to cause a traffic jam for no reason

Have you ever been faced with this scenario: You are driving along and all of sudden you find yourself in a traffic jam. Out of nowhere, for no reason you can see. "Strange," you think to yourself because you checked the traffic before you left. Since there is nothing you can really do about it, you shrug and settle in for what is sure to be an annoying little while. As you creep slowly forward, you notice that there is no accident, nothing blocking the road and still no apparent reason for the traffic. Then you see something at the side of the road (doesn't matter what it is because the scenario would be same) and as soon as you've passed it the traffic jam is over and everyone continues on at normal speed. This happens to me countless times here in good old MTL. It doesn't matter what is happening or has happened. It could be a bug eating a leaf and everyone seems to think that is important enough to almost come to a complete stop to look at it. NOT OK! There is enough traffic caused by accidents, construction, cars breaking down, etc. that do we really need to make more? Especially one that is based on absolutely nothing but people feeling the need to look at something that doesn't even concern them. Here's an idea: Keep your eyes on the road ahead of you! Now if they were slowing down with the intention to help, I would understand but people don't do that as far I as I know. In fact, I've seen cars just speed by people or animals who actually did need help but when there is nothing happening, no, that's when they slow down. Now if you were stopping to stand with an injured animal until the city came to get it, or if you were picking up a piece of debris that could cause an accident, I would be more than happy to sit in my car for a few extra minutes. But let's be honest, no one does that. How many times have you seen a person just go passed something potentially dangerous?...thought so. If you are so caught up in your own life that you won't even help others, you don't have the right to inconvenience everyone by looking at whatever is left over of something that happened before. I'm sorry, it's not OK to be curious about something slightly out of the ordinary and stop traffic to stare at it.

that gas is a dollar more than when I started driving

Ok so at the risk of aging myself and sounding like an old person (which I clearly am): Gas is literally a dollar more than it was when I first starting driving at 17 years old. Insert the appropriate "In my day..." and "Back when I was young..." comment here.

I was going for a walk today and passed a gas station (no big surprise since I live in a big city). The price of gas was $1.46 a litre. I stopped in my tracks and cried a little on the inside. When I started driving gas was $0.46. That's right, it's gone up a dollar and the bad news is...it's probably not going to go back down any time soon if ever. Sigh.

I'm not looking to make any groundbreaking political or economic statements here I just wanted to vent my frustrations and possibly share with you the panic attacks I am getting when I think about what it's going to be like to be a driver in the coming years. I really hope they get moving on this electric car thing. I mean, we must have the technology by now to make batteries last longer, no? Sure I can always take public transportation but depending on where I go that could take me a ridiculously long time and buses make me nauseous. Gas is really expensive...

for hotels to have thin walls

As part of my planning a short trip to Quebec City I searched for a hotel online. I finally chose one that was a decent price, in a good location and had free internet (which is surprisingly rare for hotels there, believe it or not). Now, I am particularly sensitive when it comes to mattresses so I always expect to be uncomfortable but aside from that I had high hopes for this 3 1/2 start hotel that got good reviews. Needless to say I was disappointed...duh I otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it.

As night time rolled around it because apparent that you could hear absolutely everything going on outside the room. Everything! We're talking everyone in the neighboring rooms, people in the hall...it was ridiculous. Unfortunately things didn't quiet down as it got later. Not only was there people screaming and laughing all night but then I was woken up super early by someone using the hair dryer. All in all it was terrible.

So here's the thing: Why wouldn't a hotel invest in a some insulation in their walls? Seriously, isn't the main reason that people go to hotels to sleep? I mean, if my main source of revenue was brought in by people sleeping I would probably put in the effort to make sure that went well for them. And as far as I know people usually prefer quiet when they sleep. I don't know, seems to make sense to me that it's worth putting in any extra time and money to make rooms more soundproof. I guess this particular hotel doesn't agree.

to be a manipulative, jerk manager

So I was at the bank this morning and it was pretty quiet. As I'm waiting for one of the people who sit at the desks to come see me (apparently my request was too complicated for the just out of high school teller)the branch manager goes over to talk to said teller. Due to my superior eavesdropping ability, or due to the fact that they were about 3 meters away from me, I learned that the teller had been working there 3 months and that it was "evaluation time". They apparently have an online evaluation form for employees every 6 months. Fascinating stuff, I know.

I'm getting to the point, I promise. So the manager explains to the new girl that since they are a small team at this particular branch, this evaluation is a direct evaluation of her (the manager). Starting to see where this is going? The manager then proceeds to tell the employee that this is not to be used to complain if there is a problem. No, this is just in general how things are. If anything is ever wrong she should come to her directly and talk to her about it. This evaluation is not for her to say negative things about the manager it's just to see how things are over all. She then repeats, if the employee isn't happy about something she should not put it in the evaluation. Uh huh.... Anyone else see an issue with this? She then proceeds to go over all the questions with her one by one telling her how to answer and saying that if she would answer negatively to any of these to remember, it's general and to go see her instead.

I was furious! What a sneaky, manipulative asshole! Here's a better idea than pressuring your new employees to give a good review, how about be a good manager? Crazy, I know, but it just might work. If you are so afraid of getting a bad review maybe you should ask yourself why??? I've worked for a number of places where the turnover was very high and the people, including myself, were miserable. Strangely enough the boss never seemed to question what role they played in that. It was always excuses like "it's just the industry we're in" or "we haven't found the right people yet" or my favorite "young people aren't willing to work hard". Ok now I will dump on young people with the best of them but that's just ridiculous. News flash manager: It's you! If they would spend more time treating the employees better and less time manipulating them to make themselves look better most work places would probably be a lot more pleasant.

Now I don't know if this bank is a good place to work or not but seeing that person trying to cover their own ass makes me want to write a strongly worded letter to their head office. The new employee looked extremely uncomfortable and did a nervous little laugh every time the manager told her not to say anything bad about her. Not cool! Not ok!

to be a stupid driver

I don't care what city you live in or what car you drive, being a stupid driver makes you, pause for suspense, stupid. I'm going to point out a couple of things to these people that will hopefully blow their minds and give them a glimpse of common sense and consequently, make our streets a little safer for wannabe thug white kids who can't write and think the world revolves around who they happen to have a crush on that week (this rant may continue at another time).

So first thing stupid drivers need to know: Cars are real. Seriously, they are tons of metal traveling at high speeds and only being controlled by equally stupid drivers. So just because you ignore the other cars around you that doesn't mean that they're not really there. They are. And if you collide with one you get into an accident that damages your also real car and quite possibly injures you. So if you happen to have your eyes off your cell phone long enough to see another car on the road with you, remember that it is actually there and real and should be taken into consideration.

Red means stop. Green means go. Now I know it's been a while since you've taken the driving test but believe it or not, not much has changed since then. When you see a red light you're supposed to stop. You then wait for it to turn green before starting to drive again. Why do I bring this up? Because every time I am out on the road I see someone drive out into the middle of the intersection when the light is red. Not slowly creeping forward but actually go through the intersection. Now call me crazy, but that sure seems like not stopping at a right light and waiting for the green to me. No? So let's explore why people have to stop at intersections for a second, shall we. It's so that people going in the opposite direction can go through. That means that if you drive through a red while people in the opposite direction are also driving through and if you subscribe to the theory that cars are real then you have a "real" problem.

While these two pieces of wisdom may not make you smarter, they will hopefully make you a smarter driver and that's all we can really hope for.

to neglect your blog

Guilty as charged! I started this blog a million years ago and after a few entries I stopped. Well, no more. I'm back and ready once again to vent my frustrations to anyone who is willing to read about them. I would like to dedicate this come back entry to my friend Pat who always gives me shit for not blogging when we hang out (nicely, of course).

Why did I stop? Dunno...

What brought me back? This awesome book called "Full Frontal Feminism" by Jessica Valenti. It's pure amazingness!

Lots of things in this world are not ok so stay tuned to hear all about it.