Dream

I went to the cegep—that’s college for you—today (Tuesday).

I had the stupid idea of walking from the metro station to my destination. As I said: stupid idea. The walk was much longer than anticipated and, because I have no familiarity with the place, I ended up going the long way. Long path + feet rather than bus led to my being very much in late, by about 45 minutes. As if it weren’t enough, I was only 5 minutes before closure. Fortunately for me, though, the woman I had to meet did not actually finish in 5 minutes, so I could meet her…Much to my disappointment, I had been “summoned” merely to sign something. Great. Marvelous. About 1 hour and 30 minutes of subway and walk just to sign a bloody paper.

At least, it allowed me to see the area for the first time. Not only is there a bus going right from the metro station to the college, but it passes along a beautiful park. Trees, ladies and gentlemen, trees! I love trees.

The building itself is quite ordinary. Just a building, with windows, doors and that kind of stuff. The park, however, is very beautiful. There are also lots of trees on the actual lot of the college, which is awesome. Even the parking doesn’t look too much like the classic ugly wide parking for well frequented buildings.

Yes, it was my first time going. Actually, up to about 10 minutes before sending in my admission request, I don’t think I had ever heard about it. There are quite a few colleges in Montreal, and most of them offer the program I’m going in—it has some fancy and rather odd name for what it is, but is it basically computer programming.

I will admit it to you, whole world: I chose this particular college because it was the first one on the list whose site I could access. I won’t go studying computer programming in a college that can’t even make a Firefox-compatible website.

Don’t worry too much about the state of accessibility in the province though, it was something like the second on the list.

Marie has created and posted on DeviantART over a year ago a cute little sushi design. The design has won a contest. But…oops! The contestant was not Marie.

In other words, someone stole Marie’s artwork and used it to win the contest. To top it off, it is not just any average contest where you can win something like an avatar. It’s a contest where the winner can get real money, a scholarship of a few thousands of dollars.

You can visit the site to warn them of this fraud, or add Marie’s news on DeviantART to your favorites.

This is the entry I’ve been delaying for some time.

I will here be discussing something that will bring the topic of…politics. On MY blog? Yes. Usually, my political comments are limited to “Those bastards want to outlaw [insert sexuality related thing here]!”, but today I will speak of voters. You know, those people who choose their leaders carelessly? Yeah, those.

Naturally, there are people out there who choose who to vote for based on actual thought. They will listen or read what the person has to say and choose who is most appropriate for them to vote for. Others, however, don’t put so much thought into it. And this brings me to an attitude that annoys me to no end.

“I will vote for [insert candidate or party name here] because [he is/they are] the one who will win anyway.”

*chokes on food*

*glares*

If that’s how you choose who you’re going to vote for, then I will gladly tear up your voting bulletin. Well, unless you just happen to have voted for whoever I think should win, naturally.

Let’s take a quick look at the election system of Canada (and of its province of Quebec, naturally). The country is divided into hundreds of areas. In each area, there are candidates trying to win. The candidates can represent a party (the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, etc.) or be independent.

People vote for these individuals, not directly for the party. Of course, you usually make your choice based on the party represented by the person. Whoever has the most votes wins. Afterwards, the amount of deputies elected for each party is counted for the whole country. The leading party is the one with the highest number of elected deputies. The official opposition is the one with the second highest number, and then come the rest of the parties.

Everyone who has been elected can occupy a seat during political debates, even if the person is the only member of his or her party to have been elected. That person can then take a part in these debates, vote when needed and so on.

Where am I going with this? Let’s say that I know that polls are giving favor to the Conservative Party (ew). Let’s say a very high percentage of people say they will vote for that party. Now, from the “ew” and various statements I have made across this blog and the rest of the web, you might know that, while I don’t have a very strong attachment to any Canadian party, I am certainly not going to vote for the Conservative Party. Their winning is the last thing I want. Yet, let’s suppose that I just know they will win. What do I do?

One thing is sure, I will not say the quote I stated earlier and I will certainly not follow it. The Conservative Party stands for principles I despise. So what do I do? Well, quite naturally, I vote for another party (or, more accurately, for someone not belonging to their party). But…but… I know they will win? Well, screw that! I do not stand for their principles, I disagree with lots of their goals and ideas, and they disagree with basic elements of my lifestyle, such as lesbian porn.

As I vote for someone else, I am doing two things at once. First, I am making a tiny little move that could make someone not from their party be elected, perhaps even leading to another party winning, thanks to everyone else who is not going to vote for that party. Yes, it’s just one vote, but if everyone thinks that, we’re in a bad situation.

Second, I am standing up for myself. I’m not going out of there feeling like a sheep and I’m not contributing to the Fame & Glory of people I disagree with.

As I said before, we cannot all think “well, I just count for one vote”. Sure, you count for a single vote, but if we all start thinking that, we are not standing up for ourselves, and doing so is important. When a nation doesn’t stand up for itself, it ends up with representatives that don’t actually represent it! And what happens then? We are unsatisfied with whoever is leading our country, and that is so not cool.

So, people, think up a bit about your beliefs and opinions, and stand up. That way, you will be cool too.

I can never remember how to spell those things. I always put two Cs in.

Anyway, a rant and another cat story. I have a text in mind to write down and post, but it’s late and I must work tomorrow, so I’ll vent off and all that.

I usually keep my bedroom door open. It’s almost only shut down when I dress up. If I close it a bit when I go to bed (I always leave a crack for the cat), I’m sure it will be open after less than an hour because my cat will get in and/or out. The heater has been off for over two weeks. Same in other rooms. But it’s hot in my bedroom. I left the window open all night long. This morning, it was quite cold so I shut it down. Tonight it was already far too hot. I blame the neighbors. They must use the room adjacent to my bedroom as an oven.

Earlier tonight, I was playing with my cat. Or rather, she came up to me with her mouse so I lazily threw it around to play “fetch” while I was playing on the DS. She always brings it back. She’s very happy to go and get it, she jumps, crossing whatever is in her way. But today she got scared for life.

It just so happens that the vacuum-cleaner is in my bedroom, plugged in and lying down on the floor. I threw the mouse on the other side of it. Naturally, my cat had to pass this way…She jumped straight on the “Start” button. Needless to say she ran to hide and even didn’t want me to approach her for some time. She eventually came back to me with her mouse, because her love of playing that game is extremely strong, but she was walking very slowly and refused to leave the bed to get the toy. Poor thing. She deserves it.

Just updating on what’s going on in this life of mine.

One of my roommates is gone for the whole week. That doesn’t change much to my life.

Eric is really not well these days. He has a lot of obsessions and washes his hands a lot. I wish I could do something to help him, but there isn’t much to do. He needs to see a psychiatrist, but I can’t take one out of…a magic hat.

Work is okay, although I missed a lot…I have a hard time sleeping well. My brain turns on when I go to bed and does everything it can to keep awake. How very nice of it.

My mom was here Friday, and she slept here. I didn’t see her much, because I was sleeping when she left, but I ate with her and other family members in an African restaurant on Friday night. It was quite good.