Let me preface this post by saying that if there is one thing that can make being late for work anything less than frustrating..it is when you are late BUT your supervisor and boss are both later than you are.
Traffic sucks. It really does. It slows you down to the point where you are lucky if you get where you want to be before you are actually late. I am not saying anything new here. I am not re-inventing the wheel. Nobody likes traffic.
What I am saying is that there is a scale of traffic frustration that must be dragged kicking and screaming into the light...and beaten soundly.
So... imagine that you are on your way to work. You didn't sleep in or hit the snooze button once too many times. You didn't dawdle over breakfast, or sit too long in the bathroom reading when you should have been leaving. You left on time, didn't turn off for a coffee or anything... you are acting responsibly and yet... you are about to be late for work. You are about to risk your job for a reason beyond your control.
So -reasons for traffic.
Weather- The weather often has a way of messing with visibility or making driving conditions less than optimal..leading to accidents, mechanical issues and FEAR.
Accident(s) - Sh@t happens. Someone wasn't paying attention, or going too fast or just unlucky and crunched his of her wheels, blocking a lane or two in the process. Everyone in that lane is going to have to go around them until a towtruck can arrive to get the car out of the way. As it stands... it is not horrible, but there are complications -and those,..well...
Stalls and mechanical issues - Very much like accidents, but usually you can't inflict blame on the person for innatention. Complications also apply here.
Construction- like accidents and mechanical issues, they mess up traffic because they tend to close lanes, force people to go around or deviate onto unknown routes. The latter also slows people down because they get people lost...which will slow them down (see Fear)
FEAR - Some people just cannot drive in less than optimal conditions, and sometimes, not even then. These are the people who should stay off the road most of the time. They are the types who brake early, often and without particular reason. This kind of randomness makes other drivers nervous and overly cautious and causes an overall slowdown and traffic. I call this invisible traffic. You cannot see the cause of it - there is no warning and no way of stopping it beyond getting the fearful driver off of the road.
Rubbernecking- This is one of those complications from accidents and stalls. Drivers passing by an accident or a stall HAVE to slow down and take a look for themselves. They HAVE to see if there is any blood. They HAVE to see the damaged car. Why? Because when they get to wherever they are going, they HAVE to tell everyone about it and those people will want details! **This is made far worst thanks to social media. The audiences are MUCH bigger than they ever were before Facebook and Twitter. It is also made worst thanks to cell-phones which can take pictures - because a picture is worth 1000 words and who cares if you mess up the traffic behind you! That picture MUST happen!
Rudeness - This is perhaps the most frustrating cause of traffic. Rudeness comes in many different guises. Sometimes, it looks like tail-gating (which makes people nervous and may cause accidents). Sometimes, it comes form not letting people merge, which causes slowdown in the lane of the rude person and also the lane of the person trying to merge and being denied entry. **This is a shooting offence in my mind - thanksfully, we have tight gun-control laws up here, so the idiots get off with mere threats of violence. This is another form of invisible traffic and it only takes one or two rude drivers to cause a world of hurt int he form of traffic for thousands of other drivers.
I can deal with the first four any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The last three on the other hand.. kill them all!
Until driverless cars make an appearance on a grand scale and turn getting to work into a mechano-socialist paradise where NOBODY drives their own cars and thus nobody gets into accidents, or causes traffic due to fear, rubbernecking or rudeness - until then, my friend.
FUCK TRAFFIC!!!
I hate you long time!
Have a good trip home and - please...don't be an assh@le!
Friday, February 20, 2015
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Hard Yawn
Thanks to Facebook and now G+, places like LJ have fallen hard by the wayside.
I am amazed that it even exists and that my password still works.
So...here I am,posting well over 9 years after my last post.
I hope that this pings a few people who have forgotten about me, and wakes them up to LJ as well.
That would be fun! :)
I am amazed that it even exists and that my password still works.
So...here I am,posting well over 9 years after my last post.
I hope that this pings a few people who have forgotten about me, and wakes them up to LJ as well.
That would be fun! :)
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Week 11 and change
May 20, 2014
Well… more than 11 weeks done and still not touched a “real” cigarette since day #1. I have yet to find another PRO to add to my list, but I have inadvertently found one CON.
Even this one, I have not checked to see if it is linked top a specific flavour of eJuice, to all of them, or some variant thereof.
Context first: I started with apple flavour, and switched to blackberry 30mls ago. I have since switched from 18mg all the way down to the 3mg where I am now.
To put it bluntly, my personal odour has changed. My sweat, urine, feces and *coff* semen started having an unusual odour roughly 5 weeks ago, and it doesn’t seem to be going away. I decided that perhaps it was the “flavouring” additives which are messing with my body, and the latest 30ml bottle that I picked up, I did so without any flavour to it at all.
I can’t find any articles about this online, although for all I know, it has to do with the last artificial flavour in particular, and nobody on that specific brand and choice decided to post about it.
If any of my noble readers knows of this, have experienced it, have read about it and would be open to posting about it or perhaps sharing a link, It’d be MUCH appreciated.
In the meanwhile…flavourless vaping and I’ll try to post the results here.
Happy Vaping!
Well… more than 11 weeks done and still not touched a “real” cigarette since day #1. I have yet to find another PRO to add to my list, but I have inadvertently found one CON.
Even this one, I have not checked to see if it is linked top a specific flavour of eJuice, to all of them, or some variant thereof.
Context first: I started with apple flavour, and switched to blackberry 30mls ago. I have since switched from 18mg all the way down to the 3mg where I am now.
To put it bluntly, my personal odour has changed. My sweat, urine, feces and *coff* semen started having an unusual odour roughly 5 weeks ago, and it doesn’t seem to be going away. I decided that perhaps it was the “flavouring” additives which are messing with my body, and the latest 30ml bottle that I picked up, I did so without any flavour to it at all.
I can’t find any articles about this online, although for all I know, it has to do with the last artificial flavour in particular, and nobody on that specific brand and choice decided to post about it.
If any of my noble readers knows of this, have experienced it, have read about it and would be open to posting about it or perhaps sharing a link, It’d be MUCH appreciated.
In the meanwhile…flavourless vaping and I’ll try to post the results here.
Happy Vaping!
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
eCigs and the quitting game: Week 7
Well… it’s been 7 weeks now if my math is right and I still havn’t touched a cigarette. Not too bad at all.
I have reduced the nicotine/dose to the equivalent of 1/4pack a day…which isn’t too shabby at all.
I have noticed something over the past few weeks which I find both annoying and disturbing. People have started telling me that they heard from someone, who heard from someone else that eCigs are cancer-causing agents in and of themselves and should be avoided.
First of all… if you have proof of this cancer stuff…send it to me, or print it and give it to me… anything else is heresay.
Second of all…if it is heresay and unproven, I wonder who might want to spread such news – who might profit from removing eCigs from the market…hmmm… could it be … Big Tobacco!?
Nah… that couldn’t be it, could it?
In either case, 7 weeks without a cigarette is nothing to sneeze at..or cough at for that matter.
At this rate, I’ll be putting the eCig down this summer. With 3 months on the eCig vs. 17years with real cigs (and native ones). I don’t think that I’ve got much in the way of cancer to worry about related to using vapes.
Don’t like it… put up a link or shut up.
I have reduced the nicotine/dose to the equivalent of 1/4pack a day…which isn’t too shabby at all.
I have noticed something over the past few weeks which I find both annoying and disturbing. People have started telling me that they heard from someone, who heard from someone else that eCigs are cancer-causing agents in and of themselves and should be avoided.
First of all… if you have proof of this cancer stuff…send it to me, or print it and give it to me… anything else is heresay.
Second of all…if it is heresay and unproven, I wonder who might want to spread such news – who might profit from removing eCigs from the market…hmmm… could it be … Big Tobacco!?
Nah… that couldn’t be it, could it?
In either case, 7 weeks without a cigarette is nothing to sneeze at..or cough at for that matter.
At this rate, I’ll be putting the eCig down this summer. With 3 months on the eCig vs. 17years with real cigs (and native ones). I don’t think that I’ve got much in the way of cancer to worry about related to using vapes.
Don’t like it… put up a link or shut up.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Week Two
March 11, 2014
So….entering week #2 of my so far successful attempt to quit smoking with eCigs instead.
I’ve been thinking of some pros and cons of the eCig…actually, to be more specific, I’ve found many pros and almost no cons thus far.
Pros:
My breath and clothes don’t smell of smoke anymore
No more discoloured fingers and teeth
No more accidental burns (skin, clothes or upholstery)
No more discarding of filters on the ground
No more discarding of empty packs or wrapping (Recycled or not)
No more coughing up a lung
My sense of smell seems to have returned (and I can’t stand the smell of cigs anymore)
My sense of taste is pretty damned good too now
Substantial savings on the price of smokes vs eLiquids
Non-carcinogenic
Cons:
Out of the way locations to buy eLiquids
Still contain nicotine, so still adictive
Not a lot of long-term research on side-effects, if any
Umh..that’s about it for Pro/Cons – I’d say that the Pros far outweigh the Cons any way you look at it.
So….entering week #2 of my so far successful attempt to quit smoking with eCigs instead.
I’ve been thinking of some pros and cons of the eCig…actually, to be more specific, I’ve found many pros and almost no cons thus far.
Pros:
My breath and clothes don’t smell of smoke anymore
No more discoloured fingers and teeth
No more accidental burns (skin, clothes or upholstery)
No more discarding of filters on the ground
No more discarding of empty packs or wrapping (Recycled or not)
No more coughing up a lung
My sense of smell seems to have returned (and I can’t stand the smell of cigs anymore)
My sense of taste is pretty damned good too now
Substantial savings on the price of smokes vs eLiquids
Non-carcinogenic
Cons:
Out of the way locations to buy eLiquids
Still contain nicotine, so still adictive
Not a lot of long-term research on side-effects, if any
Umh..that’s about it for Pro/Cons – I’d say that the Pros far outweigh the Cons any way you look at it.
Monday, March 3, 2014
eCigs and the Quitting game
March 3, 2014
So… smoking is one of those things, that if you want to be a winner, you have to quit. I have in the past tried quitting in numerous other ways from the patch to going cold-turkey. I’m not religious, but once, I even left my pack at the door of a local church. the next morning, the pack was gone but the need wasn’t – sucks to be me. (Literally and figuratively).
I was left with 2 options. The pill – an anti-depressant which canhelp curb the appetite for nic, but has a serious set of side-effects, including but not limited to suicidal thoughts. This kinda answers the question of “Would it kill ya to quit smoking?”
The other option is eCigs. Plenty of names for these things, but they’re basically the same thing wrapped in different packages.
A power-source which heats small amount of liquids into a vaporous form, which can be inhaled through a pipe. The liquid can be flavourless or be flavoured in a myriad of ways, and it can contain varying amounts of pharma-grade liquid nicotine.
Cute, eh. You can reduce the percentage of Nic as you go. The batteries can be recharged 300 times, each giving you 4-5 hours of vaping (if you leave the unit on all the time) or quite a bit more if you turn the thing off when not smoking/vaping.
So far, so good.
I’m going to use this blog to keep tack of my path to quitting and perhaps some colour-commentary as well.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Tis the Season
Ah, yes....winter is coming and with it comes snow, cold nights, frost on the car windows that need scraping off and inevitably..the common cold (and if you're unlucky, the Flu). For those of you with no more people to care for than your own self and perhaps some significant other, it's bad but not horrible. You're big people now and can take care of yourself. You can make some chicken noodle soup, buy some stock in cough syrup and tylenol, hide under the covers and get this sh@t over with as quickly as possible. If it's not quick enough for your boss (providing you're employed), then you can always go into work and share your good fortune with your fellow employees and with any luck, your boss will get sick too...that'll show'em!
For those with kids in the house, it's a whole other story. Sick monkeys in your house can't take care of themselves all that well when they're young and when they're teens, they refuse being treated like a child. The cold, this fine year, has gone from myself to my S.O. in the amount of time it took to give her a kiss Hello, and went quickly from there to our kids faster than anyone could possibly predict. The joy has successfully been spread...now is the time to enjoy the fruits of that labour.
Fevers: Aah... kids are irrational creatures on the best of days. Finding the particularly irrational irrationality that is the sure sign of fever can be a chore..until you remember where you stored the thermometer. Then it's simply a matter of tucking that tool under an arm or under a tongue (or for those with the really young, into a more..ahem..hidden area), and then calculating from ºF to ºC or back in order to figure out if it means a fever or not. In my case, I bought a Celsius thermometer and I'm only familiar with Fahrenheit fevers. Once you've figured out if your kid is feverish, fine, or really feverish...it's probably changed. Doesn't matter. Apply liquid Tylenol or Motrin if you own the stuff...go shopping if you don't.
Coughs: There are different types of cough. Phlegmy and dry are the top two. You can hear the difference. One sounds like coughing and gargling at the same time. Pay close attention to that one. The white liquidy stuff is probably just snot that the kid has inhaled backward down his/her own throat because they didn't feel like blowing their noses for the 30th time that minute. It's a cold...not a flu. It's the greeny-yellowy thick stuff that should worry you. That added colour means a flu...and that'll mean a trip to the Doctors' office. Another joy and a fine way to spend a morning, an afternood and/or an evening. Be sure that when you're there, that oyu child touch as many objects as possible. That way, they can share what they have and pick up some new and different diseases. Less of a waste of time that way. Maybe you'll get lucky and pick up the chicken pox as the same time and can get that over with at the same time.
Sniffles: Your nose is bi-polar. If it's feeling all happy, it'll run all day long. If it's feeling down, it'll clog up the works. If it's like a kids' nose, it'll bounce back and forth in quick succession. Buy plenty of Kleenex..they'll come in handy at least half the time.
Listlessness: Your kid's supposed to have more energy than you. You're old and they're not. If they have less energy than you..they MUST be sick. That's about as easy to guess as anything else. If s/he is acting listless and the moment you keep them home, they jump on the internets, warm up the PS3, dig through your DVD collection...they're faking you out and aren't really in the mood for school. Take advantage of it. You're not at work today 'cause they faked you out. Fake out your boss and enjoy the day off. :D
That's about it..I may add more later. I've got to get back to my sick little monkey now. There's an episode of Dora the Explorer that I simply MUST see....again.
For those with kids in the house, it's a whole other story. Sick monkeys in your house can't take care of themselves all that well when they're young and when they're teens, they refuse being treated like a child. The cold, this fine year, has gone from myself to my S.O. in the amount of time it took to give her a kiss Hello, and went quickly from there to our kids faster than anyone could possibly predict. The joy has successfully been spread...now is the time to enjoy the fruits of that labour.
Fevers: Aah... kids are irrational creatures on the best of days. Finding the particularly irrational irrationality that is the sure sign of fever can be a chore..until you remember where you stored the thermometer. Then it's simply a matter of tucking that tool under an arm or under a tongue (or for those with the really young, into a more..ahem..hidden area), and then calculating from ºF to ºC or back in order to figure out if it means a fever or not. In my case, I bought a Celsius thermometer and I'm only familiar with Fahrenheit fevers. Once you've figured out if your kid is feverish, fine, or really feverish...it's probably changed. Doesn't matter. Apply liquid Tylenol or Motrin if you own the stuff...go shopping if you don't.
Coughs: There are different types of cough. Phlegmy and dry are the top two. You can hear the difference. One sounds like coughing and gargling at the same time. Pay close attention to that one. The white liquidy stuff is probably just snot that the kid has inhaled backward down his/her own throat because they didn't feel like blowing their noses for the 30th time that minute. It's a cold...not a flu. It's the greeny-yellowy thick stuff that should worry you. That added colour means a flu...and that'll mean a trip to the Doctors' office. Another joy and a fine way to spend a morning, an afternood and/or an evening. Be sure that when you're there, that oyu child touch as many objects as possible. That way, they can share what they have and pick up some new and different diseases. Less of a waste of time that way. Maybe you'll get lucky and pick up the chicken pox as the same time and can get that over with at the same time.
Sniffles: Your nose is bi-polar. If it's feeling all happy, it'll run all day long. If it's feeling down, it'll clog up the works. If it's like a kids' nose, it'll bounce back and forth in quick succession. Buy plenty of Kleenex..they'll come in handy at least half the time.
Listlessness: Your kid's supposed to have more energy than you. You're old and they're not. If they have less energy than you..they MUST be sick. That's about as easy to guess as anything else. If s/he is acting listless and the moment you keep them home, they jump on the internets, warm up the PS3, dig through your DVD collection...they're faking you out and aren't really in the mood for school. Take advantage of it. You're not at work today 'cause they faked you out. Fake out your boss and enjoy the day off. :D
That's about it..I may add more later. I've got to get back to my sick little monkey now. There's an episode of Dora the Explorer that I simply MUST see....again.
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