It just gets worse for Furqan Muhammad-Haroon.

This is a textbook example of how one thing can snowball into something else.
This kid needs a slap in the head.

At almost the same time, details emerged that Muhammad-Haroon was facing charges of theft under $5,000 and was recently fired from his summer job with IBM. He was also scheduled to leave the country the day of his supposed abduction, which is not allowed for individuals facing criminal charges.

They say that personalities respond to stress differently.
They're said to have a "fight or flight" reaction to situations that are challenging.

This situation is one of those "why the hell?" things.

You get a job at IBM and you steal from them?
Like IBM is some sort of amateur operation that doesn't have security in place?
Dude, you got a job at a company that most students would be happy for the opportunity to have.

I suspect that his "flight" response was because he couldn't bring himself to tell his parents about the theft. Now, instead of quietly dealing with it as the stupid actions of an immature young person, and a family affair...now, the whole country knows what you've done.

Well done.

Curbside garbage collection, city run daycares, community centres and much of city hall will be shut down as early as next week if Toronto's indoor and outdoor workers walk off the job, city officials confirmed Wednesday.

You know, in this economic climate...this is really nauseating.
With all the lay offs and loss of jobs that I've been watching happen with our clients over the past six months...it just shows how out of touch locals 416 and 79 are with the real world.

The domino effect of the municipal workers striking will affect my workplace because we get paid through them...lucky thing we're prepared.

Speaking of prepared...I suggest that you take a walk down your street and organize waste pick up with your neighbours by sharing the cost for the duration of the strike.

Vermin and bacteria are big problems without garbage pick up....and they never strike in the winter (duh).

I'll help you get started.
Click here for a list of private waste removal companies in the GTA.

It's time to go the distance as taxpayers.

via SinPatalones

Intellectual Property Asshole Competition

via Funkaoshi

The High Cost of Poverty

You have to be rich to be poor.

That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand.

Put it another way: The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don't often explain.

I was just discussing this with a client the other day.
I won't shop at the supermarket close to my work.
I've noticed that it's more expensive than the one close to my home. The market close to my work is busier with longer line ups, and less variety of items. Which is sad considering the people living there need the savings more than the people living in my neighbourhood do.

I understand that it might be more expensive to operate because of theft and security issues...but, I can buy a loaf of bread for 1.19, while my client will pay 1.89 for the same.

I have the option to say, "no, I'll just drive to the grocery close to home"...my client doesn't drive and is toting two children around in a stroller.
To go to a cheaper market, a little further north would cost her time and frustration, as well as bus fare back and forth.

Not worth it.

...and let's not even get started on the legal Payday loan scam.

(Article found at Aloha Nico)

Beautiful People

A couple of years ago, I linked to Vice Magazine's article about a "networking" community that only allows you into their membership if you're "beautiful".

The article was kind of funny, and makes the members who were featured look a little pathetic, and shallow. The comments are outstanding...and I got a big kick out of how this community was portrayed, and made fun of by the vice community.

I ran accross it again today, and found out through this article that Slice has done a series of reality show episodes:

"Each episode delves into the world of the vain, the egotistical, and the self-obsessed. New applicants are allowed in only if they pass the beauty test. We join them on dates---will they think their date is as beautiful as they are or will they be sadly disappointed?---go to Beautiful People events, and meet the ones desperate to get into this exclusively gorgeous club. Each week we follow those who have tried (and tried again) to get membership---but keep failing."


...and then, I realized that these episodes are actually available online!

Scroll down for some shallow and vapid goodness.

Because it's entertaining to watch people who think they're more beautiful than the rest of the population go about their empty headed business of looking for other empty headed people to build some sort of facade of what they think others wish they had.

It's amusing to me.

When it comes to holding customers in seething contempt, few corporate entities do it with more blatancy than the Canadian telcos.

That's right.

thanks Funkaoshi

Victoria Beckham has a thing for Birkin bags and has spent more than 100 grand on adding to her collection. When you consider that one bag can cost up to $16,000, I guess that isn’t really much of a collection.

What purse is worth $16,000?
That's just fucking obscene.

Legal, Bureaucratic Extortion

March 24th, 2009
On a rainy March night, I make a right turn on Victoria Park and St. Clair E on an amber.
Lightning strikes, and then I realize that it wasn't lightning, but the red light camera.

April 3rd, 2009
I receive a $180 ticket for making a right turn on an amber, which turned red when I was 1.9 seconds into the intersection. Considering I've been told on numerous occasions that I should get new plates because my number isn't clear enough. My license plate number is surprisingly clear in the photo.
I decide to fight said ticket, since had I attempted to stop, I probably would have lost control of my vehicle since the conditions were wet, and my tires suck.
I have until April 8th to set a court date in person. Contrary to what it says on my ticket, I cannot make an appointment by phone. Rather obvious, since the telephone number on the ticket is manned by automated prompts that repeat the same things, with no "person" option, and with a built in disconnect if you hit "0"...HAHAHAHAHAH!!! Oh, that's hilarious!

April 8th, 2009
I decide to go to the Markham Rd office on this day because I'm rarely in Scarborough, but I would be on that day.
I take a number in a room that has people packed into it like sardines. I'm T417, and they are currently serving T009. Only 3 wickets are open, and there are 4 categories of ticket numbers. I've been to offices in the west end. I've never seen shit like this before.
I'm there for an hour and a half and they are only at T089. I realize that I only paid for an hour and a half in the parking lot, and wouldn't it be sardonic if I got a ticket trying to get a court date to fight a ticket.
I then realize that there appears to be a method to this madness.
If you cram 800 people into a small room with only 100 chairs, and 3 wickets open, and it takes an hour and a half to service 80 people...anyone who can afford it will leave, and pay the ticket...because it's just not worth it.

It's license to print money.
It's fucking genius...I tell you.

Blood Boil.

I can't tell you how insulted I am by the possibility of yet another strike.

In this economic climate, with the highest unemployment rate since the great depression, the threat is an affront to all of us.

"...the contract proposal would give teachers a 10.4 per cent salary increase over four years, and include money to hire more teachers.

School boards have already accepted the offer, but the union says it's outraged by Ms. Wynne's threats and deadlines."

Yes, the union can afford to be "outraged".
It's not them who are going to have to walk the picket lines. It's the Teachers who will lose pay while they're walking the line, even if they voted to accept the agreement.
The union is also not going to have to be in the classroom to face the parents who already feel that Teachers have it 'cushy', and are angrier with every threat to keep their children out of the classroom.
The Union forcing their members into a strike in this economic climate will only serve to further damage an already tarnished relationship between the general public and Teachers.

"The dispute between the union and the school boards appears to center more on who controls how teachers do their jobs rather than how much teachers are paid.

Mr. Clegg said earlier that school boards are pressing teachers to double the amount of time they spend supervising children outside of class time and giving principals a say in how some preparation time is used - demands not made of their high school counterparts.

The union asked for raises of between 3 to 4 per cent in the first three years, and no increase in the fourth year so the money could be used to hire 1,500 more teachers, as well as other non-monetary items.

The school boards' association argued that even without a salary increase in the fourth year, the union's request would cost it an extra $260-million in funds it doesn't have."

The bullshit line about it "not being about the money", is also an insult.
Everyone knows that time is money...and to date, I don't know of anyone who is willing to give you that time for free.

It just makes me sick.

TORONTO -- When Roger Booker realized he was an instant millionaire, he told his wife to call into work to say she won't be returning -- ever. However, he'll stay on the job.

The 41-year-old Pickering man held the third winning ticket in last month's huge $44-million Lotto 6/49 jackpot.

Ok.
I totally understand wanting to keep working.

Roger has one of those sweet jobs that pays well, with great benefits that is hard to get.

He works for Toronto Hydro.

Perhaps Roger could fight boredom by starting his own business in his area of expertise...I dunno, perhaps eventually employ a few people.

Totally none of my business (obviously), but with that kind of money in the bank (44 frickn' million) maybe Roger could be a mensch, and give that sweet Hydro job to someone who needs it so that their family can live a little better.

Just sayin'.

I've been waiting for this to happen.

If you ask me, it's about time.

A Message from the Big Three



(via YesButNoButYes)

I found this video over at Mental_floss...



...and it made me think of a couple of things.

I'm not a Halloween person, or even a big holiday person in general, but it made me think of how for some people like Jen Singer Halloween can be a pain in the ass.

Expensive, and not just in the candy way...because, well...people can be turds.

And it also reminded me of a time when I worked in a school in a very hoity toity neighbourhood. I remember those parents complaining about people from neighbourhoods that weren't so well to do, taking their kids into their neighbourhood to trick or treat.

Believe me when I tell you that these people didn't have a cash flow problem, and didn't even have to stand at the door for that matter. They had Filipino nannies to slave that for them.

They would complain to me, and I would inwardly roll my eyes, because I think it had less to do with how expensive it was, than it had to do with not wanting "those" people coming through their neighbourhood. So, when one of the veteran teachers told one of "those" parents, "Oh, big deal...so you have to give some poor kids candy for one night out of the year, boo hoo", I had to stifle a guffaw.

Perfecting the Art of Moneygrabbing

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Guests at an Israeli wedding hall can now insert a credit card into a machine at its entrance, tap in a sum and leave a gift for the bride and groom.

Because it's such a hassle dragging that box home, and sorting through all those damn cards!

In fairness though, it is pretty convenient...and I'm actually ok with it, considering the recent trend of robbing weddings. I've heard of people actually hiring security companies to guard their money boxes.
Let's face it, if your wedding is one of those giant circus weddings with 400 people, that's quite a haul of moolah.

Buying Organic

See which of the country’s (U.S.) largest food producers are behind your favorite organic snacks.

(via Waxy.org)

I stick with my belief that it's all processed, or injected unless you grow it in your own backyard.
I don't buy into the organic craze. I stick to thinking that it's just another angle to charge more for less.

More Money Than Sense:
The 'Are you $&*#^@  serious?!?' Edition



It never ceases to amaze me what people will spend money on.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't live well if they have money, but there's a point when it becomes either just damn stupid or downright obscene.

If you remember a while ago I did this entry on Bling H20...designer water with Swarovski crystals clinking around on the bottom of the bottle...I think that this falls into the 'stupid' category.

...another that falls into the stupid family of things is hiring people to do stupid shit. Like hiring a Nameologist. That's right, for $350 you can hire someone to choose a name for you or someone that you love.
$350 is just cheap enough for aspiring idiots to engage in entry level frivolous spending.

How about building a catapult in your backyard?

How about putting Lamborghini doors on your Cavalier?

Once you get to the big leagues....here is Canadian Business Magazines'

"Top 10 must haves for today's multi-million dollar homes"

Elevator car lifts? Indoor car wash? Concierge?

Just in case you wanted to know how the other side lives....

At Hardings Request.

My 407ETR bill for one red penny:




I know that it's hard to believe that what I wrote a few days ago could be true...but it is.

Banks Are Ripping Us Off!

No kidding?

Jack Layton is all in a tizzy, and the leading banks seem to be blowing him off, with the old "Oh, he's just on a socialist NDP rant".

I understand the concept of "convenience fees", but when both your home branch and the other branch ding you, totalling up to four or five bucks per transaction...that's a little greedy, no?

Well, this guy in Scotland took his bank to court for his service fees, and won by default when his bank arrogantly ignored the court order, and didn't show up.

He sent the bailiffs in to collect what was owed to him.

"Mr Purcell said: 'I think the bank was pretty shocked when the bailiffs went in. But my view is that this is exactly what they would have done to me.'"

Maybe this is what we all should do.