Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Ah, the makers of drugs must really get a kick out of their side effects. Even more so, their intended effects, such as “gas with oily spotting“. Alli sounds like a fun time, eh?

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I came across this delightful article while reading in a lawyer’s waiting room. Tomorrow I give him a mitt full of cashola just for some paperwork and advice. But it will be worth it :-)

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Yesterday while living the office life, I decided it was time to shred the papers that were piling up. I had about 40 to destroy, and I knew where a shredder was in a back room. I wandered over to it in the room by myself, and chose about 10 pages to make up the first pile to get sucked into the grinders. I overestimated the shredder’s hunger for paper; grossly overestimated it in fact.

The gears whined to a halt as the paper skewed to the right side. I turned it off, and tried to reverse it. Same noise, and pulling the paper out didn’t help. At that point someone else came into the room to find the source of the noise, and started offering advice on how to remove the paper jam. I opened the drawer, and they reminded me [unnecessarily] that I should unplug the machine before putting my hand under it.

I went over to the plug on the other side of a table while they looked on and fretted about the jam. I reached down and gave a gentle pull on the plug, but it didn’t budge on one side. I bent down further, remarking how stuck the cord seemed to be, and made sure to pull straight out so as to not bend the pins. The plug came out — minus a prong, which was still in the wall outlet!

I sheepishly held up the cord of the now royally broken and jammed shredder for the coworker to see, and they gasped. I explained the cord was easy to fix for cheap, and even I could do it. They naturally questioned the wisdom of having the person who broke the shredder, also attempt to fix it. “What if there’s a fire?” was one of the well intentioned, yet unhelpful remarks I think.

It was at this point that my supervisor happened to come into the room with the shredder, and witnessed the dead shredder with me hovering over it, pulling out bits of half eaten sheets. He reminisced about a time a coworker of his tried to unjam a paper shredder only to get their tie caught in the grinder. “Did they survive,” I asked? “They didn’t live through it,” my boss deadpanned. “Don’t you mean he didn’t live it down?” I quipped. “Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

Then they started joking about Saskboy trying to shred a phone book. We laughed our butts off.

REGINA, SK - August 28, 2008

Last night’s historic election where the Rhinoceros Party of Canada claimed 160 seats in Parliament will have me smiling for a while. Not only did the Conservatives and Liberals (and NDP and Bloc) {and Communists, CAP, MLP, PCs, etc…} go down in defeat, the Greens picked up their first seats and will be included in the next televised debates because of that. Surely our Rhino government won’t last long, despite it being a majority, and when the dust clears the Greens will pick up many more seats next time.

Maybe I’m deluding myself though. It’s not hard to do after everything you could count on in politics, including voter apathy, seems to have turned out wrong this week.

Canada’s Prime Minister elect Brian Salmi said it best, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” But he said it with less stuttering than in the original [song].

Greg is having trouble coming to terms with the future Canada holds.

This is a very cool idea, and I found out about it through an email list at the University of Regina. You can use a car, but not “own” one. And you don’t have to rent either.

Carsharing.net

REGINA, SK - August 27, 2008

Canada had better be confident in the ability of average people, because a party of relative unknowns has just come to power tonight.

In a staggering display of actual democracy, a large percentage of voters resoundingly defeated the majority of incumbent politicians, and in tossing them out on their butts they chose perhaps the only party that everyone could agree upon: The Rhinocerous Party of Canada. Geeze, I can’t spell Rhinoceros Party correctly, yet they are the New Government of Canada. Try that one on for size Old Government of Canada (AKA Conservative Party of Canada). Shouldn’t a Canadian party spell rhinoceros with a ‘u’? Maybe it’s Latin.

If you haven’t caught up on the Rhino Party’s platform, I think you’re in for a shock if you don’t have a sense of humour. I wonder if Americans and Chinese governments have a sense of humour, and don’t try to take advantage of our fledgling politicians. Although, given MacKay and Harper’s fawning over Deep Integration with the States and Mexico, I don’t suppose the Rhinos will do any worse in protecting our sovereignty.

I always knew that if people realized they could have change by voting if they ACTUALLY VOTED IN LARGE NUMBERS, then we’d see something like this happen. I just wonder at what point the public started to care about the direction of our country. Maybe it was when they realized that no one really benefits from dirty air or water, or saw that we had the resources to give everyone a good roof over their head; which are things that poor political organization has denied millions of Canadians since Confederation. Whatever it was, I wonder what Tuesday will be like…

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Already, some Conservatives are reduced practically to tears.

CalgaryGrit, like most Canadians tonight, is next to speechless too. I wonder if Brian Salmi [the Rhino leader] prepared a victory speech. Or if he even has a podium!

REGINA, SK - August 27, 2008

Despite the otherwise odd results of tonight’s election where the Rhinos have been cleaning up, I’m holding out hope for a functional parliament because the Green Party’s star candidate and leader Elizabeth May has just been declared the winner in Central-Nova. If Harper’s Conservatives hadn’t already been dealt a staggering blow tonight by Brian Salmi, then May’s win over Minister MacKay would surely be devastating.

I know of a certain Blogging Tory who is going to have the prettiest toe nails in Canada.

Chuckercanuck said…

May in Central Nova? I will get a pedicure and paint my toe nails lime, enviro-green if that happens.

- Sunday, August 26, 2008 11:03:00 PM

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More on the election results are available on James’ excellent live-blogging of the historic event.

CalgaryGrit is in on the live blogging too.

Amazing that the Rhino Party website hasn’t crashed under the no doubt massive load as the world looks on in disbelief.

REGINA, SK - August 27, 2008

I go away from my TV/computer for a short nap after a long day, and it looks like the media is playing the biggest practical joke on us since War of the Worlds! The Rhino Party is charging towards becoming the official opposition in Canada’s government!

As I write this, they have 14 seats confirmed, just one behind the Liberals. I’m starting to wonder if the grumblings I heard from people through the campaign were more than just grumbles. Maybe our disenfranchised non-voters have turned out to the polls, and all gone with the most unlikely choice on the ballot.

If were were using Diebold election machines I’d know that someone hacked the vote, but from the looks of things, we have a legitimate Rhino underdog bullfight going on tonight.
CalgraryGrit is one of the other bloggers rightfully stunned by this odd development in Canadian politics.

Little Mosque filming 2nd season in Saskatchewan
Last Updated: Monday, August 27, 2007 | 2:19 PM CT

“Little Mosque on the Prairie will be aired in a number of other countries this year, including France, Switzerland and Africa.”

Our public broadcaster does us proud again. Redefining the shape of global politics with the stroke of a pen; which is of course part of Africa’s history anyhow.

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UPDATE:
Last Updated: Monday, August 27, 2007 | 2:19 PM CT

“Little Mosque on the Prairie will be aired in a number of other markets this year, including France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland and Africa.”

It’s very strange they didn’t admit when they last updated the page!

If you haven’t already been to vote in today’s Canadian General Election of 2008, then this is my last chance to appeal to your sense of change, and vote for the Green Party. I’m glad I went to an advance poll, because going to vote today looks like a tough task. James Bow is reporting long line ups in Toronto too.

Polls close in just a few hours, so be sure to get your vote in on time. I know most of my readers are already politically conscious, but try to encourage your less enthusiastic friends to use their democratic weight. And even if you can’t get them to vote for a Green, surely some other party will appeal to them. If they hate politics, why not tell them about a joke party like the Rhinos who are surely on the ballot. If we all bring one person who didn’t vote last time, then we may have voter participation up where a healthy free country ought to be.