Good things and bad things

I haven’t wanted to write much lately. It’s November, which is when I get the blahs.

Good thing: I got a letter from Revenue Canada, and it wasn’t a demand for more money – it was a Statement Of Interim Payments, informing me that my GST installment payments were up to date. The relief I felt when I discovered that I didn’t owe them anything can only be matched by the feeling you get when you find your keys after thinking that you lost them.

Bad thing: people who board subway trains and then stand in the doorway while trying to decide where to stand or sit. Umm… we’re all trying to get in behind you, sir.

Bad thing #2: The Adobe Acrobat Professional update software. It is forcing me to download one point release at a time, and demands a reboot after each release. I’m one reboot down, and two reboots to go.

Bad thing #3: November.

I’ve always wondered

This will likely just prove I’m dumb, but I have to ask. Nowadays, when you go to a banking machine, you’ll likely see a sign reading “PROTECT YOUR PIN”, with that graphic of a hand shielding a 3×3 set of buttons. What I want to know: how can you adequately protect your PIN and type it in at the same time?

And I can’t help but think: if someone has their PIN stolen by an observant thief standing in line, the bank can now simply blame the customer for not providing sufficient PIN protection.

Something I have to get out of my system: the parenthetical comment in the book title One Magical Sunday (But Winning Isn’t Everything) really annoys me.

I’m inordinately proud of the following: I’ve gone over a month without using my credit card. (No 19.5% interest for you, Royal Bank. Not yours.)

Sorry – I’m tired and cranky. I’ve been battling a cold for a week, and spent an exciting evening doing laundry, paying bills, and tidying my apartment (thus upgrading it from “disaster area” to “extremely disorganized”). I’ll be brighter and more cheerful in my next post, I promise.

Darkness inescapable

I’ve got a bad case of the winter blahs, so this will be a short entry. Actually, it’s more like the “not very much sunlight” blahs – I’m always very gloomy this time of year. It was my first day of work at my new job today, and by the time I finished work, it was already dark.

The strangest thing about a down mood is that occasionally it goes away for a bit. Then you realize that most of the bad stuff is in your head. It helps to know this, as then you can tune it out.

And I think I know why the ancient pagans used to celebrate at the time of the winter solstice. “At last,” they’re thinking, “The days are finally going to start getting longer.” That’s why February doesn’t bother me as much as it does some people: sure, the weather is really crappy, but you know that the crappy weather isn’t going to last much longer. Right now, we’re just starting the crappy weather season.

My mailbox is full of spam – the Debora spammers are gone, but they have begotten Sons Of Debora. Two sets of Debora-like spam are clogging my mailbox. The worst part is that I might occasionally be missing email from real people, as a message from a friend might be accidentally deleted as I remove wave after wave of spam.

Blah. Blah blah blah. Blah.

A longer entry tomorrow, I promise.