Cheated Out of $100

Over the summer I worked for one day as a Production Assistant on CBC's Over the Rainbow reality tv series where girls competed to get the role of Dorothy for some production in Toronto. None of that matters because the real thing is THEY CHEATED ME OUT OF $100. I worked for them for a day, and they haven't paid me, coming up with bullshit excuses every time.

Just to be clear, it's not CBC, it's the fucking production company Temple Rainbow Productions Limited. Fuck them to hell.

I should have known from the start when after I, and the seven other people about to jammed in the ass, finished up our day of work that they said they wouldn't be able to pay us that day, and instead would email us some document which we would have to fill out and them send back. So first off we get a fucking chore to do AFTER we just worked for you, just to get our measly fucking $100.

Of course these fucking emails went right into my spam folder, as if my email could detect the shady nature of these scumbag pieces of shit. Once I found it, I emailed them all the documents. But oh no!

"The payroll company is mentioning that they can't make out most of the info through you sending them this way. When they're printed out a lot of info is hard to read. Isn't there a way for you to scan them somewhere and send. This seems more like a photograph of them was taken. The other option you can try is faxing it to us and I'll let you know if any info is cut out. Thanks. Fax number is XXXXXX" 

Ok, fine. So I re-send. 

"Thanks for this but none of the info is coming through clearly when printing. Can you fax?" 

NO I CAN'T FUCKING FAX ASSHOLE! I AM A SINGLE MAN LIVING IN 2012, WHY THE FUCK WOULD I HAVE A FAX MACHINE?! Other people seem to be doing just fine without faxing, just eat a dick and send me my measly fucking $100!

I hate you Vince, I hate your stupid fucking company, and I hate your stupid fucking fax machine. I hope you get wrongly placed into hell, and they try to send you the proper documents to heaven, but they can't get them because they don't have a fax machine. 

And then you get raped by Hitler.

Warren Farrell Protest

Watch this video, and tell me what you think:

To sum up, Warren Farrell is a man who was doing a talk at the University of Toronto. A group of people decided to protest this because they disagreed with his views which they deemed anti-feminist at best, and rape-apologist at worst.

People who wanted to see the talk were not able to get in because these people blocked their way.

Really, you should just watch the video and tell me what you think.

My favourite part is at the end when a guy is saying he doesn't have to agree with someone to listen to their views, and he just wants to hear what people's opinions are. This throws one lady for a loop, as she can't understand how someone could pay money and listen to someone talk without already agreeing with all of their views, saying "why would you pay money to support a rape apologist if you weren't one?" He wisely took the high road and walked away, but it got me thinking that anyone who's seen a Chris Rock show are now all actually black comedians, since they supported him, and why would they pay money to see a black comedian if they weren't one?

Leave comments, especially if you know anything about who Warren Farrell is.

Nerd Alert: Fiasco Review

Winner of many independent RPG awards, so hipster nerds love it.

I am going to nerd out here a little bit and introduce you to a fine new purchase I made recently: Fiasco, an RPG published by Bully Pulpit Games, and created by Jason Morningstar.

RPG, for the uninitiated, means roleplaying game. As in a game where you take on the role of a character, and play as them. Roleplaying game! The most well known RPG in history is unquestionably Dungeons and Dragons, but this game really isn't anything like that. There are no battles, no monsters, no complex dungeons to adventure through.

Instead, Fiasco is based on small-time caper films like Fargo, The Ladykillers, and Small Time Crooks. The game falls into a few sections. First, the 3-5 players roll some dice, and die by die determine their relationships to each other. Once that is settled, the players take away dice and act out scenes until no more dice remain, and an aftermath of their disastrous situation is resolved.

A big part of the fun is that during each scene that is acted out, the players who aren't in the scene determine whether the scene goes positively or negatively for a player by giving them a white (for positive resolutions) or a black (for negative resolutions) die part way through the scene. So things never quite go the way you plan for them to.

We didn't have enough black dice, so we had two groups:
"Whites Only", and "Coloured". Didn't think that one through.

So that's the stuff you would need to know. Sounds pretty nerdy, right? Well, what's really cool, is that I've found how amazing the game is as a storytelling tool. Take the way the relationships are established:

Through tables provided in the Fiasco handbook, and with the dice your players have rolled, you determine your relationships together. These each fall into two sections- Relationships ie. how you know each other, and Details ie. a shared Location, Object, or Need. Basically you roll a bunch of dice, and based off of the numbers that come up, one by one you pick a die to correspond with a detail on the tables. Easy.

You share these traits with the person to your right, and to your left. And that's what makes it so interesting.

So you aren't rolling up and determining your own character; you are discovering your relationship to two other people. And they, in turn, are also getting relationships with the two people next to them. Thus, a five person game is going to start to have a deeply-weaved web of intriguing characters.

Our story centered around a store much like this one...

A game I recently played broke down like this:

A.J. and Ricky shared a crime relationship together, which was determined to be centered around a small drug trade. I played the naive cousin of Ricky, the small-time crime lord the suburbs, and we worked together at the Tile Hut in the mall (which turned out to be a front for his drug game). To my left was Robin, and it was determined that we were a recent couple.
Then we found out that A.J. and Robin's relationship was that of a dark past: a drunk driver and next of kin of victim. The four of us talked it out, and determined that A.J. had killed Robin's sister who had been getting into the drug game with A.J..
One of the final details was determined that though Robin and I were a new couple we shared a need together to get rich through ripping off drug lords. Soon our story was becoming clear: somehow I would have to use my contact with Ricky to get into the drug game and either provide vengeance for Robin by getting even with her sister's killer, or somehow screw both the drug guys out of lots of money.

But that was just me. Every other player also had their own different motivations and special interests. It keeps the story moving as their is always some situation that needs resolving and the action never stagnates.

I highly recommend it to RPG players everywhere, but as an improv coach, I have to say it is an amazing tool for just telling stories in general. If you are in any sort of creative medium and want to hone your craft, it's at the very least worth a play-through. It's fun, it's simple, and it's social, so grab a group of friends, plop down $25 for the book (or $12 for a pdf version) and play a game. You won't be disappointed.

Revisiting Predictions

This is a repost of my entry on September 5th. Looks like prediction number one is good. I can't wait for number two. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some quotes tonight of pundits and maybe even politicians throwing Romney under the bus. I'll update with those quotes if they happen. Interesting to see my (and I presume others) mindset going from the convention to the debates. Lots more changes happened than I anticipated, but ultimately, it looks as though my electoral college prediction will still be right.



Predictions for the 2012 US Election



The Democratic National Convention is going on right now, and we are just two months away from election day. So what better way to make things go by faster than by throwing out some predictions!

1) Barack Obama will win a second term as President of the United States.

Not the boldest prediction at this point, but it seems pretty reasonable. Even if Mitt Romney gets Florida and Ohio, he will still have quite a long way to go, and I just don't see the campaigns trending that way.  The Republican National Convention didn't give him a huge boost, so really all Romney has left are the debates to win over undecided voters. But the debates look to be a place where Romney will be confronted head on by issues that he has been able to hide from behind a timid media.

2) Once Mitt Romney loses, the right wing media will throw him under the bus.

Do you remember how harshly the right wing media came down on Justice John Roberts when he was the tie-breaking vote for the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care for America Act? They are not a forgiving bunch. And it's my feeling that if Romney loses you will see a movement even further to the right.

All the defences they've put up to protect him and push him forward will come crumbling down. Do you recall during the primaries how reluctant they were to embrace him? The voters too, yes, but the media played a big role in that as well. Everyone else was getting their chance to be the anti-Romney candidate in 2011. Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich (twice), Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain.

Look at this graph from Media Matters:

The left side coincides with his official announcement to run for president. Follow that link (or this one) and you'll see that everyone got their chance on Fox News to audition for the chance to be the nominee. And they all rose up, and then fell back down, one after another. And finally it was Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal that they had had enough. It was clear no one else was going to take it from Romney, and it was like the changed overnight, defending him from attacks from far more conservative nominees because he actually had the most realistic chance of challenging President Obama.

That allegiance, once the election is over (and thus there is no more use for him), will come crashing down, and Romney will be hung out to dry as "not conservative enough."All the defences they have for him now will turn into attacks on why he actually wasn't the right candidate. They will "discover" that Romney actually wasn't the hardcore conservative he said he was, and now if they just find that guy (or girl) then they'll have a real shot for 2016.

3) The Republican Party will shift further to the right.

George W. Bush, love him or hate him, is conspicuously absent from the campaign trail. And good for him, saying he wants to "stay out of the spotlight." Since leaving office, he has remained silent on President Obama's policies for the most part, made an appearance on Oprah, and has enjoyed retirement. He even found time to combat AIDS in Africa.

But what is the real reason George W. Bush is not around? Is it because he is an easy target for blame for the recession? Partly, but I think it is mainly because George W. Bush is no longer a hardcore conservative to the current Republic (Tea) Party. Government did not get smaller under Bush, it got bigger. He proposed immigration reform that was supported by Democrats, but not by his own party. And look at No Child Left Behind. Bush worked with the Democrats to create the act which actually increased education spending nationwide. This kind of talk is absolutely unheard of in today's GOP.

So we will come to whole new 8-year cycle in 2016, and I believe the party will shift even further to the right. Will poster-boy Paul Ryan take the helm? He is a tea-party favourite, but being tied to a losing candidate for President could hurt his image, and he might not do well against Joe Biden in the debates. Jeb Bush? Or someone new? The field is going to be wide open. You won't see all of these big name candidates declining to run for personal reasons like Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie. It is going to be every man for himself, and you are going to see some very different ideologies come forward as the Republican Party tries to shape itself into a modern conservative movement.

Regardless of who the next nominee is, if you hated the endless primary season this time around, you are going to absolutely loathe it next time.



Let me know what you guys think in the comments below. Am I way off? Do you see something different? I'd love you hear all of your opinions!

Check out this blog: Skeptikai

You should go to Skeptikai!

The blog describes itself as "Science, psych, sex, and Japan," from the perspective of a blogger in Japan. I'd say its about a variety of topics that anyone would find interesting, and doesn't really limit itself to just those (unless you count science as a veeerrry broad topic).

Sample articles like the Top 10 Safest and Most Dangerous Countries in the World, and Is Outing an Internet Troll Going Too Far? are good examples of the kinds of topics that he touches on, and there are a bunch of comments to facilitate a nice discussion.

Give it a read.

Tebowing: Because Nothing's More Important Than the Almighty Dollar

Tim Tebow has decided to trademark his signature pose known as Tebowing. I think this is really great news for him, because it means a few things:

"Fuck, I glued my hand to my head again. Ah, I'm sure no one will notice..."

1) He has acknowledged his future lies far more in taking money from people with "Tebow" pencils, "Tebow" bracelets and other "Tebow" bullshit that his mindless followers will surely buy, than with playing any meaningful football and earning his fortune through that. And good for him.

Now you might be looking at his stats, and saying "now hold on there Alan Jazeera. He has the highest completion percentage of his career, AND his best passing rating ever!" And you would technically be right. But that is because he has throw all of three (3) passes, two (2) of which were caught. Hurray! He's improving!

Now with his mind on to trademarking his imaging and selling it, and off of football, he can focus on the things that really matter: faith making money.

I wouldn't be surprised if an appearance on The Bachelor was in his future. They've had back-up quarterbacks before!

This was literally the most "action-y" pose I could find for him. He... he didn't play much.

2) He has accepted the path that god chose for him. Now this one probably says more about god than about Tebow. Apparently god was in Tebow's corner last year, and was helping him win games left and right. They were essentially miracles! If Jesus was a quarterback, he'd have been backing up Tebow, because man was he on fire.

And then he wasn't. Then he was just fired. Or I guess traded.

Traded to the godless, sinful town of New York City!

I assume Tebow's lack of playing time is god's punishment to Tebow for accepting to play for such heathens. But really it's all part of god's plan. His plan to start Tebow out as a savvy business mogul who sells shitty trinkets with his face and Tebow pose plastered all over them so he can amass a fortune.

For what purpose you might ask?

To live as a modern day king! To spread the word of god, of course!

"Good job, Billy! Just two more touchdowns and I'll let you into heaven."

Yes, once the money starts coming in you can rest assured that we will see Tebow much more than we would ever see him on Monday Night Football. Or even practice, probably.

3) The Almighty Dollar is true king.

Can you blame a guy for trying to make a buck? No. He's Tim Tebow, why shouldn't he make money off of "Tebowing?"

There's no reason to think he won't turn what is sure to be a very nice nest egg into something that truly helps all of mankind, just like Jesus would have wanted.

Or something like that.

To The Old Man Who Took All My Leg Room On The Bus

Look, old man. There are certain rules that we as citizens of this great fair city have to follow. Complaining about how long construction takes, acting like we are civilized while Saskatchewan is full of hicks, and loving whoever the Bombers' back-up quarterback is. But above all of these is not putting your knee across the halfway point of the seats on the bus.

Is this towel made of lead?! Man, my head hurts...

Perhaps you felt entitled to it. Yes, you were seated before I had arrived, and were probably lavishing in the glorious amount of room your legs were free to roam in. If you could stretch out your calves, I'm sure you would have. But when I sat down beside you, you should have politely scrunched your legs together ever so slightly, so that my legs could fit in that area as well.

Instead, as you refused to budge your knobby, khaki-panted knees from their position, I was forced to have just one leg in front of me, and the other leg way out in the aisle, blocking the path for people behind us who wanted to exit. The look that woman gave me when she had to brush by outstretched leg... that should have been directed at you!

"Smile, sir. No, smile. Smile! S-M-I-L-E! Ah, screw it."

And then you have the gall to press your legs out even more, pressing your knee against mine. That is when enough was enough, and I held my knee firmly in place, not giving up a single inch. Some may call it "petty", but I call it "kind of petty."

As I was getting my phone out to take a picture of the amount of leg room that you were taking up, that is when you decided to ring the bell and stand up to get off the bus.

"Sorry," he said.

"No problem," I replied.

Damn that polite old man. All my frustration melted away as he shuffled past me, avoiding bumping into me or stepping on my feet. As he stepped gracefully from the bus and headed off to his destination, I figured he probably just didn't realize how much room he had been taking. Or maybe his knees hurt. Or maybe he just figured he'd earned the space as opposed to some young punk like me. All appropriate responses to the situation.

Bless you, old man. Let's not forget to respect the elderly, in all their glory, knobby knees or otherwise. They certainly deserve it.

Who you callin' old? I could still kick your ass, son...