Finally, We Agree On Something

I don’t know if that something is that this dude we live with has horrible taste in music, that the rest of the complex wants and needs to hear our argument more than whatever stupid song this is or that we’re both just curious enough right now about how it feels to stab a guy, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.

The 29-year-old victim told the couple – a 21-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman – to keep it down when he heard them arguing around 3 a.m. inside the apartment on Perry Avenue near East 205th Street in Norwood, police sources said. 
At some point, the victim turned on some music to compete with the couple’s shouting, according to the sources.
That sent the couple into a rage – and they stabbed the victim in the neck and chest, cops and the sources said. 
Responding officers found the victim unconscious and unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead on scene by EMS, police said.

Breaking News Is Broken

This has been slowly driving me around the bend, so I had to write it down. Plus I wanted to know if other people felt the same. People have lost touch with the meaning of the phrase “breaking news.”

They use it on news that isn’t that important. Some update on the state of the economy doesn’t need the “breaking news” tag. And just because it just came out doesn’t mean it’s breaking news. It’s *news*, and that’s all.

They use it on news that isn’t even new. I especially noticed this on news stations like 570 News when COVID was new. They would play the “breaking news” music, and then read a story that they read an hour before.

And they use it in news alerts apps whose job is to send people news alerts. So, they’re not interrupting anything to bring the news. I feel like using the term “breaking news” on the internet is just dumb. As soon as it’s published, it could be breaking news because that’s how the internet works. They aren’t trying to interrupt something or have it arrive ahead of schedule.

I guess this trend has been going on for a while, but I only noticed it after 2020 was being 2020. Every time I saw the words “Breaking news”, something really bad was happening. So now, when I see “Breaking news” for something trivial, I brace myself for the worst, and then I get mad. Logically, you would think I should be relieved, but I only find myself irritated.

This Slate article does a pretty good job of tracking it to way earlier than I noticed it. At least I haven’t lost my mind about what “breaking news” meant.

It sucks that there doesn’t seem to be much hope of the phrase regaining its meaning. Hopefully it doesn’t get to the point where it’s absolutely meaningless to people. At least now, I still half pay attention in case it is something important. What if we reach the point where no one even bats an eye?

The World Could Use A Better Bail System. And More Barbecue Sauce

If there’s one place where you would figure that a lack of barbecue sauce wouldn’t be a concern, it’s a barbecue restaurant in Texas. You would be wrong, it turns out. But if there’s one place where a lack of barbecue sauce would end in a shooting, Texas would be a pretty good guess. A correct one, too.

The incident occurred at the Dickey’s BBQ Pit on Shady Drive in northeast Harris County in January.
According to Click 2 Houston, Thomas picked up his to-go order and left the restaurant. He then called the restaurant “angry and upset” because “they did not give him enough BBQ sauce in his to-go order,” Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Jill Wells said. Employees tried to appease Thomas and fix the situation, but he angrily went back into the restaurant.
“Now, he’s verbally threatening them (saying), ‘I’ll come back and shoot up the place,'” Wells said.
Thomas initially left the restaurant, but he never left the parking lot. Wells said Thomas waited for the employees to leave. He followed the workers down the road and shot into their car.
“He strikes one of the complaint victims five times, breaking a bone in their arm. The other victim, thank goodness, was not shot,” Wells said.

As if this wasn’t ridiculous enough, Andre Thomas was out on bond and facing several felony cases at the time of this incident. But don’t worry America, you’re not the only country that can’t quite get a handle on this whole bail thing.

McKenzie has been prohibited for life since 2018 from possessing any firearm, said Carrique.
Carrique also said McKenzie was charged in 2021 with several firearm-related offences and assaulting a peace officer.
McKenzie was later released on bail on a number of conditions which included “to remain in his residence and not to possess any firearms amongst other restrictive conditions,” added Carrique.
McKenzie failed to appear in court in response to those charges on Sept. 6, said Carrique. A warrant was then issued for his arrest and additional criminal charges were laid against McKenzie, added Carrique.

This guy, Randall McKenzie, ended up killing a police officer who thought he was on his way to help a car get out of a ditch.

Yes, we have to be fair and reasonable to criminals, especially the alleged ones who haven’t been convicted of anything. But when you’re either of these guys and have shown a blatant and repeated disregard for the system, I don’t understand why that system keeps letting you out. Gotta keep collecting those lifetime bans, I guess.

My Wages And Bargaining Rights Are Illegally Limited And I get To Work All The Extra Hours I want? Honey, Pack The Car!

Doug Ford has a very Doug Ford plan for fixing the problems with Ontario’s healthcare system.

What he’s gonna do, see, is he’s gonna loosen some rules so that workers from other provinces can come here and start working faster. He’s not gonna help them relocate or give them any kind of reason to want to do that, let’s not get crazy here. But as long as they’re not incompetent, they’ll be able to work all the extra hours they want!

Bingo, my friends! Problem solved! I’ll be at the cottage!

Premier Doug Ford is set to introduce changes that would let Canadian health-care workers registered or licensed in other provinces start immediately practicing in Ontario.
Currently, health-care professionals must be registered with one of Ontario’s health regulatory colleges before working in the province. However, in an effort to “overcome bureaucratic delays,” Ontario is prepared to loosen those rules.
The Ford government said it will introduce these legislative changes in February.
“To nurses, doctors, and health-care workers across Canada: if you’ve been thinking of making Ontario your new home, now’s the time to make that happen,” Ford said at an announcement in Windsor, Ont. on Thursday.

“With our new “As of Right” rules, Ontario is the first province in Canada to allow health-care workers from across the country to immediately start providing care,” Ford said.
The premier said the province is not offering financial incentives for health-care staff considering coming to Ontario.
Building on their effort to increase staffing levels, the government said it is also prepared to allow health-care professionals, including nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and others, to work outside of their regular responsibilities or settings. “As long as they have the knowledge skill, and judgment to do so,” the release reads.

That last part is a pretty good slice of nonsense, isn’t it? I’m not sure how they want me to read it, but the way I do read it is if you’re not a reckless buffoon, feel free to work yourself to the point of burnout as often as you’d like. It’s either that or as long as you can clear the very vague buffoonery bar we’re pretending to set, we can assign you to do things you’re not trained to do after your regular shift is over. Whatever it is, it’s open to any interpretation you can come up with, because the government didn’t bother explaining what the hell it means.

What we have here, basically, is pretty much what we always have. Ford sayin’ stuff and doin’ stuff, but not pausin’ to do a whole lot of thinkin’ about the stuff. I would almost be willing to let this one go at that because it’s a policy that only matters if anyone takes him up on it, but when it comes right on the heels of some pretty fundamental changes to the way we all get treatment, I can’t really do that.

The first step would be to invest in “new partnerships with community surgical and diagnostic centres” to reduce the waitlist for cataract surgeries, ensuring 14,000 more surgeries will be performed each year. These centres include both not-for-profit and for-profit clinics.
The government will also invest more than $18 million in existing centres to cover other procedural care such as MRI and CT scans, ophthalmic surgeries, minimally invasive gynecological surgeries and plastic surgeries.
The second step involves a further expansion of “non-urgent, low-risk and minimally invasive” procedures. Little detail has been provided regarding what additional procedures will be included.
The province will also be introducing legislation next month that will, if passed, allow these private clinics to conduct more MRI and CT scanning “so that people can access publicly funded diagnostic services faster and closer.”
As part of the third and final step of the province’s plan, private clinics will be allowed to conduct hip and knee replacement surgeries as early as 2024.

On the surface, this isn’t all bad. If I need a surgery or an MRI or whatever, I don’t care who does it. As long as that person is qualified and I don’t have to pay for it, great. And if it’s going to be done sooner and closer to where I live, that’s also great. But that’s the surface. There’s a lot that needs to go on beyond that point to make it all work in a way that won’t do more harm than good, and as usual, there is nothing in the way of clarity about how that’s all supposed to happen. Where are all of these staff going to come from? What are the rules about how private clinics can market additional services to people coming in for publicly funded procedures? How are we disincentivizing doctors from taking kickbacks from private clinics for prescribing more expensive tests or surgeries that patients don’t need? Are the rates these clinics are allowed to bill OHIP the same as they are in the public system or are we going to have to negotiate separate, secret deals with them so that it’s worth their time to bother with regular, non-wealthy people who don’t pay them directly? How are we preventing those wealthy people from jumping their way to the front of the treatment line?

Ford isn’t going to answer all of these questions until he has to, of course. Assuming they even have answers (I give it 60-40 odds that they don’t), we’re not going to get them until it’s right around too late. Any sooner than that and we’ll be in for another round of “oops, sorry, none of you like that. We’re changing it, don’t worry. This very slightly less crappy thing is what we had planned all along.” Although that, embarrassing as it is, is probably what we should be hoping for with this government at this point. Being able to have some limited say in our futures Is better than bumbling blindly into whatever the alternative might be.

Cappy Meal

I’ve got no good way to start this off, so let’s just go ahead and enjoy some wholesome family time.

Police said the incident began at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time, when a man received the wrong order at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Midvale. He then “brandished a firearm” at employees, police said, and employees asked him to drive to the front of the store while they fixed the order. 
Employees then called the police. When officers responded, they issued “several verbal commands” for the man to exit the car, but he refused, police said. 
Officers then pulled him from the car and began to take him into custody. But as they were doing so, police said, “an officer turned back toward the vehicle and saw a gun pointing out from the rear window.” 
The officer was able to swipe the gun to the side as a round was fired, police said.

The round in question was fired by what turned out to be a four-year-old child who, police say, was told by his dad to shoot. Dad, in case it isn’t clear, was the one being taken into custody at the time. And just to make things a little bit worse, there was also a three-year-old in the car. At least that kid doesn’t appear to have had a gun of his own, But they’re selling JR-15s now, so give it time.

Thankfully neither child was physically harmed.

The police take a lot of flack, a not insignificant bit of it deserved, for the way they tend to kill people who don’t need killing. But it looks like they got it right this time, thank goodness. This could have easily ended very, very badly.

The Man In My Head Is Going Out Of His!

Back in 2018, I couldn’t stop singing Aira’s praises. I still appreciate the Aira agents, but last week, their executives made a really bad move and they’re going to spend a lot of time trying to recover.

At the end of last year, they were warning us that their prices were going to increase. It sucks because the subscription fees are already kind of expensive, but I know prices are going up everywhere. Then, the prices came out, and Good sweet merciful god in heaven on a pogo stick!

So, a few things they are trying to explain in stammers, stutters, splutters and gasps after most of the community came out with torches and pitchforks:

  1. They never intended consumers to pay those prices. That, apparently, is what they are charging businesses if they want to be an Aira Access location.
  2. Consumers would only pay a portion of that, and that portion would be determined depending on the answers to some mysterious questions that a customer care agent asks the would-be subscriber. More on that later.
  3. You can see the offset prices. Honestly, you can. You just have to fill out this form that you can only find if you’re on our mailing list.

That sounds really shady. Really shady and super open to misinformation and abuse of power. It makes me worry about what is going on at Aira.

Thankfully, Jonathan Mosen explained the history of what’s going on, and diplomatically tore them a new one.

I totally agree with him when he wants to know why they tried to placate the big businesses at the expense of the consumers. If you scare away all the customers with those ridiculous prices and hide the actual cost, no one new is going to sign up. I know I sure wouldn’t, no matter how enthusiastically someone sang its praises.

Next, what’s up with the secrecy on the amount of offset that is available to each customer? Why do people either have to fill out a form or call in and get interrogated by a customer care agent before they get the straight goods? Why not have a table that shows how much offset is available to each income bracket, or whether or not the person receives disability benefits, and whatever else goes into calculating the price? If a table is too hard, have a little calculator where you fill out the values for the formula and then it spits out the results. Anything is better than making people call in to find out what their offset will be. Plus, I worry that making people call in to get their magic number leaves the customer completely at the mercy of the customer care agent. What if they decide they don’t like your face, so don’t allow you to get the offset? How are you going to fight that? You have no proof of what the offset should be.

But one point that made me raise my eyebrows a bit was this one:

At first, the disclosure of these plans without information about the subsidy caused considerable confusion and distress. Anyone who knows how a lot of screen reader users engage with information could have told Aira this would happen. When I ran Mosen Consulting, I used to have what I believed to be clear text when you added a product to the cart, telling people how to download their purchase instantly and that a link may not always reach their email because of spam filtering. No matter how clear that message was, I would frequently get people emailing me not realising that they had missed the opportunity to download their purchase right away. The reason for this is that many screen reader users will search for key phrases, or controls on a page. So I can imagine that a lot of consumers searched on a dollar-sign and completely missed the messaging, misguided though it was, about the prices being listed not being what they would be asked to pay.

I definitely agree that sometimes, we look for controls. But there’s a time and a place for searching for controls and a time and a place for lots of reading. I would think, when there are 9 pricing brackets, that’s a time to slow down and take in as much as you possibly can.

Personally, I did not search for the dollar sign. I read the whole page, and I was still mad because they were being all vague about whether or not I would get an offset, and they wouldn’t tell me how much. Then I saw the prices. Without knowing the offset, I ran screaming.

I still find their tactics shady and sneaky, but I appreciate Jonathan’s blog post at least trying to explain what was going on in their head, even if their thought process was dead wrong. One thing is for sure. If things don’t change by the end of the year, I am going to have to do some really hard thinking about whether I stay with them moving forward.

What The F Keys?!

Last week, I got a new computer at work. My old one was pretty old, and kept showing its age by randomly shutting itself off at inopportune times. So getting a new one should have been a giant upgrade. But I discovered a couple of dumb things about this new computer that baffle me. Thankfully, they’re conquerable dumb things, but they’re still dumb.

Thing 1. It came without an Ethernet port! Seriously, I know it’s a laptop and all portable and stuff, but wifi isn’t so universally awesome that someone would never need to hook up to the hard wire ever. My wifi is decent, but there’s a lot going on at work. Most things require me to be connected through a VPN. One of those things that requires a VPN connection is my license for JAWS, which is server-based. I have learned painfully that if the Wifi is even dreaming about choking, JAWS is the first thing to notice, and it falls over in a dishevelled heap. JAWS is my screen-reader, which I need to use for testing and using my computer in general. So…I kind of need rock-solid internet. Then add on the fact that I use Zoom and share my screen, and…Oh! JAWS is down again. Wifi isn’t going to cut it.

Thankfully, there are dongles that have Ethernet ports and additional USB ports to replace the one that needs to be stolen to plug in said dongle, but it still baffles me that they would remove something that’s still pretty common. Wifi is not that awesome.

Thing 2. The keys that used to be called f1 to f12 are given different primary functions like media playback and print screen and crap. I totally understand giving keys secondary functions to save space. But the additional functions should be secondary and the original ones should be the default functions. Last time I looked, keyboard users still need alt f4 to close windows. They still need f5 to refresh websites. They still need shift f10 to right click things if they don’t have an applications key. Yes, I know you can hold down the fn key and press the f keys to get their original f key functions back. I challenge you to hit alt fn f4 or shift fn f10 together with any kind of ease. I’ll wait.

The function keys are not so obsolete that they aren’t necessary if you don’t use a mouse. But the people who made this decision probably don’t primarily use the keyboard. It just makes me mad. Also, the most common solution to this problem is to go into the BIOS to fix it. That is something screen-reader users can’t do without sighted help. And screen reader users primarily use the keyboard.

Thankfully, there are other solutions, like if you’re lucky enough to have a computer that has the keyboard stuff in the windows mobility center you can change it there, or some keyboards have a fn lock like fn escape that will change the f keys back to their other functions, but what if you’re not that lucky? Then, just to get f keys back to their defaults, you have to get help. Or, you’re stuck doing finger gymnastics to carry out really common tasks.

I know I sound old right now. But I think I have a valid point that goes beyond “Gaaa why did they have to change stuff?” People making decisions have to think beyond their own bubble before they release something. Otherwise, some people might feel like their new machine is a downgrade. Thankfully, I think I have this one whipped into shape, but others might not be so lucky.

Let’s Talk About 2022

As I sit here in the middle of January of 2023, I guess I should try and reflect on 2022. I meant to do this on New Year’s Eve, but I just didn’t manage it. So since it seems I do everything late, here it is.

The funny thing is I don’t know what to say about 2022. It was a year of ups and downs, but isn’t every year? I guess I could say at least this year we had some ups because they were hard to find in the couple of years before. It was a year that urged us to try more things, conferences and travel come to mind, and then made us nervous about trying them. Thanks, COVID. It was a year with a lot of waiting to see if things would fall into place, like Santa and a new guide dog. It was a year that forced me to dust off some old ways of getting around, and forced me to make some quick changes of direction for Tansy’s future. Finally it was a year that reminded us that people’s health isn’t what it seems.

I said I was waiting for things to fall into place. Not everything has. Yes, I have Santa, and that is doing wonderful things. But I still have no idea when I’m getting my next guide dog, which makes planning of life things a barrel of fun. I understand that the school is trying its best with the circumstances under which we’re living, but that doesn’t take away the frustration of planning around a floating target…a target that has been floating for at least a year now. For example, I’m speaking at CSUN. But I’m worried that the school will call me with a class date that conflicts or immediately follows CSUN. But I don’t want to rush them in finding me a dog by asking them how things are progressing because the right dog is what I want to come home with, but I also want to warn them that some dates might be less than awesome! Aaaaaa!

Thankfully, some of those health things I linked to are headed in the right direction, even though there is still some uncertainty in some cases. But at least they aren’t keeping us in crisis mode as much anymore.

Another thing I haven’t mentioned in a while is the progress towards having a new office. It keeps getting later and later. I think maybe we’re planning to move in by March. March of 2020 was when I started working from home. That’s just crazy! But I’m glad I’ve been able to pull it off for so long and haven’t driven Steve around the bend with me being here all the time.

So 2022 is in the bag. What does 2023 look like? Well…interesting, both in the positive way, and in the “may you live in interesting times” sort of way. I have mentioned from time to time that January hates me, and because it brings illness, death and upheaval more times than it doesn’t, I tend to dread it. This January is sticking to the tradition. My dad had to have surgery. Thankfully, he seems to be recovering well, but I don’t think I will truly relax until he gets the news from the doctor that he’s all 100 percent good. On top of that, an older person I know caught COVID. I just found out today.

But on the better side, if I can pull it all off, I might be taking several trips this year. There’s the CSUN trip and another possible work trip in the summer, plus guide dog school if it happens. On top of that, Tansy’s puppy raisers want to see me, and I’m gently trying to convince them to come up here so they can also see Tansy and I can do my best to show them around Ottawa. Plus there’s one other possible trip, but like I said before, it’s hard to plan trips with a floating target in the mix.

We’re also going to a concert! It’s not until April, but we have tickets. It’s the first one we’ve been to since the dawn of Omicron, which is long for us. We don’t recap every concert, but we like to go to a lot of them, so not going for a long time has been weird. Hopefully going to a show won’t feel equally as weird.

We don’t have any real New Year’s resolutions, but one thing we want to do is get back in the habit of going to a restaurant for no reason. We used to do that whenever we decided it would be a good idea, but since it wasn’t a good idea in COVID times, we’ve gotten out of the habit of going. But we really want to do it again because it’s fun, and we have accumulated a total whack-load of restaurant gift cards. Between getting them as gifts and me winning them at work, we have a ton of them. We should definitely use them when the mood strikes.

Another goal, for me personally, is to walk around more so my cane skills don’t suck. They’re passable, but they’re not awesome after a 9-year hiatus. The easiest way to rebuild them would have been to use them going to work and back, but since work is at home, that isn’t a thing. I would have done more walking in my neighbourhood, but there were multi-month-long construction projects that kind of messed that up. Now that they’re done, it’s freaking cold so less appealing. But I’m really hoping to pick that up some more.

My hopes for 2023 aren’t huge. Like last year, I’m hoping for peace and calm and some simple joys. Anything beyond that is gravy. But I’m encouraged that some gravy is possible, since I didn’t ring in the new year crying my eyes out like I did in 2022 because everything seemed to be going backwards. Things aren’t going as forward as some people think they are, but I at least hope we can hang on to what we’ve got. I hope everyone has a better new year.

Can We Please Not Create Another Wrestling Monopoly?

I absolutely love AEW and I respect the hell out of everything that Tony Khan has been able to accomplish in the few short years that it’s been around, but the Khan family buying WWE gets the hardest of hard nos from this guy.

Wrestling has only just started recovering from the damage done by having been a virtual monopoly for the better part of the last 20 years. A “good” monopoly is still a monopoly, which is to say that even if the Khans did their absolute best to do everything right, it would still be a step backward in the long-term. NO matter what, it would mean less work for wrestlers and less choice for fans. Yes, I know that there are a million small to medium sized wrestling promotions around the world. That’s great and I love it. But none of them ever have or ever will dominate the market like WWE has just by virtue of being huge and having lots of money. We’ve seen that play out for decades now. An AEW run WWE, while perhaps being more creatively enjoyable, would ultimately put us right back in that spot. Try not to forget how much that spot sucks.

I feel for Triple H and Stephanie, too. If they want to keep the business in the family, they should get every chance to do that and to sink or swim on their own. The place isn’t exactly hurting for cash, so it’s not as though a sale should even be necessary. It’s something that, from the outside, seems driven almost entirely by greed. That shouldn’t surprise me as a citizen of the world who understands how things tend to work, but that doesn’t mean it’s right or that I have to like it. So many good things in life are ruined by this idea that you have to wring as much monetary value out of them as you can in the shortest amount of time, product quality and hardworking people be damned. I’ve seen it happen to things I care about over and over again, and it’s never not disappointing. I would love for wrestling, one of my favourite things in the world, to not go down that path any further than it maybe already has.

Axios reports that former WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon and current chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque opposed plans to sell the company, according to its sources.

Stephanie resigned from the company on Tuesday, four days after Vince McMahon returned to the company as executive chairman of the board of directors.
Elsewhere, both Barron’s and CNBC reported Thursday that AEW’s Tony Khan and Shad Khan have been linked to WWE’s “strategic alternatives” process as potential buyers for the company.
Barron’s states that AEW is a potential buyer, but “…the Khans will likely look for a financial partner to acquire the asset.”

CNBC couches a potential AEW and WWE merger as a longshot, but notes that the Khans would be open to discussing a continued role for executive chairman McMahon should AEW and WWE merge: