I have been having some weird dreams lately. I normally don't talk about dreams but these ones are odd. First of all, I had a series of dreams where I always ended up naked, and unable to remember why I took off my clothes, or where I put them, even though they were in obvious places. For example, I would go into a bathroom and come out naked. Where were my clothes? I dunno. So I would walk around a little bit trying to "blend in" and then decide to try the bathroom again. Thing is, I never actually took off my clthes, they would just disappear, and then reappear when I realized I was naked and needed clothes. Everyone who saw me naked seemed used to it. "Oh, there's JP again. Naked as usual." I was in an ersatz Brockville much of the time, as if that makes any difference.
October 2004 Archives
With regards to the Hertz saga, I finally got someone on the phone. Turns out that the cheque is indeed in the mail. The gentleman I dealt with in person actually asked the management to give me the certificate, so I will get all my money back plus $30 in Hertz money. Of course, I will have to see it to believe it.
In other news, I went to meet the guys from work at a Vietmanese place in Côte-des-Neiges for lunch and to pick up my stereo. As I guessed, there was gossip.
And to think, Simba may have once looked like this:
The HR woman from the old job called me today. I don't think I mentioned it, but I was raising money for breast cancer research and amateur sport in Montreal. I only raised a couple hundred dollars, but only because I was terminated. I easily could have raised much more. Anyway, it turns out that I got second place, which means I won a Sony stereo system. Not bad. I am picking it up Friday after lunch with some of the guys. Hopefully they will have lots of juicy gossip.
In the next chapter of the Hertz rental story, I received the following letter from Hertz:
The whole ordeal cost me over $500! And I don't even get real money. Just Hertz money, for Christ's sakes. We'll see who hurts after I get someone on the phone. That cheque had better be in the mail.
I have so much to write about, but I can't get it out there. And I am also the world's third biggest asshole, third only to those who abuse children and murder people (I am not including heads of state, terrorist or corporate CEOs). But that's something I can't discuss here. In any case, I feel like scum.
Here's my file extension. I wish I were .EXE, then I might actually get something done.
Which File Extension are You?
First of all, sorry for having been gone for so long. I think I might have fallen into a minor funk or something. For the last two weeks all I have wanted to do is play video games. I bought Mortal Kombat: Deception last week. Might as well be called Mortal Kombat: Devotion for all the time it takes to unlock everything. (But I am almost done!)
Rose and I rented a car and drove to Brockville for Thanksgiving. It was really quite a nice time, as it always is whenever we go there. I rented the car from Hertz as I did before when we went to Quebec City in May. That first time was an excellent driving experience, not to mention the trip itself. Amazing. Anyway, we rented from there again. The first problem? It's a Cavalier. I don't know much about cars, but I have never liked these things. They suck. And don't you know? We had serious alignment problems. It was so bad that when I wanted to go straight I had to point the wheel at a 45-degree angle. But that's not all. As soon as I got above 105 km/h, the thing started rattling like it wanted to shake apart. But we got to Brockville without incident.
Well, I'm off to watch others eat turkey, while I eat something else. Thanksgiving weekend in Canada is this weekend, and Rose and I are headed off to Brockville. I got the car with no hassles, so I just have to pick her up and off we go.
There's a chance that my older older brother, the "bad" one, may be there at my parents' this weekend. Let's hope not.
Two years ago, Robyn of Shutterblog, then (TampaTantrum) tore me a new one when I questioned her campaign to raise money for breast cancer research. At the time, I didn't believe that they were trying to help cancer research at all in the beginning, and the cancer research was only an afterthought. There were many "gimme sites" popping up all over the place and I was immediately suspicious of this campaign. Read all about it from the links above.
However, since then the Boobie-Thon campaign has become bigger (excuse the double-entendre) and better. And certainly, what I would consider more "pure". A true charity to help certain bloggers as well as cancer research. Robyn has a "bloggers helping bloggers" angle that I appreciate. Suffice it to say that I do not feel the same way about the second, third and future campaigns as I did towarsd the first. I'll have to see if I can spare any cash this time around for the campaign.
I wonder what a large pool of blogger money, say, $100 000, could be used for in the blogger community. There are charities, helping people out who come upon some tough times. There are also those organizations such as Strengthen the Good whose mission is in
raising awareness for small charities around the world. Every three weeks this space highlights a new “micro-charity”—a small, inspiring charity, one with a real face and where $1 makes a difference—and the bloggers in the network link to that post, sending traffic, and awareness, the charity’s way.
Personally, in addition to this I would like to see a funded program for people who blog. There are seminars and university courses for blogs. I'd like to see more on how blogs will be used in universities as part of certain courses. Write a great essay and the Blog-Ed Foundation (I'd try and think of something better) will fund your course on blogging, or we'll help create a course for your university. There could be so much we could do. In fact, I introduced the concept of blogging to my French writing professor in an essay I wrote recently. I'll post it in my MT 3.0 test blog soon after I talk to her about the applications that she sees.
Well, Robyn, if you read this, no hard feelings, eh?
Friday night, Rose and I went to see the film Eternal, with local hotness Caroline Néron. Not a bad movie, it was based on the murders of Countess Elizabeth Bathory in the beginning of the 17th century. I liked the movie; it got a little thick with the lesbian vampire porn, but all in all it was decent. caroline Néron seemed to get better as the movie progressed. And of course, the scene in which she was bathing in blood was very hot. (I'm trying to find the image with that scene in it, if any of you can, please let me know.)
A funny thing happened in the beginning of the film. The first victim goes to a rich mansion near Westmount (a rich suburb of Montreal) and enters the house. Everything is ornate and fancy. Very expensive. She finally asks for "Elizabeth", played by Néron. Well, it's funny if you know this Elizabeth. Rose and I got a chuckle out of it.
Last night I had a dream in which I went somewhere on a resort with all my coworkers and their wives at some pretty little resort. Beautiful. It was in some bay, or on a lake. It was summer. It was less like a resort, actually, but more like a bed and breakfast. I love B&B's. I need to go more often I now realize.
My coworkers were actually the coworkers from my job two jobs ago, not the most recent one, although there was the sys admin from my most recent job.
I was alone for some reason. Everyone else had their spouses with them, but Rose wasn't there. This was normal. Of course, for me, everything seems normal in a dream no matter what happens, except when I try to have sex with someone, wind up naked in public riding a bike and am trying to hide from everyone's notice; only then do I realize that things aren't normal. Don't analyse that, please. Anyway, I remember trying to keep up with everyone else. Not that they were better waterskiiers or fishermen or conversationalists or anything. It was because they had stuff. Better homes, better cars (well, cars), (better) kids, (better) jobs, and better lives. Everything they had or did was better. Not only that, but we were all trying to outdo everyone else, although for them it seemed like a friendly game among themselves. Chad, the sys admin and I were the only real outcasts.
There have been lots of things that have happened at work since I no longer work there. Let me attempt to fill you in.
I immediately wanted to find out what was going on inside, so I contacted Ned, my counterpart. I wanted to know everything: the status of the company, how things will proceed in sales. I was very interested in finding out what is happening with South Africa: there was a $1.2-million deal there that was supposed to come in by September 30. It wasn't mentioned in the killemoff meeting. There was already an agreement for the South Africans to pay that money. Steve, (employee #2, the one that sold everything) wanted to wait until the cheque was in hand for it to happen before announcing it. Tommy (the President) has been working against Steve in the last six months with respect to this deal. If Tommy kills it, then, well, that's odd. What happens to the rest of the company? What's the mood? Arlene (customer support manager and possibly the most beloved employee) was in Spain at the time; I wonder if she knew about it.
