Dumpster Diving

I haven't done it before, but I am certain there is a definite possibility near where I live. Some of you know that I live near the mall, in the area where they are very quickly building new places to waste your money at. Within the last couple of years, they have built:

• A Wal-Mart


• Krispy Kreme


• Future Shop


• Archambault


• Pier 1


• Deco Decouvertes


• ??? I forgot the name of that electronics store


• Omer Deserres


• And many more!

I find it a complete waste of space. The size of the buildings are massive, and the parking lots and traffic ensure that if you walk between these buildings, you are guaranteed to get run over by some irate gas pedal-crazy SUV driving suburban mum.

Anyway the point is that I want to try the scavenger hunting of these outlet boxes. I was inspired by this SA forum thread (which will not be accessible forever, due to the constant archiving and the paying-money-to-look-at-its-archives thing). In the thread, the divers surface booty of food, random crap that you wouldn't want even as hobos, and questionable clothing. On the other hand, when they dumpster dive, the choice of dumpster will definitely determine the quality of the haul. I would *LOVE* to find a vacuum cleaner to replace this piece of crap that my mum still insists on me hauling around.

(When I get a good picture, I'll post it here eventually. Then you'll know what I'm talking about.)

So who would like to go with me? Lil V? No, nevermind; you wouldn't be able to carry as much in your small arms, as we run away from livid hobos. Well, whoever wants to give it a shot, I'll throw in a free meal. (One that doesn't come from the dumpster.)

I am not alone!

I, among the millions of this country, am not immune to the April 30 deadline. The running joke is that there are 2 seasons here: hockey and tax. (There are probably wittier comedians out there who have already capitalized on that joke, like "we're still finishing off the 1998 playoffs," or "hurrrrrrr....")

Anyway, the point is that I am actually trying to do them earlier this year, thus keeping my brain from exploding from the frantic scribbling of hastily smudged random numbers on April 29th like all the other years. Why? ... Well, this is the first year that I actually worked (making peanuts, but whateva). Mind you, even peanuts get taxed into hell. Peanut butter hell. That gets taxed too.

The web-based program (of the same software you can buy in stores) by Intuit, Quick Tax Web, will allow you to prepare your taxes for free, provided you don't make enough money to qualify for the low income earners' discount. At least that was the case when I did my taxes through it last year. And the years before it. But now they want to charge me for making too much for the discount. :(

I talk to Felix about taxes, who has it even rougher (considering he has to do like a billion different forms more than me, living in California and all). I suggested he become a hermit in the mountains, but he shattered all my dreams when he said, "Hermits pay taxes." :(:(

A good strategy for tax time is to invest into RRSPs. Basically, you stick money away in a registered investment account (thus the money doesn't get taxed until you take it out), and never touch it again until you're close to death. (My concept of retirement is kinda screwy now.) My parents haven't always been the best of investors, but now my mum is urging me to get them to lower my tax burden (if any). So I went to the CRA's web site to figure out how much I am allowed to contribute. If you notice on that page, you can make an account to log into the site and they'll tell you how much you can use, rather than do it by hand... But in order to make an account, you need to find your income from last year's tax form. But if I had that info (which I don't because it's lost in the jungle of my room) then I wouldn't need to use the site to figure out how much I can use. GHAWFAFACXZCAAAAAARRGHHHH Oh, by the way the deadline is Wednesday which is why I'm doing my taxes this early. :(:(:(

If you are doing your own taxes, and you feel like pulling out your own teeth... don't worry, you're not alone.

STFU GRRR

Mommy inherently believes everyone is a bastard in the world, looking out for number 1.

Usually, when the school boards decide that the schools must close due to bad weather, they tell the schools to call people at home in the wee hours of the morning. The idea is that they get to everyone, like teachers, caretakers, professionals, etc. in a chain of calls. Of course, if you don't reach someone then you're supposed to get to the next person on the chain. The secretary or someone higher up calls everyone not on the chain. Like a sub. *cough*

Since nearly all the schools are fricking closed today across the province, including the one I'm working at downtown, the most sensible thing should be that someone decides to call the subs. Or at least leave a message on the school answering machine to mention that "OMG no skool" or whatnot.

The least sensible thing is to have me wake up about an hour before school, start preparing for crap, turning on the tv and radio to see that every fricking school is closed, call the school, get caught in a message loop with no one answering the phones, and have mommy proselytize that everyone is a shithead.

Thanks for making the entire world your enemy. :|

Random Stuff Day

Since I was asked to supply for a school downtown starting next Monday, I will celebrate by posting a number of odds and ends that I wanted to share with you. And by "you," I mean Little V. And everyone else. But especially Little V. :D

• Cheer up, right away! If you don't, then just keep clicking. If you don't like it then you're a heartless bastard.



• A blog I randomly stumbled upon, while searching for the elusive mp3 albums of Sesame Street Fever and the even more difficult to pin down Mickey Mouse Disco. There are a lot of other weird albums and music/tv related things downloadable on the site.



• A hard as $%@! intelligence test that claims every question is "common sense;" but like all "intelligence tests," there are a fair number of "WTF-how-the-crap-am-I-supposed-to-know-that-you-stupid-freaks." By the way, you have to make sure you type the answer exactly the way the test wants to receive it (barring capitalization), so you need to pluralize things or spell things correctly.



• Souhaku Scans, which distributes some scanlated manga titles. In particular, Yakitate!! Japan. Most recently, I read Angel Densetsu, which turns out to be so fricking hilarious that my neighbours think I escaped from the mental hospital.



• When is Yakitate!! Japan updated??? (and "Where's Naruto!?") They'll post the titles of the newest scanlated manga releases of the day, although regardless you'll have to hunt for some of them through IRC.

TV

We bought a TV today. It is indeed an adventure to lug an 86 pound irregularly shaped and weighted device in oversized box (that was quickly discarded) out of a store, into a car, out of the car and into the house. But it finally made it after such efforts, and I spent another 2 hours getting it on cable (including the Country Music channel, disappointingly enough) instead of some stupid graph of electromagnetic static or whatever it is on the channel where the weather network is supposed to be. Anyway it's fixed, and now we can all bask in its 27" inch Chinese-made glow. The picture was showing football so I photoshopped something else on the screen. 

Take the Test!

Jorghnassen's RPG Nemesis test intro image, hopefully almost finished, unless he wants something changed. 

Expected; The Usual Disappointments

I finally summoned enough courage to defeat my phone-phobia and called the school board, only to be disappointed with a resounding, "No, it didn't count because it had to be 60 consecutive work days. Bye."

Thus I am once again in the same spot as last year.

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On another note, Davy emailed that his site is back up and running, with a newer layout (but still in the works). Check out his photos!

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How many times do you call different people for various reasons before you get a panic attack and decide not to use the phone for the rest of the week? My limit's 4.