Canada - Great Country - Really expensive

Canada has for the longest time been regularly placed as one of, if not the greatest country on earth in which to live.  These polls take into account factors such as poverty, crime, standard of living and so on, but what they seem to completely ignore is just how EXPENSIVE this huge country really is, or more specifically, southern Ontario.

Now this is not just an anti-Canada rant - indeed Canada has been good to me (I re-educated myself and worked there for a number of years), however, during my time in Canada, Windsor, Ontario specifically, some important aspects of Canadian life have come to my attention, the most important of which is, and I repeat, how EXPENSIVE this country is.

I was born in raised in England - this is the same England that a lot of my Canadian friends seem to think is incredibly expensive following their trips to the center of London, living in hotels and eating out every night.  No surprises their.  My view of how expensive Canada is, is based on 7 years of living there, of buying groceries and alcohol at stores, paying taxes and living the way the natives do.  EVERYTHING is expensive here.  Not just luxury items or imported goods, things bought every day by people to pass the time, satisfy a vice or even to put food on the family table.  Why on God's green earth does a bag of shredded cheese cost 7 dollars??!?!?!?!  In 'expensive' England this same item can be bought for a third of the price.  Why on earth is a large bottle of vodka OVER FIFTY DOLLARS, when the same bottle in the good old U S of A is less than 15 and sometimes not much more than 10.  Oh yes, I'm sorry I forgot about the whole monopoly (illegal) thing that the government has on alcohol sales through the Beer and Liquor Stores.  Although to be fair they are doing that to ensure fair competition for the smaller breweries and wine producers.  The same breweries and wine producers that cannot sell their wares in the government stores because they aren't large enough to provide enough of their product.  Yes, it doesn't make any sense to me either, but why should it when you are raping your citizens for outrageous amounts of tax and screwing over the companies you are claiming to be protecting.  As long as the Quebec friendly companies (Bombardier) can be bailed out with hundreds of millions of tax-payers money eh?

Of course, tax payers money.  My final case in point.  Windsor, Ontario has for the longest time served as a hub of engineering and mechanical industry for the American-owned auto companies in the Detroit area.  Ford, GM and Chrysler directly or indirectly through multi-tier suppliers employing many workers, all earning outrageous salaries bargained for by their criminal representatives, or as they like to call themselves, 'Unions'. For years, these successful companies have pumped what must be billions (ten's?  hundreds?) of dollars into the system via income taxes alone.  What I would like to know, for this region specifically, is where on EARTH did all that money go??  Ever been to Windsor?  Infrastructure?  Public transport?  I can't even buy a bottle of wine after 9pm and don't even think about Sunday evenings and holidays.  It's as bad as trying to get to an open bank past 5pm on a weekday which is apparently when the country shuts down.  Still, if this doesn't appeal to you, there is always Toronto just 4 hours up the 401.  If Windsor doesn't float your boat, there is always a city full of teenage Chinese girls wearing 4 pounds of make-up drinking 4 dollar coffees thinking they are living the high life just one 70 dollar train ride away.

What are you waiting for?

Cold Eggs?!?!!? DIE BITCHES!!!

The news never fails to throw up one story every day or two that just makes me sit there and think 'what the hell is going through that person's mind to affect their thought process in a manner that makes them react so drastically to something so trivial???'  Today was one of those days.  Rural Kentucky has seen 47 year old Stanley Neace go on a killing spree inside his trailer-park home, his victims including his wife, his step-daughter and 3 neighbours before turning the gun on himself.  In my opinion, before we continue with worrying about whether firearms should be legal or marijuana or the legal speed limit, these cases throw up some interesting conundrums regarding society.  My favorite is 'what the hell caused this guy to turn into such a nutjob, and what on earth are we doing about it?'.  Now, lets be clear, the egg thing is a headline.  Was it cold eggs?  Was it his wife telling him to eat less red meat and start eating tofu for lunch with organic vegetables and low fat mayo?  Was it a rack that just wouldn't keep the damn toast standing properly?  Frustration is natural and in my opinion the most powerful emotion people experience - not just it's own potency, but it's incredible ability to generate such other, powerful, negative emotions - anger especially seems to flow quite freely and believe me getting hit with a red shell when i'm just about to win a race in Mario Kart 64 has no trouble in generating frustration and subsequent anger in me so god only knows what some people must be feeling.
Apparently Mr Neace was 'unpredictable'.  Glad we've cleared that up.

Michael Schumacher is a Disgrace

So for anyone not into motorsport, Formula 1 specifically, Michael Schumacher is a German F1 driver and the most successful driver in the history of the sport with 7 World Titles.  After racing for Benetton, Schumacher moved eventually to Ferrari where he enjoyed much success, setting records for pole positions, races won and a whole boatload of others.
But 'Schuey' was not only known for his elite driving ability.  He was also known for having a wild streak and for being impulsive, dangerous and reckless.  This was outlined a month ago when Schumacher almost killed ex team-mate Rubens Barrichello by deliberately attempting to block a pass by the Brazilian and almost running Barrichello into a wall at 300km/h.  The penalty?  10 spots on the grid in the next race.
10 spots on the grid?  IF and thank heavens we are talking in IF's and not WHEN's - Barrichello had ended up crushed after this outrageous move by Schumacher, would 'murder' be a too strong term to describe the actions of this obviously talented but out of control maniac?  If murder deemed to be an apt term, is attempted murder a fair summation of events at Hungaroring in early August?
My respect for Schumacher is as low as swerving into your team mate to attempt to save a place in a race you are never going to win, in a championship you could never win, in a sport that so obviously has sped past you.

Phone Companies are Thieving Bastards

True Story.  So I go with my phone to a store to get it activated.  Phone is a POS MotoQ with even more POS Windows Mobile 'OS'.  So I get this annoying, condescending little brat of a girl who is serving me and informs me that due to my phone type, I need a 'data plan' and it will cost me 30 bucks a month but I will get internet and other goodies.  Fair enough.

What the scheming bitch failed to tell me was that the 30 bucks wasn't my plan, it was an ADDITION to my plan that was in reality going to be 80 dollars a month minimum. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!?!?  So I contact the company and explain to them my situation and what do they have the gall to tell me?  Well Sir, if you want to reduce the bill you can always remove the data plan!  So do I need the thing or what?  Are you telling your useless employees to lie to customers?

FYI - This was Canadian company Telus.  Enough is enough, communication should be publicly owned IMO.

Sports really sucks sometimes

Yeah, they really do, not in the gay way, but watching your team go from 2-0 up to 2-2 after dominating hurts, especially after losing out on a player because of some bullshit wage issue.

My team had the chance to sign a 24 year old french-international winger and we don't because of some wage issue?  Man up ffs.  This ain't rocket surgery and talented young guys don't grow on trees.

How it is

Walking sucks.  I hate walking.