is it even legal for a delivery person to ask for your passcode?

it shouldn't be....

ups...

the canada post is actually awesome. i don't know why people don't just ship with them. they have dozens of convenient locations, great hours...

i had to get a purolator package the other day in the middle of nowhere, when i could have walked around the corner to get it at canada post. now, ups is trying to tell me that they can't deliver my package (it's the case...) because they don't have the access code to my apartment. this is serious: they want me to give them the pass code. that's insane. and, it doesn't seem like they're going to deliver it, otherwise.

i called them back, and they'll drop it off at the ups store, but they'll charge $6 for it. please, people: just use canada post. they're infinitely better.

pretty much everything else is bikeable, too, they just happened to use ups for the case. which i can't fit in a bag.

why doesn't anybody understand speech? this guy is accidentally almost right.

- free speech is a covenant, a social contract, between the state and the individual. it does not govern relations between individuals.
- the idea of free speech consequently only exists in public spaces. if a public library were to shut this down purely on speech grounds, rather than on something like safety grounds, then it would be a clear speech violation. a private library or private auditorium would be subject to no such covenant, and could shut down anybody at all for whatever reason they want.
- it follows that the public library can't shut it down. but it's not some slippery slope. it's a basic constitutional right! it also follows that a public space is the correct place for it, as nobody can shut them down (legally) so long as they meet in public.


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/outrage-over-groups-use-of-toronto-library-threatens-freedom-of-speech/article35680999/?reqid=ea5fe985-b6a3-4396-b394-7aef0504cba0

canada is a colonial state.

say it with me: canada is a colonial state.

and, the number one rule of colonialism is that you wipe out the indigenous groups that you're stealing the resources from. that's the model. that's how this works.

so long as canada remains a colonial state (that is, so long as it maintains an export-based resource economy dominated by a foreign elite), it will continue to behave like one.

when this finally gets out..

i've never heard anybody openly state what everybody who has looked into this is well aware of is happening: there has been a systemic, and probably ongoing, attempt by the rcmp, particularly in the western provinces, to eliminate indigenous women of child-bearing age. this is the reason that these girls keep disappearing, and the reality is that everybody knows it.

it is a part of the country's ongoing genocide against the indigenous peoples of the continent.

....but nobody will say it. i think it's partly out of fear of being branded a nut, and partly out of fear of opening a can of worms that everybody seems to think is necessary to open very slowly. others may be concerned about their own safety.

but, fuck it. this isn't going anywhere. government after government drags it on, because - well, it's going to take a government of singular character to really deal with this, let alone end it.

i'll stand up and say it: the inquiry has to be independent, because the government is deeply complicit.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/families-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-ask-trudeau-to-restart-inquiry/article35680165/

i need to repeat that there should be a scholastic requirement involved in owning property. we just let anybody own property, then we throw stupidity at the courts as a consequence of a lack of oversight.

there is apparently a random poop thrower at large in windsor, ontario. this individual is known to invade people's property and throw poop at your windows. just a prank, bro?

it's this kind of pop-legalology. "you don't have her face on camera". yeah, but there's an obvious inference.

ok, i'll be rigorous. there are four possibilities:

1) the cat poop fell from heaven, like manna.
2) we have a random poop throwing vandal on the loose.
3) one of the agents of the property owner tossed it from a position off camera.
4) it may have been thrown from an open window.

i don't think that either of these agents can be relied on to understand the consequences of perjuring themselves. it's not that easy. i'm going to have to present the evidence as it is. but, if you can make a simple inference, as the court will, it's absolutely devastating.

i have to follow through with this. i'm optionless.

i'll deal with it tomorrow.

so, what's happened?

i was on my way out on tuesday, when the previous property owner stopped me and accused me of peering into the neighbour's window to try and determine whether he had removed the cat or not and threatened to evict me over it. i at no point suggested removing the cat. this accusation was so obviously fabricated out of absolutely nothing that any concept of good faith went out the window. we're going back to court.

i spent the rest of the day on tuesday running around doing grocery shopping and picking up packages. i just crashed when i got in; it was a long day.

yesterday, i started by sorting through the remaining loose ends for the build. i got a psu (and another power bar...) at amazon, instead.

the government gave me my ostc up front this year, because i forgot to include the on-ben. i'm not sure how this is going to work out; it seems like they want me to send them back the $296 and just continue my normal monthly payments. i happen to be able to do that this month. they haven't sent me a notice yet, but i'm scheduled for normal $60 monthly payments. i'm going to assume that they correct this and that the $60 payments become $35 payments. i can live without $25/month, but i'm going to budget by reducing my groceries rather than my spending, so i actually want to take that $296 and spend it up front. it makes sense to spend $300 on cleaning/bathroom stuff. soap. toothbrushes. toilet paper. lysol. dish soap. that kind of stuff. it would be nice if i could budget that cleanly, but i had loans this month to take care of. so, i'm offsetting it with money out of the 5000. all of the running around over the last two days got me to around $175, but i should have actually bought more and will revisit that today.

i spent the rest of the morning trying to get through the court papers, and look what i found when sorting through looking for exacts dates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZgzJiInBAw

look at 7 seconds. they're so busted...

i've been suspicious for a bit about this, but i decided they probably started placing the cat feces outside the window in order to piss me off after they figured out it would. it turns out they were doing it from the start. that is seriously a video incidentally catching somebody throwing cat feces to the side of my window. i didn't even notice it at the time; i only caught it due to the angle the camera was pointing in.

the property owner was here shortly after the footage was taken and physically placed tarps outside the window. i can't imagine that she would have done that if she was aware of what was actually happening; she operated on the information i gave her, as best as i could give it to her. i feel the obligation to give her a chance to react to this fairly. it's hard to come up with a good resolution, granted. and, ignorance is not a shield of liability. but, i'm not doing this for the money, i'm doing this to get them to stop. the financial penalty is probably the only thing that's going to work; what i mean is that the only thing that's going to get them to stop is forcing them to pay a substantial fine, whether to me or to somebody else. but, i get to look that much more patient by giving them yet another chance. they have until monday morning to give me an acceptable answer, before i get back to filing...

i was hoping to place orders for jewel cases at staples and pick up the ps/2 combo, but neither thing worked out. staples requires a credit card, period. i'll have to figure something else out. the local computer store will order the ps/2 combo and i'll pick it up in the next few days.

i cannot find a square monitor in any of the pawn shops, either. so, these are my remnant concerns.

i crashed in the evening again and have spent the overnight budgeting these loose ends. the dvds and bds finally shipped. and, everything has gone through over paypal.

right now, i'm very hungry, as i didn't eat yesterday. i don't know what the plan is today, exactly. i'll want to do some laundry. i may even nap a little before the concert tonight.

so, here's what i've added over the last three days:

updated total:
airwalk shoes (payless): $33
bicycle repair (city cyclery): $23
3x40 gb ide hds (kijiji):  $10
2x500 gb sshd laptop drives (best buy): $2x82
2 gb internal drive (best buy): $104
100 dvd-rs [best buy]: $30
50 bd-rs [best buy]: $45
2x2 gb laptop ram (amazon.ca): $2x15 + shipping, $47
8 gb sd ram for mp3 player (amazon.ca): $13
2 tb external drive (amazon.ca) : $123
50 cd-rs [amazon.ca]: $30
ps/2 to usb connector [amazon.ca]: $5
intel core i3-4710 [amazon.ca]: $243
atx mid tower [amazon.ca] - $52
asus p9d ws [amazon.ca]: $360
2x8 gb ddr3-1600 ram [amazon.ca]: $150
arctic silver [amazon.ca]: $11
450 joule surge protector (amazon.ca): $9
600 watt psu (amazon.ca): $80
700 joule surge protector (amazon.ca): $10
laptop battery (ebay): $26
2x4 gb laptop ram (ebay): $2x33
ip68 phone (ebay): $128
 m-audio audiophile 2496 (ebay) [used]: $60
250 gb ssd drive (newegg.ca): $135
bathroom supplies (food basics, walmart, loblaws, shopper's): $175
==================
2120.88

i reject the premise of judging information by it's source. the term "consider the source" is a logical fallacy.

if hitler told you one day that it's raining out, he might have actually been right. an empiricist can't just jump to the conclusion that something is wrong because they don't like who said it. that's just being prejudicial. you have to analyze each claim separately, independent from previous ones, or the correctness that an institution or individual may have demonstrated in the past.

just because somebody was wrong yesterday doesn't mean they're wrong today. and, even somebody that was wrong frequently in the past could turn out to be right today. there's just no logical connection between the correctness of independent statements.

regardless, the article was just a short analysis of a pew paper. and, pew is a very good source.

if you're insistent on upholding your fallacies, you may prefer this article at vox, which is really not a particularly trustworthy source at all (they post a lot of democratic party talking points), but that is basically doing the same analysis, except with a lot more words:
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/2/6/14516520/refugee-asylum-demographics-muslim-christian

the important source of information here is neither the center for immigration studies, nor vox, but pew.

i need an honest discourse, first and foremost.

so, what the fuck is trump doing? it's a political game. it's just red meat for the base. and, an honest force on the secular left - which i would expect the aclu to be, if nobody else - should call it out for what it is, not play into it by creating some kind of culture war around the acceptance of muslim identity politics.

nobody's wining an election in the united states on muslim identity politics any time soon, guys.

what these pseudo-left actors are doing is harmful to a broader movement towards communism. we need an honest analysis, not solidarity with systems of control against an executive order that doesn't even target one.

the entire discourse is in a parallel reality.

https://cis.org/Rush/SoCalled-Muslim-Ban-Does-Not-Really-Apply-Muslims