You aren't paranoid if they're really out to get you.

I had intended to get the H1N1 flu vaccination as soon as I was able. Not being part of one of the priority groups, I had anticipated that I'd have to wait two weeks or so after the initial rollout, when they'd start vaccinating the general public.

Except that the deployment of the vaccine in New Brunswick, as in most locations across Canada, has been a ridiculous hot mess. People not part of the priority groups, like parents of kids taken for vaccination, and just members of the general public who ignored the priority group designation and lined up, got vaccinated. Then, last week, we got the news that we were going to get far less of the vaccine than had been anticipated because Glaxo-Smith Kline, the sole manufacturer of the vaccine for Canada, had some kind of production issues. That led to dozens of clinics for priority group members being closed outright in Fredericton, Saint John, and Moncton.

Ordinarily this wouldn't be such a concern - most people are recovering from relatively mild cases of H1N1 and if I got sick, I got sick. But we're planning on traveling before Christmas, and suddenly the prospect of getting H1N1 just before a trip we've put a significant amount of money down on is genuinely alarming.

I'm now getting downright paranoid about getting infected... obsessively using hand sanitizers that are everywhere in public spaces, and carrying a bottle in my purse for frequent touch-ups. There's one under the elevator button on the ground floor at work, and I suddenly thought, "Eww! How many people touch that button every day?" (Sanitize, sanitize.) I had to visit our IT professional last week and found myself horrified that she was coughing. "I'm sorry," she said, "this started out as just a headcold." What the hell did that mean? What was it turning into? I found myself sitting back as far as I could in the chair across from her desk. I also sidled away from my boss at a lunchtime meeting in our boardroom because he was sitting with a box of tissues in front of him - until I realized he was using them as napkins to clean his fingers while eating a sandwich.

Every person I encounter now is perceived as a potential carrier, a ticking time-bomb of potential FLU GERMS. I'm becoming an H1N1 hypochondriac.

Well, if being a temporary loony hypochondriac keeps me healthy until we take our trip, maybe that's a good thing. H1N1 is real, and it's here. But I don't really like assessing every person who sits next to me for symptoms.

I'll be glad when this is over. It will be over - right?

ronnie

Tony's Music Box Halloween Guitar Smash-a-thon

The Halloween Guitar Smash-a-thon held by our local independent music store, Tony's Music Box.

Now you know why we patronize this place.

Lessons learned: Acoustic guitars smash very satisfyingly. Hard-bodies, on the other hand, tend to be weapons of amp destruction.

Unless you're smashing them against a brick wall. Then they smash real good.

ronnie

Doaktown

I took this photo of a house I pass on my frequent trips to Miramichi. It's in Doaktown - about halfway between Fredericton and the 'chi.

I have no idea who built it, but it fascinates me. Such an elaborate setup. Was it built this complex, or did later owners build the additions and add the gingerbread?

It seems to be some kind of enterprise these days. There is a sign over the front door I couldn't read.

Another oddity in a region full of them.

ronnie

Teh Maeking of a Halloween Fambly Portrait

(Yes, it's from The Engineer's Guide to Cats guy. Who else?)

Only in Canada...

...Battle of the Blades.

Teaming professional figure skaters with professional hockey players.

And making them do ice dance routines.

Srsly.

ronnie

How to eat a banana like a monkey

I stole this from Xtreme English's blog, (which also has a very funny unrelated banana story), but I have to pass it on. Because it's just full of win! and awesome!

Now, I've never had the traumatic stem-end banana-opening experiences cited by the guy in the video - he reminds me of the people in the infomercials who are totally! incompetent! at wrapping food in plastic wrap (spill!), or saving leftovers in traditional containers (mess!), or using old-fashioned measuring cups (spilly mess!) - but I have to admit, this new technique borrowed from our primate brothers is, on the whole, pretty darn cool.

Nauseating

Ironically, if this Ralph Lauren ad wouldn't put you off your food, nothing would.

After imperiously accusing Boing Boing of using this image without permission and threatening it and its ISP with legal action, Ralph Lauren apologized for the heavily, hideously photoshopped image which made already-slender but relatively healthy-looking model Filippa Hamilton look like a concentration-camp survivor. Scratch that - starvation doesn't make your pelvic bones shrink away.

Forget the hack who photoshopped this. Who approved it? Who thought this was an acceptable image of a living woman to present to us, the rest of humanity?

Heads need to roll. Seriously. This is beyond offensive.

Hello Kitty solar dance

So I mentioned my solar-powered Hello Kitty that I bought at the Saigon store last Saturday. I mentioned that she danced. Here she is dancing.

If you listen closely, you'll note that she makes a noise. A noise I was not aware of until I installed her in my office.

Fortunately, I managed to tune it out after a day or so. Because I'd hate to take her home. Particularly because she seems to ... hypnotize a certain coworker who stands in my office doorway every time she comes to ask me a question and sort of ... does the Hello Kitty dance in unison with Hello Kitty.

That alone is worth the price of purchase.

ronnie

"My son... is a star!"

I was just watching "Power Play", Canada's version of, oh, I suppose, "The Situation Room", where the day's politics are debated and re-debated. It ended off, on this Friday, with a panel of CTV reporters offering tidbits about their week.

Veteran CTV reporter Craig Oliver offered this anecdote about standing next to the dad of Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque de Soliel, who is a "tourist astronaut" on the current Space Station mission.

As the Shuttle took off, Oliver said, Laliberté senior turned to him and said, "My son is a star!!!"

"'In more ways than one', I thought to myself," Oliver said.

ronnie

[UPDATE] Apparently tonight there's going to be an impressive chain of concerts organized by Guy Laliberté, in the pursuit of seeing that "everyone has access to clean water". Well, there are many worthy causes, but few I can think of that are much worthier.