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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bamboo wednesday! part 10! and the end of a condo!

This week's bamboo picture brought to you by the colour purple.

it's still growing, albeit much less noticeably.

i got a phone call from my douchebag landlord last night. a couple of phone calls actually. she seems to be quite persistent when she wants to get a hold of me. i still need to hand over the keys to the condo, but since i'm an asshole i'm going to wait to call her back and i'm not going to give her the keys until friday. why should i wait? oh yeah, i just mentioned, i'm an asshole. she mentioned wanting to do an inspection of the place too, but i can't see how that would be logical because obviously nobody did an inspection for the last two places i moved into that were managed by cuntzilla.

the new place is coming out nice. i'm nowhere near completely unpacked. heck, i'd say that i'm max 30% unpacked (most of my clothes are still in bags), but it's still better than the old place.

work is retardedly busy right now. i have massive deadlines this week and my boss is doing everything he can to be a jackass about it. as soon as i get my annual bonus, i'm out of here. anyone in the mississauga area looking for a database analyst or report writer (righter) give me a call eh?

bamboo wednesday! part 8! and 1 day late!

well, i took the picture on wednesday. does that count?


still growing, but it looks more like it's growing outward now. the mediocrity of a camera phone's photos don't really do it justice.

so we've moved about 95% of our stuff into the new place. i'm very happy with the house so far, except it seems to be the scene of a crime caused by the muppet mafia...


as you can see, this poor little guy's arm is sticking out of a trash bag, and there's a block of ice where his head should be. perhaps i should call the police, or maybe even the pope. but then again, maybe the pope is responsible for this. the new pope is gaining a reputation for not being as forgiving as the old pope, and he could be a crotchety old bastard when he wanted to be.

almost there

so the majority of my stuff is moved into the new place. most of the boxes went on friday and all the furniture went on saturday. yesterday i got to spend the day waiting for the cable and phone guys to come and hook my place up. the annoying thing is that my internet connection is still not working at home yet. i called sympatico support and they claimed all would be resolved within 4-6 hours. yeah. right.

the good news is that everything's almost done with more than two weeks left in the month. right from the beginning i knew i was going to take my time with this one. last year we did the whole move in one day and i vowed never again to make that mistake.

so today i will spend the day catching up on two missed days at work. i love those "what's the status on this" emails. they rule. and then i have to call sympatico support to figure that shit out too. gar.

bamboo wednesday! part 7! and MOVING!

it seems to have grown this weekend.



also, i'm moving this weekend. huzzah.

a sign i'm moving to a better neighbourhood

or neighborhood for our american friends...

i was in the new place doing some cleaning and painting and hear a ring at the doorbell.

no, it wasn't the pope, though it's not uncommon that he shows up unexpectedly. last time he showed up with two kegs and the entire star trek collection on dvd. i just stayed still and hoped that he didn't hear me.

opening the door actually revealed two neighbourhood girls somewhere around the age of 10. "do you have any daughters?" they asked.

where i live now, the only people who knock on my door are politicians and building maintenance people.

later in the day i looked out the window to see that these kids had gone on to decorate half the street with flowers and other girly things with sidewalk chalk. the only things i generally get to see on the street i live on now are modified 15 year old honda civics driving too fast and minivans packed with obnoxious families that have an insane amount of kids/relatives in them.

photos will be coming soon as soon as we're done painting eh.

bamboo wednesday! part 6! and WEEN!

so there's been some more growth on the bamboo front. it is definitely flourishing in this harsh office environment. essentially all i do is fill it with water every day, ignore it and take a photo of it once a week. i think that's the trick for all of you office people out there killing bamboo plants on a regular basis.



on friday night last week i went to see WEEN in concert at the docks (which is now the Sound Academy). it was one of the best concerts i've seen in ages and from what i've heard, it wasn't one of their best shows. i can only imagine how awesome it would have been had they been in peak form. from what i've been told, they have a reputation for playing for several hours straight - and i thought the 2 1/2+ they did play was pretty badass. i would highly recommend everyone find a copy of their new album and listen to it on repeat. hella good. they have such a unique style and a diverse sound. putting one of their albums on is kind of like listening to a mixed cd of crazy and funny music.

today is also halloween. i had almost forgotten about it because my office has absolutely NO holiday spirit whatsoever. the closest to enthusiastic this place gets is when the secretary (one of few people here with a pleasant personality) decides to try to do something fun and everyone else just smiles and nods. today she went around desk to desk giving out candy. i was the first of about 4 or 5 people who accepted it and thanked her. she goes to such great lengths to make sure people here are happy and everyone else here goes to great lengths to make sure they stay bored.

tomorrow i get the keys to my new place. i'm pretty excited, this couldn't come soon enough. i'm so tired of having to take the elevator down 23 flights with a bunch of assholes every morning in order to get to work. this morning the elevator was full of ghetto trash with music blaring from their cell phones.

yes, more than one of them had the external speakers of their mp3 cell phones cranked with shitty pop-rap music.

and they were listening to different songs.

then one of them started singing out loud with one of the songs.

when i moved into this building it wasn't full of asswipes with their music cranked at 7am trying their hardest to annoy the hell out of other people wanting to go to work.

okay, so i don't really WANT to go to work, it's more of a need to go to work in order to make money and not get fired. but the important part is that i'm moving soon to a house which means no more elevator rides with arseholes, no more people smoking in the hallway and no more building management shutting the water off twice a month. huzzah.

bamboo wednesday! part 4!

so things are still pretty busy. i managed to forget my good camera, so you get crappy RAZR photos of bamboo again this week...



i've noticed a bit of growth. it seems to be keeping up with its regular .5 to 1 cm per week growth pattern. i'm kind of in shock by office people's capability to kill bamboo. outside of a cactus, it's probably the easiest plant to take care of in the world. you can't seem to over-water it, i keep the glass full to the top every day and the thing seems to be thriving.

the deal is essentially done for the new place, i just need to drop off my rent deposit tonight and wait for the 1st to come around so i can start moving my crap in. i've had to book a ton of time off work to try to get my act in gear and get everything moved. the good news is that i'm excited to move, the bad is that ever-lingering feeling that you might not be quite ready to do it. i'm sure 1 or 2 days of hard-core packing will remedy everything.

bamboo wednesday! part 3!

week three of the bamboo project and things are looking well...



if i were to guess, i think it's grown by about another half to one centimeter or so. i think i fudged the angle a little bit in this week's photo. maybe i should bring in a better camera to take the picture too, my Motorola RAZR isn't really doing it justice.

good news on the new home front too. the place i looked at last night worked for me, so i'll be moving in next month. no more apartment hunting for me. i'll be so happy to not have to take a crowded elevator every day. and also - a fireplace for the winter time. that's gonna be so awesome. i'll be able to save a ton on heating bills too i figure.

the only downside to all of this is that i have to start packing like crazy. i want to get the hell out of my place as soon as is humanly possible. it'll be so nice to have a big place to live again.

perhaps an actual place to live?

tonight i'm going to go see a townhouse that will hopefully be the place i end up moving to. it's a big three bedroom place with a garage (or should i be calling that a car-hole?) and a back yard. it will be nice not having to take an elevator down 23 stories with a bunch of arse wipes just to take the dogs out for a pee.

and did i mention the arse wipes on the elevators? yesterday my adventure in walking the dogs resulted in one woman freaking out so much when she saw them that she wouldn't get onto the elevator. no big deal for me, but really - who's scared of a 5 lb chihuahua and a 9 lb dachshund (yes, i now also have a wiener dog).

today i need to try to be effective and productive at work, although i REALLY don't want to be. working is for suckers. the unfortunate thing is that i've still got another 15 years or so to go of being a sucker (and yes, i DO intend to retire by the age of 45).

finding a place to live is important in our society

i went to look at a new place to live this morning, thereby making myself incredibly late for work. it was all worthwhile though. it's a nice 3 bedroom townhouse with a garage and a big unfinished basement and hardwood floors.

which is good because i hate vacuuming cat hair out of the carpet.


sometimes you can find the strangest things at the Value Village. like the above gnome painted on a stone. he was $2.99, which i thought was a little high for a gnome painted on a rock. but hey, to each their own right?