the magic number is seventeen

although i still can't say what's magic about the number 17 today, but if things go as i expect them to today, the magic number will become 16 tomorrow and i'll be able to give the reason why.

but then again, if anyone already knew my opinion of the office (where i work, not the TV show), i think that the answer is probably quite clear.

here's another hint: i handed in my resignation at job number 2 last night. pretty soon 70 hour work weeks will be left to those who actually want to work them and not to me. i'll have time to play my guitar and ride my bike and write things here other than just photos of my bamboo. having a full weekend off has become such a novelty for me. i miss the days when i could have two consecutive days off without having to plan it for at least 4 weeks.

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Generally you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance

the secret happenings i mentioned before are all going as planned. wish me luck.

i also mentioned before that i was becoming a big fan of the Epiphone Prophecy line of guitars, but i'm starting to think now that i'm liking the Ibanez Jet King a little bit more. it kind of has that pawn-shop guitar look to it, but still has a good sound. it's also less expensive than the epiphone, but still made largely from the same materials. oh decisions decisions. i suppose i don't have to jump on that too quickly. i still have my 2 other guitars to choose from so i don't really need to fuss too much about it.

oh yeah, and don't forget to sponsor me for the Ride for Heart by clicking below if you already haven't. charity is totally awesome, and you'll be awesomer for sponsoring me eh.

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what?!? you haven't sponsored me for the ride for heart yet? well then click below and make sure you do that already...


Visit my sponsorship page to see my progress!!

strange things are afoot at the Circle-K

although i have taken my bamboo picture this week, for some reason my phone does not seem to want to send me that picture. dumb phone. one of these days i'll have to get in the habit of actually bringing a proper camera to do my photo.

that being said, a change of daytime scenery may be in the works. i'm going to wait to divulge this secret completely for fear of jinxing it, but the odds are in favour that my commute may not be as long in the very near future.

the other day i made a totally awesome score at the goodwill shop. i think someone's mother went through their comic book collection and dumped it off at the goodwill, so i managed a few pretty decent scores at only 50 cents a piece. some milestone issues of Punisher, Punisher War Journal, Wolverine and Captain America to name a few. obviously, none of it's been graded but they're all in pretty damn good condition. they will be eBay'ed as soon as i get my scanner hooked up.

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had it up to HERE with Bell Canada

so how long ago was it that i moved, like 5 months ago? i've been noticing for the last while that i haven't been getting any phone bills. that's typical for the first month or two after a move, but much longer than that and you know you've got a problem. luckily for me, i proactively pay the same amount every month just to make sure because this isn't the first time i've had problems with one of the Bell group of companies.

so i check online, log into their website and notice that even though they moved my service, they were still sending my bills to my old address.

"what the fuck?!?" i says to myself out loud, although hopefully not loud enough for the rest of the office to hear.

so i call them up, remind them that when they moved my service they should have bloody well moved my billing address and that i'm sick and tired of them screwing things up for me. i was also good enough to mention to them about how they messed up my internet service when i moved AND how they fucked me around with my cell phone service a couple of years ago.

with an angry customer on the line, one who has continuously been disappointed in the service but has remained loyal to the company - i would have thought they'd offer me some sort of discount or free option.

no

i get the upsell treatment: "Can I interest you in this package that offers two more calling services?"

"No," i replies, "i'm sure you can tell from the usage on my account that i very rarely even bother using my home phone. the only reason i have it is for reliable 911 service and i don't want you to screw THAT up too."

up yours Bell Canada. turn up the good, turn down the suck.

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technically i suppose it's thirty weeks now

but even if it's 30 weeks, i've still only posted 29 times


sometimes when i overhear my boss at job number 1 talking on the phone, it makes me want to hit him in the head with it. he's a completely non-technical person trying to explain a technical thing that he has no real understanding of.

grammar is something i apparently have no understanding of.

i think i REALLY want this - the Epiphone SG Prophecy EX. yeah, i know, it's not a Gibson technically, but it might just as well be. especially since Gibson doesn't offer the SG in that style, and even if they did it would cost like $3500, and i'm not a good enough guitar player to spend that kind of money on a musical instrument.

i also really like this bike - the Devinci Tosca SL 2, but i've promised myself that i'm not going to let myself buy a bike unless i put at least another 2000 km on mine. in theory, that shouldn't be too difficult - i'd like to be at a pace where i'm putting between 150-250 km a week on my bike this summer because it's my goal to lose the office belly that seems to have accompanied this especially cold winter. that and it's just real fun and all.

also, if I raise just $25 more in sponsorship money for the Ride for Heart, i'll be eligible for a draw for a sony home theater system. that would certainly be nice because the home theater system i have right now doesn't work sometimes. it takes about 20-30 clicks of the button to get the power to go on, and when it does go on the DVD player slows down sometimes so everyone starts talking funny. and not haha funny, but funny like the opposite of the chipmunks.

another effort for me to raise money for this - from now until the ride, if you buy a t-shirt hell shirt through my link here, i'll take my referral money and put it into sponsorship dollars.

i know, some of it is a little too offensive to be caught wearing, but there are some decent ones too:

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does anyone out there collect hockey cards?

hockey or baseball for that matter, but mostly hockey and mostly from the 80's and early 90's. what i've realized over the last couple of years is that i have a pile of debt that i need to pay off, and although the having 2 jobs thing does help with the bills, it hasn't exactly alleviated all of the burden of my debt.

what i aim to do is start selling my hockey and baseball card collection. i do have lots of valuable collector's items, but probably not anything in excess of a couple hundred dollars each. most of the stuff is in mint or near-mint condition and although i'm not going to go to the extent of having them professionally graded i will provide high-resolution scans so that you can see the true condition of what you'd be buying.

i tried pitching this to the blogging world once before, but nobody seemed to catch on at the time. spread the word to sports collectors all around. please.

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sometimes wednesday just sneaks up on you eh?

yup. that's my bamboo plant alright.


at job one my company has recently invested in some new tools for me to do my reporting duties because i create awesome reports about stuff. the only problem is that although this product makes neat charts and graphs and stuff, you unfortunately have to make a decision of whether you want it to look good on the web or look good on paper. apparently you can't have both which is bloody inconvenient.

and you know what else is inconvenient? people that drive BMW's. if i had a nickel for every time some jackass in a BMW tried to take off my front bumper with his "superior" car... well, i'd have a lot of nickels - so many that i'd have to roll them up and take them to the bank to exchange them for dollars and shit. sometimes i wish i could mount a snow plow or some push bars on the front of my toyota and just drive through those fuckers. then i'd say "geez, that german engineering doesn't hold up so well with a snow plow shoved up its ass."

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just add water and watch it grow

six months and one week eh?


speaking of things that have been going on for months, have a looksie here:

this roll of lifesavers has been on my desk since i started. i even mentioned it before. it's definitely still there though in all of it's five-coloured glory. i suppose though that it makes sense that it's still there because i haven't thrown it out. i'm not quite sure why though - i don't have any intention of eating it. maybe i should add it to a time capsule or something like that. there aren't enough time capsules out there. seriously, weren't people from like 50 or 100 years ago obsessed with them? i think i should be finding these things all the time, uncovering the mysteries of 1958 with astonishing regularity. i think even the pope made a decree some time ago that some time ago. i'm pretty sure his statements had something to do with it being every human's duty to bury a time capsule at least once per year, and preferrably twice (once for a 50 year opening, once for a 100 year opening).

but then again, it's not like i've been burying time capsules all over the place, and i suppose i haven't been digging up my back yard looking for them either. those are probably things that should happen if i wanted to find one eh?

it's the famous beethoven's famous ninth symphony fucker

so there are about 3 new employees in my company now. that may not seem like a whole lot, but considering there's less than 50 people to start with, it's actually a fairly big increase in headcount.

and with the increase of new software developers comes the increase in irritating cell phone rings. now, i seem to remember that when i started a new job, it was generally a courtesy you followed to avoid having your cell phone ringer on. heck, i've been here for 2 years and i still leave mine off during the day. the new guys don't seem to have assimilated that information as the cell-phone-tone versions of Ode to Joy or the horrifically annoying and overdone "hello moto" song start to blare at volumes loud enough to drown out even the loudest Ministry songs.

maybe i just need to find a new obnoxious ring for my cell phone.