Friday, September 29, 2006

late evening

Okay, Something’s Fishy, Man…

By the way, these are our dearly departed goldfish, Bob & Priscilla.  They were an awesome couple.  This picture is really good considering that our camera wasn’t very good back then.

evening

Yeah, Whatever, Slut

TORONTO, Sept. 29 /CNW Telbec/ - Belinda Stronach today issued the
following statement:

“I have chosen a public vocation and I recognize the scrutiny and attention that comes with that. At the same time, I am an individual citizen and I respect the right of everyone to privacy in their personal life.

Despite the inaccurate and irresponsible statements about me that have been made over the past week both to the media and in other places, I felt I could not make any public comments that related to the personal situation of Tie and Leanne Domi. Only they can speak to their own issues.

But I think it is important to clear the air on a couple of points.

I do not want to speculate on the motivation behind making inaccurate and irresponsible public statements about me, but it is unacceptable to make them.  Any problems between Tie and Leanne Domi are not related to me.

I have a job to do in public life and I will continue to work with my constituents in areas of importance to Newmarket-Aurora and to the country. I will also continue to be involved in the competitiveness of our economy, job creation, democratic reform, women’s issues, girls’ education, and issues around poverty in Africa on the global scale.

This is all I wish to say on these matters and, therefore, it is not my intention to make any further statements”.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

evening

Loan Officer/Mortgage Agent School - Days 3 & 4

Let’s just say that my brain is on overload, and that I can’t wait for the weekend.  I understand everything for the most part.  The fancy calculator that does loan amounts, terms, balloon payments, adjusts for debt, income, taxes, insurance, etc...totally amazing.  While we just learned how to use it tonight, I’d like to profusely thank the inventor for making my future calculations so easy.  Man, what an invention.

The drive is very very unpleasant.  It’s the most driving I’ve done, um, ever, I think.  My car gets terrible mileage.  Something like 20mpg, highway, although it’s really stop & go for at least half the trip there.  Have I told you how much I dislike constant driving?  I do.  For me, driving is only the means to an end.  It gets me from point A to point B.  While I enjoy music while in the car, I enjoy it a whole lot more when I’m at my desk.

Unlike Leigh-Ann, I can see myself doing this for a living.  I don’t particularly like math, but I like solving problems.  The math for loans is kind of incidental, once you get familiar with all the terms and rates - I’m not yet, but I will be.  But the idea of switching stuff around and playing with the numbers to help people get a loan they want, is kind of cool to me.  It’s the same thing I enjoyed about my job working in United reservations, doing international itineraries.  I liked figuring out the routing, the different flights to match up with connecting flights in various countries (sometimes they only ran a couple times a week), the challenge of getting people into the most cities possible on their around-the-world tickets. Plus, knowing how happy people are when they get a new house or get money to pay off debts or money for new landscaping, that’s rewarding.  Hey, this sounds like answers to questions for a job interview, huh?

I don’t know if Leigh-Ann is going to tell this story or not, but tonight as we were going on one of breaks, she told me she had to go tell our instructor something.  I had no idea what it was going to be.  I just left and went outside to chat with some classmates.  When she came back, she told me that she told the instructor that she had no interest in doing this for a living, that she took the class to be supportive for me.  That she wanted to be able to understand what I was doing, and to be able to help if necessary, but it definitely wasn’t what she wanted to do.  Our instructor is VERY rah rah - the class is like half mortgage, half motivational seminar.  Leigh-Ann doesn’t like the motivational seminar part because working to just make a lot of money isn’t what drives her.  It’s what drives me.  I don’t have any particular interests that would lead me to a high paying job.  The things I enjoy, like reading, surfing the web, playing fantasy sports, eating at buffets, having nice things, buying stuff for the pets...those aren’t jobs.  They’ll never be jobs.  I’ve finally accepted that I need to find a job that allows me to work independently and make a lot of money, so I can use that money to pay all my bills and give me time to enjoy the things I like to do.  I also like process of thinking of creative advertising.  I don’t want to be the person who slaps a boring ad on your shopping cart or sends a postcard with my picture on it (I wouldn’t do that to you) to you in the mail.  The thought of advertising like a realtor has absolutely no appeal to me.  I want to market to people online.  I’m comfortable online and I’m comfortable with people who are comfortable online.

Oh yeah, to finish up the story of Leigh-Ann and the instructor.  The instructor apparently laughed and said that she was really glad Leigh-Ann had told her that.  She thought it was nice that she was taking the class with me.  Everyone was happy.  Although, knowing our instructor, you could probably tell her what you ate for lunch or that the sky was blue and she’d just be damned happy about it.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

late evening

Okay, Just One More - Boohoo, Belinda, Boohoo

Belinda Stronach Speaks Out on Alleged Domi Affair
Sep, 27 2006 - 3:50 AM

TORONTO - Liberal M.P. Belinda Stronach suggests media reports about her personal life point to a sexist double standard. She isn’t commenting specifically on the nature of the allegations, but says she thinks they wouldn’t be such a big deal if she were male. Stronach says that’s very ``unfortunate for other women in this country that want to seek political office and want to make a contribution.’
Allegations of an affair between Tie Domi and Stronach were in divorce papers filed by Domi’s estranged wife.

Double standard?  No, baby, you’re being accused just like Bill Clinton was accused, just like every other person who cheats on a spouse or cheats with a married person is accused.  If you can’t take the heat, perhaps you shouldn’t STEAL PEOPLE’S SPOUSES.  It’s just that damned simple.  By the way, if it makes you feel any better, Tie looks just as badly as you do, if not worse.  Oh, and if you want to make a contribution as a politician, how about you keep your pants zipped up?  That’s a totally excellent start.  Or, hey, you could go back to that nice Peter MacKay guy, he’s SINGLE.  Are we clear now?  You have lots of choices, but MARRIED MEN aren’t part of that choice, unless you enjoy the bad publicity.

Okay, I think I’m done now.  I just couldn’t let that stupid “double standard” statement stand.  My gawd, what nerve, to complain that slutty men get treated so much better in the press.  So, if you were a dude, it would be okay that you slept with someone else’s spouse?  Geeez.  There’s no way Belinda Stronach will ever be the Prime Minister with such a victim complex.  What a weak argument.  “Well, cheating men have it so much easier in society.”

late evening

Loan Officer School - Day 2

Still, not too bad.  The drive there sucks totally, but the drive home is only about 20 minutes, which is super pleasant compared to the bumper-to-bumper yuk of getting there.  We have noticed that there are more personalized plates than ever before.  That makes the trudging along slowly a teeny bit better.  Still, I wish the place was right around the corner, instead of on the other side of the city.

Class was okay today, but we had so much reading and quiz stuff to do before we left for school.  Gah, I don’t know how the people with actual jobs and/or kids are doing it.  Maybe their brains work better than ours.  Today in class we had to do a presentation on lending regulations.  You know how Leigh-Ann and I love our public presentations.    Wheee.  We weren’t supposed to work together, but Leigh-Ann was cranky and threatening to stab herself in the hand with her pen.  So, we worked together, with one other woman.  We had to name our group, so we named it “Two Cranky Lesbians & A Cranky Straight Girl” - the class seemed pleased with our moniker.  Go figure.  Leigh-Ann & Linda made lovely cute little pictures of the people we can’t discriminate against - ironically (haha), according to that form (it was from ‘95), we were allowed to discriminate against gays & lesbians.  I tossed out ideas.  That’s me, I’m an idea person.  I’d always wanted to work at that ad agency on “thirtysomething” where they played basketball in their office and tossed out ideas.  Seemed like fun. 

Anyway, I’m exhausted and I’m going to bed.  I have reading and homework tomorrow, and oh boy, an oral quiz.  I hate quizzes, especially oral ones.