TritN

Step 1: Try to use Rogers.com website to register your moving. It tells you you need to register your account and sign in... Do that and whenever you log in, it keeps telling you to register your account even though its done.

Step 2: Give up and Call Rogers and proceed to wait an hour and 20 mins on HOLD with a voice interupting every 2-3 mins to tell you that its easier to use Rogers.com to make such changes without having to wait.. Grrr.

Step 3: Finally speak to live human who takes your info, schedules your move and then explains how my first Bill at the new place will be for more than normal because they Bill for the End of the period of your old place plus the normal Bill. I explain that I have already paid Sept bill and he informs me that even though I have paid it I will get bill for it again, and since I paid it I can just subtract that payment from the Double bill to figure out what I really owe. Hello Confusing for no reason!!!

Step 4: Demand that I still get the 5 Free Movies I would have gotten had I been able to register my move online and the explaination that that would require me being put into yet another Queue for E-Services this time.

Step 5: After another explaination, more requests for the same info the other dudes asked me, and more Holding, They put a credit on my account for 5 Free Movies and then when my wife went online again to add the New account # that they told me is the one I need to register online instead of the one I did, It Shows that they made my Change of Address already (I don't move for 2 more weeks. and that even with the new Account #, the same issue from Step 1 still exists.

Step 6: Go Insane! and then go to Bed having wasted 1hr 45mins of your evening.

Moving Sale (Moving from Apartment to our first Home)

Pickup in Eglinton/Victoria Park Area. Downtown (King/Union) may be possible
for smaller items.

So two weekends ago I had to work and so rather than work the next 7 days straight (kill me now), I took THursday and Friday off and we decided to head to my home and native land of Montreal for an early Thanksgiving with my Mom and Brother and his family. To top it all off, wonderful news soon arrived when my friend Kathleen (Whom I haven't seen in over 4yrs) told me she decided that she was going to make the 7hr trek from Valdor to Montreal the same weekend. Even better, our friend Anita who lives in Montreal, was off work that weekend too so it would be the first time the 3 of us have been together for probably closer to 7yrs.

You know the friendships that can survive Years between Visits? These are them! Anita (who was the Best (wo)Man at my Wedding) I see pretty much every trip back to Montreal, but Kathleen lives very far away so we depend heavily on Email, MSN Messenger and Blogs to keep up with whats going on in eachothers lives. I cried for her when she lost her Fiance Christian to M.D., She was sad with us when Alwynn had the miscarriages, and celebrated the birth of our son Connor. I was so excited for her as she described the new man in her life and read all about that relationship and now celebrate the fact that she's expecting her own little one now.

So we decided to go to one of our favorite places in Montreal, Cafe Santropol where we could have some of their Awesome GIANT sandwiches, Kathleen could finally meet Connor and Alwynn and I could finally meet Francis, the love of Kathleen's life. Anita had met him on a previous visit to Montreal. Anita brought her son Wesley.
Though it was only a short couple of hours visit it was awesome. Even though we were all living very different lives from when we were last together, it was easy to jump back in and joke around like we had just seen eachother last week.

Francis was a little quiet but apparently he gets a little introverted around new people, especially English ones but I could tell that we would definitely get along famously if given the chance.. I also think Alwynn and Kathleen would be great friends too. They are both fans of Literature and both have the gift of biting wit and sarchasm.. I already know Alwynn thinks very highly of Anita so its only logical that the afternoon would be so easy...

It made me sad to have to leave after only a short time. We had to get back for Thanksgiving Dinner at my mom's and Connor needed a serious Nap... Kathleen and I gave each other a big long hug. After all, it needs to last till our next visit which will hopefully not be as long a wait as this last one. It reminded me of all the good times we all had back in University when we were all living in Montreal and doing stuff a couple times a week. Memories of taking Kathleen to see Scream (her first real Horror Movie Experience) and Hanging out at the McGill Computer Lab where Erick worked and IRCing each other. Craming Anita, Jenn, Merika and me into Kathleen's tiny 1 room Apt with a Bunk Bed, One arm chair and a desk chair, sitting on the floor and just hanging out and having fun.

So here's to Great friends who will never be far from your heart and mind despite being Far from where you live.

Yes its 5AM. So why am I up at this unholy god-forsaken hour??

The powers that be at my work decided today was going to be a busy day at work so they were going to force everyone to do 2hrs of overtime. Anyone Starting before 9am must stay 2 hrs late and us poor suckers who start at 9am or later must arrive 2hrs early... So given that I am nearly an hour and a half from my work, it means waking up at 5am to get to work for 7am.

Oh and did I mention that this is ON TOP of the fact that I am already being forced to work an hour overtime EVERY DAY since June (9hr shifts despite the 8 that my Contract States I am supposed to work) without any choice in the matter.

Its enough to make anyone mutter "F*CKERS!!!!!" under ones breath daily as I miss the Bonding time I used to share with my now 10 month old Son of giving him dinner and a bath before Bedtime. Now I get home just in time to watch him go to bed. Thats 5 days a week that I barely see him for a few moments a day. Only on weekends do I get to enjoy being a dad and bonding with him. This is very important for me and its driving me MENTAL that because of this work BS they are pulling I have lost 3 months with him.

And for those of you keeping score, Todays Forced 2hrs of overtime on top of my already forced hour of overtime means I will be working for 11hrs today. Add 3hrs of Travelling to that and I'll be away from home for 14hrs today. I will be leaving before my Son wakes up and I will be home in time to see him go to bed.. Meaning I will see him for maybe 5 mins today if I am lucky.

Thank a F*cking lot, Jerks!

Ok. I got a Bone to pick with Canadian News Purveyors be it TV or Newspapers etc...

The whole Belinda Stronach thing... THAT was News....

The Rest of the weeks "Poor Peter McKay whos little heard was shattered by his GF Dumping him" is NOT...

Their "Relationship" thats personal and should really be left out of the news... Notice that Belinda Stronach has refused to make any comments about this. As the days have passed the Conservatives and Peter McKay have been working this angle on OVERDRIVE.

The best was the Totally staged and Played up Peter McKay retreating to his Dad's Farm, looking all distraught and Milking it for all its worth. Then today, He's on TV during a press conference and makes a not so veiled attack at Stronach "I think I'll go home and walk my Dogs.. Dogs are Loyal"... Gimme a break... Holy Staged press ops Batman!!

He keeps talking about the betrayal and backstabbery of Stronach... Ummm Buddy... If anything, she learned from the F*cking Backstabbing Master... Peter McKay, if people haven't already forgot is the guy who basically BOUGHT the Leadership of the Progressive Conservatives after Joe Clark Left. a Purchase that was bought with the Promise to NOT Merge the Progressive Conservative Party with those Whack-Job Crazies know as the Canadian Alliance (Formerly the Reform Party). A Promise which turned out to be a complete and outright LIE... Soon after taking leadership he Bastabbed his own party, broke that promise and Merged the Canadian Alliance with the PCs and created the Conservative Party of Canada. A Party that now not only made up of more that 50% of those Whack Job Alliance members, but is now Lead by the head of said whack-job party. Stephen Harper whom he handed the PC Party's Head on a Silver platter for the title of Deputy Leader of the new party...

And Stronach is supposed to be the traitor? She tried to run against Harper to keep the new Conservatives Close the the middle of the road vs the Far Right of Harper. Harper never forgot this and treated her like crap since. The proof is how badly the Conservatives are attacking Stonach, refering to her as a Whoring herself and High Maintenance and Oportunistic Bitch. Its truly appalling to hear people who are morally far worse trying to get up on a high horse and belittle someone else for things they are as guilty if not More guilty of.

</rant>

It took me Nearly 2 Hours to get home this Evening.

Tried to go south from St. Andrews only to get to union and told to go back from where I came from. Packed Ass Subway cars with 4-5 Morons pushing their way into a completely packed car at EVERY STOP. Cattle lines of people at St.George, cattle lines of people at Yonge/Boor. Walking from one platform to another took me 15 mins at yonge/bloor there were so many people. Packed Subways all the way to Eglinton and then had to wait for a 2nd Bus because the first one was too packed.

That was all I needed after a horrible day at work, to take 2 hours to get home packed tigher than a Sardine. People pushing there way into the subway cars ripped my Headphones off 5 Seperate times as their Backpacks and purses caught my wire.

If it was a Suicide.. What a Selfish Prick. Rush Hour??? They better have died because if not, there are 10s of thousands of people that want them Dead. They did say over the intercom it was a "Passenger Emergency at Track Level at Queen Station" and there was Zero mention of Thousands of pissed off commuters on the news so it must have been a Suicide.

And tonight we have to Start Ferberizing Connor so I am getting no unwind time (nor likely any sleep) this evening. Sigh!

Paul Hestor (1959-2005)

http://www.pulse24.com/Showbiz/Top_Story/20050328-003/page.asp



Paul was the Drummer for one of my all-time Favorite bands "Crowded House". Personality wise Paul was the Funny Guy in the band, the joker, the one always Smiling. He hung himself from a Tree Monday in a Park near his home in Southern Australia. Guess you just never know whats going on in peoples minds as no one thought he was even depressed.

Bye Paul. You will be missed.

This has been the worst 12hrs of my life. To Buffet Mandarin at Yonge/Eglinton or the Bagel Stop at King/Strachan.. Whichever of you did this to me, I Hate you!!!

Backstory: Since Late last week the baby must have begun going through a growth spurt so he is not sleeping well, wants to feed off Alwynn 24/7 and you can'y put him down for more than a few mins without him getting upset. So Sunday night this culminated in me not being able to sleep so at 5:30am I called work and told them that I hadn't a wink of sleep and would not be coming into work Monday as I'd be Zombielike and really no help to anyone. I normally don't like to take days off for smaller things like this cuz 1)you never know when you'll get a doozy of an illness and need the time off and 2)Former job still has me paranoid that all employers are out there to fire you the day you decide your health/family doesn't fit with their gameplan.

Well Monday night we had plans to go to dinner with our friends that we haven't seen since they left for England to spend the holidays. They have a daughter only a couple months older than Connor andat that age they change so fast even a couple months btwn visits is a shock. We decided on Buffet Mandarin. It was yummy, and I love Buffets and since Alwynn is not big on them, I take the oportunity when I can. I woke up the next Morning and I am feeling a little off but nothing I haven't experineced before. I went to work and come lunchtime I was hoping that the little queeziness was just because my scheduled Lunch is quite late (1pm) and I just needed a good lunch. So off I went to my usual (and only restaurant around work you can get to and still have time to eat in a measly 30mins lunch). Bagel Stop at King/Stachan which always has Chicken on a bed of Rice. Well that afternoon the cramping and queeziness started getting worse. Then the "Runs" started. I stuck it out for another 2 hours till I finished at 5pm.

Got Home and told Alwynn there would be no supper for me, so have whatever she wants. We Watched the Incredibles which I had picked up quickly on the way home and Had to pause the Movie oh about 20 times for me to Run to the Bathroon. Those visits were when the Vomiting Started. I thought this would be a 1 time thing. Make me feel better, empty my stomach and then the immodium would take care of the rest. Nope. For the Rest of the Night It would be coming out of both ends luckily never at the same time.. At about 4:30am the Vomiting finally stoped, nothing left but gatorade to hurl. Trying to stay Hydrated.. I feel like I've been hung up and used as a heavy bag and worked over by Mike Tyson. Ribs and stomach Ache, Muscles all shaky and wobbly. Still can't get rid of the runs but I its not an ever 15 min thing now at least. I am off to try and sleep now. If I get brave I might try a piece of dry toast.

Why did I have to miss work twice this week. I am always worried now when this sort of thing happens. Damn you Filogix for destroying my faith in Employer understanding. And Damn you Food Poisoning for Kicking my Ass and making me feel like a big pile of Poo.

Wow that was a much longer post than I expected. hehe

In an Ironic/Sweet/Loving/Screwed up Twist of Fate..

I am now sitting at home typing this having gotten off work early to come home and suprise my wife and baby (not that he'd be suprised).

And she is currently on her way back from downtown at rush hour where she decided to come pick me up since she knew I was exhausted and didn't wanna be at work today.

I didn't tell her because I wanted to suprise her. She didn't tell me for the same reason. We even talked on the Cell Phone each pretending we were home/work respectively so the other one would be none the wiser.

I feel Terrible now. She was so sweet to do that for me. And She feels bad and is upset. I just wanna see my Wife and Baby now.

Hopefully she doesn't get caught in really bad traffic.

I shall go hang my head in shame.

Just watching CTV News with Lloyd Robertson. Story about the mudslide/floods in California.

with a straight face Lloyd goes:

"He could have lost his Life. But instead lost his Pants and his Car"

Thats right. I haven't been truely sick with a serious cold in 6 yrs. Usually at the first sign of a tickly throat or stuffy nose, Out comes the Echinacea Tincture drops and I head it off at the pass, never getting more than a scratchy throat or a stuffed nose.

Until Saturday.

You see, this is my first time back in a Call Centre environment in many yrs... Call centres don't do sickness the way you would expect an employer to want to handle it. They encourage staff to come in even when they are sick because having people on the phones is their key priority. My call centre is a mix of hired staff and contractors. Many of these people working through a contractor are not paid for sickdays so they can't afford to lose a day's pay and so they come in sick as dogs, barely able to function and get everyone else sick.

Saturday night my body and Echinacea finaly lost the battle and cold germs took over my body. Plugged up Nose, Scratchy throat, coughing up Phlegm etc... I got it all.

Missed two days of work. Can barely speak in the morning my throat is so Raw.. Downing cough syrup and sucking on Ricola throat drops.... This better go away soon cuz I donno how many more days of feeling like crap I can take.

That is all.

Name: Connor Douglas Pinard
Born: October 30th, 2004 @ 5:23pm
Weight: 6 lbs 9 oz





ALwynn and I have been at the hospital since Thursday Afternoon, I haven't slept since. I've tried to doze on concrete floor. I am exhausted. So imagine how tired Alwynn must be.. 48hrs of trying to be enduced and finally a c-section became the only option.

More pics can be had at http://celtic.abstrakt.org/connor_day1/default.html

I am off to Bed now as I have to be back at the hospital early tomorrow morning.

More to Follow when I am less tired and back home for longer than a few hrs.

Backstory:

Some months back my wife and I were woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of Breaking glass as some young punks broke the windows of the little convenience store across the street from my house. This happened twice in 2 days.

Last night:

We were yet again woken up to the sound of shattering glass and a security alarm at 3am.. Alwynn turned to me and said "Oh oh. I think that poor convenience store guy is getting his windows broken again." and then we heard from outside a fairly young voice yelling "Get the Register. Get the Register. Hurry!" and suddely Alwynn is like "Oh shit... He's being robbed!". So we both jump up to see a Minivan idling across the street and 2 young punks in hooded sweaters around the broken window. I ran into the other room to get my Binoculars from the closet hoping to get the License Plate # for the police. While I was trying to fish em out of the closet, Alwynn yelled to me that it was too late that the 2 guys ran to the van on the passenger side and it took off instantly so there had to have been a 3rd person already behind the wheel...

A few mins later the Police arrived and I decided to put on a sweater and shoes and go out there and do my duty and give the police a statement of what we saw.. The owner of the store was already there and thanked me for coming over to help. The officer originally wanted to come over to my apt in a half hour to take my statement but after realizing it was like 3:20am and seeing my hesitance, he took me aside and took my statement... Whomever called the Police obviously also gave a similar statement as they were already looking for a potentially stolen minivan. I went back home and it took a while for us to fall back asleep. I woke up this morning at noon (Very rare these days but we were exhausted).

We have a baby due any day now (in the next 2 weeks) and its funny how the first time, this vandalism didn't bother us too much (shit happens)... But now this attempted robbery (or maybe robbery, but it sounded like they didn't get away with anything) made me really strengthened my position on why Alwynn and I don't want to be in Toronto for much longer.

Anyhow... This is my little update for this morning.... Hope everyone else is doing well.

That is all for now..

As a new Addendum to my last post. Coming home on the subway I was sitting there and suddenly I saw the Pink Princess Backpack with the Rainbow Straps!

Yes!! The Same Bratty Kid and her mom whos Husband smacked me in the face with the Backpack was on my train home.. What are the Odds??

Oh yes, and a 20yr old Asian girl pulled almost the same Seat-Stealing Stunt as the dude this morning only she basically just rushed past me and took he seat as I was about to sit down. Whats with people these days??

I Blame it on my new Dresscode. The "Business Casual" requirements of my job make me less Scary to people and they don't think twice about screwing me over. People that know me, know that I am harmless as a pussycat but I used to intimidate the crap out of new people/strangers due to my Size and attire...

Humph.....

I just arrived at work and judging from my experiences in the few short hours I've been awake, I can tell today is going to be a challenge. It has also tested my faith in humanity.


Lets see:

- Realized I forgot my Glasses. Despite having never worn my glasses regularly, I have been since starting the new job. Now I find that my eyes have gotten used to them and my vision isn't the best without them now.

- On the 34 Eglinton Bus, was hit Repeatedly with Backpacks and briefcases as well as smacked right in the face with a Disney Princesses Backpack as a father tried to get into it to get his daughter a snack. Not one apology from any of them.

- Got to Eglinton Station and none of the Transfer Machines worked at the Bus area. Had to go down to the Platform and up into the main part of the station, throught the little Mall and over to the main entrance to Subway where I finally found one machine still functioning. Then back throught the Mall and to the Platform missing at least 3 Trains in the process.

- Now on the King Streetcar. I get on and so I stand as far as I can go in and this girl gets up to get off at next stop but can't move so I wait patiently for the seat. Next stop some guy comes into the streetcar and Starts to Push past me to get by just as the girl moves. I step into the seat (where your legs go) and start to sit down into the seat. I feel a Brush on my ass and the Asshole who practically knocked me over to push past now squeezed sideways into the seat I was already lowering myself into. I turn around and tell the guy off. I am like "WTF Dude. not only did you practically bowl me over but now your trying to steal the seat as I am lowering myself into it!" and he just looks at me like "What?" and I repeat myself and he goes "Oh" and starts reading the paper. I tell him off some more, others are looking at this guy too and telling me that they saw the whole thing and the guy is a jerk. He ignores all of them. I should have SAT on him and taught him a lesson.

- Same Streetcar, This old man start obviously having some sort of Episode. He was standing there and suddenly starts making weird noises and he dropped his bag onto the lap of the person sitting in the seat infront of him. He sort of bent forward and started Drooling into his hand because he didn't want to drool on the guy. The guy continues to sit there and even asks "Are you having some sort of attack or something?" but not once does he offer to get up and give this poor man his seat. God Forbid you have to stand. No one else offers their seat either. If I has a seat, you can guarantee I would have offered him my seat to rest. It was a brief episode and he was fine after a minute or two, but it really pisses me off that no one offered this poor old man their seat.

- Then when I get to work, I realized that I had no drink in my lunch.


Addendum #1: First thing at 9am, They tell us that all LTE Hires (our dept is brand new and is a mix of HP Hired Employees (LTE), and Contract workers) are to go up to the 6th floor cuz they have some HR Admin stuff to clear up. Apparently when they wrote our offers of employment a Legalese Clause was accidentally left out regarding terms of being terminated before the end of our contract and they are printing out new versions with the left out info added and we need to sign em. Some people are worried that this was discovered because they might have tried to lay someone off and discovered that they couldn't and so now they are trying to ammend the contracts in order to do so. I don't think its that Sinister but only time will tell.

Potentially more to come. Its gonna be one of those days. I can feel it.

So as most of you know, I started my new job at Hewlett Packard (hp) on Tuesday.


Basically a very large international lending institution is outsourcing its Service Desk to hp and I am part of the first 15 people hired for this new Service Desk.

The desk itself doesn't go Live till Mid September so we are basically going to be on Training until that time. The Challenge is that not all the policies/procedures/equipment etc.. have been finalized yet so info will likely change on a weekly basis until the Live Date and even then as they tweak and fiddle things might change as they streamline process.

What this means is that in the short term once the Desk goes live, its gonna be one heck of a challenge... In the long run, we are the first group and as such we are being looked upon as the future knowledge holders/Managers etc... of the expected Expansion of this Contract. For now its just the service desk but the agreement is that eventually most of the IT related stuff will be taken over by us. We were apparently hand picked because of our very broad knowlege base among us (Some are Network ppl, some have Financial experience, some are LAN Admins etc....) So what this means is that if we work hard and show interest in new stuff as it comes over to us, promotion opportunities are not only a possibility, they are expected..

For now though... First week of training was all Soft Skills stuff and Corporate brainwashing type stuff... "These are our Core Values as a Company" and "How to give good Customer Service" etc... We have yet to touch a computer yet as we have spent all our time thus far in a classroom doing Group interaction and watching powerpoint presentations and Training Videos etc... Next week on Tuesday we will start Hard Skills which include Technical training on all the Computers and tools at our disposal (We all have 2 Top of the line hp Desktops at our desks and a wicked new Phone system with all the bells and whistles.)

I am looking forward to that. Still a little nervous knowing that we have no one to shadow and listen to incoming calls with because their existing helpdesk that we are taking over for is in New York City. So we are all starting from scratch in Mid Sept... Hopefully by the time that comes around we will know a lot more about what to expect, not just knowing how to use our applications.

All in all, this job has got major potential to be a Solid Career Move despite what I originally thought when I took the job (ie. Going backwards 5yrs back to 1st level support doing shifts etc....) Now that looks like it might not be for long.... Finally some good News!

As some of you know from my last post. My Grandmother passed away on Tuesday Morning. I was told that the Memorial Service was going to be on the Thursday.

We were going to leave Wed Morning to go to Montreal and then leave there on Friday morning to go to Sudbury (where our plans originally had us going this weekend). Alwynn, knowing she had a lot of work to do and would miss an extra day and a 1/2 of work to go to the Service, worked all Day Tuesday without breaks (other than a quite bite to eat for lunch) and worked an extra 4 hours till nearly 8pm in order to get things done so we could do this.

It was just before she came home that I was informed that the Service had to be postponed to Monday at the earliest due to an Autopsy being performed. They said it was neccessary for anyone being cremated. This didn't sound logical and I called my dad on it... As it turns out my Uncle specifically requested the autopsy because he couldn't get past the "6 Month" prognosis and the fact that she died only 4 days later. He thought the seniors home might have been responcible for a fall she had or something else might have actually been what killed her. So Despite pretty much everyone else not understanding and with many of her children not agreeing with it, he took it upon himself to request the autopsy saying he couldn't live not knowing why she died...

Ummm Because she had Advanced Stage Lung Cancer and had 4 days earlier had an operation that they didn't expect her to survive from, which she did and then they discovered the cancer. It probably all caught up with her and she let go.

Anyways.... The point being that suddenly I can't go to the service because it would have meant Alwynn (6 Months Pregnant) travelling 14hrs in 2 days from Sudbury to Montreal to Toronto and I had to be here for my first day of work at my new job it took me almost a year to get.... I can't risk the Pregnancy or the Job...

My Dad and family understood and it was my Dad who told me not to come because I needed to take care of my Family which means the health of my unborn child. He told me that Funerals are for the living and that my Grandmother loved me very much and she wouldn't want me to risk her Great Grandchild's life to come for an hour memorial. I was really worried about my Mom though... She is the one that will be disappointed if I didn't go but apparently she is now ok with it and understands that I really want to be there and that it is actually my uncle's Selfish Autopsy request that messed up my being there. SHe knew there would be family squabbling after her death she just thought it would start with the Will, not with her passing and her service. For that my mom is glad she is an Ex-Family Member and won't have to deal with it. SHe just wants to go to the Service and say goodbye to a woman who was more of a mother to her than her own mother.



Today is the service... And I will spend my time today thinking about my Grandmother and the good times we had... Anyone who missed my last post can go back and read some fond Memories I have of her...

Last week my dad chats me on MSN (Video Conference) to tell me that my Grandmother was in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery to remove large amount of fluid from her lungs that was preventing her from breathing. They (Doctors) originally were not very confident that she would survive the surgery but she pulled through and was in recovery. They would be doing further tests to find out why she developed fluid on her lungs.

That same night my dad called with a tone in his voice I could tell was not good news. He told me that they had done further tests once the fluid was out of her lungs and that the cause was Advanced Stage Lung Cancer... My Grandmother smoked most of her life and she's been pretty sick most of her life so it wasn't too much of a shock to hear... But the Diagnosis was... She probably had about 6 Months Max to live at best. Sunday my mom told me that she'd heard my Grandmother was out of the hospital and back at her seniors residence. A good sign given she'd only had the surgery a few days earlier.

Thoughts raced through my head about this.. Would she make it long enough to see my first child (her Great Grandson) when he comes into the world in 3 1/2 months? Would I get to see her one more time (I was just recently in Montreal and we didn't get a chance to go and see her, though I had spoken to her only a few weeks prior to tell her that she was going to have another great grandchild)?

Sadly the answers to all of these are no... My Uncle Larry just called me at 7:20am this morning and I knew right away...Why else would someone call you out of the blue at 7am. My Grandmother passed away last night in her sleep in her own room at the residence where she lived.

Part of me thinks it was far too soon, she was only in her 70s... they gave her 6 months more.... And then part of me feels like its best that she went before the really hard stuff began... My grandmother lived a rough life when it came to her health... She's survived 5-6 back operations to repair spinal disks, she survived Mental Illness (Severe Clinical Depression) and several suicide attempts, Yo-Yoing Weight problems, Diabetes, Heart condition and the list goes on...

For me I will always remeber her as the "Good Grandmother" (My Mom's mom was not the best mother/grandmother and the sadness I had at her death 2yrs ago was for my Mother, not her.) Memories of living upstairs from my grandparents as a child and her making sure he pantry was always stocked with all the yummy bad stuff grandparents spoil their grandchildren with... Coco Puffs, Count Chocula, BooBerry, FrankenBerry Cereals, Cookies, chocolate Bars etc... Asking us to pick out what we wanted for Chistmas from the Consumers Distributing Catalogue. Later on when I was an adult doing little quirky things like always making sure she bought me a fruitcake at christmas because she knew I love them and knowing if she phoned you that you were gonna get at least 2 more calls that day as she seemed to always call you in 3's... I loved my grandmother very much and I will miss her dearly...

Alwynn and I were supposed to be leaving Thursday for Sudbury for the weekend but now it looks as if we will be leaving for Montreal tomorrow and will head to Sudbury from there on Thursday or Friday depending on what time the service ends Thursday (its a 7.5-8hr drive to Sudbury from Montreal).

I am gonna go now as I have a weeks worth of stuff to do today as I will not be back in Toronto until August 2nd (the night before I start my new job.

Thanks for listening whoever took the time to read this whole entry..

I accidentally posted this to my Journal instead of Toronto Community but decided to keep it in mine as well as this issue is really pissing me off.. My apologies to anyone getting it twice on their friends list because they are on my journal and toronto.


People need to read "Fantino lobby begins to crack from within" from the Toronto Star News Service the other day which was reprinted in yesterday's METRO paper.

It would seem that of the 10 councilors who had signed onto the campaign, at least half of them have since pulled out and several more have come out to voice their concerns that the Campaign is nothing more than a mission to politically damage Mayor Miller and has nothing to do anymore with saving the chief's job.

Its about a couple of Right wing councilors being pissed off that the City elected a Left wing mayor who they don't like and are trying to make him look bad.

*End of Article, beginning of my opinion.*

Anyone who talks about Police Services board not being accountable to the people of this city... Ummmm thats the way its supposed to be.... If I work on Contract for a company, and that company decides not to renew my contract, do you think the citizens of Toronto have the right to demand my company hire me back? No... Its the company's decision.. If I, as that person who was fired, used my "friends in high places" to force my company to rehire me... I would be abusing my own power. That is what Fantino is now doing via a movement of Conservative Councilors who are trying to attack the Mayor and keep their nice Old Fashioned ultra-conservative Police Chief for fear of a progressive one who might actually care about the Racial diversity of a city like Toronto.

I say to people like Georgio Mammoliti to suck it up... The Mayorial Election was MONTHS and MONTHS Ago and David Miller is your Mayor... Stop trying to slander him and make him look bad just because you aren't happy the people of Toronto chose him... It was a fair and democratic Election.... Deal with it... Try working with your Mayor and make decisions to improve the state of Toronto right now. Stop the political Grandstanding, your already an elected official.

People have to stop listening to these councilors who attack Miller, saying that its obvious that Miller and Fantino don't get along therefor Miller must have stuck his nose in Police business and asked the board not to renew his contract.
First off, they didn't renew his contract because the board didn't vote Unanimously to keep the Chief which is the requirement. This is why many of Toronto's Police chiefs don't last more than 1-2 terms. If it was like unanimous to get rid of him, I'd have been more suspicious. It was about 50-50 vote.
If Mammoliti is allowed to jump to conclusions heres my own more believable theory... The Board voted and it wasn't unanimous and Fantinos Contract wasn't renewed. So Mammoliti, knowing that Fantino doesn't like Miller either decided to get a bunch of conservatives that also don't like Miller and decided to accuse Miller of having something to do with it. So they can make him look bad and so they can use Fantino for their own purposed, knowing that Fantino really has nothing to lose by it and he would love seeing Miller get attacked..

This has nothing to do with how good or bad you think Fantino did his job. This is about helping a few Councilors make Mayor Miller look bad for their own political Gains. I will be personally disgusted if Fantino gets his job back over this. It would show that a couple of City Councilors have more power/influence than they should over this city.

And I will leave this entry open to comment.

It is with great pleasure that I announce that Starting August 1st I will be returning to the workforce and the land of the Employed.

After 3 weeks, several interviews, background checks and so forth I have been offered and have accepted the position of "Call Centre Specialist V" at Hewlett Packard... THey have a new Client that is outsourcing their Helpdesk to HP and so they needed a new team of Call Centre Specialists to take on this role.

It has been a LONG year and a half of Ups and Downs with the Downs outweighing the ups by a Factor of 100x... Here is a brief recap...

March of 2003 I returned from my first ever Real Vacation to find out that while I was in the Dominican, I was laid off from my job at WorldCom Canada after over 4 years of loyal service (and having quit my job in Montreal to come to Toronto and work for them cuz they recruited me). (DOWN)

In July I first find out my wife is Pregnant.. Then with what I think is luck I find a new job at a small company called Filogix. (UP)

Then we find out my wife if miscarrying because of a VERY RARE thing called a Molar Pregnancy... We lose the Baby.... (DOWN)

While trying to take time off to be with my wife for the surgery and the Emotional recovery I get called in and let go from Filogix (Yes, they are that Fucking Bad!) (DOWN)

in December we find out Alwynn is Pregnant again..(UP)

Right before Christmas they discover its Ectopic and they have to induce miscarriage. (DOWN)

Now as you all know Alwynn is Pregnant a 3rd time. This time it was confirmed not Ectopic at like week 3... Confirmed not Molar at week 6. She's had like 9 Ultrasounds already and a potential scare for some genetics stuff that turned out to be false alarm... She is now at like 5 Month and counting and all is going well.. (UP!!!)

Came back from a weekend in Montreal to find out I was misinformed about my EI Finishing Date and discovered my EI Just Ran out 3 Weeks Earlier than I was expecting..... Panic sets in of only having enough left in my savings to cover anout a month, maybe bit longer or Rent/Bills. Thoughts of rushing out and getting 2-3 Part time Retail jobs to come up with enough money to not lose my Apartment. (DOWN)

So Here is to hoping this new job finally puts both the financial and the Family things both in the Up Position at the same time for the first time since March of last year when my life fell to shit. And heres to hoping that it stays that way from now on.... We have had enough bad luck/downs/tragedy whatever you wanna call it in our lives for too long.

Heres to hoping this brings everything back to normal again..... Now I just gotta live the poverty life for 1 more month till I get my first Paycheque.
Anyone got any work/odd jobs they want done over the next few weeks? I can really use the cash till the paycheques start rolling again.