Take a Number

What to say what to say... I always have some sort of topic to post on some sort of thing to inform you all about but today I just don't. I mean I have ramblings and musings. I always have plenty of those to share. I have many facts and stories I could relay...But today my blog will have more of my own voice I guess. I think I'll talk about when I was in school. I graduated high school a few years ago. School was a bad time for me. Not just because I was teenager and all teenagers dislike school. I liked learning ok I loved learning...I just hated the cliques in school the taunts the threats. High school wasent as bad as middle school but I think I was slightly traumatized by middle school so high scool sucked aswell. In middle school I was threatened almost everyday teased taunted and whatever else they could come up with. I had friends but some of them even werent that great. I did have a few very close friends who helped me get through just barley. I don't know why a few different groups of people decided to pick me for the butt of their taunts threats and physical hate but they did. I was never severly beaten up. The worst physical damage they did was a slap or two or a push against a bench. But some of them were just constantly there. In gym classes. In the hall. Everywhere. A few of them were a grade ahead of me but were in my gym classes. (split classes) Those were the worst days I can remember. One day in an art class I was being threatened by one person. She seemed serious about kicking my ass. She said she was going to hurt me badly after school. She said all this with a teacher 2 feet away and my friends near me aswell. Im sure the teacher heard the threat but I am sure the teacher was also drunk or high. After that class I was hurrying to my next class when the person stopped me in the hall. I don't remember what she said but she slapped me a few times on the face then walked away. I was going to the office I was going to go home and one of this girls croonies stopped me and threatend me not to say anything. Since this croonie was going to be in my next class I was definite on not going there. I ended up going home and the school ended up finding out about the situation. I stayed at home for 3 days terrified of getting my ass kicked and the person who threatend me got one day suspension. This from a school with "Zero tolerance for bullies" If I went through this sistuation again I would have kicked that persons ass or at least got a few good punches in. That was in grade nine. And I'm ashamed to say I'm still slightly afraid that I will see this person around town. Years after the incident... It really has stuck with me.

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So here is the second book for today. Paul Austers The Music Of Chance. This book has a main character who for a certain reason(you'll have to read the book to find out) decides to live on the road for as long as some money he has will hold out. He has an amazing car that he travels in and there is a certain mystery to the way he feels when he is driving.

The man one day comes upon a beaten up kid on the side of the road and he decides to pick the kid up. The kid lets the man in on the fact that he's a poker player of great ability and that there is a chance for him to win a fortune if he can get the money to start the game off.

I'll make this part short the kid is an amazing player but he loses. And the two of them end up being further in the hole then they could imagine. They end up staying at the place they played the game at and in payment bulding a wall for no real reason for these eccentric men who are the ones the kid played against.

The kid is beating on himself for most of the book for losing and is seemingly starting to lose his cool. Something eventually happens to the kid though that makes the man lose much hope he had of ever being "happy" again.

Yes these characters have names. But read the book to find them out! Obviously the "kid" isent exactly a toddler. He is just quite a bit younger than the man.

This author Paul Auster has quite a uniqe style of writting that I have never seen before. Some of his other titles include:The Book Of Illusions, Timbuktu and levithian.

 

I have one "honourable mention" for one of my favorite books. It is a Non-Fiction book. It's called Ancient Egypt. The creators of it are: Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin. This book is excellent for anyone who is interested in egypt not just for the mythology but for the whole culture. So one last note. I had all fiction books on my list because well I felt like it! I do read quite a bit of Non-Fction aswell but I thought that this little list would be better because more people would pick up on of the fiction books then the Non-Fiction.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this week at my blog.

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This is a book of fiction. But it is not another fantasy book. This book is based in world war 1. The author is Erich Maria Remarque. I did read this book in school in a grade 12 english class. My english teacher that year I must say was the best they come. One thing she mentioned to us was that appaerently this book was one of the books on hitlers blacklist of books. (Books that were basically illegal)

This book was written in 1926. This book was translated from german im assuming. The person who did that translation did a great job in keeping an intriging mood to the book. This book does make you think about war and tells you about some of the unknowns, some of the things you would never know.

There are a few main characters in the book but the one that we see everything through is a young man named paul baumer. Him and a bunch of kids from a class in school got drafted to the same outfit and are now going through the war together. In their outfit they meet up with some others some there own age (around 18) some quite older. (There "leader" is in his 40s) We basically follow them through the war. We hear of there personal struggles and there is a bit of philosophy on war throughout the book . There are some amusing stories within the story and some very lighthearted moments. But for the most part it's showing how people, men,boys go through the war. I am having trouble trying to characterize this book because it is very difficult to explain. I think most people should take a look at this book. It really does have a good story to it.

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Today my post will be on another of my favorite books. It is called The Legends Of Nightfall. The author is Mickey Zucker Reichart(I hope that is spelled right). Oh her real name or the other name in the book is Miriam.S.Zucker(or reichart I cannot remember at the moment.)

This is another fantasy book. There is "magic" in this one. Much more compared to the book I reviewed yesterday A Feast For Crows. The main character in the book is a man called Nightfall. He took this name because it was the name of a demonesk entity in childrens tales. He also has other people he pretends to be in order to get around. He has something in the book called a "talent". It is something he was born with that is like a "magic ability" He has the ability to change his weight. Anyways he eventualy gets caught and taken to a dungeon in a kingdom called Alyndar. The king there wants him to help his younger son get landed and become a little less naive.

 A sorcerer(the sorcerers are horrible people who can only get there powers by killing the people with talents)seals a bond on Nightfall that requires many things of him. Mainly to get the kings son landed. He is given a time frame and if he doesn't complete it within the time frame his soul goes to the sorcerer and his soul will be tortured for all of time so the sorcerer can use his gift. I found this book to be quite entertaining. The writer has an interesting style and does fairly well to keep you captivated.

One of the shortfalls of the book is the ending. I feel that it comes to quickly. The ending in itself doesn't really have anything wrong with it. This story is fairly long but worth it. It also has kind of a loveish story in it. Of course attuned to the fantasy style of writing. So I highly recommend this book to those who like fantasy or to those who want to try out a new author. Other titles by this author include Flightless Falcon and The Renshai Trilogy.

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Well thanks again for joining me at my blog. Today is another day for one of my favorite books. For today I have chosen a book by an author by the name of George.R.R.Martin. This book A Feast For Crows is the fourth in a series by him called A Song Of Ice And Fire. The first book is A Feast For Crows the second is A Clash Of Kings the third A Storm Of Swords and the fifth the one that will hopefully be coming out in about 10 or 11 months A Dance With Dragons.

George.R.R.Martin was recently in Vancouver for a book reading which I missed. If anyone was there they were very lucky to meet and here from such a talented author. This series is about the time era of knights, kings queens and that general sort of thing. It isent really Lord of the Rings type book though. A reader who enjoyed LOTR though would probably be interested. The reason I say this series isent LOTR like is because everyone is essentially human. There isent any elves or dwarfs or orcs or ents. But there is a certain how can I put it...Mystical touch to the series. There isent a whole lot of "magic" in it perse at least not in the first 2 books. There is dragons in the series though.

Anyways back to the book. I picked this one simply because it was Martins latest. This book brings in many new characters and is essentially the first half of the fourth book. The next book that is coming out will tell you a lot about the characters that were left out. One thing about this series is there is a lot and I mean A LOT of characters to keep track of. It is fun to read for someone who enjoys in depth solid reading for this genre.

 One word of caution thought do not read this fourth book on its own it will make not to much sense to you and the character references will confuse you. Also this series has a very interesting style to it. Instead of chapters like chapter 1 chapter 2 or part 1 part 2 the book is divided into which character you are following at the moment. Like Tyrion is one chapter and then Jamie. These characters don't just come once in the book and then disappear however so don't let this somewhat unorthodox method of writing turn you off from reading this series. Anyways I highly highly recommend this author and I suggest you start with his series A Song Of Ice And Fire and I guarantee you once you get to A Feast For Crows you will be so excited to read it.

Tommorow I am reviewing another one of my favorite books as I will be doing for the rest of the week and on one of the days I will be reviewing two because of the missed day on tuesday.

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Well the soon to be new Prime Minister of Canada is...Stephen Harper. That's right the conservatives gained 124 seats. So it is a Minority conservative government. Harper is the 39th Prime Minister of Canada. Here are the numbers for the how many seats the other parties gained. Liberals 103 Bloc quebecois 51 NDP 29 and there is one independent in quebec.

Some interesting things to point out are as follows:Harper is going to be the 5th youngest Prime Minister we have had. He was the youngest man running in the election. He will be the youngest man in the G-8. Also Harper gained 10 seats in rural quebec which is quite significant. It does put a dent in the seperatists there. Yet another interesting developement is the resignation of Paul Martin as the leader of the liberal party. It is not effective immediatly but he made it clear that he will not be running again as the leader of the liberals and so will not be running again for Prime Minister. I was quite taken aback by this and I would like to say my previous comment on a previous post about him being a power monger was apparently a little off base. He did want power but I guess he knows when to quite.

All candidates congratulated each other on an election well run and martin personally spoke with harper to tell him that. So the last time we hade a conservative government was 12 years ago... That was a long time. I hope this one works out well. I offer my congratualtions to Mr. Harper and to my local MP Chuck Straul on an election well run and won. As always thank you for reading my blog Take a Number. Any thoughts?

*Correction Stephen Harper is the 22nd Prime Minister of canada*

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So it is monday election day here in canada and I have already cast my vote. Just waiting for the day to be over for the polls to close before I find out who the next prime minister is and how many seats the bloc will gain. But tommorrow is the day I will post those results because I don't have them right now.

So now for todays topic one of my favorite books. Lord of The Flies by William Golding. So I never did read this book until after high school. It just wasent part of the curriculum. Have any of you out there read 1984 or Animal Farm? Well like most books in the 50's and 60's it has a certain theme to it. Reflecting on oneself and society but mainly saying that society is just like the animals. 1984 and Animal Farm are by George Orwell in case you wanted to know. Anyways back to LOTF. LOTF is a uniqly written book. It has a great cast of characters. It has a fantastic story line and the characters actually evolve and change. It is one of the greatest books of its time and now aswell.

The basic plot of the story is: There is a plane crash and a bunch of school kids survive it only to be marooned on a deserted island. There are "youngins" (which are from about 4-6) and the biguns (all the older ones)Ralph one of the biguns meets Piggy another older boy. We never learn piggys real name. They find a shell and Ralph blows it to assemble all the children alive on the island. And essentially the start to build their own society. But there is another boy, Jack who wants to take charge. We see some bad arguments and the split of the "society" take place. So that is the bare bare basics of the story. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good short book. It really isent all that long about 300 pages I believe. Or to anyone who has read other books of around that time with a similar theme. So go check it out. Buy a copy or borrow it from someone or take it out from the library.

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Prepare yourself for tommorrow you vote! That's right if you live in Canada the land of hockey lacrosse beavers and poutine you are voting tommrrow. You must vote! There are so many parties who you can vote for. Unlike in the U.S. where you have the republicans or the democrats. Not much choice. Well here you have all the choice you could ever stomach. You can even vote communist! Communist not your cup of tea? Well you could vote marixt/lennist. Oh and we must not forget the marajuna party. And of course the christian heritage party. With so many choices why woulden't you vote? So tommorrow on election day step outside of your house or office ( they HAVE to give you time off to vote) or if you are a gamer pry your hands off that controller or keyboard and go to your local polling station. Voting times are 7am-7pm so get out there. Vote for anyone you please. Remeber here in canada you CAN vote communist!

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That is right folks the conservative robot called Stephen Harper can now crack a smile! We are working out the kinks to make the smile look more friendly and well less icky. We went to the streets to see what you thought of this new feature and here is what you said.... John Doe from Nanaimo BC " I think it's about time we had the robot crack a smile. Does it make him more appealing to voters? Sure does." Jane Smith from Regina Sask " We don't get much excitment here in Regina. It is just so flat ya know? But when the Conservative leader came to town we were pleasently surprised to see that he had a new feature." Jacque Povire from Quebec " Stephen Harper is still an unlikable entity because he cannot speak french with the accent such as mine." So there you have it mixed responses but overall it seems his upgrade is good. So jokes behind us Stephen Harper has changed his image. He is now a guy who is far more appealing to the general pop and the voters. I believe that he will win the election and I am glad for that because I will be voting conservative. I do believe that the government needs a change but I would probably vote conservative whether Paul Martin was a power monger or not. So your thoughts? *Also next week I will be starting my book reviews! 5 of my favorite books so stay tuned!*

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Todays topic well it says right above...Sci-Fi. So can you think of a Sci-Fi film or tv show that you like? Or maybe a Sci-fi book or magazine. Sci-Fi is pretty popular nowadays. But the Sci-Fi we see now has evolved quite a bit from what it used to be. There is good and bad Sci-Fi out there. Some earlier science fiction writers out there are George Orwell, H.G. Wells, and John Wyndam. I can't exactly pull up a history of writers write now but there are quite a few. But what I really enjoy in Sci-Fi right now is Stargate Sg-1. It is a tv show that use to air on space. It still does however the seasons are a year behind. Meaning what is being shown was filmed last year. Stargate has 9 seasons out there and they are currently on the 10th. Also Stargate Sg-1 spawned a second tv show in the same topic called Stargate Atlantis. What a succesfull show to spawn another! It is different in ways of course but it is the same. So some of the reasons I enjoy stargate is because it is not only Sci-Fi but it brings in a lot of mythology and culture. I am an absolute fanatic when it comes to mythology and stargate integrates it into it's show like there is no tommorrow. Without mythology there would be no Stargate. To check out a bit about this show go to www.stargatesg1.com. Let me know if that link does not work. Oh and there was a movie called stargate that started this whole phenomenon. Check it out!

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I am not posting on any specific topic today. I am working on promoting my blog actually. I hope to get more traffic so I guess I need to work for it. Anyways I do have a preview for you guys for next week. Next week I will be featuring 5 of my favorite books. Now the election for canada is on monday january 23rd so on monday I will post about one of my favorite books but on tuesday I will post on the new government. So on one of the days next week I will be posting twice so I will be able to fit in the 5 books. So that is the preview for next week. Thanks for reading.

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Ok so I admit not my best title ever. So todays topic is the canadian election. Yes voting day is coming up. January 23rd. Surprisingly it looks like it is going to be a conservative government. Who would have ever thought? So all those canadians out there do you have a favorite part of this elction race. It has been a long long long one.

Two of my favorites of the past little while are: Paul Martins criticism of Stephen Harper wanting to strengthen canadas military. An ad that was not suppose to have made it on tv. It made it on to their website and onto quebecs screens. It was absolutley hilarious. Apparently strengthening our military for times of need is a horror to paul martin. Paul Martins statement during the second english language debate saying he was going to get rid of the not withstanding clause at the federal level. Uhh Mr. Martin no one at the federal level uses it anyways... So there has been some interesting statments made very definetly. Oh and I almost forgot Scott Reid of the liberals beer and popcorn statement. Ahh a classic. I think it would be a good idea now to introduce you to the pary leaders.

What They Say

I'll start with Paul Martin.  Paul Martin "I know fundamentally that Stephen Harper is horribly mean. Really just look at the guy he is fundamentally horrid and icky. Fundamentally.I love canada!"

Stephen Harper "Im a nice guy. I can smile see. I like canada. My attacks are factual his are just mean."

Jack Layton "I'm stll here guys. Choose me. Working families are the most important. Really we could get in. Vote for me me. Come on!"

Gilles Duceppe "I dislike anyone who thinks quebec is the same as the rest of canada. We have rights you know. Seperate rights." Just for the heck of it I will throw in a few more even thought they really don't matter.... Ji

m Harris "Why wasent I invited to the leaders debate? I wanna be there too let me play. I can make a difference."

And of course the marajuana party guy who I can't remember the name of at the moment.... "So I think that this stuff is like totally great man for like sick people and whoever."

So what do you think? Who has the best attack ads? The worst? The most memorable? Any thoughts at all on the election do you think Harper is "icky"? Well I hope all the canadians out there go out and vote whethere it be for the fundamentally fundamental Mr. Martin or the attention grabbing Mr. Layton. Oh one interesting fact did you know that Harper is actually the youngest out of them all? Out of the 4 top ones. Also if he does make it in he will be the youngest on the G-8 dealie. Think about it. Fundamentally.

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Welcome back all you fellow bloggers... Asyou have all noticed that there have been changes around here. TBLOG has gotten a total makeover and in ways that is awesome. But of course with change especially in the cyber world comes confusion. And dislike. I don't like change on things like my blog etc. but I think I can pull through. So enough on the change of tblog. I will get to the topic at hand. Are YOU Being Watched? Do you think you could tell if you were being watched by your government or by the FBI? Do you think there is any way that you can tell? Many of you may be aware of the leak a few weeks ago that let the american public know that bush could be spying on you! Well that is if you are a terrorist suspect or are suspicious in general. They could read your emails tap your phone or I suppose put cameras up in your house while your not there. But I really don't think they would do the last one it just sounds well you know FBIish don't you think? Anyhow The government CAN spy on you if they suspect you to have links to terrorists are a terrorist or if you look like a terrorist. So basically if you look like a suicide bomber or well an iraqi you may be being watched. If you have friends from the middle east you may be being watched and if you sympathize with anyone from the middle east you may be being watched. Ok so I know not everyone is being watched. But it is an interesting concept. Personally I don't think it's the biggest deal out there. It is of course if you actually are a terrorist. And I suppose it would rather be unfortunate if you got taking to jail for talking to a friend from the middle east. But you know what? People should be watched. That is right you heard me people should be watched. We need to stop going on about "But I am entitled to my privacy". Because of that what we know now as society is crumbling. Because no one is being survellanced. Yes innocent people will be survellanced but if your innocent what do you care anyway? So what someone is going to read your email to your boyfriend who went on a trip. Big whoop. We need to take more time to make sure people arent threatening the general pop with things that are more important then privacy. Death. Corruption. Violence. But if you want your privacy well have fun with that and watch criminals roam free. I know that this can be taken to an extreme. I don't like the idea of a society where we are constantly survyed like in george orwells 1984. And I know I am bordering on the extreme bad side here but we need to stop whinning and complaining about our privacy. Privacy is important to a point but when you use it to make yourself important when it really doesnt mean a damn thing stop fighting for it! I would rather be alive and have people tapping my phone then dead because I refused to let them. So I know that this has been a rant slightly pro dictatership post but I don't care because I believe we need more restrictions on society the general pop just arent the brightest bulbs in the pack and all they want is their privacy regardless of the cost....

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Thank you again for visiting take a number. For today since I had a lack of interesting topics I thought I would introduce myself. So my screen name here is funkadelichika. I picked up that screen name about 7 months ago. I have used it on various sites. I absolutley love the screen name. So what next? Something that is actually about myself? Well I worked at a call center for awhile. That was an interesting experience. It was my last job. I teched printers that had serious software issues. They were those all-in-one printers. The ones that fax copy scan and print. Some of the models that I teched the older ones didn't scan. But anyways they had software issues. So I enjoy learning about technology I enjoy learning about alot of things. I love culture and seeing how it has advanced. I study ancient egypt, linguistics, various religions and much much more. I live in British Columbia Canada. So it rains where I am quite a bit. I am very into all different kinds of music but some of the stuff that I listen to normally is: U2 Radiohead,Moby,Our Lady Peace, Pearl Jam, Incubus, Feist, Weezer, Alanis Morisette, Dave Matthews Band and there are many more. Im just starting to listen to classical music as well. So music is huge for me. Some of the movies I currently count to be on my top list are: Serenity, Lord of War, StarWars(episodes 4-6), The matrix trilogy,Pride and Prejudice and there are more that I absolutly love but I cannot think of them right now. Some tv shows that are high on my list are: Stargate Sg1 and well too me that is the number one show out there. Mash is the second and there are various shows from there. StarTrek (voyager is my favorite), Stargate Atlantis, ER, the first few seasons of friends and there are more I just cannot remember them all. As you can see I am a Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan. But really I like anything that has a good story and good characters as well as well written scripts and good development. So there is a little about me what I like and who I am. Any questions?

 

*I probably will not be posting tommorrow so my next post will most likely be on monday*

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What? A Rare Two-Headed Albino Rat Snake   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p; 

Where? St.Louis

When? Well uh now

Why? The zoo want's to cash in

So far it looks like there hasent been any bids. The zoo bought the snake for about 15000 I think and wants to sell it for quite a bit more. Around 150000 or 250000.They bought it in 1999. (I don't know who from) Two headed snakes usually arent expected to last as long as this one did. Usually they last less then half as long as this one did but for some reason this one has been alive for around 6 1/2 years. So would you buy a two headed snake? Would you like to own one of lifes amazing mutants? Come on you know you want one. Ok maybe not you the one who can't even stand the word snake. But the rest of you must be interested. Anyways because of technical  diff iculties I coulden't get any links to this story up so go to google and type in Two Headed Albino Rat Snake. You do not have to have all the capitals of course I just like to be as grammatically correct as possible.

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Ok heres another thing to introduce you guys and gals too. Geo cashing. Go to www.geocashing.com to get the full skinny. Heres how I understand it. First to participate in this hunt of sorts you need to have one of those funky little gps locator dudes. They range in price. You can get them in outdoor stores probably future shop and anyother electronic store. Second you join geo cashing . com. Im pretty sure you can search without actually joining but hey it is fun to join things! Then you can put in your postal code or city or province and country and co-ordinates for caches in your area will come up. You choose one and on you go! They vary in difficulty. Some you might have to hike just walk or even rock climb to get to. There is even underwater ones! Once you find to cache you can take what is in it but leave something behind and record on the geo cashing site that you were there. So that is the short version of geo cashing go to the site to find out more. They help you along for your first adventure. So thanks for checking out take a number. Take a look at my previous entries. Ones I recommend are Googlewhacking and Flash Mobbing.

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Seeing the subject you may be thinking, " huh PRO anorexia?" Well yes. There are quite a few websites out there promoting anorexia. Just type on pro ana in google. The number one thing there is a site called anas underground grotto or something close to it. Warning this site is pro anorexia and contains misleading info and links.Anyways what exactly is pro anorexia? Well it is basically the belief that anorexia is a choice not a disease. At least that is how one person I know puts it. She described it kind of like this. " Pro ana is a choice. Anorexia is a choice. I choose to live this. Until im in the hospital or something im still in control." So it seems like my friend well call her lucy doesnt think that anorexia is a disease. Lucy is waisting away because she believes it's her choice. When she ends up in the hospital she may see that something is wrong but as soon as she is out again she will continue to live the pro ana life style. It's ingrained in their minds. It's ingrained in lucys' mind and it's hard to get out. When I hear her talk about pro ana I don't try to tell her "you need to eat" I just listen ask a few questions about it and listen. I don't think that there is too much else I can do for the present. She isent a really close friend to me but I do still care for her. She has had people (her counseller, other friends) tell her she needs to eat so she may not need one more. I don't need to tell her to eat because it's not going to do much. She has made her choice. Somehow I need to get her to see that anorexia is not just a choice. In fact saying that your pro anorexia saying it's not a disease just doesnt add up. Anorexia is classified as a disease. To say your 'pro' ana is saying your for the disease not for the choice. Pro ana has probably been around for a while longer then the web definetly. The web has just made info of all sorts more widley avaliable. And anyone can post on the web. Including people who promote unhealthy thought.

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Hello and again welcome to my blog. I was away on the weekend but now I am back to bring you more posts for the week. So today on take a number Tookie Took Lives. Now just go google tookie if you don't know who he is and you will find out. You may get the one sided save tookie for the first page but read on. Now I use to think that tookie was THE originator of the crypts in L.A. He wasent but he was the solidifyer.To say that this man has changed is one thing but to beg that he be saved and not go through punishment not even close to what his victims got is another. He was convicted of the death of 4 people. They were killed by him because they knew or witnessed something to do with some of his gangs armed robberies. Who knows how many things tookies gang did that went unpunished? Youths are becoming part of the gang and other gangs. Even after tookies death the crypts will go on. Because of him many many more will die and suffer and be part of a vicous street gang. Families will lose children to tookies crypts. Tookie may have changed but it was a little too late. He got the ultimate punishment yes but he had also given that to innocent people. Tookie was a criminal if not when he died then for a substantial part of his life and for long enough to cause death robbery and who knows how much more.  

 

 

*For tommorow pro ana what it is and how long has it been around*

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Check this site out www.googlewhack.com if that link doesnt work try this one www.googlewhacking.com Anyways what is googlewhacking you may ask? Well it's that search for two words that only bring up one hit. Understand? No? Ok. ok. Well here is how it goes. Your on the google main page you type in two words like carnivorous squirrel and of course hit search. If you come up with one hit you have a true googlewhack. Only one hit folks. Now the links that I gave earlier should go to the site that records true googlewhacks. If not I'll put the link on the side of the page aswell. So what do you think of this googlewhacking? Is it just another part of googles world domination? But how can this be part of a world domination plan? How would it fit in? I think this is very uhhh mystefying. (I wish there was spell check on this) So why don't you loyal viewers go try a google whack yourself. It is much harder then you think. Google Whacking is no longer so new. But give it a try anyways who knows? Maybe you will help google take over the world. Or be one step closer yourself. So again thanks for reading my blog take a number. Go try a whack why don't you?

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Hi everyone and welcome to take a number. Today my topic is call center woe. So have any of you out there ever worked at a call center or called into one? If you have done either im sure you can identify with the woe part. Before I go further I want to mention a comic strip called user friendly. It is a comic strip that has quite a bit of call center truth too it. Heres the web site.  www.userfriendly.org If that link does not take you there I will add another one on the links portion of my blog. One great line from one of the strips is "There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." I am sure anyone who has worked at a call center can identify with this. I worked at a call center for a few months however I am sworn to secrecy I cannot tell you the company I worked for. (Even though they would give us stuff with the company name on it) So they probably don't take it to seriously as long as you don't give away their secrets or anything. If you typed in computer or printer in google I am sure the company I worked for has it's name right up there. Also it was outsourced the company I teched for was ____ but I got my check from another _____.  So anyways if you have never worked at a call center but called into one you probably had an experience like this. You called in because something wasent working or a product tasted bad or you found a finger in your pop.The first thing you heard was thank you for calling ___ please state the name of the product you are calling about. If it is a pc please state the product the product number and such. Then you wait to go to the right department so here it comes the wonderfull wait music. Then the wait music switches over but onto more wait music because now your in the call cue. Sometimes your call gets answered right away sometimes you may have to wait for 20mins or so. And then you get onto the actual call the issue. So sometimes depending on the issue you could be on the phone for 5 mins or 5 hours. (My longest call was about 3 1/2 hours) Usually the issue is fixed if it is a pc or printer. But what really sucks about calling into a call center is if your product is a pc or printer and it's just broke. Sorry there is no hope at all kinda broke. Because that adds on about 20 mins to 45 mins of extra calling time. (especially if you suck at making decisions) For service and such. Anyways that is the general feel of calling into a call center. Now on the other end you have the agent who sometimes has had barley enough trainging taking these calls on a product such as a pc. Sometimes they take call after call after call with no break in between. They tech an insane amount of issues and their tools are always going down. If they are understaffed they see that there is over 20 calls waiting and they are ready to pull their hair our not over that stuff but over the fact that a customer is telling them that there is no serial number on this piece of crap. "why don't you make the serial number larger they ask?" "ummm right" you think "because I make that product. " Then if they are misrouted you go through the call system and hear the same crap they must about please have this and this ready and you know what they never do. So on both sides it is very frustrating but of course the customer demands to always be right. Now don't even get me started on networking! Anyways there are good things about call centers if they are run properly. Your own desk sometimes your own cubicle. A computer right there so you can google to your hearts desire and sometimes there is an hour in between calls so nap time! So the call center world is definetly an interesting one but at times very frustrating for both the agent and the customer. Remember when your calling into a call center that the person you are talking to hasent created the product or the software you are calling in and complaining about and be nice so they are nice back.

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So here is my topic for this post FLASH MOBBING. Ok I do not quite know why I put it in capitals but I suppose it gives it more of an impact. How many of you out there have actually heard of flash mobbing? And how many of you (if any) have participated in it? Well for those of you who do not know what flash mobbing is here is an explaination. Flash mobbing is when someone decides that they want to make a scene in a public place. What this could consist of is a relativley small group of people (10 -12) all of a sudden showing up at a location and flapping their wings like a bird for 20 seconds then quickly dispersing. But how exactly do these people decide to do this? Do the people know each other? Well I am not too sure who decided originally that this was a good idea but now what usually happens is someone makes a few phone calls or sends out some emails and hopes that people will show up. Usually it works. I mean who could ignore even three people standing in the middle of a crowded park and squaking like seagulls? Even not knowing the specifics of this does not take away its charm. I have never seen a flash mobb my city is quite too small to do something like this and I havent quite figured it out yet anyhow. But one day I hope to be a flash mobbist delegating what crazy act people will carry out next. So your thoughts? This is the audience portion of the blog!

 

* A quick note the visible aspect of this blog will be under construction for the next couple of days please be patient*

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Hello and welcome to take a number. My name is jen and I will be your host for the duration of this blog. Of the 143,999,304 blogs out there wait 305 , 306, 307 oh forget it! Of the thousands of blogs out there here is what makes mine different are you ready?? Absolutley nothing. Except that this one is by me. So sit back grap a cup of coffee and get ready for a show. I suppose I should introduce myself and explain my reasons for using tblog. Ok I know I already introduced myself so maybe I should tell you a little about myself. Well my names jen and I live in British Columbia Canada. No I do not live in vancouver or victoria. That is the first question I always encounter about my whereabouts. I have a few blogs out there I have forgot about some I know and now those ones are just hanging there in blog world forlorn and abandoned loathing me and my existence. So why did I choose tblog? Well because it has a better opportunity for an audience then the other blog site I have used. I have used blogger some of you may be familiar with it but it just does not allow for a good audience. So here I am back at the place where I started. I have not quite decided where exactly this blog show is going to go. Is it going to be specificly about one thing or topic etc. but I assure you wherever it does go it will offer some good reading to those who value good reading still. And of course the occasional amusement. So stay tuned for the debute episode. (this was just the pilot)

2 Comments