Brit Pop

Yesterday as I was uploading all my old songs to my new ipod (yay!), I rediscovered some fantastic old Brit pop songs by a group called Steps. I can't remember how long ago it was that I discovered them (maybe about 8 years?), but I would definitely put them in the category of "listen to the catchy tunes, not the lyrics".

The songs have a fun beat and are cute to prance around to, but honestly, some of them are really ridiculous. Here are my faves by song title:

1. "Experienced". About a boy who loses his virginity to an older woman aka cougar. Favourite line: "Everybody needs someone to show them how."

2. "My Best Friend's Girl". Pretty self explanatory I think. Boy falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend and they cheat on him (his best friend). Favourite line: "I know it's wrong and he's a friend, some day it's gotta end, our love has no excuse."

3. "Too Weak to Resist." You probably already have a hint about this one. In this case they're actually married, but - c'mon ladies, he's just a man. And he was too weak to resist. He cheats on her. Favourite lines (I can't pick just one): a) "But I'm just a man, and it comes down to this, I was too weak to resist". b) "I swear it was the last thing on my mind, and I found myself on my own, one too many times, Darling."

Notice how all these ridiculous songs are sung from the guy's perspective? (Steps also has girl singers but they don't sing these types of stories.)

I love Brit pop.

DOH!

Yesterday I hit my head when I opened my car door too close to it. That's never happened to me before. That I can remember. Then again, maybe I do this on a regular basis and my memory is shot due to head injury.

Ow. :(

Tidbits

As a follow up to my last post about subway newspapers...

Yesterday I saw a woman get on the subway, pick up a newspaper off the ground, and start reading it - casual as can be. Unfortunately she was standing right in front of where I was sitting and I was paranoid the entire time that part of that newspaper would touch me as she turned the pages.

On a totally unrelated note - I saw a woman in the gym changeroom yesterday blowdrying her ass. Then her crotch. Thank goodness she had underwear on. Ew.

Why you don't pick up the newspaper on the subway

I always knew that the discarded newspapers lying around on subway seats by thoughtless, inconsiderate passengers were dirty and full of germs. I just had no idea how much.

Today I was standing in front of a scruffy looking man (definitely not a business guy going to his bank job) who was seated on the TTC. He was reading the Metro and I was reading 24 (they ran out of Metros, ok?) All of a sudden he goes into a hacking coughing fit and uses the Metro to cover his mouth. OK, that's fine with me, at least he covered his mouth. The woman sitting next to him suddenly got up and walked away, and not to get off the train, I don't think. So the guy starts saying loudly "Well sorrrr-y, that's why I used the newspaper, what's your problem, etc." I decided not to move and just ignore it.

Of course, then he goes back to reading the newspaper and as he turns the pages, it brushes my fingers which are holding the pole in front of him. EW! Must remember to Purell when get to office. EW!

Then, does he not finish reading his filthy paper and lay it down on the empty seat next to him!! I mean, come on. You can't even hold on to it until you leave the train and then dump it on your own seat? It's not like this guy was carrying a whole bunch of bags with him or something. Nope, he just lays his germ-ridden garbage right on the seat next to him.

Then when a lady went to sit down on that seat, he picks up the paper - only to move it to another seat on his other side! Then the lady who wanted to sit there had to throw it on the ground. I'm glad that she did. I was so scared for her that she would pick it up and start reading it.

Let this be a lesson to all you who pick up the random newspaper lying around subway trains and read them. You never know where they've been.

Worst Board meeting ever

Today I skipped going to the Embassy for a decent beer and hang-out. Instead I decided to be responsible and take an interest in the condo corp where I live and own. I ended up attending a board meeting where:

• We didn't meet quorum, so we started 45 minutes late because the board members and management had to run around the entire building finding random owners to sign proxy statements
• 2 out of 5 board members didn't even show up until very late - one 30 minutes late - and the treasurer 1.5 hours late
• The auditor explained the financial results. What happened to ownership of the financials by management and the board?
• They could not answer basic questions like - "What is included in general expenses? Why did it exceed budget and prior year by $15,000?" When I asked what was in there, the property manager offered to give me a G/L printout. Through all of my financial questioning, the Treasurer (the guy who showed up 1.5 hours late) did not say a word.
• We nominated and approved the re-appointment of the auditor while the auditor was in the room. When the nomination was passed, everyone applauded.
• The President did not know what to say in the meeting and kept asking questions like - "Is this my script? It doesn't make sense. What do we do next?"
• They had 3 vacant Board positions and only 2 people running. They had to ask for a volunteer from the meeting for the 3rd position.
• They did not know how to run the vote. They did not know how many terms each position was re-elected for. They assumed that because there were 3 vacancies and only 3 people running, those 3 were automatically accepted in.
• The vote took 1 hour because they had to call someone to find out how to run it.
• When they announced the election results (had to choose between 3 people for 1 particular position) - they didn't just announce the winner, they announced the actual vote count for each person. The last-minute nominee got 2 votes. One of them was mine.
• We also had to vote for who would get the 3 year position vs. 2 year. They could not figure out that by putting both people's names on the one ballot, they would both get the same # of votes, so that system didn't work.
• When we finally voted - the last-minute nominee lost the 3-year position by default, since no one knew who he was before this meeting and most of the votes were by absentee proxy. So it was actually impossible to vote him in for that role.
• Sadly - the last-minute nominee (an engineer and also financially savvy) seems to be the only one who understood anything in the whole meeting. Actually - most of the members of the meeting knew how to run the election better than the Board and management did.

There's more - but you get the picture.

Those are my condo fees at work. Now I know why I have to buy a house.

Purpose

...is that little flame...that lights a fire under your ass.

What's my purpose?

Bored again

Why are things so fleeting? I may suffer from permanent boredom. With spurts of mad obsession. OCD OCD OCD OCD OCD...

Grace and Ungrace

"The world runs by ungrace. Everything depends on what I do."
"Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more... And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less."

I'm reading a book by Philip Yancey called "What's So Amazing About Grace", from which the quotes above come. I've really been struck by it because of my own growing thoughts about grace, and its presence (or lack thereof) in what I do. It's also given me a much different perspective on some classic bible stories and parables which I never understood until now.

Today I received a stark picture of the world of ungrace that we live in, from my father. We were talking about equity and inclusiveness in the workplace. My comment was that - in the Italian restaurant we were eating in - the most senior person in the kitchen was white. Everyone else was a visible minority.

That launched a lengthy discussion about the odds of success for immigrants to Canada and - more importantly - their rights to success. Working in HR at a progressive company where I hear the words "inclusiveness" and "diversity" as part of our business strategy - I was shocked that both my parents consider it perfectly normal and acceptable that immigrants are unlikely to rise as high as their white counterparts. My father vigorously argued that it's not 0% - he cited examples of immigrants who did get promoted and were high up in their organization. But when I argued that the proportion of visible minorities in high profile positions was significantly less than the total population of "qualified" visible minorities working in the company, he thought I was arguing employment equity - promotion for the undeserving purely for political face value. In his opinion, he would rather go to the doctor with the Canadian university degree, than the immigrant doctor (licensed in Canada of course) educated in some university that he's never heard of in some foreign country. (Unless it's Oxford or something prominent, of course.)

What was most troubling was that not only did he think it was natural, based on our society's values and basic human tendency (I can't argue there, that is how people naturally think) - but that that's how it should be. That it's even right. He was disturbingly accepting of it because this is "reality". And we all need to live in the real world.

The picture of my father's world of ungrace really came home to me when he made the comment that we shouldn't believe anything companies say about putting people first, or treating everyone equally, or even being environmentally friendly. According to my dad, these are all lies and bullsh*t, stated by companies because they have to in order to look like they care. But the truth is, they don't - and we all better learn to read between the lines, or we're chumps.

I sat there in shock, looking at him. And I had to ask - "What hope do you have for the future? What you just described sounds pretty hopeless to me." He had no response.

Now, I think I'm not so naive as to believe that everything companies (or people) say is 100% true. However, I'm also not so much of a pessimist/cynic (yes, not even I!) to believe that what they say is 100% false, either.

Philip Yancey describes in a few different ways, what grace looks like. The father who welcomes home the runaway daughter without a word of blame or chastising. The divorced wife of an adulterous husband who ends up comforting the second wife - the woman her husband left her for - after he cheats on her, too. Yancey also describes ungrace. Grandparents, parents, children who never speak to their loved ones again because they cannot forgive the wrongs against them. Nations at war because neither will ask for peace first. (Yancey is clear that these things are not easy, or even fair, in our human sense of justice. But they do perpetuate the cycle of ungrace.)

Today, I saw clearly my father's world of ungrace - the place he has been living in for I don't know how long. Where immigrants are always second class, because they don't have the education or cultural knowledge to do any better. And where it's OK for it to be so, because they chose to come over here where their medical degree is more useless than a taxi driver's license. A world where everyone lies and cheats, to maximize their own personal gain. And if you believe them, you're not innocent - you're just a fool. A world where if you're lucky, you get what you earn - most times, less than that. And you better work damn hard to get it, because if you don't, you don't deserve it.

My dad lives in a world where everything depends on what he does. With so little grace for himself, no wonder he has little of it for others. Our conversation has made me so much more grateful to have received God's grace in my life. I pray with all my heart that someday, grace and hope finally enter his.

Last game. Really.

1284. I hereby retire. Time to get a life.

Famous last words: "Last game."

Follow up to last post about the latest time waster...

Words that they mispronounced and screwed up my game:

What they wanted v. What they said
Grooming v. Gruelling
Skein v. Skane (OK, I admit I have no idea what that is)
Contemptuous v. Contentious
Bouncy v. Fancy (not kidding!)
Court v. Chord

Stupid British accents!

After a particularly frustrating British-accent-sabotaged game, my score was 666. How apropos. (Pronounce THAT, you British #&#$ers....it's FRENCH.)

All you other poor suckers who have fallen victim to the British accent, post your agonies here.

[Addendum: Right after I posted this I went and played again. And they wanted me to spell "apropos", but they pronounced it "AHP-pro-po" instead of "Ah-PRO-PO"! Then I died when they wanted me to spell "floor" but pronounced it "flaw". Stupid British accents!!!!]

The latest time waster

Looking for more fun ways to procrastinate and beat yourself down? Try this:

http://www.timesspellingbee.co.uk/Training/SpellingBee.aspx

My highest spelling bee score is 1077 so far. On the hard challenge, 384.