rants and ramblings of utter randomness

There has been entirely too much politics, good or bad, around these parts.

To remedy this, I offer these, for they are happy-making and wonderful and have nothing whatsoever to do with presidents or referendums or anything political at all.


Canada's answer to Prozac:




Stare O'Doom makes Beard Guy seriously nervous:




Virtual cookies to _scally for finding these.

I go into semi-lurkdom and this happens:

( Unnecessary photoshopping is unnecessary. )

Whole .pdf file is here. Because you should actually read teh article, dudes.

dragonflymuse has icons here.

Picspam from the new Passchendaele trailer under the cut.

( The story so far... )

Someone needs to caption this, liek, now:







Full article (which is disturbing and very worth reading) here: These people need to Go. Away. Now.


"Already, B.C. and Washington state are involved in a voluntary pilot project to develop drivers' licences that double as passports. The problem, Trew says, is "private information about Canadians will be available to Homeland Security agents in the U.S., and this is dangerous."

The same thing will happen in reverse, which might not be quite as dangerous but is still pretty scary.

"One SPP group – the North American Energy Working Group – already has almost a dozen sub-groups and expands goals regularly. It wants to see greater production at the Alberta Tar Sands project and more exports to the U.S. than 2007's 2.5 million barrels of oil a day."

Pollution, water wastage, and land rape (in the Boreal Forest, no less, which means releasing whole bunches of carbon into the atmosphere). Yeah, we need more of that. After all, there are all those Escalades and Hummers to feed!


Erm. This wasn't supposed to be a rant. I was just going to post the picture and link, honest.

Movie still from the Passchendaele Movie Photo Gallery:



Okay, now I'm off to Massachusetts, home of No Internet at the Moment. I'll be back Sunday morning.

I was feeling guilty for not posting these pics sooner, because really, I've been back to Ottawa since taking them, but now that I'm done I don't feel so guilty. This post literally took a couple of days to do, what with the uploading and resizing. Warning: This post is VERY graphic-intense. If you're on dial-up, get yourself a coffee while it loads.

( A ridiculous amount of pictures under the cut, with accompanying history lesson and more of What I Did On My Summer Vacation )

I did other stuff while I was in Ottawa, too, like go to Byward Market and walk along the quiet tree-lined streets near the University of Ottawa. I ate at a yummy Korean place that I liked so much I took scriggle there on my next trip. I found a small but awesome used bookstore on Rideau and spent a good half-hour talking to the owner about politics, Canadian and American both, and I bought a history book. Geeky fun! I loved being by myself for this trip because I could go where I wanted.

I also went to a screening of a US-made film called "New World Border" hosted by the Ottawa chapter of the Council for Canadians about undocumented workers and Bush's militarization of the border between Mexico and the US. Afterwards there was a discussion about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, and also about NAFTA and how it's affected everyone badly but big corporations.

I didn't get to go to the Museum of Civilization because it was really too hot to walk/bus there. It'll be there when I finally do get to go, so I'm not too worried.

Yay, another holiday recap instalment! Now where was I...


Oh, yeah. So I spent the night at the Comfort Inn in Trenton and then left early the next morning for Ottawa. I thought I'd find a bank first and maybe get someone to cash my cheque. The woman at the motel desk gave me directions for a local bank, but naturally I couldn't find it, so I decided to go on to the next town. Just off the exit ramp there was a CAA office, so I figured I'd try to get traveller's cheques there, since I was an AAA member and they're either the same company or do reciprocal stuff. They wouldn't do it because apparently the only way to get traveller's cheques is with cash or a debit card. I obviously didn't have either. The woman at CAA was very nice, though, and gave me directions to the Bank of Montreal in Belleville, so I went there without getting my hopes up. Good thing, too, because they couldn't help me either.

At one point I stopped at a Starbucks and tried wiring money to myself. I'd been trying to do this several times without success and I couldn't do it here either because of course they wanted me to pay for internet access (have I mentioned recently how much I really, really hate Starbucks?). I didn't have a debit card and didn't want to spend the little cash I had on something that probably wouldn't even work, so I decided to move on and try something else. I later found out that wiring money to oneself is Not Allowed by Western Union. After I got back to RI I found out that it wouldn't have worked anyway because alternate debit card I was trying to use from memory had been closed a month before even though the CSR at my bank had assured me it would stay open. Ugh.

Eventually I decided to try and get my kids to wire me money in Kingston, and after several hours I finally had enough money to last me for the next few days. I also got to eat fried cheesecake at a really nice Greek restaurant while I was waiting. I wish I'd known about the Greek place before I had the not-so-good wrap at a Pizza Pizza. But mmm, fried cheesecake.

I decided not to take the highways into Ottawa and went by the back roads. I only had to backtrack once when I took a road in the wrong direction. I'm glad I did, though, because I found a ( very pretty park on the lakeshore. )

I kept to the back roads all the way into Ottawa, up routes 15 and 7 through Black's Corners, Smith's Falls and Carleton Place. I wish I'd taken the time to get out and explore some of the little towns on the way. (next time, definitely). It got a little dusty and there was some road work, but hey, that meant it was Just Like Rhode Island!

Naturally I got lost on the way in. Here's what happened: The hostel is on Laurier St. I was all, yay! because I found Laurier St. with only minimal driving around (nowhere near as freaky as the Toronto Debacle; also I kept driving by the Parliament buildings which are so gorgeous that the first time I saw them my breath literally caught). I drove up and down the street for a while but couldn't find the right number. I finally asked at a hotel and finally figured out that not only was I on the wrong Laurier St. but I was also in the wrong city. And, um? Also the entire wrong province. You would think the fact that almost none of the street signs were in English would have clued me in to the fact that I was in Québec. How do you say *headdesk* in French?

Anyway, I had to ask directions one more time (who knew there was a Laurier St. E., and a Laurier St. W.?) and I got there late, but the guy who ran it was very understanding and even gave me a break on a better room. The facilities weren't great and the owners didn't seem to understand about not leaving random cleaning products and piles of sheetrock scraps around, but it was relatively clean and the owners were very nice. I think they're from India.

I was going to post the Ottawa pics in this post but I think I'll wait for the next which will probably go up today. They're my favourite of all and they really deserve a post of their own as opposed to just being tacked onto a long entry. Which means that yet again I'm way too wordy for, erm. Words.


ETA: I almost forgot: A belated happy birthday to omphale23, and a current one to lipsum. I wish you both joy, your fondest wishes come true, and kittens, if you so desire.

I've had the basics of this post for days. Apparently I'm going through a lazy phase. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy.

• First of all, stormymouse, I did indeed get your card and the gentlemen who came with it. You guys are the best ever. :) I'm a little afraid to try him out. I need some courage, dudes.
  
  
• Fannish meme from aukestrel, among others:
  
  ( mix-'n-match meme )
  
  
  
• Speaking of aukestrel: This thread makes me want to make a dS Tarot Deck. Like, a real one. I bet there are places online where you can put your own images on cards and things. Anyone know of one?
  
  
• mr_t00by's birthday was yesterday. He's eighteen, OMG. Yesterday we went to the Chapel as one of his presents. We stood up almost the whole time because standing room has a much better view of the field than the bleacher seats. Two national anthems, three-ish hours and thirteen runs (nine of ours, four of theirs) later the Sox had won, which means that I can hold my head up in Toronto next week. The only problem is, now the Evil Empire is in second place. eltonroo, you must throw Good Wishes at your team so they can pull back ahead of the Yankees. Just the Yankees, mind you, and after today's game. Don't go getting carried away or anything.
  
  
• Fannish Notice: scally has posted some high-quality screencaps from Murder Most Likely over here (three guesses which one is my favourite). Usually MML caps are blurry unless you make them tiny but these are sharp and clear and good-sized. scally has now taught me how to get the same results: stop the video before capping. It takes longer, but I tried it today on something else and it worked! Yay!
  
  
• Speaking of picspam, these are gorgeous:( four hi-res pictures under here )
  
  
  Oh, Martha. They're from this play which I had no idea ever existed. I really, really wish I could have seen it. I need a way-back machine. More pictures are here. Left click on "right click to download" to see the hi-res versions or, um. Right click to download. :)
  
  
• Still not have seen OotP. I was supposed to today, but the friend I was going with didn't call me and I have to work this afternoon anyway. Bleh.
  
  
• My hair is short. Like short. Maybe I'll post a picture sometime if I can have someone take one I could bear posting. I like the hair, mind you. It's just pictures of myself in general I can't stand.
  
  
• Still not sure who I'm voting for in the Democratic primary, although Dennis Kucinich is saying some interesting things about some of my top issues, like health care, NAFTA, immigration and climate change. I don't agree with his take on all of the issues but for the most part I think he makes a lot of sense. I don't think he has a huge chance of winning the primary, let alone being elected President, but boy, he makes me think. I have to look at everyone else, too; he's just the one I started with because songdog said I should. *g*
  
  
• Two cool bits of trivia I learned recently:
  
  
  • Keifer Sutherland's grandfather was Tommy Douglas.
    
  • Andrea Yeager is now an Episcopal nun.