since I'm extremely unsteady, and my hands tend to stray, I was staring at the LCD screen a lot, and missed a lot of moves and several pins. Well, that's what watching it on TV's for. Also since Animethon, my CTS has really come back hard. Even on my left arm where I had the surgery. So I had to put the camera down a few times because my hand was going numb.
5) I forgot to cheer a lot of times b/c I'm used to watching it on TV.

So was it worth the $37.75? Heck yeah! I hope they come back soon, although it might only be a house show. Depends on the attendance. There were some empty rows, but maybe it's just scalpers? Now, if only I didn't have to sit next to retards. D pointed out that I seem to always have my events ruined by @$$holes. How unfortunately true.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just some notes during the TV viewing. There was no audience audio when they showed the DX clip from RAW. We were pretty loud during it though. Also when's the Hardy vs. CM Punk cage match being shown? The apron still showed Smackdown, so I'm not sure when they're showing it. During Superstars, they did change the ring apron. Would they have given us a dark match? At the end of the night?! Not that we minded, but Jeff must've been exhausted. It was still a very good match too. For those who don't believe me, here's some pics. Jeff won too.

Haven't forgotten but distracted

It's not like my life has stopped. Lots of stuff buzzing around my brain. Unfortunately I've been horribly distracted by Facebook, specifically (fluff)Friends and Hatchlings. That and I've picked up Nintendogs again since I figure literally walking 3 dogs will give me some exercise. Maybe wean me back to Eye Toy Kinetic, which I dropped when I went obsessive with the Easter Hunt for FF. Still didn't get the rare habitat because I didn't have enough points.

Still haven't gotten a replacement betta fish after Akao died. My initial excuse was that it's too cold to transport a fish by walking. Since today was 28 degrees Celsius, that's not an excuse I can use anymore. Honestly, I'm in the mood to minimize complications. Another living creature can be complicating. The lucky bamboo's kinda alive still. Occasionally remember to water it. Ieyasu, my ivy at work, is doing pretty well. I'm not sure if it's supposed to have varigated leaves though. Quite frankly, some of the leaves are quite red.

Speaking of complications, I was offered my Dad's car. I haven't driven since I got my license for any extended period. I've occassionally been behind the wheel w/ another driver next to me, but really. I'll need lessons. I'm not sure if I want it. Yes, it's convenient and time-saver. But it's costly, polluting and I'll probably still be using the bus to get to work (because I don't work early enough to get a spot). Meh. I'm very much on the fence w/ it.

Quite disappointed that I'm not flying to any cons this summer. No one wanted to go to Anime Expo and SDCC was sold out of 4-day passes by the time the boys were thinking of going. Still haven't uploaded my journal from last year's AX. Whoops.

It's been tax season for the last 2 months

Ahem, taking a break from calculating my taxes...I think I could say I started working on them in March, when I actually grabbed the tax package. But I didn't really sit down to do them until about April. And now I'm trying to figure out the public transit deductions, which led me to going back to my 2007 tax return. Why? B/c my former workplace had one of those programs where they took it off your cheque but you also got a discount on the bus pass price. Well in the process trying to figure that out, I found that I didn't account for a bus pass I bought before the program, and that I had some paycheque where I received $37 for 2 weeks work. Or at least that's what it says on the payslip. I vaguely remember some time where they had to recalculate something because of some extra work I did... but I can't really remember now. That totally sucks. Anyways, I checked to see if it'd be worth my while to send in a reassessment of my tax return... and it'd would've given me an extra $9 on the return....eh, I think I'll pass and just chalk it up to a life lesson.

So why the huge delay? Well a large part would've been the Easter Egg hunt on (fluff)Friends. Yes, a Facebook application. The evils! Except I've met some real nice online people, and it brought out an unfortunate competitive streak. With the other people who are my friends, but it wasn't a contest since the next highest person only had about 300 points, while I had almost 800. Anyways, I'd spend 5 hours each night after work, clicking 1000s of pages, hunting for eggs. Totally skipping my workouts and all else. Even missed Criminal Minds b/c I was so obsessed. But I did buy all 3 season of it on DVD last week, so I guess I'm helping the economy.

Speaking of which, I bought a digital camera on Monday, and I still haven't played with it. I just don't seem to have enough time. And then there's the massive workouts I have to make up, taxes, games, Facebook, sleep. I blame it on the daily 2 hr commute to work. Argh! Well back to taxes. Just needed a break to vent.

Oh, and work's super-busy now that L has gone onto her assignment. I miss her already. I could always count on her for help and knowledge. And of course, someone to commiserate and share our misery with. She is my closest friend at work. Now, it's down to people I'm friendly and talk with, and people I have to work with. I also inherited the lion's share of files from her, but at least it's relatively easy to figure out what's going on. And of course I can phone her and ask what's happening. So odd that the managers talk more to the assistants than the Advisors for updates and procedures. Is that indicative of the past level of service from Advisors? Hmmmm.

Review: Wrestlemania 25

So disappointing. For a silver anniversary, a rarity in any field, let alone in sports, it was only worthy of one of those monthly PPVs, like Backlash. Only really good match with the drama, storytelling, and technical skills was the Undertaker vs. HBK. The ladder match and Hardys matches were also pretty good. Saw it with my friends D, A, M and W, at W's house. So the rundown:

Opening with the Money in the Bank match, as I predicted. No broken ladders which was disappointing since Mark Henry and Kane were in it. C'mon, you're big, strong guys! Destroy each other with ladders! Actually from the feel of it, they were much more conservative on the moves for the match. Shelton, as usual, pulled off some wild maneuvers. Although when he messed up (b/c MVP hung on too long), that was embarrasing. But he did get MVP back good. And Kofi's leaping ability is awesome. Kofi is really quite amazing. I'm not sure why they aren't pushing him more. He's got a nice character, good charisma, and great athletic ability. Is it because he's black? I really expected Christian to do more stuff since he has a lot of experience, but we barely saw him. And it was soooo short too. And CM Punk winning, again!? WTF?!! A lot of people booed too. There was much back-n-forth at all. That seemed to be missing from most of the matches, except for the HBK v. Taker.

Next match...Divas? Lemme check. *goes to WWE homepage* Eh I dunno. But oh look, they did have the Tag champions vs each other. Where the f*ck was it on the PPV? It was a freaking dark match!! P!ss me off soo much. And I was so looking forward to it too. Miz and Morrison are hilarious characters, and they're all pretty good wrestlers too. It would've been an entertaining match. Such bullsh!t.

Anyways, we'll do Divas next. After the completely boring set by Kid Rock, gawd, why didn't they have it at the 2 hr mark when people could be going to the washroom? And they don't even introduce all the women, never announced everyone who got eliminated, or had cameras at ringside. Molly and Sunny were there?! Where? Only knew b/c the announcers said it. At least Victoria was there and they showed her a bit. And Gail Kim eliminating herself. WTF? There are waaaay too many flippin' blondes in the ring. They had Mae Young there as the bellringer, but didn't know why she was there until the end when she rang the bell. What a way to spit on the history of women in wrestling. They really could've done something with it, but no, it was just to showcase t!ts and @ss. The Santina thing was funny, but that's not what denigrates women in wrestling. Why the hell didn't all the women rush the ring and beat the cr@p out of him? Stupid.

So on to the Oldtimers vs. Jericho match. Which wasn't too bad. Jericho had to be really gentle w/ Snuka and Piper, but Steamboat really held his own. It was quite good once it was just Jericho and Steamboat. Rourke was not a good actor. And what's w/ adjusting your hat and not being chummy w/ Flair? Yeesh. Respect wrestlers, my arse.

Eh, next match....can't really remember now. Was it the Hardys? That was pretty wild but far too short. I know they don't want to hurt each other too badly, but surely there's a way they could've lasted a bit longer? But the moves that they did do were quite awesome. We were saying that Jeff won't be able to go to the bathroom for a while after that legdrop. Ouch! And the Twist of Fate w/ the chair? Holy smokes! Surprised that Matt won, but maybe it's b/c Jeff hurt himself too much to continue.

HBK v. Taker. Had the proper Wrestlemania entrance. Spectacular, theatrical and dazzling. Match was back & forth w/ multiple near-falls. Everyone doing their finishing moves and kicking out. It was exciting, and unpredictable. I'm glad that Taker won, and HBK did a great job.

JBL v. Mysterio. Totally forgot about this match. Actually, couldn't remember that JBL was the Intercontinental holder. Guess we shoulda known it'd suck when JBL doesn't come out w/ his limo. What's w/ the Joker mask? Like really. Last year's Aztec theme was cool. This is not Wrestlemania worthy. And 21 seconds?! Crap.

Edge v. Big Show v. Cena. As I predicted Cena won. It was kinda boring. Stuff that you'd see on TV. Cena's entrance was lame.

HHH v. Orton. Where's the interference from McMahons, and Dibiase and Rhodes? It was a very straightfoward match. I predicted that HHH would land on the Spanish table b/c they didn't take out all the monitors on the English announce table. It's nice that HHH won, but not enough back & forth.

Overall, lots of errors in the matches, not much storytelling or unpredictability. Far too short matches, and not worthy of Wrestlemania standards, let alone a 25th anniversary milestone. Not worth the $20 (my portion of PPV + food) that I spent on it.

I'll just keep telling myself that...

The reason why the Advisors (one who doesn't even supervise him) keep having the other assistant in their offices is because he's so incompetent that they need to keep coaching him. Yeah right. I'm sure the outbursts of laughter have to do with work. Oh, and that the reason why I haven't met with them (when both of them -are- my supervisors) to discuss my files is because they have so much faith in what I'm doing that they don't need to check my progress to make sure it's going okay. Oh, and that meeting I was supposed to have with one of them, never happened because they're too busy. They're so cliquey, it's ridiculous. And it's pretty hard to work with people when you suspect that every time they invite you to join them is because 1) you're on the board with them 2) they were told to quit being so cliquey because they were called out by their manager 3) they want some future favour from you, like to cover their long-@ss breaks even though they're on the schedule to cover the front. And you're getting paranoid that they're mocking you behind your back, and that's why they seem to have a smirk on their face every time you see them.

Yeah, not really motivated to do any work when they take 2 hours to review a draft that should take them 10 minutes (mostly because they're too busy yakking with previously-mentioned assistant), and then suddenly tell you that it needs to be up right away. Or ask you where you got something from, when it's in the file that you'd handed to them so they could use it as reference when they're reviewing the draft. Or blame you for a mistake you copied & pasted from a document that they'd approved. Or you have to remind them to get required documents or that certain steps have to be taken before a process can proceed. Or have to explain a staffing request to them... again. Or have them hand you work, but they don't even understand what the work is about. Or you ask them a question about a program that they've used for over a year, and they can't answer it because they only know how to do a few limited things, and should have encountered the problem that you're currently facing. (no wonder why the assistant and them get along fabulously!) And this is when I've had half the experience and none of the training that qualifies them for their position.

They are entirely the reason why everyone hates HR and views HR people thisas lazy and incompetent. I never thought I'd end up working in this branch because I`d always hated the HR people that I'd encounter. I've had a semi-famous row with them, and my nickname, partially in jest, was "the walking HR-issue" (ok, that was given to a lot of people in my previous workplace, and it was a badge of honour). Yes, it was because we weren't toadying layabouts, who preen ourselves for the UPS delivery guy, and weren't two-faced liars who harass the victim and praise the useless. But because I worked in another govt HR dept, where it was filled with hard-working, dedicated professionals, that I thought it was a worthy profession. Ugh, what a change a different department makes. Which is not to say that everyone I currently work with is like that. 75% are professionals, the other 25% are causing the problems for us all.

I keep telling myself, their uselessness and lazy ways will catch up with them, but how can that happen when I have to keep cleaning up for them? Don't know how to do something? Oh well, I'll just call the (hopefully) correct people and look like a fool to find the answer. Need that document right away? Oh, well I'll just push my break back until I take it in my last hour and get that produced for you. Never mind that you take breaks that last twice as long as they should.

What really sucks is that I really like the department. The managers are approachable, I get to do neat things and hear interesting lectures, and have new expensive equipment ordered because I want it. But yet again, I'm faced with having to decide whether I should abandon all that to go back to being in a department that's completely the opposite, but I'll be working with professionals. It really irks me that I'm having this conversation again.

Nice to feel needed, if only it wasn't forced

Major update needed. Haven't written for a long time because I've been horribly behind on (fluff)friends and other Facebook applications. I'm also watching my week's worth of Daily Show and Colbert Report. I haven't turned off my computer in about a month because I have to keep track of which people I haven't returned pets/gifts/feedings too. It's fulfilling when you get to connect with people, and they give you Valentine's gifts, fulfill your wishlist and keep your elefant's speed up, but it sure takes a lot of work. And perhaps it's pretty sad when you feel more connection with strangers (I've only got 4 friends on Facebook that I've never met personally), than with your parent. And you feel more appreciated online than at work.

Work's been...annoying. Not the actual work itself, I can't believe how much time I've had so that I can clean up files, do extra things, or just spend 15 minutes trying to compose an e-mail. It's more trying to deal with a certain group of people who are loud, unorganized and have little work ethic. I really wouldn't care about their doubled break times, messy files, and lack of usefulness...if it didn't cause them to be useless and increase my workload.

We're supposed to cover each other's breaks, and there's even a printed schedule. So, I've already covered for his shift twice because he just has to go out to a restaurant for lunch with the same group of people he goes out to lunch with every day. And of course they approach you in a group and say it's only going to be for the period of the allotted lunch time, but then they somehow manage to stretch it out to an hour. So I end up taking my lunch an hour or two later (depending on if I get caught up in something)

And I have to audit whatever he does because it's so sloppy. It's not my job, but when he gave me a file he'd worked on, I found 2 mistakes, and then it turned out that they had to take down the poster once already because of his errors. He doesn't look things up or do a lot of work. And he nearly threw a fit when I won the coin toss on who was going to be on the assessment board for the Co-Op student. And boy, did he remember to remind me that he gets to go on the next out-of-province trip and assessment board. In our meetings, the advisor keeps saying that we should help each other out, but there's little reciprocity.

So 2 weeks ago, I was telling my friends about deploying back to my old department because even though the workload is 4x more, at least everyone had a great work ethic and didn't have high school cliques. And at least when I talk about anime, there are people who know what I'm talking about and even if they don't, they won't roll their eyes. And if we're working in a group, at least I'm included and don't have to hear them having a party, loud enough that I can hear them laughing through a closed door and headphones.

So I ended up going to my manager with a list of my concerns. And even if it weren't for the fact that they're reorganizing the structure so that we're losing her, our other senior advisor and our most senior assistant, I think she still would've listened and acted. And 2 days after that talk, one of the perpetrators calls me into her office and explains that they never meant to leave me out, and she has a different sense of humour. And day after that, it was the other person who did the same thing. And suddenly I was included in the process (since I am an assessment board member). Huhn. And the other problem person is much nicer to me, although it might be because I'm the assistant for the process she's applied on. I guess we'll just see how long it lasts. But it's going to totally suck when they split off the other people. Aside that I will be much busier (since the workload will be split among 2 assistants instead of 3), it was always nice to be able to talk to her about anything.