?chafaudage

No one likes being woken up by the telephone. At 8:14 this morning I got a call from 1-877-766-7690. I've been getting calls from them a lot, always with a recorded message about some "important, time-sensitive business matter." I never paid attention to the recorded messages; if people really want to talk to me, they'll use people, not machines.

Well, instead of hanging up during the pause that now precedes several telemarketers' calls, I hung on too long and heard a non-recorded voice at the other end. A woman claimed I had an outstanding bill with Bell since April 2007 of $138.

I'm struggling to write my résumé now. As a tech geek, I knew what to write, knew where to find resources on how to write it, etc. I could write a decent enough résumé to get interviews. I knew how to tailor my résumé fairly well, too.

I joined Aeroplan last year because I didn't want to lose out on the free bonus when I booked a flight to BC using Air Canada. Well, a year has passed and I haven't used my Aeroplan account or purchased from one of their partners [do they even have any?] despite all the spam they've been sending me. I've been getting warnings like crazy that my account will expire and my miles with it.

Therefore, today, I decided to explore what redemption options I had with my miles. First I considered buying something with them. I have 2494 miles. That doesn't buy anything except, almost, a donation to a charity (2500 is the minimum). Ok. Fine. I explored the site some more. Heeey, here's an interesting option. I can share my miles with someone! My mom's always complaining of being in debt and short on cash -- maybe I could send her my piddly miles.

I get to the sharing page. I see something that says "cost." I reflect upon this "cost" and decide it is impossible. In shock, I call the Aeroplan office to make sure that it actually costs TWO CENTS PER MILE TO TRANSFER THEM TO SOMEONE. Yes. Yes it does. Okaaaaay. So it'll cost me $50 to give away my miles to my mother, when they're barely worth $50 themselves. What the fuck?! Does that make any sense?!

I return to the online store and browse some more. Maclean's magazine subscription for 5000 miles. I'm quite short of that. Struck with curiosity I go check out Maclean's website to see what a subscription costs. Well, if I really wanted that subscription, I could get it for $34.95 right now.

I give up looking for something I can purchase for my own enjoyment, reasoning that if it costs 2¢ per mile to give them away, it must cost more to buy them. I strongly consider the charity option, peruse, and choose Médecins sans frontières. I click on "check out." At the check out, I'm required to give my credit card information to purchase the six miles required to make an even 2500. At three cents per mile, that's 18 cents, and, I guess, a cent of tax. And that's why there's a 19¢ charge on my credit card.

Oh, and by the way -- the cost of buying the miles for a subscription to Maclean's would have cost $75.18 without tax, double what Maclean's is charging at this moment. (Yes, I realize it's a promotional price. Still.)

It wasn't really today's crossword, since the Waterloo Chronicle only comes out once a week. I'm not sure it's even a crossword they put together what with the American content, but, I figured I'd post what I learned today. I'll put the clues in italics and underline the answers.

• 47454is the zip code for Paoli, IN (who the hell cares?)


• Hoover's office is the FBI. Huh. I always thought he was an American president. Well, besides the vacuum company, there are (at least) two important Hoovers: Herbert Hoover, the 31st Pres, and J Edgar Hoover, the FBI guy. So I was right, really.


• Edward __, author and writer (Albee) was an American playwright. I didn't think I knew any of his works, but turns out he did "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", which I think I saw at Stratford with my mom one year. [Thought: isn't "author" and "writer" somewhat redundant? Was "playwright" too revealing a clue?]


• Cochise's tribesmen were Apaches. Cochise was an Apache leader who resisted Mexican and American intrusions in the 19th century (thank you Wikipedia). I'll stop there. If I'm to learn about Native Americans I may as well learn about the ones that changed Canadian history. Onwards.


• Calamansi, or Panama orange, is a fruit. (Here I was, judging by the clue, thinking it was a colour. I didn't write the clue as it is in the crossword, since it's done in a I'm-in-grade-5-writing-crosswords kinda way: Calam___, or Panama orange. Blah. Ugh.)


• The FCC licenses TV stations. I think I kinda knew that one, but I don't really really care..


• Rene Dubos, bacteriologist. I didn't look him up. Sorry.


• Toto's breed is cairn terrier. Whoopee.


• Atole is Mexican cornmeal mush.


• Every crossword-puzzler worthy of the name knows about common compass point abbreviations: ENE, NWN, NNE, etc. Well, learn s'more. One point east of due north is NBE.


• "Cruciverbiste" is the word for someone who likes solving crossword puzzles; I had to use my Fr/En dictionary to give me the English term, "crossword-puzzler." It's not nearly so elegant, I think.

I likely learned a few other things, but I may promptly forget them.

I really disliked the crossword author's way of interrupting words in his clues (calam_, _mas, p_, K_, s_). Seems he wasn't clever enough to come up with better clues, or maybe such words didn't exist (ansi, tho, alate, osar, alts), but looking at the list I highly doubt it. The other thing that really annoyed me about this author's style is how he'd put in things like British thermal unit (BTU) and Licensed practical nurse (LPN) where the process of figuring out the answer was simply taking the initial letters of the words to form the acronym that represented them. Lame.

There's a font I always detested in Microsoft Word. I hated the way it looked, reminiscent of a kid's handwriting, and so awkwardly informal and just plain ugly. Well, apparently I'm not the only one to hate Comic Sans! There's a whole website dedicated to its demise! And they sell T-shirts! I want one (small, please).