Going with the theme of labour union strike rants, I’m writing this blog because of the currently famous Toronto “garbage” strike. Public city workers have gone on strike, and left the city a disgusting mess. Workers are, of course, entitled to their opinion, but sometimes they go way too far. In this case, they blocked city dumps, so citizens were not allowed to take their own garbage there. Umm, back off. Just because you don’t feel like picking up my garbage, doesn’t mean you should be able to stop me from picking up my own.

This strike really had no effect on me until a call from my brother’s fiancee. They are getting married next weekend in Toronto. Pictures were supposed to be taken at Centennial Park. They received a letter from the City of Toronto, revoking their permit. The permit they paid for. That is angering. So, here’s a big middle finger for the public workers in Toronto on strike. From me, to you.

So lately I’ve always had a song on my playlist that gets stuck in my head and I can’t get enough of it. The song is like heroin, for lack of a better metaphor. I, Jen Butson, am going to share my addiction with you. You’re welcome. If you look to the right bar of the page, you’ll see my top 5 songs listed. I’ll update it as much as possible, and you know if it’s there, it’s worth checking out. This was a suggestion from Kayla, so…thanks KVK.

The blogger from Where’s My Jetpack? has created the funniest thing since…well, in a while. He calls it LOLSUITS (stemmed from Lolcats, obviously) and it comes from the hilarity of stock images. Here’s an example of one:

Loves it.

So you all probably (should) know how I feel about unions, and were probably expecting this post sooner or later. Union strikes anger me. A lot. The union this time around is the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). The reason for striking is that the LCBO is trying to move towards a more casual work force – this means employing workers who don’t get sick days, vacation, benefits, etc etc. Basically, part-time students. Currently, the LCBO’s work force is made up 57% of casual workers. So the union is striking to try and make this not happen. Umm, I feel the need to point something out…

WE ARE IN A RECESSION. PEOPLE EVERYWHERE ARE LOOKING FOR JOBS! YOU THINK BY NOT GOING TO WORK TO PROVE A POINT THAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET WHAT YOU WANT?!

Unions are like children. They whine and scream and refuse to do things until they get exactly what they want. They are the most spoiled children in the world. I mean, they do get, on average, 41% more pay and benefits than non-unionized workers. Here’s a tip ladies and gentlemen: you are replaceable. This part bugs me:

“Mr. Layton said the LCBO would not hire outside workers in the event of a strike.”

Why the bloody hell not? You need to bust the union and show them who’s boss if you want to accomplish anything. You can’t win here. They won’t let you win. Here’s another gem from the National Post article:

“We won’t stop someone from getting alcohol if a store is open, but we will let customers know what we are fighting for,” he said on Sunday. “We’re going to try to stop the flow of alcohol by talking to the truckers and warehouses, by convincing them to not move the alcohol.”

Haha so basically “We won’t stop you from buying alcohol, but we’ll stop the alcohol from getting to you.” What the hell is your problem? You don’t want people to drink? Then go work at Alcoholics Anonymous and help people that need it.

This rattles me to no end because unions are mindless, undemocratic armies who take hostages and make threats. That is not very Canadian.

Just…fantastic.

Have we become so obsessed with staying thin that we must now INHALE our food? Le Whif, European-developed, is an inhaler with chocolate particles…so it tastes like chocolate…but with less than one calorie. So it’s like…chocolate air. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly curious to try it, but really? I think I’d feel so unsatisfied. That would be like coming out with a cologne that smells like freshly printed $50 bills. Just because I smell like money doesn’t mean I’m rich.

Oh, it also comes in 4 “flavours”.

According to their new ad campaign, anyway. Here’s one of the videos titled “Life”…

Here’s the second video, titled “You”…

I still have no idea what Scient-lol-ogy is all about. These videos do make it look cool though. Would’ve been way better if their budget allowed them to get new images for the second video…reusability is transparent.

Also, is Scientology supposed to be edible? Cause umm…chocolate could be good…

Ugh…so…I just finished watching the near 12-minute long video by Perez Hilton about how he got “attacked” in Toronto while at the MMVAs by Will.i.am. He shouldn’t have been attacked, it was terrifying, blah blah blah. He was “in fear of [his] life”. But while waiting for the police to arrive…he goes on Twitter and starts tweeting about it! He posts a series of tweets about the attack…saying how terrified he is. If I was… “attacked”…my first thought wouldn’t be to tweet about it. I’m not even going to post the link to his video, because it is an actual waste of time. All the pertinent details are in this post.

Goes to show how social networks are taking over the world…what happened to the good ol’ fashioned angry mob?

God? That’s what this ad for his new season of The Cleaner says to me:

I don’t like the name of this show…it reminds me of the movie Cleaner, about crime scene cleanup. Weird movie. Sammy Jackson or Benny Bratt can clean my place anyday.

days.