Warning: Do Not Ignore Hundreds of Dead Birds

Fish die by botulism, birds eat infected fish; a likely story.  The timing is a little off-putting, though.  Why can't we just admit that the grief-stricken, poor economy-shaken birds committed mass suicide?  By the way, if you live on Georgian Bay and awaken to hundreds of dead birds in your yard, don't just start cleaning them up, contact your municipality first. Something might be up.

Unrelated, I urge you to play the internet's greatest version of the game Telephone, Doodle or Die, but also to draw/say something other than a penis or a Nazi when it comes up, as well as the same for any Homestuck references.  Those are just far too common on the site.

It's ok to use your cell phones again, ppl

Because you felt so threatened by the possibility that cellular technology would be the death of us all that you actually put your phone into a safe deposit box and locked it away to prevent any electromagnetic fields from escaping and endangering your health any further, I am pleased to assure you that a new study says that we have no reason to connect cancer risk with the use of cell phones.  Until the next study proving otherwise comes out.

Sad Panda

I'm really not okay with this.

Endangered Bengal tigers among those killed after escaping from Ohio zoo

I understand, yes, the police were not trained to deal with the tigers any other way.  Surely though, there were people who were. Animal control, or, failing that, someone with more wild life expertise that the animal control people could've called.  I realize it was a critical situation.  It just seems sad and stupid and wrong for them not to have even tried to do anything other than shoot to kill.  Not to say I expect more or less from people today, but I really think this could have been handled differently, especially when 18 animals killed were part of an endangered species of about 1400 known.

But hey, as long as the human population is thriving and we're letting awful, awful people have babies without a permit.  Permits!  C'mon!  I've even coined a slogan.  "Permits: Hey, They're Better Than Genocide!" Consider it.

My New Goal

It's weird thinking that when I wrote that last blog, it was May. An entire summer has shot by us, and Jack Layton, who led the NDP to win more seats than ever before in Canadian federal elections has passed away.  Boy, was I angry (about Harper, I mean).  Truly, nothing ever changes in Canadian politics. We just expect and accept the stupid.  It is very sad about Layton, however.  I don't endorse any particular political party normally, but the guy himself had a heart and mindset that truly was for that of the people, and the incredible response of the Canadian people to his death speaks to that.

I'm not an emotional rollercoaster today, and it's probably because this hot, hot summer and working central air has left me knowingly a bit spoiled.

I've started a blog for quirky little tips that come to mind about anything under the sun, and it's called Tips from Your Mom.  (Sing its title along to "Hits from the Bong" and you'll get it, girlfriend.)  With this, I am creating a challenge for myself.  Come up with something at least slightly useful to people a minimum of once per day.  At the same time, I am challenging myself to run my thoughts off like a crazy person as usual on this, the one, the only Comma Toes Blog.  I hope you'll read and subscribe to both, and if you don't, well you're not having my babies anymore.  I promise to be less caustic, at least in 30% of the entries on this blog.  That is how much you mean to me.  Also, I am considering vlogging, if I can wrap my head around letting people see me talking to a camera without a ninja mask on.  It's something I'm not sure I'm ready for, but we internuts all have to try it before we die, else we remain in the dreaded purgatory of bland internet personalities come and gone.

And before I go, here is a picture containing a part of my cat, because after all this is Nikki Commatose's blog, and ain't no Comma Toes blog without a Rico Cat.

"I'm back, babies." - Slimebag Rico

Just when you thought feet were done washing ashore in BC...

Another foot found

Canadian Shame

Here's the thing.

Capitalism is everywhere. You knew it when you got old enough to think for yourself. You knew it when you became an adult turned 19. You know it now that you (maybe) pay your own rent/mortgage. So if you're so big on protesting, where have you been the rest of this year to spread awareness of your cause? Why are you not moving to a third-world, non-corporate country to support the less fortunate? Why are you not sewing your own clothes? Why are you buying pharmaceutical-brand toothpaste? Why are you still washing your hair??

Fact is, unless you never buy anything, (including clothing, groceries, shoes, bags, coffee, bottled water, dishrags, comforters; the list goes on) you're not protesting capitalism. You're starting shit because there are finally enough people to garner you some attention.

And if you're legitimately protesting peacefully, yeah it's weak and wimpy and whatever, but do you know anyone who takes PETA seriously? I mean, out of the people you would not shoot with eye-death-lasers on a regular day. I'd rather a peaceful protest, than one that is violent, potentially harmful to other people, and thus not taken seriously by anyone. When you act irrationally, people believe you to be irrational; no one wants to help out the irrational guy, in fact, usually, they want to either avoid him completely or knock his block off. So why would anyone want to change anything based on destructive behaviour?

Yes. There are a lot of things in our country that have to change. A billion dollars should NOT have been spent, under any circumstances, on the G20/G8 summits which have cost $30 million in their other locations. That is something to protest. Protest via bad press, protest via conversation with other intelligent people, protest by writing (and having concerned acquaintances, friends and family write) many, many letters. Protest intelligently, kids. Because breaking windows and setting cop cars on fire when there's really no reason for that really didn't illustrate any kind of point as the masses ran down the street in their brand name clothes and shoes afterward.

I certainly hope none of you own a car or cars.

Living in the epicenter of the most capitalist part of Canada might be your first problem. If you have issues, there are plenty of rural areas where you can grow and harvest your own corn, lettuce and chickens. Contribute to non-capitalist Canada and live off the fat of the land, Of Mice and Men, not the fat of OSAP, and certainly not the fat of welfare, which is paid for by all those crazy employees working for the Man.

That, would be amazing.

Floods in Hungary

Maybe less impressive if you have never been there, but since we got to explore Hungary just under two months ago in near perfect weather, I am really sad to see the amount of flooding that's happened:

• Szentendre, where we saw this adorable dog; the water along the river was a lot lower when we were there.
• We got lost in this part of north-eastern Hungary because a road was closed and a bridge was flooded out at the time. We really should have gotten pictures, because it was the only flooding we saw. Now, the flood has reached their windows.
• Budapest. From the other side of the river, you can see the Chain Bridge which is mostly in the back left of the flood picture, in my picture here, before this part of Budapest was flooded. Another shot here (not mine) is of the Parliament buildings from the Buda side, now flooded.
• More flooding in Hungary

Peter, who was nice enough to let us stay at his place and who paid for too many of our meals and activities, has said it's been raining for a month straight. This is sad news, because it is such a beautiful and interesting place.

News You Can't Use - April 12, 2010: Foxes exist in Welland

It's a really boring season for news in Welland, even when some poor guy's body washed up in the river last week.

This headline makes up for it though.

It's a blog-eat-blog world out there

There's an old wives' tale that if you have a lot of heartburn during pregnancy, your kid will come out with a full mop of hair. Well, turns out it's true. Need backup? It's true here too.

With the amount of heartburn I get on a regular, un-pregnant basis, I will probably end up with a little gorilla one day. That said, Dan, you can visit any time you want.

I Can't Believe It's a Law Firm!

Inspired by this, it occurred to me today how surprised I am that we don't just hire out child hitmen (ahem, hitpersons) to do our criminal bidding. Keeps the kids busy, their cell phone bills paid, and at no expense to their reputations! We wouldn't want to mar the names of our little future-shapers, would we?

If there is any conservative bone in my body, this one is it. The Youth Criminal Justice Act is a disgrace to Canada. When I was four years old, I knew that whether it was stealing candy, hurting someone else, or shooting them in the head, it was without a shadow of doubt wrong. If some idiotic 15 year old can't figure that out, why do we want him/her an active part of society?

While adult crime has somehow declined since the early 1990s, youth crime has remained stable and violent youth crime is actually on the rise. The actual and effective rehabilitation of these young criminals (if and when possible) is something this country needs to consider, a hell of a lot more than it needs to consider throwing these kids back on the street to keep incarceration to a minimum.

Gabbo. GABBO.

GABBO!

Lions, Monkeys, and Marijuana

This is the greatest story to hit the Welland Tribune in years. I guess I was right when I was one of 500 locals to have spotted (heh) a jaguar in the past 10 years! This needs to make international news.

Turning a blind eye to science. (See what I did there?)

A blind woman is able to see again after having a tooth and part of her cheek lining implanted in her eye. Of course, the operation has been referred to as 'disfiguring' (I guess there's no real happy medium), but given the choice, I think I'd take sight again over my own vanity. Chances are she couldn't apply makeup all that great before the surgery anyhow. There's always sunglasses.

Amazing though, isn't it? [Article here]

Fuck PETA

A man was brutally murdered and decapitated in his sleep on a Greyhound bus on his way home to his family last week; this week, PETA has chosen to exploit the incident for their own preachy cause.

Listen. Animals slaughter each other in the wild. I wonder how many political rallies PETA has had in the African savanna opposing such instinctual behaviour. I have made the conscious choice to continue to eat meat. If I didn't, I would probably be dead because I don't have the patience to check every label to see if it has the essential amount of iron and protein that I can easily get from a steak. I respect anyone who has made the decision to not eat meat or consume/use/wear animal products, and I understand their reasons without them even having to explain them to me. I just really, really enjoy meat, and whether I choose to eat it or not, the same animals are going to be made into food for human and animal consumption. (Dogs and cats eat animal products too! Animals?? Go figure!) I don't torture animals for fun in my backyard, wear leather, or poach elephants for ivory. I'm not making anything go extinct by eating meat.

But when an organization uses the brutal murder and decapitation, even cannibalism, that happened to a real family somewhere, to support their outlandish vegan cause that no one takes seriously anymore, a bit of bile rises into my throat.

I am willing to bet that Tim McLean's family is not going to go vegan because some piece-of-shit organization decided to compare their son's absolutely disturbing, horrid murder to killing a bull that was bred originally to one day make some delicious steaks.

Fuck!

In lieu of this ridiculousness, I am going to encourage everyone I know who normally eats meat to eat FIVE steaks this week, TEN hamburgers, FIFTEEN porkchops, and a shitload of chicken. I apologize to my vegetarian friends in advance, but if I were vegetarian or vegan, I would be outraged that there was such a terrible organization known worldwide for its thoughtless tactics giving such an awful name to me and the people who chose the same lifestyle as me.

Hey PETA. Cows can't read the foul things you write, and they can't understand what nonsense you're trying to convey, but people can. And that man's family gets to read about your antics and feel even worse now. Well done.

Mysteries!

Each week, something new happens so that the woman I work with who speaks only of tragedies will have something new to tell me they should reinstate the death penalty for.

Similarly, but less likely to be a contributor to the argument for the death penalty by my coworker, there might have been another foot found, this time in Washington. This mystery intrigues me, although it's probably just as simple as a bunch of people drowning and no one caring enough to report them all missing.

Not that I'll be watching, but...

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?? Worst. Olympics. EVER. Oh China, will your medals be laden with lead paint? Also, Iraq is banned now.

Killers Can Be Anyone

This guy came into my store yesterday. A little unsettling, yes.

Tomorrow marks the would-be Saturday of my 'weekend', which will be mostly filled with catching up on sleep. Ah, the life of a shift-working part-timer. How depressing. You know, to those types who still have emotions. I saw an article (in the Toronto Sun; regardless, it was an article) criticizing how people don't kiss in public nearly as much as they used to anymore. Is anyone else actually kind of happy about this?

What's Changed:

• First apartment up high
• My own curtains (was it worth the money and stress of finding them? I think so.)
• Two roommates instead of one
• Not near enough to a Tim Hortons to walk there every day, so I make all my own tea instead of buying it
• Have to pay for laundry (ew)
• No ugly green carpet
• No boxes allowed to be stored in my closet after finished unpacking (as per my new personal goal)
• 20 minute walk to/from work, thus more exercise
• Can see the lights of the city at night (beautiful!)
• Allowed to open my windows (WOW!)
• Balcony, for fresh air-getting purposes
• Concrete walls, so I hear absolutely nothing that's going on in the rest of the house (it's almost kind of creepy)
• Giant closet, although I still need more space
• Books stored on desk shelves, instead of odds and ends (I feel smart! Perhaps I shall read said books!)
• One of my angelfish died (no more fish after these last two die; I can't stands no more)
• Organized (shelves, under the bed bags so that I don't have to pull out 30 things at once to get to one box, sticky hooks to avoid punching holes in the walls)
• Survivor: ah, the tables have turned!
• TV lives in the closet for lack of space; eh, what can you do. It looks like an alcove anyway, so it's not so bad to watch it with the door open

No furniture yet, but it's coming tomorrow!

I'm on my D-Game lately. Last night, instead of partaking in fun, I opted to sleep for 10 hours before getting up for work. Glad I did. I haven't felt so refreshed in months. In fact, I could go for a good nap right now, had I not thrown my sheets in the warsh 20 minutes ago.

Here's some good news for a change.