Raccoons got into the garage. We put our garbage out there awaiting trash day. I exhort everyone in this house that any kind of food or kitchen garbage *must* go into the closed metal cans. But at least twice a year, I have to go out there and pick through and shovel up all the weeks-old rotting filth (pick up day is only every second week, and we sometimes make more than we're allowed to get rid of, and once it's all in black bags, it's hard to keep straight what's waited for how long--part of the reason for my attempt at strict segregation). Because yes, it's my job. It's a filth thing, so it's always my job. Me, the one who *didn't* make the mess, or set the bait for the raccoon, the one who knows exactly what to do so that this won't happen. Now I have to find more ways to wedge the big door shut, because even if this is basically cleaned up, they've learned to come here, and it still smells like food.

My wife works for a bank, one of the "big" Canadian banks.

She mentioned to me today that they have a new thing going, where they want you (as an employee) to wear a thing, because they've partnered with a fitness company/app and they'll measure your heart rate, etc etc.

No one was using it, so they started saying "please use it, we'll give you points toward that thing we do where you can earn *stuff*".

She hadn't even finished her story, and I jumped in saying, "okay, why do they want your biometrics *so bad* that they're willing to throw good money after bad to get them?" (See, they will have exchanged money with whatever company is behind this, and since it's not working out as expected--because they're morons!--instead of dropping it, they're going to spend *more* money to get the data their new partner wanted out of it. WHY?!)

Something is very wrong in the state of (wherever we are today).

Why was blue ink such a big thing in the--I don't know, '70s '80s '90s? Almost every pen you encountered anywhere during those years was a blue pen. Now, almost every pen is black. Was it a matter of the cost of ingredients? Fashion trend?

Dear game devs: Even if I've enjoyed the hell out of your game for 50 hours, if you suddenly turn on PvP without giving me any option to turn it off or avoid it? I'll delete your game instantly. That's total bullshit, and it needs to stop. It's a *completely* different game experience, and some people don't want it--give us the choice, or at least warn about it up front.

Spring in southern Ontario. Where you open the windows in the evening to enjoy the breeze, and thus can hear the hockey sticks on the pavement outside.

Hey, even *I* sometimes pay attention come playoff time. ;)

I wish I could just be an actual introvert or an extrovert, one or the other. Seems like either would be so easy, by comparison.

As the old joke goes,

Every day, a man goes to a newsstand. He checks the front page of the paper, grunts in disappointment, and leaves.

Eventually, the newsagent says, "man, what are you looking for?"

"An obituary."

"Sir, they don't print those on the front page."

"The one I'm waiting for, they will."