On Signing Petitions (via Margaret Atwood: Year of the Flood)

I rarely sign petitions myself. I tend to have the opinion that they accomplish nothing but demonstrate a bunch of people (but not enough to make an impact) cared enough to sign their names to a piece of paper (and sometimes not even that much… http://www.petitionspot.com/ anyone?).

Nevertheless, I also can be influenced by individuals whose opinions I respect. And I did type my name on the petition Margaret Atwood mentions in her most recent post, one which like every other piece of writing she creates made me chuckle, smile, sympathise and sob. Ok, I didn’t really sob, but I could have.

So, I walked into The Office of O.W, Toad Ltd., where the usually smiling staff (two in number) who attempt to run my life with whips of steel were giving me the frowny treatment. “You’ve been signing petitions again,” they said. “Naughty Margaret! Don’t you remember that you promised not to do that?” I knew it would be pretty feeble of me to protest that signing petitions was something anyone in a democracy should feel free to do. That would be … Read More

via Margaret Atwood: Year of the Flood

By the way, should you be interested in a bit of Q&A with my favourite author, check out Sept 20 – 24 on here.

10 observations about the G20 presence

1.  The TTC gets unpredictably shut down.  Is this a) to protect riders?  b) to prevent protesters from getting downtown quickly?  c) give the personnel an excuse to snooze?

2.  Stores I want to shop in are either closed or close early.  And after this afternoon, they’ll probably be closed for repairs.

3.  Protests pop up on a daily basis causing traffic delays, even for pedestrians like myself.

4.  Rogue protesters break stuff, set stuff on fire and generally wimp out on making a message credible.  Nice covered faces, no balls.

5.  Too much money is spent on cushy dinners and unattractive fencing that could be spent on dinners for the hungry and city beautification (amongst other worthy recipients).

6.  You can’t freely walk wherever you want to.

7.   World Cup + G20 = the majority of all conversation

8.   Steven Harper comes off as a gracious Canadian host.

9.  Muskoka was celebratory about the G8 presence;  Toronto is generally irritated with the G20 presence.

10.  The herds of raid police produce a feeling of police-state rather than of safety.

I hate you (or maybe it’s just your behaviour), Part 1

Normally I don’t focus on the negative.  I used to.  When I was a teenager (and probably before that too), friends would call me on my complaining.  I realized that no one liked a constant complainer.  However, sometimes, you just need to vent.  And thanks to an alarming number of irritating situations in recent weeks, I feel it is my civic duty to warn you of your potential anger-inducing behaviour.  Please, heed this advice for otherwise, I may punch you.

See these doors?  These types of doors close automatically:  subways, elevators and the cool ones in Star Trek spaceships.  The thing is, with subway doors in particular, people rush to get to them before they close.  Sometimes it’s a matter of being late for work;  other times, it’s just the challenge of narrowly making it a la Indiana Jones.  Whatever the case may be, I always seem to be behind the person who successfully makes it and then comes to a complete stop once through.   I’ll make it on, but I’ll get squished by the doors because dickhead doesn’t care about who’s behind him since his quest was already fulfilled.

A similar situation happens with elevators except it’s often on the way out.  I work for a school of international “adult” students.  The cram into the elevators, talking in their languages and laughing like the claustrophobia means nothing (take a look at this pic for proof).  Then, once we get to the ground floor, they saunter out in a lollygaggish way with no regard for the others still trying to exit.  Why get out of the elevator only to stand right in front of the doors?  Can you not just move to the side or–dare I suggest–walk to where you originally intended to go?

If you are either of these people, I hate you (or maybe it’s just your behaviour).