No coffee for me

This morning on my way to work, due to the great melting and wettening of 2011 I had to walk around a large lake in front of my building and up over a pile of ice to get to the front door. Needless to say I fell down, with the odd bruise and scrape as it is really dangerous and slick out.
I am fine really - more dissapointed that I spilled my coffee.
*sniff* I never even got a sip...

I alone have seen 8 people fall in the last few days. And what is work doing to adress the slippery patches all over campus after us all asking for sanding and filling out incident reports?
They sent out an email reminding us it's icy and that we should take care because we might fall.

Yeah. Thanks for coming out...

Newsflash - FRUIT IS EVIL!

Yesterday at afternoon coffee break as I ate a grapefruit, someone actually asked me "why do you eat so many fruits and vegetables anyways? Is it because you're exercising all the time?"

WTF?

I replied "After trying them, it turns out I *like* some fruits and vegetables. I really like apples and grapefruit. They & nuts are my favourite snack now. "
(I had an apple at lunch and a banana after my morning workout too. And a salad with beans and chicken at lunch...and there were blueberries in my cottage cheese this morning too. Oh dear god! The sheer amount of fruit!!!)
Then they said "But you had an apple at lunch too. That's so much fruit. Doesn't all that exercising make you hungry?
I said "Yes. I eat lots of healthy, high protein food and I'm satisfied."
Then they asked "but don't you exercise all the time now? You look way different than before"
I said calmly" No -I just exercise consistently. 5 days a week whenever I can for an hour, weights and some cardio. It's part of my day now. I feel great for it"
They looked confused.
I ate my grapefruit and coffee. And fumed...

I am still annoyed at how me exercising and eating healthy actually annoys people. I make a point of not talking about my exercise ever unless someone asks and I simply eat my healthy food happily and quietly. (And yes, I eat a lot of it. It's delicious) I just can't figure out why it is so unusual to eat 2-3 pieces of fruit a day. How is that a bad thing?

I just don't get why someone else feels guilty watching me eat well. Why they are confused. It's not like I've said anything to anyone about my choices to push them on anyone. J and I eat healthy now, but I still indulge in what I choose to. This weekend we had croissant sandwiches and I made some of the best raspberry scones I've ever made. With ice cream. For breakfast. YUM. I just make all I can from scratch, from healthy foods. We both feel great.

But, apparently I am a freak for eating too much fruit.
I give up.
banana anyone?
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Note to self: do not throw a major wobbler. It'll work itself out eventually...

Having been "out of it" at work for a while for understandable reasons, I am trying to get back up to speed and concentrate and work on things and get going again. I do the things I do with and for others so we all need to be on the same page so we all do what we need to and don't have to repeat things or miss thigns. Plus there's always personal bias popping in to cloud things on mine and their ends...

The long and the short of it is this: Today I am getting exceptionally tired of hearing "oh didn't you know that? I'm sure we told you that? You really should have asked first..."

*sigh*

How do I ask about something if I don't know it even exists? How do I even know I need to ask?

I want to give everyone I work for a list of questions while they are in the same room so I know all I REALLY need to know and not just think I know all I really need to know. I'm working on a system for that.

Cause, THEN I'll be all groovy and like "hey there, what can I do for you?" with a labcoat and a monacle and all that razmatazz. Ya dig?

(I admit to being rather emotionally wobbly at the moment too...so it's not the best combination)

Deep breaths. That's the key...

image source

You have to believe in it to make it real

I am often reminded of how our current Canadian government really should not be in power. They've only been able to have minority governments the last few elections because not enough people really want them, but there's no one else they can get behind either as the other parties have gotten new leaders or are trying to build up new platforms and policies. After the headlines yesterday, I'm hoping they just tipped the scales against themselves, although I'm cynical and think a lot of people won't bother to read the news and get the whole story.

If you own a home here in Canada I'm sure you've heard a lot about the one year home reno Tax credit: Spend over $1000 (and up to $15000) on renovating your home and you'll get 10% back as a non-refundable tax credit this tax season as long as you have the receipts to prove it. For people like me who are doing stuff to their house anyways, it's a nice bonus...and we're just doing a small amount of work - there are people going all out and hoping for a nice big tax rebate. It's all part of the economic stimulus package to help fight the recession.

But here's the thing - even though we've all been told to keep our receipts (there are even envelopes at stores like Rona and Home Depot to put them in) I just learned that IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST YET. Yeah - it is just a bill that will *maybe* be passed in fall session of Parliament. And here's the other shitty thing - it's technically a budget bill, so if the opposition wants to make a vote of non-confidence in the government to call an election (which they plan to and I think should, as Harper and his government are not doing very much) they will have to vote this down to do so. There's no saying they can't pass it if/when they get elected if they beat the current government, but it's turning all of this tax credit business into a sneaky manipulative election ploy. It's taking the average Joe and making them put their homes and $$ ahead of the politics of the country and what is best for all of us. Harper is trying to make the opposition look bad in the eyes of the public and playing manipulative games and creepy politics to keep in power.

So here's my little rant to you Stephen Harper - Stop screwing around and playing schoolyard games to stay in power. You're the leader of our country. Lead it. How about you look after the country? If you were even slightly good at this we wouldn't be itching to get you out of power and let someone else have a go at it so they could actually DO something.

Boo to you I say. You and your little dog too.

Book Art

I'm a sucker for a good book cover.

I've always been annoyed at some of the fantasy novel book covers...or ones that are all shiny, or have scary yucky things on them. I don't want to touch them as I read them. Makes me feel odd. Sometimes I get lucky...Spin is a fantastic novel (won a Hugo) we picked just because it looked interesting. Sure I've picked some duds up at the library that looked cool, and read some amazing books with terribly tacky covers, but usually you can tell at least a little bit about the author or the contents from the cover.
My point is this: I am greatly annoyed when a cover has absolutely nothing to do with the book. I'm not talking that it's just some scenery, or of random people, or skulls or lame unicorns or what have you...I'm talking completely and totally irrelevant or unrelated art.

Case in Point: this cover for The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

I have to ask: What the flying frack does this have to do with *ANYTHING* remotely involved in the novel? Anyone? A book set in an alternate world, where WW2 was won by Germany and things are dominated by Chinese culture...naturally makes me think of a lame looking shiny torso floating in geometry. How about you? I know the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the I Ching is "ooh...torso!"
I've been told that often Dick's covers do not match his stories at all. The covers in the Wikipedia article iare at least related to the novel in some way. The one I read (above) does not resemble anything at all to do with the story.

Boo to this I say...I will have none of it, sir.

If I saw this book in a store I would make a point of *not* reading it, simply based on the utter lameness of the cover. It came highly recommended and I enjoyed the discussion of the book afterwards. But the cover?

It's silly.
Fiction and science fiction get enough razzing as it is without this sort of thing going on...