Conceited Jerk Dot Com

 It's been a day. I've just spent nine-and-a-half hours at work, dealing with network and ERP/Service issues stemming from what media outlets are calling the Largest IT Outage in History© (they certainly like their hyperbole, don't they?).  The crap started the second I walked into the office, and the day got progressively worse from that point on.  Suffice it to say, I'm in a bad mood. "And what does CJ do when he's in a bad mood?" you may ask. What do you think I do?  I act like a petulant teenager!  I break out the most obnoxious, mean-spirited music I can find, and crank the volume. ... aaaand what was the most obnoxious song I could think of? Have a listen! With apologies to the people who were stuck in traffic on Roblin with me I don't listen to Fear very often, as their music has a tendency to turn me into an unrepentant jerk if I listen to them for too long.   Have a good weekend, folks.

I changed the site's theme, which will hopefully make it easier to read.  I admit I liked the previous theme, but my two remaining readers complained it was hard to follow, so I changed it.  Gotta listen to your audience, I suppose.  I also unhid a couple of previously hidden blog posts... can't remember for the life of me why they were hidden, but here they are, freshly exposed to the light.  In site news, I have a new installment of the (n)ever-popular Never Let Your Magazine Run Dry series in the works, which I'm hoping to finish (start) by the end of next week.  I'm also working on another concept of limited appeal which I hope to trot out next month.  So, yeah, work continues on the blog I won't let die. In local news, John Dobbin has a great piece on his blog concerning the closure of the RnR Restaurant on Portage Ave.  This is relevant to my interests, as that location was my family's favourite breakfast spot for the past couple of years.  It's

 I've been hearing the phrase " Not my circus, not my monkeys " a lot recently, especially at work. I would like to remind the folks who like to trot out this little absolution of a few things: 1.  Some monkeys have a habit of throwing their shit. 2.  Shit hits fans. 3.  The shit hitting the fan will not be evenly distributed. 4.  In some less-reputable circuses, the monkeys may not receive appropriate care. 5.  Those monkeys might have fleas. 6.  Fleas get everywhere. So, regardless of whether or not it's your circus or monkeys, you're still in the audience.

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all (both?) my readers! We're two weeks into 2024 and, I gotta tell you, it's been a mixed bag so far.  Apart from my usual bonecrushing, soul-destroying work stress, poor Astrid had bronchitis over her Christmas holidays... which kept her in bed for nearly a week (ever see a ten year old sleep til noon on Christmas day?).  Bronchitis and RSV have been running rampant through local schools this winter, and Astrid was not spared.  When her cough outlasted her medication, we took her to the doctor... where she was diagnosed with Asthma, just like her mom and maternal grandmother. Rachel and I somehow managed to stay healthy throughout it all, even after movie nights at the school, Holiday concerts, and so on.  Small miracles, I guess... Work's been rough.  My big project of 2023 has been implemented, and we're now dealing with several issues that have arisen since going live.  The majority of these are due to edge-case scena

I haven't done one of these in a while, so... I've never been a huge Siouxsie and the Banshees fan.  In fact, until recently, I'd be hard pressed to name any of their songs beside "Christine".  I knew one of their songs was on the soundtrack to Batman Returns, and only then because Siouxsie Sioux was rolling around in a catsuit in the accompanying video... never did catch the song's title... But anyway, over the summer, I discovered one of their other songs, Cities in Dust, on Youtube and fell in love with Siouxsie' voice.  I loved the song even more when I realized it was about the destruction of Pompeii! Without further ado, here is Cities in Dust: Oh, your city lies in duu-uuuuuuust, my friend... Enjoy. I'll be back at some point, wherein I'll write about something.

Alright, alright, that's enough of that. Stop clutching your pearls over Meta's refusal to carry Canadian News, frankly it's one less reason to use Facebook or Instagram.  Download an RSS reader for your favourite operating system, and subscribe to your local Canadian news feeds supplied below: CTV News:   https://www.ctvnews.ca/more/rss-feeds-for-ctv-news Global News:   https://globalnews.ca/pages/feeds/ CBC News:  https://www.cbc.ca/rss/ Winnipeg Free Press (paywall):   https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/alerts APTN's News Brief Podcasts:   https://aptnnews.libsyn.com/rss The Globe and Mail:   https://globeandmail.my.site.com/helpcentre/s/article/New-RSS-feed-URL-structure-introduced and here's a few more: https://rss.feedspot.com/canadian_news_rss_feeds/ You're welcome. RSS apps are even available for mobile devices (NetNewsWire on iOS pictured)