01:36 - 24.04.07
cancelled
I started cancelling some of the non-essential services I have had for use in my home today. I topped up my bill payments to make certain I had nothing owing before I started. Credit rating issues to protect and just fair treatment of the business. Some services, like the cable, I have had for almost as long as I have lived in this home. However, there hasn't been enough response in the job search area in the past six weeks for me to take risks with my debt load, which is already much higher than I am comfortable carrying. What bills/services don't pay for essentials, have to go. What I learned is that it takes a lot more time to cancel a service than to sign up for one. No surprise, I guess. The cable person was very kind. The company has a six month reactivation period where hook up fees are about half of what a new customer would pay. I'm not very happy with my current internet provider, so maybe there can be a consolidation of costs down the road when I can afford to reconnect - a bundled service. I pondered stopping the internet connection now, but a lot of businesses won't accept resumes except on-line. In addition, some businesses see an applicant as less capable if a home internet connection isn't available. As usual, poverty is recast so that a person is deemed as less able or willing, when that isn't the case at all. I factored in the cost of bus tickets to get to a public library to use one of their units, plus the time travelling and waiting for a terminal to become available, plus the lack of privacy or security of one's information and just couldn't see my way clear to cancel yet. I will have to revisit that choice, if something work-like doesn't come available soon though.
You see a couple of government initiatives have really cooled down the job market here. I mentioned last week that a lot of postings now being sent to me are for other provinces or countries. One reason for the cooling off has to do with significant changes to securities regulations and the other with a review of royalties and taxes that the one major industry pays to our provincial government. The first thing that one industry does when they aren't happy with government actions is to stop all hiring and then start letting go it's consultant/contract workers as well. That group of workers accounts for at least one third of their workforce. There is then a trickle down unemployment effect in all the service industries that are connected to that major industry. I've mentioned that bargaining tactic before, when that industry did the same a few years back. They hold their workers hostage to any changes in their bottom line. That way neither they nor the government take any direct hits since their negotiating tactics aren't readily visible to the rest of the community or the media. The only people who really pay during their negotiations are the displaced workers and their families.
One of the other services I cancelled took about half a day to even find the process for opting out. It was buried deep on their website. I'm not certain how long that will take, since they sent back an automated e-mail stating that their response time would be a minimum of two days. Whatever. The one service I had been going to keep - one of the newspapers - on the weekend ran such an offensive column about a major incident of violence that it helped me decide not to pay for it any more. I was kept on hold for nearly an hour, then that agent tried to talk me out of cancelling. He offered me a reduced rate and other financial incentives that were very tempting, but I told him that the only thing that would satisfy me was if the columnist who wrote the offensive piece wrote another column that addressed the issue he had been assigned to cover, rather than using it as an opportunity to bash identifiable groups he didn't like. I pointed out that some of the language was so strong, that it was almost an incitement to hate. How does that address the issue of violence. Rather it entrenches and extends the violence even more. Irresponsible and not worthy of any true news media. When I first skimmed the article, I couldn't believe it was even in print. My reaction was so strong that I had to put down the paper completely. It was a day before I had calmed down enough to pick the publication back up and it was the start of the migraine that plagued me for the rest of the weekend. I suspect that it was at least part of the reason for those bizarre dreams I described in my post to you yesterday. Hummph, and now I'll get off my high horse. The agent stated that they would e-mail the columnist with my request, but not to hold my breath. No problem. I've made my point in the only language that seems to matter any more. Their bottom line. Oh well.
My youngest and I watched a few of the trailers coming out just now for some of the early summer movies. I've been looking forward to the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The trailer was very entertaining. My son wanted to check out the Spiderman 3 movie as well. That might have been hyped for him in that the Comic Book exhibition is due to run this coming Sunday. It will feature a number of famous faces, as well as illustrators and animators in the process. My youngest was hoping he could persuade his oldest brother to take enough of a break from his two jobs to join him that day. It is a passion that the two of them share.
I was able to break down and get rid a lot of empty cardboard boxes, after sifting through their contents, today. That felt good - freeing up more space and getting rid of another layer of old memories. Frees up the mind too, I think. Making space for something new to come into being. I found an old step stool I'd forgotten I had in the process. Now I won't have to drag a chair into the kitchen every time I need to reach something from the top two shelves in there. I wish the people who design kitchens would take in to account the height of the people usually works in there - those of us mostly under six feet tall, y'all. Those top two shelves are basically wasted space for me, as are the cupboards where one nearly has to climb inside to reach stuff stored at the back. Bleagh. When my sons pull all the rest of those cupboards out, I can install the pantries I bought just before the last election to replace them. That one small change will allow me to see and reach everything contained within them. Much better and efficient use of limited space.
As for dream time: the one that I recall from last night seemed to be of a bicycling tour with a group of friends. We were travelling along the west coast of North America. In waking hours I find sitting on the saddle of a bicycle almost unbearable after only a short period of time, so it isn't something I would choose to do while conscious. In that dream we cycled for most of the daylight hours. Dreaming, I was having a wonderful time with the friends I had with me. The scenery was exquisite on those narrow ocean byways. At night we camped on the shore, in campgrounds that featured clean fresh air and roaring driftwood fires. Our only problem was that some idiot kept tossing old transistor radios that they had converted into small bombs into our midst each time we stopped for a break. When we reached Seattle - a part I don't recall ever seeing - we checked into some quaint but beautiful cabins. Two-storied with very comfortable rooms to stay in, indeed. We were afraid of the harasser, but hoped they wouldn't be able to find us. My sons and I had unpacked and were looking for a map of the transit system, when the bomber threw another converted radio into the place we were staying. We were all taking cover and hiding, but we managed to toss it back at him so that it fell into the knapsack he was carrying. He wasn't that badly injured, but the burns he received identified him for who he was when he showed up at a medical facility for treatment, I guess. I think the ensuing explosion might have helped the police catch him, because he didn't bother us again. Next day we headed off for Vancouver and then Victoria on Vancouver Island. Safe at last. Good night dear diary, I guess as in this science article on cosmic rays, I'll dream about the influence they have on humans - somewhat the same as what must apply when planetary rays exert influence, eh?
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