*sigh* Oh, Canada…

I went to work today and when I was coming out of Eglinton station I saw a massive group of people outside. At first, when I saw all these Asian people, I said to myself “damn, where’s the Casino Rama bus?” but when I saw that there was actually a huge lineup stretching down Yonge and across Eglinton, I realized that these people were lining up for Mandarin. Why? I don’t know, Mandarin food isn’t that great to me, but every Canada day they offer free (I believe “free” is contingent on you being a Canadian citizen) lunch or dinner. Nothing says Canada like Egg Rolls and Chow Mein! mmmmmMMMM!

I don’t know what the big hoopla is about Mandarin, the food is crap, it’s a buffet, and it’s expensive. I saw an old man in the lineup and he had tubes up his nose and was carrying around this bag with him (filled with medical equipment) and he was waiting in line for what must have been hours to get in. Really now! You’re in ill-health and you’d rather spend your time lining up for Mandarin? Chinese food is so cheap and readily available that you shouldn’t have to line-up for it. Ever. Anywhere. Or if you do at least get the stuff that’s been cooked, and not left in a heater all day for people to scoop up.

Do people know what they’re lining up for? Buffets are places where people look at food, and smell it before scooping it up onto their plate (or back into the tray). They had to install sneeze guards, which I assume is to address the issue of people sneezing into their food. That’s all fine and dandy but I saw a couple of midgets in the line who look as if they could circumvent this, since those guards are set at a certain height. Ewww! Hands are used to pick up bread, which is ok if it’s the last piece, but terrible if your hairy arms get all over the piece I wanted. And don’t get me started on the ice cream! People don’t wash the scoops in between mixing flavours for themselves. Hey, you little shit, I bet you feel brilliant for putting vanilla and strawberry ice cream together, right? Now I got all this pink shit in my vanilla ice cream because you didn’t bother to clean the scoop!

But alas, it’s free. If you give something away in abundance people seem to line up for it, and no matter how ludicrous it sounds to line up for hours to get into Mandarin for free food that’s left on a heater, people still do it. In droves.

Perez Hilton, You Smelly Ballsack

http://twitpic.com/8et2f

Just click and judge for yourself what he’s done.

At this point I want to reiterate how thankful I am to the tour manager of the Black Eyed Peas for punching him in the face, but at the same time, lament at how he wasn’t able to beat more sense into him.

Hopefully someone else will catch up to Perez and slap a little more sense into him. At least an apology for what he’s done.

Sunk In

These posts come in bunches eh? In the words, but not in the likeness, of John Lennon: “Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup…”

It’s starting to sink in. I’ve…graduated. I’m finished U of T. Maybe one day I’ll reflect on my university years in greater detail, but for now:

- Four years have passed, but I’ve aged 10.
- This school was ruthless.
- “The tree that doesn’t bend, breaks.” And with that, U of T has broken me.
- If I’ve learned anything about myself it’s this: no matter how long the essay is, how much research must be done, I can still finish it in one night. My record is 4000 words.
- Inspired writing is about lighting a fire and keeping it lit. Starting it up is the hardest bit but once it gets going, you have to keep at it before it burns out. Don’t let anything throw you out of your rhythm. I once spent the day without eating because I was so into what I was writing.
- Commuting sucks and so does the TTC. I’ve been downtown every day since 2004 and can honestly say that it’s not all it’s hyped up to be.
- I hate English majors. I really do. I know we’re supposed to bridge the gap between the text and our interpretation of it, but that bridge is paved in bullshit. Sentences that start with “I get the feeling that the author,” should result in the perp getting smacked with a newspaper. Really? You have a feeling? Well, I have evidence. Bitch. I don’t care about what you feel the author was trying to do, you can’t possible know this, nor should you try. Go with what you have! God I hate English majors.

Rogers Now Charging for Receiving Texts

Few things I want to bang out of the way first:

1) I’m well aware that Telus and Bell implemented this way before. I don’t feel I’m over-reacting to this new change. It’s horse shit and those under Telus and Bell plans will tell you the same. Just because they got shafted first doesn’t make getting shafted any easier for me.
2) I know I have until July 7th to restructure my contract. The new change doesn’t go into effect until July.
3) Yes, I do need a cell phone. For all you hippies out there who believe it’s the tool of the corporate devil and that I can live without it: I beg to differ.

I initially heard about this on Krishna’s twitter in the morning and decided to check out the details. After checking out the CBC site I was pretty pissed off at what was going on. Wireless plans in Canada are absolutely ludicrous. It’s nothing new, it’s been criticized in the past and I’ve been waiting for these new companies that are supposed to be set up this year to start coming up with better pricing plans so I can switch out of Rogers.

When I went to Hong Kong, my uncle told us to bring our cellphones so that he could gives us Sim Cards to use. He managed to set us up on Pay As You Go, from Sim Cards he bought at the local 7/11. Speaking of 7/11 do you know they charge your cellphones for you in Hong Kong? If you’re running out of batteries just bring it in and they will charge it for you (for a price), isn’t that great? Anyway, within a couple of minutes everything was set up, we had our own numbers and everything and it didn’t cost more than $15 Canadian. No activation fee, none of that system access charge bullshit, just affordable wireless services with a long-distance plan as well. I could also call long distance and text message long distance as well, which I definitely took advantage of, and you know how long this lasted me? Almost two weeks! $15 got me long-distance calls, text messages, God knows how many minutes for almost 2 weeks! Not just sissy long-distance calls either, I talked to my mom for about 30 minutes and passed the phone around as well and was surprised to see that at the end of the call I only spent about $1.

If I was to spend $1 calling long-distance in Canada through my cellphone, the most I can do is breathe into the mic before it starts accumulating. So fuck you Rogers Wireless for taking another step backwards! I can’t wait till I rid myself from this contract.