You Are 55% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

does this city have enough friggin' potholes?!

it pisses me off - they make a road, and THEN they dig trenches every 5 feet to run shit into new houses or whatever, and then they patch them really shitty - what the fuck is the point?! isnt there any kind of inspections to make sure the road is repaired to a nearly identical state as it was before they dug it up? these assholes should be fined and then made to repair it until they get it right! i dont have an SUV because i didnt think i needed it living in the city! or *think* before u jump: when building any kinda road, account for all, or at least most, of the possible wiring and plumbing needed on both sides of the street and build pipes into the road as ur building it! no digging needed later! and the innumerable manholes on some roads - ALL like 2" below the level of the pavement! what the fuck is going on inside ur overpaid, fucken useless heads?! get those manhole covers that are flush with the pavement that fasten to the actual manhole so that car wheels dont slip them out of the holes. these things already exist! they're in use. this is the fucking 21st century! my fucking tax dollars hard at work.
same for cops. i pay the fuckers' huge salaries so they can pull me over and give me a ticket? fuck you! go fight some real crime! fucking east hastings is crawling with bums - they're all dealing crack, stealing shit to get more - breaking into cars of hardworking people, the insurance doesnt cover it because the window costs more than the deductible - what are u supposed to do? and the bums just keep asking for spare change. I DONT HAVE ANY SPARE CHANGE! i need all my change - i worked hard for it - its mine! get to fucken work. and hospital staff. why the fuck does it take so long to get into emergency? get more workers in there! there's ALWAYS a few hours wait - just get enough staff to take care of it. and the people working in there are completely apathetic because they're overworked and overtired - give them regular 8 hour shifts! or even shorter ones - since its a stressful job. but the hospital staff dont want short shifts - i found out they like the overtime! no overtime for you! it costs me too much! plus ur useless after working for a couple hours anyways! instead they bitch about how hard their jobs are and want more pay. hire more staff, pay them less, have them work shorter shifts so they're more rested and work better.
i realise i should spend this energy actually calling the politicians involved with the necessary decision making, but that would take more time and energy than i presently have. but if i do nothing - then i can be damn sure nothing will change! change has to be effected, someone has to push. and even if all the pushing i'm doing right now is bitching about it on my blog, my hope is that if enough people bitch about it, it will become a common enough topic of discussion and finally reach the critical mass needed to effect that change - be it by people feeling the power of the sheer number of people agreeing on the same idea and finally pushing the powers that be from all possible angles, or by the powers that be perceiving this potential and preemptively making the needed changes before the beast wakes up and wreaks some serious havoc.

phew. much better.

mr. mo

where i work, i've befriended this black guy from kenya. his name is mohammed. not sure if thats the spelling he uses but he's mr. mo to me. not that he's much older than me - i'd say he's 33.
i've seen him around lots. i know him because this guy who used to work with me - hash - was also muslim, so they had something in common. hash left the company to keep educating himself, but i kept saying hi to mr mo whenever i saw him. however, we never got past the smalltalk stage until recently, when i found out he's now married. he's been living in canada for a while, he's strayed from islam a bit - dating, partying once in a while. and in all those years, whenever he called home his mom would bug him about when he's getting married and all that jazz. finally he told his mom to find him a good wife over there, in kenya - he trusts her judgment. so a while later, his mom announces to him she's found someone. she told him what she knew about her. sounded interesting, so he asked for a picture. his mom talked to her family, and they gave her a picture of their daughter. from what i understood, she was wearing a burqa, so the picture wasnt very revealing. so mr mo asked for another picture. to which his mom responded that it would be inappropriate, since they'd already asked them for a picture, and received it. like it or not, mr. mo went to kenya, i guess got the equivalent of an engagement, and was finally permitted to talk to her on the phone.
"good god" - i thought.
i guess she sounded awrite, because soon thereafter mr mo got married!
and bingo-bango - shortly after he found out he was gonna be a daddy!!
good job mr mo!!! :D
now he's back in canada, working his butt off to get ready for the impending arrival of his wife. the stupid thing is, even though they're married, she's not allowed to come here with him until she gets cleared by immigration or whatever - which might not happen until after she gives birth.
when he was telling me the story, i told him that i understand it's his tradition/religion, but that i just couldnt do something like that - my thinking on the matter now is that a couple should live together for at least a while so they can find out what each other is like day to day. because life is more mundane day to day than exciting dates, booty calls or just occasional hanging out.
but mr mo says that his approach to marriage is very different from the start. a successfully married couple has to be determined that this is a lifetime deal. to mr mo, "western" relationships have doubt and uncertainty instilled right in them in the form of anniversaries. mr mo sees celebrating an anniversary as being happy that "we made it thru a month! a year! two years!" to me it's not exactly like that, but i suppose theres a little bit of that in there.
then mo went something like:
"there is no perfect matches. if someone finds a 50% match that's very good. the rest is just being determined to make it work. and knowing how to approach the relationship. a woman will every now and then try to push you, push your buttons, she will be cranky, maybe she's having a bad day, maybe its that time of the month, maybe its the moon, but you have to understand that this is her nature, it will happen in every relationship. you have to treat her like a rose, and never mind the thorns - just keep on watering and taking good care of her and she will blossom beautifully for you..."

he just about killed me with that one - it was funny, but it was beautiful! thats an awesome thing to keep in mind. i mean, i still think i'd like a bit more certainty on whom i'm going to marry, and i do believe that there should be a lot of determination in a marriage, but the "watering the thorny rose" analogy is just priceless. i wonder what he meant by the moon affecting a woman's disposition. well, i guess in western society some people also believe that the full moon tends to make people a little more crazy than usual.

and after i told my dad about this, he laughed and said "and if it doesnt work, then you can always 'trim' her a little..."

but let the record show my dad is not a misogynist, and treats my mom well.