Posted on Jun 26, 2009 under Current Events |
For those who live in Toronto or the GTA or who read “Canadian news”, you’ll know that the City of Toronto is on strike.
How does a city go on strike?
Easy! When the union composed of 22,000 municipal workers employed by the City decides to stop allowing people to go to work.
What does the strike mean?
The strike means that many city-run facilities and services are now suspended. That includes:
- Garbage pick-up services (the City has opened dumping areas for people to drop off their own trash but picketers are stopping people at the entrances)
- Museums and libraries
- All day care centers
- All sexual health centers
- Water quality and beach testing
- All indoor and outdoor pools, community and other recreation centers
- Any license renewals (including driving and taxi licenses)
- Ferry services
- Immunization shots at elementary schools
- And more…
The reason for the strike?
One of the chief reasons I’ve read is that union workers feel the City is trying to “cheat” them by eliminating roll-over sick days. Currently, these employees are entitled to 18 days of paid sick leave each year. That’s fine, no problems there. Very standard to have sick days, right? (Altho 18 is quite a bit…)
The problem comes in here: If they do not fall sick or do not use all 18 days in the year, they can roll-over their sick days into perpetuity. Yes, that’s right, after working, say 10 years, they could have accumulated 180 days of paid sick days! And the real kicker? When they retire, they get paid out for ALL the sick days they never took.
The union believes it’s unfair for the City to eliminate this “perk” which they claim they’ve earned. One unioned paramedic whined about how the City is trying to pay them less for for more work.
Ya, duh, it’s a recession people! EVERYONE is getting paid less for more work! Actually, you might count yourself lucky to even have a job. Oh wait, it’s hard to lay-off unioned workers, isn’t it?
(Obviously, since I don’t belong to a union, I don’t like unions.)
…
Anyways, I’m happy I’m not in Toronto right now. Friends of mine who still live in Toronto claim the city is really starting to stink since garbage hasn’t been collected and especially since, because drop-off points have been blocked, many people are simply dumping their garbage in the city parks and at abandoned city buildings (which is kind of ironically funny).
Also, it’s been quite funny to read user comments on www.thestar.com. It’s pretty clear people are getting really fed up with the strike. There have been lots of gaffs made by the union-friendly government and THE PEOPLE ARE NOT HAPPY.
The below example is the best (it was an LOL moment for me when I read it).
Excerpt from The Toronto Star:
At a news conference yesterday, Miller wouldn’t comment on what’s happening at the bargaining table, or on issues being negotiated. Instead, he condemned the illegal dumping of garbage in public areas.
“As mayor I’m disappointed that some would be so thoughtless as to use our beautiful parks and green spaces in this way,” he said. “This is just the second day of the strike, which is why it’s important to take a stand now and put those who are illegally dumping on notice that we will not tolerate this kind of activity.”
Comment from a reader:
“As TAXPAYERS we are extremely disappointed that Miller would be so thoughtless as to allow our dumps and government services to be used in this way,” he said. “This is just the second day of the strike, which is why it’s important for the Mayor to take a stand now and put those who are protesting and blocking dumps on notice that we will not tolerate this kind of stupidity.”
Hilarious!
Come on, Toronto, get smart. Privatize!!
References:
Posted on Jun 25, 2009 under Fun and Funny, Nerd |
For any serious players of THE ultimate word game (Scrabble, of course), you’ll know what I mean when I say that a reliable dictionary is an absolute must when trying to maintain order during a heated game. Without this essential tool, the game can quickly go from a competitive, yet social and fun game to one of really high levels of …um, frustration.
So it was a huge surprise to me when the “official” online scrabble dictionary from Hasbro (the maker of Scrabble) was proven UNRELIABLE. What happened?
Well, the website claimed that “toastier” is NOT a word.
WHAT?!
“Toastier” was an 8-letter word that hit a triple-word bonus square AND gave me 50+ bonus points for using all 7 of my letters!
To make things even more confusing, simply typing in the word “toastier” into Google will result in various websites and dictionaries that actually define the word “toastier”. These websites include:
All very dependable, reliable sources. Obviously, the official dictionary is WRONG, right?
And to add to this confusion, the official Hasbro online scrabble dictionary uses the following to describe the word “toasty”. Here it is in its exact form (including capitalizations):
“toasty toastiest toastier adj TOASTIER, TOASTIEST comfortably warm”
So, let me get this straight… they actually use the word “toastier” in their description BUT THEY DON’T THINK IT’S A WORD?!
OMG, this kills me.
Can anyone help to shed light on this? Perhaps I’ve misunderstood something… OR, feel free to add any other inconsistencies / insanities you may have come across.
Posted on Apr 16, 2009 under Nerd |
I’ve just joined the Twitter community and posted my first message last week. I’ve heard a lot about Twitter and was curious and then amazed that so many of my friends are already on and actively “twittering” every week or day and some even 4 or 5 times every day!
For those who don’t know what twitter is, it’s a platform for something similar to your Facebook status. You can write 140 characters at any given time, which forces everyone to be short and sweet. It also allows you to keep up-to-date with what your family and friends are doing or thinking at any given time.
If you’re on twitter, you can find me under ”wangtracy” (I think that should work?) Still figuring this thing out.
Also, an interesting article on the growing popularity of Twitter.
Posted on Apr 15, 2009 under Current Events, Reviews, Uncategorized |
Apparently, the webby awards for best on the web have been around a while. Never knew about it until Lisa sent me the link. Interesting to find out about more “good” websites and resources.
Check out the recent winners here.
Posted on Apr 14, 2009 under Current Events |
In the 2007 season of Britain’s Got Talent, Paul Pott’s, a shy, slightly plump and relativly unattractive young man took the stage and wowed the audience and the judges with a beautiful audition of Nessun Dorma. He later went on to win the competition with his big voice and kind personality and was a big sensation in Britain and around the world.
Now it looks like Britain’s Got Talent is doing it again this season with another shy woman called Susan Boyle. At 47 years old, Susan has gray, messy curls, an unattractive face and a nice smile. She wore an unassuming drabby dress and seemed uncertain when she first walked on stage.
After a quick chat with the judges, she opened her mouth to sing “I dreamed a dream” (from Les Miserables) and surprisingly beautiful music came out. She became an overnight sensation with people posting her audition on facebook and friends of mine sending me the link. Click here to see her first audition.
But I wonder if she is actually advantaged because of her appearance? It is a deep contrast to her beautiful singing voice. It’s kind of like when you go to see a movie. How you feel about the movie can really be affected by what your friends tell you before you go. For example, if your friends rave about a movie and say it’s “awesome!” you might have high expectations and be disappointed. Alternatively, your friends may say the movie “sucks” and you end up loving it. This scenario can happen for the same movie. It’s all about setting your expectations.
So if Susan Boyle were very attractive and well-spoken, would she have the same enthusiastic reception? I’m not so sure. It could also be her unassuming and shy personality that helped her win over Britain and the world. She may very well go on to become the next “Paul Potts” of Britain’s Got Talent.
Posted on Apr 13, 2009 under Nerd, Parenting |
Ever wonder how popular your name was in the 1800’s? How about when you were born? And for present day? Check out the baby name wizard at http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager. The presentation is pretty cool.
My name “Tracy” was very popular in the 70’s (when I was born) and was the 24th most popular name for girls back then. It was also the 118th most popular name for boys in the 60’s.