tap my glass

So speaking of starbucks, recently i’ve been getting my love on for their coffee. It is rich and flavorful, and has a wicked jolt of caffeine. I used to drink the “bold” but now i just stick with the “mild” with a bit of whole/2% milk and i’m on cloud nine for an hour+ (ok i also add sugar on the weekend).

I had quit coffee for a while towards the beginning of the summer, but now that i’ve forgotten what insanity brought me to such a decision, i’m rediscovering my love affair… i mean, having something like a hot, practically intoxicating cup of coffee to look forward to in the morning makes everything ok, and provides adequate reason to get out of bed on otherwise unpleasant mornings. Coupled with a lazy saturday or sunday morning, or even a work from home day when you have “fun” stuff to look forward to, and its a massive motivation maker.

Having said all that, most days i work in kanata. I normally float up march road north to the “high tech mecca” of ottawa, and pass by the metro (formerlly loeb) to pick up a salad for lunch. Via this route to work, there is no official starbucks. There is however an incognito starbucks within the brookstreet, but its a minor detour, parking is slow, they don’t take starbucks cards, and service is also kinda slow. When i can avoid my morning salad, my alternative and preferred route is to take terry fox and hit the starbucks at the (of all things) canadian tire gas station… wtf!!

To give a point to what would otherwise be an endless rant, why the hell isn’t there an easily accessible starbucks in the kanata north high tech area? Not ONE. We have one dedicated tim hortons, plus a tim hortons at the esso, and thats it. Every morning that tim hortons has a line up of cars and a full parking lot, and they don’t even serve coffee!!! (ok some of you may call it coffee, i would have to call it a pseudo-coffee flavoured drink – it does NOT taste like coffee). If i ever loose my job and can strap together some capital, i’m going head to head with those mofo’s and opening my own starbucks in kanatas high tech area, where everyone is friendly and smiling, and we serve wicked product at a fair price. Not only that but we’d have lots of comfy chairs, some seating outside, and all the wifi you could get at so when you need to take a break from constant interruptions at work, you could settle down with liquid pleasure and actually get some work done.

What about this spot right here? (PS – Yay google street view!!! This is the absolute extent of it though, it doesn’t seem to work any further up march).

One note – i would definitely opt for a bridgehead instead, but they should probably keep their exclusive edge and stay in hip neighborhoods, starbucks obviously has no such exclusivity principals… or do they?

I really enjoy going running tuesday mornings as its a good opportunity to spy on what other folks are tossing out in their recycling. Normally all i’m curious about is who’s getting gluten free pizza, or how there is just as much soy milk being recycled as their is normal milk (i admit, this is all mostly a product of running through the glebe).

However this morning during my run all i could oogle at is how many ottawa citizens were in the paper recycling. All the bins appeared to be FILLED with ottawa citizens, dwarfing any insight into new gluten free pizza joints. I am also victim of this, as i guess the citizen is doing some promotion where they are giving it away free for two weeks (at least in centertown and the glebe).

Assuming they don’t already, i think the citizen (and all newspapers for that matter) should pay some sort of tax or kickback to the city to help pay for increased recycling costs. I don’t think its fair that all they need to do is pay to have their product PRODUCED, but its the city and our taxes that have to pay to throw it out, something we didn’t even solicit. Again, perhaps they do already, so hopefully someone can educate my ignorance if thats the case.

I don’t think newspapers are useless, and occasionally enjoy them myself. Every once in a while i enjoy leafing through one over breakfast or a coffee, but maybe only once or twice a year. I’m definitely of the “new media” mind in that i can find all the sources i care about online, can read them on my computer or phone, and don’t need to print anything to access it. Newspapers days are likely numbered as we all know – i think the best way to deal with it is to raise their prices and turn them into a premium product – when i want to read the paper i would gladly pay 5 or 6 bux for it as opposed to less than the price of a tall mild from starbucks (which i’ve been enjoying a lot lately). I think anyone in the news or that does enjoy or need to read the paper on a daily basis could likely afford to pay a few bux more for all the content contained within. That, and the cost really should include some of “total” costs for creation and disposal of the paper, i can’t imagine that <2$ per paper is cutting it (again, i could be very wrong here).

One other thing that bugs me about the citizen is that they released an article a few weeks ago about how they’re going to have this great new mobile frontend – still haven’t seen it. I actually think their current interface is fine on my iPhone, i just don’t like hearing about something new then not actually seeing it or hearing anything about it ever again. What gives citizen??

Summer is here!! It feels like this summer will never end, this heat and this sweat. I love it, and hope it never does!!

I stopped in at the lcbo after work tonight and picked up a bill and a half’s worth of booze. Mostly white wine (the white henry of phelam sibling rivalry is quite nice, 2 bottles), some bacardi rum (for mojitos of course!), a few stellas and some strongbow. Since the lcbo might be striking tomorrow night, i don’t want to take any chances of a dry canada day. There is always hull/gatineau, but i figure i might as well get it here while i can. I urge you to do the same!

Now i’m out on the side patio, which i’ve been spending a lot of time on recently, drinking a beer, cooking some spontaneous meat and doing the first blog entry in many moons. I’ve been quite busy, but a very good busy.

The spontaneous meat is from “Olympia Market Center” on gladstone. The place gives me the creeps but i’m comitted to give it a few more chances as it is so close to my house. The guy in there is creepy, but if you know what you want i’m sure he can help you out. I didn’t know what i wanted, but ended up leaving with a few small lamb chops which i’m sure will be tasty once cooked. For under 4$, you can’t really go wrong. If anyone else goes to this place, please share your tips as to whats good, and whats a goiter.

I ran the half marathon a few weeks back, and am now actually still excercising which is very unusual – normally i just give up and start training again in the new year. Not this year!! I’m also doing yoga a few times a week… its on my own, but its better than nothing. I’m definitely healthier than i’ve been… well probably ever!

Happy summer to all!! Get the hell outside (if you’re not outside already )!!!

I missed out on the Leonard Cohen tickets going up yesterday… and now its too late. The cheapest they’re available in the “marketplace” is 200$ per ticket, and those are quickly going to disappear. I’ll keep my eyes peeled over the next couple of months, but i’m skeptical.

If only i was more on the ball, but my lazy preoccupied ass was not this time, nowhere near the ball… if any of you out there happen to have tickets, and go see him, and love it, try not to rub it in too much, i’m afraid i’ll cry.

Dost dangers lie.
Our strike be over and not a day shy.
While it brought me passion,
And brought others pain,
I can’t help but wonder,
When it will happen again.

Damn pigheadedness!!! To paraphrase that andre guy – “I would’ve preferred the city come around and accepted our deal. We brought a deal to the table. It was a fair deal.” WTF!!! Does the guy even realize what he’s saying and the ridiculous irony and bias he’s buried in talking about FAIR!!! HA!!! I wish people in general would take a more honest and fair approach with the world, it would win me over at least… i guess thats not the point though, and that would be counterproductive for them. But then at least i’d have a better view of humanity!!!

SELFISHED!!!

In other news i now have my google calendar on my iphone. The gdp may be down 0.7% but my happinness is up WAY% and thats all selfished ole me cares about right now!!!

So NO is how our beloved drivers voted. They voted no to show “solidarity” and tell the city that its not about the money, its about the scheduling. So basically they said “this scheduling detail is big enough for us to NOT work and we think its worth holding the city hostage for”. Negotiation? Bargaining? Its a frickin JOB, either take it, or don’t!!!@%!

It seems an awful lot like a monopoly system to me, the type of system most courts and governments try hard to protect their citizens from. Does the union/octranspo have exclusive rights to drive buses in our area? Can’t we open this up for negotiation to get some more efficient entity in place, one that won’t hold our city hostage? I understand the logistics/training/infrastructure of such a deal probably make it impossible to continue such an avenue right now, but what if this goes on for a few more months? What if the city cannot realistically give the union what it wants and needs to find cheaper or more reasonable workers? I just can’t see the fairness in “bargaining” for a contract for a job when a city is on hold while we wait… This whole union business seems SO dated, and its about time to scrap the overhead and counter productiveness they cause (or to cripple their ability to do so)… AHH!!!! Maybe if i was more educated in labour relations i’d have a better handle on this, but i’m not, so i’m voting to rant instead!!! I guess binding arbitration or something of the order needs to happen fast, but fuck this all seems so so expensive!!!

I do think the 64% vs 75% nonsense is silly. CBC pointed out that 75% of voters that turned up to vote voted NO, while the SUN reported 64% of total voters voted NO. The discrepancy is in the 300 or so voters that did not vote. The use of the 64% does not reflect well on our mayor and how what he interprets the strength of ottawas collective intellect to be, although i’d probably do the same thing.

I heard one 20+ year vet of octranspo speak on CBC radio this morning. I can’t remember the exact word he used, but it was similar to “elated” to hear that his union voted NO. He was in amazingly high spirits. SO HAPPY to not be working and to be fucking a whole city over!! Are THESE the types of people we want to be driving us around!!! SO WRAPPED UP in their own shit that they can’t see all the people being affected by this!! Ugg, i guess the same could be said to the city in that why don’t they just offer them what they want to get back to work… the problem there is I pay the fucking taxes and want a more fiscally responsible bureaucatorship to stick it to our payed workers to ensure my money is being well spent! When i see them playing hardball, i tend to agree with it (naively assuming they’re trying to save money).

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!&**&(@)*$(*@()*$()!~~!!!

I was cut off VERY rudely this morning and honked my horn. It was one of those cut offs where i was in one spot, and someone behind me basically jumped the line because they were more agro. They then sat in front of me for about 2 minutes blocking traffic. I was baffled, honked for about 5 seconds, but then stopped leaning. As soon as traffic cleared and they sped away i was left to fester on my lack of aggressiveness and wonder why i didn’t lean on my horn for the 2 minutes i sat there. Now that i’ve had time to reflect i’m glad i didn’t, because all the other folks surrounding didn’t want to hear a horn for 2 minutes, and i’m glad i didn’t damper their friday’s too much. However, that one dude deserves a whole world of pain, and are likely simply in one if they are so selfish to think that they can ruin a whole group of peoples morning to give themselves an extra few minutes to bitch about the traffic. Likely a very sad oaf (thank goodness i’m not one of those!!! .

Happy friday!!!

At 160 Elgin there is no button in the elevator to get the 16th floor. I find this very intriguing. I have in fact heard of the secret real world way to get there, but i’m going to forget about it and hope that the real way is something like is done in being john malkovich.

If you ever have to go to 160 Elgin, i encourage you to go the the 16th floor. It may shock and appall you!!!

I’ve decided to refuse any and all plan invitations this weekend.  Nothing will be planned.  This means i have nothing to do, and nothing is expected of me.  There are some things i *may* do, but only if whimsicality guides me in that direction.  Hence things i’m going to do this weekend:

1. Refuse offers of things to do
2. Ensure i don’t plan on doing anything
3. Annoy people with my frivolity

So i’m not planning on going to go to art in the park, or finish my kitchen, or play wii, or laze around.  Its going to be super!!!

Just stumbling over to the ottawa real estate site this morning, it seems a major change has occurred.  They are now listing the LOCATION of every house being listed!!!  Not sure what’s up here, but it was the major reason i had an agent before…  they’d help me actually locate the listings i was interested in.

I don’t think ottawa agents will like this very much.  I actually don’t think sellers will like this very much as it’s far easier to spot fake gems, like this place – great looking house, shite location.

Tags: ottawahousing

So this morning, i was greeted with a missing car and a parking ticket.  Totally my bad.  55$ because one of our cars was parked on the street, and of course (i should know!), street sweeping was in full force.  The car was moved about a block away, with a 55$ ticket attached.  Not the end of the world, totally my bad.

After i brought the car back, i went for more running.  On my way back, this time at the dead end planters of clemow ave. just east of bank, i found another John’s Sweeping truck parked and running.  I think there may have been a reason it was idling – there was a worker wielding a hose attacked to the truck, and blasting snow and ice with water.  Hence, its possible the truck was idling to charge a compressor or something, in order to facilitate pressure/heat/etc..

I may be very wrong, but this is how this looks to me – burning gas on a truck, to pressurize water stored and trucked around in its tank, to blast ice that will easily thaw on its own, to then clean the streets with the truck that is burning gas.  Does this strike anyone else as ridiculously counter productive and so anti-green it makes me want to vomit?

I don’t want to see anyone loose their job’s, or get in trouble, or anything, but things have to change, and in my opinion, the city should start with stuff like this.  Just like i’d be more than happy to shovel my sidewalk in the winter to save a few bux, i would LOVE to save a buck or 2 (or not even!) and sweep my own road.  I’d even pay the bylaw charge for not sweeping my own road!!!!

Tags: ottawa