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Thursday, May 28, 2026

Narrative

introduction moving in kitchen laundry bathroom bedroom

introduction

sept 11, 2025

the place i moved into on may 10th, which has been a disaster, just provided me with a functional $4000-$4500 settlement, with a possibility for an extra $2000-2400 coming. i will need to sign a lease to get the extra $2400.

i have another $1200+ coming from the cdb. i'm asking for $10000+ on my hearing on nov 4th.

the price of small houses in windsor is viciously crashing to well under $200K, and they aren't selling. if i wait a few more months, property values could conceivably start collapsing to under $150K, as the canadian economy burns and disintegrates, as we rapidly devolve to a third world economy under mark carney's pro-market / market fundamentalist mismanagement. as chomsky said, free markets are great...for developing economies. it's a third world economic system that generates poverty and inequality, and we're embracing it head-on in canada, even as we escaped the carnage of it in the last decades, and even as the rest of the world is retreating from it. leave it to canada to evade the mistake the rest of the world made in the 80s and 90s, only to make that exact same mistake 30 years later, while everybody else is learning from it and trying to move on.

due to these settlements allowing me to generate some savings, and prices crashing, i'm seriously considering buying a small house in windsor.

15:19
@windsor, on

for now, the 45% increase in my odsp income since 2022 combined with the 45% decrease in rent over that same period has actually opened up some startlingly appealing rental units at the top of my price range. i'm going to see an 800 square foot 2-bedroom condo tomorrow night that is actually bigger than the basement apartment i had when i first moved here, with the difference being that this place looks almost brand new and full of people that bought the condos and that other place was 100 years old and full of smokers on welfare.

on saturday morning, i'm going to see a basement that's almost as big, but doesn't have a stove and might not have a cable running into it for internet.

i'm also going to see dirty, rotting basements in the same price range as i was previously paying, which would allow me to put close to $800/month in a savings account on a monthly basis. the idea in signing that sort of lease would be to save up to buy as fast as i can, and the unintentional result would be that i might find myself accidentally getting close to the $40,000 odsp asset limit, at $10,000/yr in savings, plus what i'm able to win via tort law for negligence from recent landlords.

this is a reflection of the present absurdity of the housing market. you still couldn't afford the rotting basement on literal welfare or osap, but the convergence around odsp is working as intended, if you can get landlords to listen. it'd be nice to find a 600-700 square foot apartment in a normal apartment building for somewhere in between, but that doesn't exist.

if you can use the irrationality of capitalism to your benefit, you have to do it, and i set my life up so i could. on some level, i'm morally opposed to this, but i have to maximize my self-interest, regardless.

you can be exploited by the system, or you can exploit the system. there's no middle point. it's eat or be eaten, and you can get it or not get it; you can be enslaved by society via the market, or you can enslave the society in return. i'm not naive about this. i don't watch tv, so they can't brainwash me, nyah nyah.

i wouldn't imagine i'd want to move out of an 800 square foot two bedroom condo in a nice part of town any time soon, so i could realistically find myself with a substantive down payment in a few years that i could utilize for a functionally useful endpoint, after the court cases are done.

23:36

odsp is working the way it's supposed to; don't get angry with me about that.

however, the market is completely psychotic and what we're dealing with is a deep market failure in front of us at the most fundamental economic level possible. the fact that odsp is the one thing that is working in the face of a complete and total market failure is a reflection of it being shielded from the market, which has become completely irrational.

23:47

sept 13

i've been in and out of the apartment and have seen a number of places over the last couple of days. after getting some groceries on friday night, i came in at around 21:00 and noticed that there's a key to my apartment door in my mailbox, which worked. this is unsettling, to say the least. at 6:30 this morning, somebody started aggressively buzzing me to get in, which i strictly ignored.

i have filed some police reports and my landlords allowed me to change my locks, but that doesn't really resolve the issue.

i don't know how to process this. as far as i can tell, nothing has been removed from the apartment and there isn't anything missing from it. were they even trying to contact me to give me the key back? i don't know. i know that there's now exactly two keys to get in here, and i have both of them.

i have not had any symptoms of being drugged since august but i'm worried that might change soon.

16:59

sept 14

if you really do the math around what it actually takes to buy a house and the amount of money people are making, even on minimum wage, it's worth asking if the real problem canadians are facing in relation to housing isn't their addictions to drugs, tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, debt, fast food and gasoline.

if i had $3000/month, and i were to rent a reasonably priced $1300-$1500 apartment here in windsor, i'd be able to put $1000/month into a savings account and have enough of a downpayment to buy a $250-$300K house in less than two years. that's barely minimum wage.

it's not clear to me why young people aren't able to do this, other than that they waste their money on poor lifestyle decisions, in part perhaps inherited from their parents, and then complain that they can't afford housing as a result of these poor lifestyle choices.

the canadian government may consequently want to research a cost-benefit analysis around the question of if it may be worth trying to get smoking rates, marijuana use, alcohol use, indebtedness, fast food consumption and gasoline use down as a part of it's housing strategy. people might find they can afford to buy a house after all, if they'd just make more intelligent choices with their money.

0:46

sept 16

now, somebody has left a bagel in my mailbox, which i'm interpreting as anti-semitic, and which is weird because i'm neither a genetic hebrew nor a practicing jew. i have less than 3% jewish dna, according to the ancestry.com report, and it's from way back in the 19th century.

the arabs that have been stalking me, and who appear to have initially thought i was an arab, have repeatedly called me a jew and repeatedly expressed frustration that i'm not reacting as expected because i'm a jew, rather than the arab they thought i was.

in fact, my ancestry is overwhelming viking in origin, both directly (swedish/finnish) and indirectly (scottish, irish, norman, russian, gothic). the 3% jewish dna was from philadelphia, which i have deduced is sephardic, and traveled from philly to n'awleans to frisco to vancouver, and then to ottawa, where i was born. my father's side had some north italian that was gothic/germanic in origin. the test did pick up 1% sicilian, which was probably mostly greek in deep origin. the 1% sicilian is the closest thing to any sort of arab ancestry, but it's probably not really there.

the semitic dna is unambiguously on my mom's side, and the ancestor was certainly jewish, as he got in trouble in jewish court for being mean to his wife. it's not up for interpretation or debate; it's jewish, not arab, and it's on my mom's side, not my dad's side. i don't know what the point of a court intervening in a domestic dispute is when your wife is jewish, but the documents exist, and it demonstrates the point pretty clearly, as do the noses on my mother and aunts, which are all quite substantive.

14:07

i don't have a wonky jew nose. it's a bumpy italian nose.

my dad's nose was a mess, but it's because he used to be a boxer in his youth, and it was broken something like ten times. you couldn't figure out anything about his nose by looking at it, other than that it was busted and smashed.

14:11

to the person that left the bagel in my box: come back and leave some humus.

it was very inconsiderate of you to leave the bagel without the humus.

15:42

what am i supposed to put on this bagel?

my electricity bill?

15:43

if i was managing a property and seeking to rent a place for $1300, and somebody filled out an application for it with an income of $3000, i would tell them their income is too high to rent the apartment and that i'm looking for somebody that makes under $2000/month for $1300/rent.

the reason is that the only conceivable reason that somebody with an income over $2000 would be looking for such a cheap apartment is if they spend $1000/month on drugs, and i don't want drug addicts on my property.

by screening in tenants that make more than they need for a low income apartment, which today is under $1500, landlords are just screening in drug addicts.

a good manager should realize that, and refuse to rent to somebody at less than 50% of their income. the way that landlords currently do this is backwards - instead of saying rent should be less than 50% of income, landlords should be screening out people that want to pay less than 50% and only renting to people that want to pay more than 50% of their income in rent, in order to ensure they aren't renting to drunks, potheads and addicts.

a sober, responsible person will want to spend at least 50% of their income on rent, because what else would they spend it on, besides drugs?

16:41

ideal tenants should seek to spend 50-80% of their income on rent.

anybody that would want to move in somewhere that is less than half of their income is a loser and should be avoided.

16:44

if you're only paying 30% of your income on rent, why haven't you bought a house yet?

because you spend 50% of your income on drugs.

there's no other conceivable explanation. anybody with 70% leftover after rent should have enough to buy a house in six months, unless they waste it on drugs.

that's why the rentals are full of addicts, because the landlords screen them in by asking for people with disposable income. disposable income is just another term for "drug money".

16:54

landlords offering cheap rentals should tell the people making $3000-$4000/month to apply for something more expensive, and to follow the fucking rules in the more affluent buildings, when they move in there. they'll throw you out for doing drugs in the house; don't move into low income housing so you can smoke drugs inside.

that higher income isn't an asset, it's evidence that the applicant is a piece of shit.

17:01

it should be a red flag.

the guy that makes $4000/month and applies for a $1000/month apartment is a drug addict loser and they are looking for cheap housing so they can do drugs inside without getting evicted.

if this person wasn't a drug addict, they wouldn't be interested in $1000/month housing, they'd be looking for something in the $2000+/month range.

17:04

sept 17

i have the best apartment in my price range in town, but it's uninhabitable due to the drug users on the premises. our government's failure to enforce basic drug laws, and put addicts in jail where they belong, is making it virtually impossible for normal, healthy people to find acceptable, affordable housing. it's a complete failure of law enforcement, and a complete failure of canada, as a society.

if you want to move to canada, there's almost no escape from the now ubiquitous drug culture.

it's not the greatest country in the world. it's an uninhabitable hell hole.

19:22

canada needs to have a very serious discussion about recriminalizing marijuana, and about enforcing it.

legalization has failed.

19:26

i have never seen the legalization of drugs as some kind of justice issue, and the idea that it is is an insult to the concept of justice. it's not particularly hard; if you don't want to go to jail, don't do drugs. the best argument in favour of legalization is that it would reduce wasted police resources, and the idea is that it would cost less money on enforcement, but i doubt that's actually the case, and it's probably demonstrable with the right statistics.

i'm really not interested in helping drug addicts. society has no reason to give a fuck about addicts. what i'm concerned about is strengthening laws that ensure that normal people aren't subject to the habits of addicts, who have no right to enforce their poor decisions on the people around them.

what we need is better case law strengthening the rights of non-smokers. municipalities should be able to directly fine tenants for smoking anything inside, anywhere, and the fines should be substantive - $1000/occurrence. that would shut it down. there should be zero tolerance in case law for any sort of inside smoking for any reason, and complaints by tenants should overpower decisions by landlords. the right to fresh air should be enforced as fundamental law.

we have an ongoing public health emergency in our multi-residential housing complexes. there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco or marijuana. tenants should not be expected to tolerate even the slightest whiff of smoke from anywhere.

smokers should be expected to smoke in their cars with the windows closed.

19:50

sept 20

it's relatively clear that somebody was in here last week or the week before to drug some of my food, i think my soy milk. it wasn't enough to generate effects that would bother me when i'm sleeping or when i wake up - i am waking up limp or at worse not even 10% erect or 10 second erections but needing intensely to urinate - but it had some effect on my body, which has taken roughly two weeks to max out. i think it reached it's peak the last few days.

i had to cancel appointments last night and this morning because i have scabs all over my face and look utterly disgusting, but it is washing off, and i don't think it's getting worse.

it's just a process of actually cleaning it off. it's just dirt, it's just filth, and it washes off like any other filth and dirt. the problem is that that process is extremely time consuming and can require repeated applications of various types of soap over and over again.

i spent all night last night scraping, slept briefly, spent all day scraping, slept again, and started back on it tonight. i'm going to guess i might be presentable by tomorrow or monday.

i have changed my locks. only i have the keys. so i'm prioritizing cleaning myself up first, under the assumption that this won't happen again.

the most annoying thing is that the inside smoking has largely stopped, as soon as i signed the consent agreement. i need to leave by oct 31st. i think the worst smokers are leaving by sept 30th. there was a pothead smoking joints outside my window that has left.

i'm not sure i can get anybody to agree, but if i can chase the potheads out of here, could i resign here for nov 1st?

it's the biggest, cheapest place i'm going to find. it's just that i can't live in the filth of my neighbours' fucking smoke.

23:35

my thermostat says 29. the outside temperature is 18 and seems extremely cold. i'm shivering inside, and have a chill.

it's a good sign. it suggests my testosterone is back where it should be, at trace levels, and i just need to wash off the remaining dirt.

these extremely sick people need to go to jail for the rest of their lives. they have to this point evaded charges, but i'm hoping my landlord can trace the origin of the key, and that it provides a suspect for police to follow up on.

23:41

sept 25

all of the old people are smoking drugs nowadays, which is going to lead to severely reduced life expectancy. they're all going to die of cancer.

this is only bad news if you're a banker. for the rest of the country, the fact that decreased population growth will open up job opportunities, reduce housing costs, ease up social services and potentially even result in deflation is the best thing we've heard since 2006.

https://globalnews.ca/news/11450130/canada-largest-retirement-wave-fertility-rate/

12:59

this is anecdotal, but there's every reason to believe it's honest:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/1k02piz/people_who_have_smoked_cannabis_most_of_their/

marijuana use amongst retired seniors has skyrocketed in canada over the last ten years. well, i mean, what else do you have to do? you'd might as well just get baked and watch cartoons.

- strokes

- heart attacks

- lung disease

- cancer

- reduced cognitive functions

that's real life, and it's going to be an epidemic here, which is fine if you want them to just fucking die and go away already.

13:10

i've been going around all over the place looking for housing in windsor, and the entire city is just saturated.

then you look over and realize it's an old granny smoking on her porch.

13:11

sept 26

i've noticed a new line show up on rental applications over the last few weeks.

VISA: student or temporary

i have to scratch it out and write in "born in canada".

14:50

sept 28

it's near the end of the month, and i'm rather annoyed. i've seen a handful of places i could have moved to by now, but nobody wants to sign.

i'm going to send out mass emails that are just blunt - you want a good tenant? want to stop looking? well, you have a few more days before oct 1st. i have the money. i can sign and move now. like, what's the problem?

i know that the problem in some cases is that the owner is muslim, and in other cases that my income source is odsp. it's widespread discrimination on one of two considerations - gender identity or source of income. but, launching hrto applications is going to take years, and i need to be able to prove the case. i might be able to make the case against one very big company, but it's not clear that it's worth my time.

further, regarding the issues of muslims not wanting to rent to me because i'm trans (and i have several examples of this), i'd actually rather we get the issues out before hand, so i don't get trapped in it. the last thing i want to do is move into a situation where i have to deal with conservative muslims, and then fight with them for months or years. i'm doing the opposite; i'm sussing this out and going beyond it, by actually actively asking them if women dressing immodestly, or eating pork or drinking alcohol is going to upset them, because i don't want to live there if it does.

i really should have moved by now. i've seen enough places. there have been more than enough places i would move to. but i have not yet succeeded in finding a landlord that would rent to me, and it's about 85% discrimination underlying it. i can really not see good reasons not to rent to me in any of these applications, but they want to tell me my income is too low (despite me doing the math for them, showing it isn't, once you take out debt and cars, mostly, which i'm not paying for) or they just don't respond further once they realize i'm trans.

the discrimination against trans and disabled people are both rampant, especially amongst muslim landlords, which represent a substantive number of the low income rentals in this region. they'd be wise to be careful about what they say to me, but i'd largely rather avoid them, anyways.

the thing is that i don't want to make assumptions about people. i'm trying to get a showing in a basement owned by an arab guy, and he even told me to reschedule because he was busy praying, but he doesn't want to enforce his views on me, and is even trying to help the current tenant out, who is apparently a destructive alcoholic. i know discrimination when i see it, but i can't reverse it by making assumptions; i need to ask. it's mostly been a waste of time, but i can't make that assumption ahead of time. nine out of ten arabs might be viciously transphobic, but that one that isn't, even if they're religious, might be the best landlord in the city.

22:38

moving in

sept 30

i'm officially moving again over the next few days.

it's not very far. i feel like my fucking parents, who used to move across the street every six months.

the place is smaller, but it's laid out better. i haven't had the opportunity to maximize the space here, but it has two 150 square foot rooms (bedroom, living room), two 50 square foot hallways, an awkwardly 100 square foot kitchen with lots of counter space and fridge & stove on the side walls, and a bathroom. this place is around 600 square feet, but i'm wasting a lot of it, and i can't find a way to save it. the living room is 50 square feet too small and the bedroom is 50 square feet too big, and the 100-150 square feet of hall space isn't helpful. i needed to move. if i had more time to look, i would have skipped this space; it's 600 square feet, but i'm only using 350-400 of it.

the place i'm moving to is around 450-500 square feet, but it's laid out in a way that's more useful to me. the hallway is at the bottom of the stairs, so i have a natural place for my bicycles, away from the main living area. the bedroom is smaller, so i'm not wasting the space in it. there's a separate laundry room, where i can put the sewing table. the kitchen is smaller but more usable. there's a second entrance that i can use for studio space, which opens up a large living room. it's just a way better layout, for me. most people would find it awkward, but it's going to be arranged to look like it's twice as big, whereas this place feels half as big.

it's a little rough. that's fine. i don't care. i'll fix it.

so, i will be moving the rest of the week and hope to be done with this by monday.

1:28

the new place is about $200 cheaper, and i'll soon be about $200 better off, per month. i've also gained a few thousand dollars in my account. i don't foresee any fights with the landlord, and the space should be a lot less smoky.

i think that i should be stable there for a while, enough to let me get back to work very quickly, as soon as i'm able to set the space back up.

9:25

what's next after this?

i have a hearing with my previous landlords on nov 4th, about me suing them. i need to update the new evidence, serve it and file it. i'm asking for upwards of $20,000 in damages for smoking and illegal entry. the new evidence includes drug tests and also the key i found in my mailbox, here. i don't know if they'll let me file it or not, but it demonstrates the point - somebody has been getting in my apartment, and somebody has been drugging me.

my appeals of their eviction order are now scheduled to go forward in the spring. i'm asking for a reversal of the costs orders and damages relating to the wrongful eviction, including the costs of staying in a hotel. that's going to be another $5,000-$10,000.

they got their house. fine. but the court should order them to pay me for it.

what am i going to do with all of this money? i have an asset limit of $40,000 on odsp, and need to be careful i'm not shooting myself in the foot, but a $20,000 downpayment would be enough to buy a $150,000-200,000 house, which exist in windsor, and which will reduce my rent/mortgage payments to well under $1000, which is the cost of the new lease. these are small bungalows or two story houses, mostly downtown. i don't need a big fancy house; i'm concerned about minimizing labour, not about maximizing wealth. this is a minimization problem for me, not a maximization problem. i have to live in capitalism, but i don't want to participate in it. further, i'll get that back when i turn 65, and no longer have an asset limit.

the reality is that nobody wants these houses, at this point. they're too expensive to rent. the bourgeois don't want them, and the students and poor can't afford them. that's the underside of capitalism i moved here to take advantage of, and which trudeau's immigration policies had taken away from me, by opening up a market for things nobody else wants.

that could work itself out by the summer, if all goes according to plan.

if i have this money and i move in the summer, it will be my last move. i'm not interested in climbing ladders. i don't care about the neighbours. this will ensure that nobody can take the house away from me again, and ensure nobody can move disgusting losers that do drugs into it. it's the end of this process.

i'll have to determine in the end if i can afford to stay there past the age of 65 on government retirement pensions, or if it is more logical to sell the house and move into a house for retirees, which have reduced rents.

so, that's the plan.

11:02

i am again moving into a basement. this will be my third basement in windsor. my basement stays have been lengthy - 08-2013-12-2017, 10-2018-04-2025 - while my two apartment stays have both been less than a year.

this basement is about $200 more than the previous basement (when i left). it's smaller than the first one, but bigger than the second one.

however, i didn't have my rent increased for five+ years in the previous space. how much would i be paying if i paid the rent increases?

750*1.025^7 = ~$900. it would be a little less than that, probably around $850.

however, i'm getting an extra $200/month from the cdb, which balances that out.

in the previous basement, i had around $400-600 left for groceries and disposable income together, after paying bills. it fluctuated, but generally went up. now, i'm going to have $700/month to start, and that's going to go up.

so, this has taken a while to sort itself out, but in comparison to the previous basement i was in from 2018-2025, i'm going to end up with a bigger space and with more money in my pocket per month, and also with more in the bank to start with. my material conditions have consequently evened out.

this is due to the reality that i'm even steven. things always work out for me.

now, i just need compensation for the wrongful eviction, and i'm working on it.

i don't want to mislead you or mischaracterize this. this has sucked. i've had years of my life stolen. however, i ended up better off, in the end.

11:48

so, don't waste your time fucking with me. it all evens out for me.

i don't actually believe in karma, but i believe in paul mccartney.

and, in the end [bloop. bada bloop.]

the love you take

is equal to the love

you make

11:59

somebody's going to tell me that was carol kaye.

they won't tell us until mccartney is dead, and they shouldn't.

12:00

for the young and the profoundly ignorant.

12:01

well, ok.

12:02

oct 4

i signed my lease on tuesday, got my new keys on wednesday, moved the furniture in on thursday and moved a lot of the smaller items in last night. i seek to be out by monday morning, and i'm going to do it the slow and safe way, which is by bicycle. i could cart stuff over, and i will need to cart some things, but i want to cart as little as possible. i want to get through the distance from a to b as quickly as possible, and allowing observers the least amount of detail in observing what i'm doing. this is the 5th location i've lived in since i moved to windsor in 2013, and 4 of the 5 have been downtown, but this is the first time i have to move through the creepy part of the city.

i'm actually going to be further from the creepy area than i am now. it's not a or b that i'm worried about, it's the transit in between. i can go in the back way, but it doesn't really help.

i also learned when i got the keys that the space includes a 150 square foot private storage and work space, which makes it bigger than the first basement in total square footage and the biggest place of the 5. it's very rough, though, so i don't want to think of it like that. however, it's going to let me not just store my bicycles there but also split the work bench out of my studio, which has become a large part of it. this work space will be where i fix bicycles, work on guitars, solder and do other types of physical work. it has a two level storage space built in for shelving, as well. it's really quite a large area.

if i buy a house in the next year or two, i'll move this into the basement.

so, that opens up space in the unit, as well. i can take my work bench right out of the studio and i can put shelves instead of bicycles in the hall.

i was a little queasy when i started moving things in, and was having second thoughts, but i'm feeling better about it now. the place needs some work, but it'll get done.

6:59

oct 6

it is utterly fucking beautiful out.

i had a shitty summer; stuck living with disgusting male pothead losers (again) and fighting off some religious idiot's decision to put drugs in my food, while needing to save money to move again. i'm moving, which sucks, but at least it was a nice weekend.

i've been walking around outside and, in every direction, the vegetation has taken advantage of it. it's october 6th, and there's not a bit of red or yellow or orange anywhere, in any direction. every tree everywhere is as full as possible and deep, luscious green. it's starting to look and feel more like a rainforest here in that respect, although we've had very little rain since june.

the new house doesn't seem to have potheads. there are what appears to be some heroin addicts upstairs, but they don't seem to smoke it. fine. whatever. i'd rather live with heroin addicts that don't smoke anything than with potheads that are constantly emitting dangerous air pollution. the heroin addicts aren't bothering anybody; the potheads are bothering people around them that don't want to get lung cancer.

if you live in windsor, plant some trees or plants around. it'll help to clean the air of some of this horrible marijuana pollution.

18:48

oct 11

i made a food bank run on wednesday and friday which might be the last run, finished moving on friday, gave back my keys, got my check, and then did some grocery shopping for the next week or two. i will need to eat through specific food bank items first before i get back into my food schedule, which should be in a few more weeks. i will have a lot of fruit and salad to eat through first, and that's ok.

i am exhausted. i slept a lot on tuesday, thursday, friday and saturday, and i'm going to sleep a lot more tomorrow. i bought a chicken for thanksgiving, which i think is a stupid holiday, because i did this the last time i moved into a new basement, in 2018.

the drug dealer upstairs gets a lot of business. he's constantly leaving the door open to let his clients in. my observation is that his business model is that he has scouts working to bring in new clients. it's a sick business in a sick world. they are apparently getting evicted. i guess i'll need to wait it out.

for now, my focus is on eating, sleeping and cleaning both in here and myself. my hair is a mess.

22:12

oct 12

the lines outside of the official food banks in windsor were short, but the line outside of the goodfellows on friday felt like the fall of capitalism.

after thatcher, western society made a purposeful decision to privatize food distribution to religious organizations. this wasn't due to government mismanagement, and isn't some kind of mistake. thatcherite and randian ideology argues that it is not the role of government to distribute services to the population, and that citizens should not be taxed to distribute resources justly. rather, they argue it is up to the church to do this, and that the church should be funded by donations, rather than taxes. this is seen by conservatives as a decrease in government coercion, and increase in voluntarism, but it wouldn't feel that way to anybody reliant on the services, who are now forced to deal with religious institutions that have views they don't adhere to or agree with, rather than governments bound by bills of rights and guarantees for universal access and secularist value systems. this is fundamentally rooted in the theoretical economic mistake that markets are efficient and government are not, which was popular in ivory towers 50 years ago, but which has been proven 100% exactly wrong by thorough empirical data, which demonstrates very clearly that markets are infinitely more wasteful than governments, and that virtually every market will be expected to fail almost immediately, without deep and consistent government intervention.

increasing the cdb is one approach, although i'll point out that people don't seem to realize that it's tied to inflation. if you're going to tie it to inflation, it makes sense to come in low. the cdb will increase on a yearly basis and the increases will compound over time. if they had come in with a higher number, that might have been harder to maintain.

it is a better idea to allow governments to centralize resources, which is even easier to do now than ever due to advances in technology leading to increases in speed and efficiency in warehousing and database management. a province wide distribution system that accepts inputs from producers and suppliers would be far easier for the government to manage than it is for a free market of volunteers and religionists to hack together.

like so many of the problems facing us, the solution begins in undoing the free market ideology that western capitalism has adopted since the 1970s as ideologically backwards and empirically wrong and re-embracing centralization and government supply management, which the technology has dumped on our laps as feasible, logical and cost effective to implement. until we have this shift of mindset, we will continue to decay in the dystopia of late capitalist free market economics.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/video/2025/10/12/ctv-national-news-high-demand-putting-strain-on-food-banks-this-thanksgiving/

2:28

oct 13

i'm sorting through what kind of furniture i need to make sense of this new space, which is relatively large but also extremely rough and therefore very cheap, and i'm realizing i can do some unusual things with it, for it's price range.

this is a $1000/month basement in the bottom of a house with a busy drug dealer living on the top floor. i have no reason to call him in at this point, and won't so long as i'm not smelling weed, but he couldn't be more fucking obvious. he's got somebody banging on his door every 20 minutes.

for reference, the apartment i just abandoned was $1200/month, on the third floor and somewhat smaller in total footage, but also more finished and came with three other apartments in the building full of potheads that were polluting my air space. the basement i got evicted from in the spring was less than $800/month and discernibly smaller than either. the basement i got evicted from in 2018 was less than $700 when i left (i signed at $650) and about the same size as this one, overall, but far more finished.

i've thought through how i want to do this and have decided that the new space is going to consist of the following rooms or areas:

1) a small but usable bedroom, partly because much of the storage that you expect in a bedroom exists elsewhere in the apartment, but big enough for a stereo system, a study/writing desk and a bedside computer pc typing system

2) a large enough bathroom for substantive shelving, full wall mirrors and a makeup table

3) a walk-in closet off of the bathroom (not the bedroom) with built-in laundry and a dedicated sewing area

4) an eat-in kitchen with expanded counter and shelving space

5) a side entrance with a space for coat and shoe storage

6) a voip phone and zoom (via voip videophone) area off of the kitchen

7) about 150 square feet of studio space

8) a small couch area with a stereo for listening

9) space for an exercise bike off the front entrance

10) a device charging area behind the front door

11) a 150 square foot work and storage area as a functional in-unit garage or actual basement in parallel to the apartment, with functional 2-level storage built in.

12) sufficient wall space for cd and book storage

it's cheap because of the drug dealer and the various problems a drug dealer creates to property values, but i've been told they're getting evicted. the front door, for example, is pretty brutal. i haven't seen the effects of the drugs yet, but i'm sure i will. i have recently seen somebody passed out beside their shopping cart around the corner, because they couldn't make it over the bridge, and i jumped to probably correct conclusions. he just fell over; he might have been technically dead.

it's going to take a few weeks, maybe a few months, to set the apartment up. right now, i'm not sure the furnace works, and i'm waiting for the owner to do some minimal but necessary cosmetic work.

i hope i don't get evicted to raise the rent, again; i'm unfortunately realizing the necessity of planning around it, and want to focus on buying if i have to move again. some small houses in windsor are starting to list under $180K.

0:42

let me warn everybody: if you buy this house to evict me, i will take everything with me when i go. you will be deeply disappointed with what you end up with, which won't be what you thought you were getting.

it's a huge space for a low-income rental, which is what i wanted and got (~600 square feet in the apartment, up to 700 including the laundry and closer to 900 including the in-unit garage. the upstairs units don't manage space well because they've been converted into apartments, but this is the entire basement of what used to be a moderately sized house). it's been partially recently redone; the hot water and furnace are fairly recent. there's new inside doors, new flooring in the bedroom. somebody tried to give a fuck and gave up, which left me with a lot to work with, and i'm going to finish the job.

0:54

kitchen

oct 14

how am i feeling?

a lot better, but it's fairly dry down here, and that's had some effect on me. i need a long shower. i don't think they've drugged me in a while and i'm not sure yet if they've followed me.

i bought a few things yesterday to start the process of redesigning this basement off - a plastic drawer system to fit into a hole under the counter, a shoe rack, a fan, a mercury thermometer to replace the one i broke and a digital "weather station" with alarm clock and calendar that i actually suspect i'll find extremely helpful. i still have my radio/alarm clock from about 1991. i remember listening to smells like teen spirit on it when it came out. i haven't used it in 20 years, and it's well in need of an upgrade. i just don't use alarm clocks. i'm very good at waking myself up on time, without one.

i'm looking at putting a mini fridge and a long table in to extend the counter, with a smaller table underneath it to put a stereo system on.

there's somebody coming tomorrow to look at whether he can install a fan in the bathroom or not and that's going to help dramatically, but i need to do the kitchen first, the walk-in closet second and the bathroom third. i don't know if i need a plumber or not yet. the kitchen plumbing appears to be fine.

21:04

oct 16

one of the things about living here is that it means i don't have to worry about shifting electrical rates, so i can go back to just sleeping when i'm tired. my schedule should re-randomize as a result of that, and i should find i'm more refreshed and less tired.

the first thing i'm working on is the kitchen, which means a lot of cleaning and a couple of new appliances and pieces of furniture. the previous tenant in this basement appears to have abandoned the place and left most of her stuff here, including a large amount of dishes and cutlery that are now mine, a kettle (which is something i wanted to pick up), a vegetable slicer and a coffee warmer / induction plate. i've added the kettle and induction plate to my standard coffee maker, my single cup coffee maker (which i'm using for potent espresso), my toaster and my blender. since i came in on saturday night, i have managed to clean the cupboards, the counters, the inside of the fridge and the floor behind the fridge, but it's a pretty big space and is going to require a lot more work.

on sunday night, i bought some plastic shelves to fit into a specific hole under the counter, as well as a fan, a shoe rack and two thermometers, one of which is an alarm clock and is still in transit.

i spent last night toying with how i was going to extend the shelves and decided to go with a large wood table i found on the curb a few days ago.

tonight, i purchased a large 33"x18" bar fridge (it was 50% off) that i intend to actually use as a produce fridge. my diet is 90% vegetables, which means my fridge is often moist. i'd like to put the things that evaporate in their own space, so things like bread don't get wet. that will clear up more space in the main fridge for soy milk, water and juice, as well as the bread and items in bags or containers, like margarine, which i could start buying in bulk, as there will be more space.

i also purchased a $30 dollar indoor bbq that's big enough for two burgers or one big piece of chicken. it's a one person bbq. i eat very little meat, but i've been meaning to get something like this for a while, as a kind of kitchen necessity, because there's that one time every few years that you have chicken in the freezer and need to eat it somehow. i bought it because i'm doing this now, and it was cheap.

my toaster has also been broken for almost ten years. i mean, it works, but you have to put it on minimum and flip the toast, to toast both sides. this is a different kind of ghetto blaster, i suppose. so, i bought a $15 wide slotted bagel toaster.

i still need a few small shelving units. there were items left here, but i'm not sure any of them will fit or make sense in this context, while i think some will fit in a different context. i'm looking for three or four small shelving units, which could be book shelves. i'll set what makes sense.

it's a pretty big kitchen, and this will max it out. once i'm done cleaning and arranging in the kitchen, i'll take some pictures and move on to the laundry/closet area, which is next.

3:55

oct 18

it's been cold in here since i moved in because the furnace has been blowing cold air. it turns out it must have been something to do with the thermostat upstairs because the furnace finally kicked in with force this evening, kicking the temperature up to over 30 degrees. i expect that to be temporary as the heat rises and balances out through the house, but i do not need to worry about the furnace. the furnace works.

i also tried my new wide slotted toaster out with some pop tarts i got from the food bank. no, i would never buy or eat pop tarts, normally, but hey. when i was a kid, my mom would have yelled at me, although she was mostly concerned about not wasting money on junk food that could be spent on drugs and the idea of telling me to eat an apple instead was just convenient for her. so, i have no history of consuming garbage marketed as food, and it's certainly been in my benefit. but i had an apple, too.

2:11

these horrible fucked up mentally ill losers have followed me again.

i don't know what to do. i want to kill myself. this torture doesn't end. they won't stop. they think that torturing me is some kind of "therapy" and they want there to be some kind of "miracle".

belief in god is the most fucked up mental illness in human history. these horrible cults, mostly jewish in origin, have caused untold human suffering for millions of people. we need a global project to violently eradicate all religion from the earth, to end the suffering and oppression it creates.

i have to fight them and i have to bring them to justice. i have to make this worth something. my suffering cannot be in vain. i'm going to make this oppression count for something. they're never going to do this to anybody else.

it's the local mosque. once again, it's the muslims in the building. that's how they're organizing their torture and their sick belief system.

10:38

secularists need to be more aggressive about the scientific reality that islam is a dangerous mental illness that viciously oppresses and tortures peoples and needs to be violently eradicated. there is no future in the world for such a sick and distorted perspective of reality. it's not harmless idiocy that should be ignored as dumb people mumbling at things, it's a dangerous cult that threatens to severely limit people's freedoms, and already is.

i'm tired of the idiocy. these people are retards. they have no concept of individual choice, they don't believe in free will.

but i need to continue to generate evidence to file the relevant police reports and send these disgusting people to jail. i have no choice. they won't leave me alone.

10:51

the struggle against superstition, belief, faith, mythology, ignorance and religion has been at the core of the project for civilization since the dawn of history. i am facing the same challenges that millions have before me, for thousands of years.

the fact that it seemed like we had defeated religion in the west after the triumph of secularism in the french revolution make this extra frustrating. i have had the luxury to live my life in freedom, without the retarding effects of religion.

the fact remains, nonetheless: the triumph of secularism over religion is incomplete, and this struggle remains. i have no choice but to continue to fight it with as much vigour and resolve as my ancestors before me did.

20:32

it's clear they drugged me, and i think i've heard them in the building, although i'm only 70% about that last one. it's hard to be clear what exactly you're hearing in the first 30 seconds after you wake up. i need to be methodical about this. i think i heard them; i'm not sure.

i had cereal last night, which contained a number of food items i had stored in my kitchen for weeks or months, as i have not been eating a lot of cereal lately. it is possible that i ate food that was drugged before i moved.

i had my locks changed immediately on moving in here, so the only other key is with a property manager. i did that intentionally to minimize potential access points. there are no random keys floating around out there. i have several, and he has one. that's it.

i have not yet found any suspicious signs of entry.

if i'm eating through old food that has been spiked, that's frustrating, but i'll have to deal with it. i don't know how you spike cereal, though.

i need to be careful and i will be. i've learned through the several moves that the stalker is a dangerous criminal and that this is a criminal issue. it's not a civil issue, or at least not on it's face, and i need to treat it strictly as a criminal matter, until i'm able to catch and prosecute them.

22:23

oct 19

i am now 100% certain that they're in the building, and followed me. i don't know how or when they drugged me.

there is only one person with a key to the door.

for that reason, i'm choosing to deal with this by blasting it out with prescribed hormones, this time. next time, if there is one, i'll need to go the lab and get tested.

i should get to the lab in the next few weeks, one way or another, as i need a "clean" drug test to file my package with police, and i haven't been able to get one yet.

these morons seem to think that i'm gay. it's a reflection of their lack of intelligence, their extreme stupidity.

21:16

oct 21

i had a rough weekend, and didn't get much done. i'm feeling more stable, but very gross and disgusting and filthy. i got a lot of cleaning done overnight, including a good clean of the rest of the stove and some placement of items around the kitchen. my table should get there today, which should help me put almost everything away.

i am noticing a couple of roaches down here around the fridge. i am going to have to pull it back out and see what's under there.

i hindsight, i think the gross freaks likely managed to get something in my food before i left the previous apartment. i remember a few moments where i felt like i was on something while i was moving, and that build up of dry skin might not have been natural. the weekend after i found the key, i isolated some soy milk, and then didn't drink it. i wonder if they drugged something else, but i don't know what. i guess the hot sauce is the most logical guess.

i wanted to do a large walmart purchase this morning for cleaning and bathroom supplies, but the website isn't working and i'm going to fall asleep instead.

i'm more than a little bit depressed about the situation, but i'm making progress on the kitchen. this is the fourth place these sick losers have followed me to. they appear to have no lives of their own to live. am i going to have to deal with this until they die?

8:44

i wasn't able to find any sign of roaches behind the fridge, but i lysolled it to death and dumped a little bleach in the condenser tray. let's see how the fuckers like that.

it's time to stock up on pantry items for the winter as well, and i just spent $600 on a gigantic walmart order, but i won't have to buy this stuff again until the spring, and in some cases i haven't bought it since last year. that should mostly be there in the morning but some of it will need to be shipped.

so, i'm getting there.

i think my kitchen table won't get here until tomorrow.

19:27

oct 24

i should get some pictures of the kitchen up by the end of the weekend.

unfortunately, i need to spend the next few hours writing court documents.

9:44

oct 26

the remaining items in my order arrived this afternoon and i was able to put three shelves up, which was the last thing to do, for now. the four packages that came in were the mini keyboard, the adhesive pegs, the bookshelf pins and some j-cloths.

the last things left are the doorbell and the wood shelf for under the cabinet. next, i need to finish some bulk purchases that i'll probably do via uber and then take a run to the bulk barn this week to fill up the spice shelf.

i'm going to take some pictures and start writing a post up.

22:21

oct 27, 2025

step one in setting this place up was cleaning and redesigning the kitchen because eating is one of two or three things that i have to do almost every single day, whether i like it or not, on threat of starving, which means dying. no thanks.

this is not a chef's kitchen, and it's not designed to feed a family, although i could feed a party in here rather than a family. i'm not much into family, but i don't tend to have parties, either. this is a one person kitchen in every way, but i'd challenge you to find me a better one, anywhere.

my new kitchen has three entry/exit points, so i'm going to start by posting pictures from each one.

i need to acknowledge that my new vlog camera, which was cheap, is somewhat lacking in terms of picture quality, and that i need to address that. i've been considering buying a second polaroid, which was my old vlog camera. however, it gets the point across for now.

this is a shot walking in from the side entrance, looking towards the bathroom. the closed door is for the hot water heater for the whole house.

this is a shot walking in from the living room:

and this is a shot looking back from the bathroom, to the side entrance, with the to-be-installed walk-in laundry closet behind me:

that looks pretty good, right?

so, how did i get here?

first, let me say that i think i've got everything i need. am i missing something? send me an email; it's on the side. i might argue with you, but i'd like to hear as many ideas as you have.

walking in from the side, the first item is this three-tier console table, which is a hallway and not a kitchen item, and which i don't currently have a clear use for, but will probably remain where it is:

this is currently storing cleaning supplies, but i will move them to under the counter when i get a wood plank for it, soon. when i remove them, it will only have that coffee maker. i currently have three extra coffee makers, an extra toaster and a few extra scales, and they'll probably stay on this table. it's otherwise a big random shit table, which i definitely have and will retain a use for, as i always have a pile of things i can't organize or store in a clear way, yet.

i initially bought this on kijiji in june for $20 + $10 delivery to fit into a small area in the kitchen i just moved out of. it was supposed to have a voip phone and a media laptop for zoom on the top, and a stereo system and a chromebook in the middle, with whatever on the bottom. those items would feed out to the kvm peripherals on a small kitchen table. i was going to get some kitchen stools and roll back and forth.

that place didn't work out, and this table doesn't work in that context in this apartment, but will be a great second entry table to throw shit on when you come in, and a kitchen overflow table if necessary. i will probably leave the voip phone in the bedroom and get a zoom videophone for the couch. i'm almost there with the latter but want to do some further research to be sure, as i was a little turned off by the small video in the model i was looking at. i might want to run the videophone to an external monitor.

beside the console table is what i'm calling my ghetto hutch, which is two stacked cabinets i found on the curb, one of which has become a spice cabinet since i took the doors off and the other of which is a general use cabinet, with pasta and quinoa in tupperware.

this cost a total of $0 for me to recover and reclaim, and it is highly likely that i will continue to use the top cabinet as a spice rack indefinitely. i had previously placed it directly on the stove in order to replace the stovetop cabinets in my last basement, but i cannot do that here. the bottom cabinet, which retains it's doors, could be used for anything, but i like this particular use of pasta on the top shelf and quinoa on the bottom. the real function of the bottom shelf, however, is to keep the spice rack off the floor, which is why it's now a ghetto hutch.

the spices from the top shelf down, left to right, are:

bob's nutritional yeast / frank's hot sauce / garlic or onion salt

paprika / dried dill (empty space) / open baking soda for odours / black pepper

dried thyme / dried basil / dried oregano

cayenne pepper / ground cumin / raw, plain sunflower seeds

i keep my hemp seeds in the fridge nowadays.

next to the ghetto hutch is the start of the counter, and there is a cut out area under the counter that likely once had a garbage can but that i filled in with a plastic drawer system, instead:

i bought four of these modular, stackable drawers for $30 after moving in. i wanted to buy a $40 unit with five drawers, but it wouldn't let me, so i instead bought a four unit version and took a large drawer out of a similar broken drawer system that had been left here by the previous tenant. as can be seen, this unit fits perfectly into the space, which was carefully measured for that outcome, and the reason i purchased this unit, specifically. the tongs and juice maker were both left here; the cheese grater was purchased in roughly 2013. drawers are something you can always use more of, and can always be repurposed for some different purpose.

next, this is a picture of the entirety of the counter:

there are items here that are old, that are new and that were found, but i want to point out that i drink a lot of coffee and that's what you're seeing here - two floating shelves i connected to the walls and the cabinet with oversized pegs and packing tape (it's sturdy, but don't push on it) that have coffee cups and various types of coffee and tea respectively, a single serve coffee maker i use with cappuccino grounds, a 12 cup or big pot coffee maker and an oversized kettle, along with a knife holder, a new toaster, a new scale and an old blender, the latter three on a microwave.

i discarded a gross old toaster oven when i moved in here, partly because it hadn't been cleaned in eons. i have a toaster and i have a microwave and i have an actual oven, too. i don't quite get the point of the toaster oven; my mom liked them for making sandwiches, but i actually tend to avoid toasting sandwich bread because it decreases the nutrients in the bread. i'll toast white bread, and i like to toast bagels, hence the new bagel toaster.

my counter items are all inexpensive small appliances.

i've had this microwave for over 20 years. it followed me from my parents' basement to my first apartment, and i've had it ever since, with no reason to upgrade it. i guess my parents ultimately bought it. microwaves used to be a lot more expensive in the 90s than they are now. this is pretty big, compared to most microwaves nowadays. i really only use the microwave for one thing, which is to melt cheese.

this new scale came in recently in the mail for about $1.

i bought this single person small blender on sale in 2013 at best buy, for around $20.

the bagel toaster came in this month, for around $15. it replaces a toaster in bought in 2014 for around $10 that was no longer working correctly.

this very large kettle has a heating component under it and is plugged into the power bar behind it. this was abandoned in the unit, and something i was looking to pick up, although i planned to get a $5 stove kettle.

this $10 knife holder came in this month. the pink betty crocker samurai fish knife and the scissors were left here, while i've had the black butcher and bread knives forever.

this $20 full coffee maker was purchase in june, and is the first full coffee maker i've had since i dropped a carafe in 2020 and had to bike down to walmart to get a single serve.

i also bought this $20 single serve maker in june, and it replaces a single serve of the same model because the long shaky electrical finally shorted. i can't get the proprietary screw out of the back to resolder it, yet. i bought some italian cappucino a few weeks ago when imported coffee was $30/tin, and i realized it works better with those types of grounds. that's how i'll be making coffee with this device from now on.

i know i've had this cutting board since 2006. i don't remember how i acquired it. i probably bought it in ottawa.

you can see the pegs and the tape i used to keep the shelf in place. the pegs are enough support for the shelf; the tape is to stop the shelf from moving around and keep it flush against the wall.

this lower shelf has coffee grounds, coffee filters and tea. it will also have espresso grounds, and more coffee ground and more tea.

i found these shelves on the curb with some bookshelves they didn't fit into around 2021.

the higher shelf has mugs and other coffee (and tea) cups. i use the beer mugs for big cups of coffee.

so, that together, then, is my coffee station, which takes up a lot of my time in the kitchen.

i don't currently grind my own beans. i might one day soon if it's cost effective. i could add that.

under the counter are two drawers:

i have had too much cutlery for a while now, and the fact that i found a pile of it when i moved in here exacerbated the preexisting issue. i need two cutlery drawers, at this point.

under the drawers is a pretty big cabinet, currently full of cereal and canned food from the food bank. i wouldn't normally have a pile of cans like that.

when i get a plank of wood for in there. i'll put the cans on top and the cereal under it, along with cleaning supplies. normally, this would be for cleaning supplies, mostly.

next to the counter is a pretty standard sink and cabinet, with an old dish drainer.

the single cabinet is big enough for all of my actual dishes, i just have a lot of tupperware, and i use it all because i eat a lot of vegetables. there's more in the cabinet than usual right now.

this is under the sink, which has been cleaned. the mountain dews are kept for water and for other items, during concert trips. the coffee containers are kept for storage.

this drain was leaking, but i tightened it, and now it's fine.

i also dumped a bottle of bleach down the drain here:

the last thing i did was scrub the floor, although it had been washed in bursts as i was doing other things (like cleaning the stove). i had also already scrubbed under and behind the fridge and stove, and under the kitchen table.

that, then, is the north side of the kitchen, itself:

next is a short hallway leading from the kitchen into the bathroom that i first wanted to extend the counter into but realized was really the best place to build a one person eat in space. if you removed the second plastic drawer system, which contains an assortment of tools and plastic bags, and then took the side table out from under the main table as well, you could maybe seat two or even three people at this table, but i don't need or want that. i want somewhere where i can sit down with a big salad or plate of pasta and watch a lengthy documentary, or participate in a lecture series. this does that extremely well.

i might have bought an actual computer desk for twice the price of the table, but i instead spent the extra money on building the table into a custom desk, using an industrial side table and a cheap monitor stand.

the table itself was $60 and purchased this month.

this is a different angle on the three component composite computer table, including the side table.

i purchased the chair in june on kijiji for $5. it's also made of metal, with leather cushions.

this is a shot of the industrial strength metal side table ($40) and the stereo system on it:

this is just the moniter stand, which was $20:

in total, it was $120 + hst, which is about the price of a computer desk, but it would not have been as customized for this space.

here is the stereo:

the receiver is a vintage nad 3020e that my dad found for me when i was looking to pa my pod:

the cd player is a sony that also plays mp3 discs and my dad also gave me at some point, although it's less clear when; i think it was about 2009. i could potentially use this for dvd video, but it's currently not connected, and there's almost no possibility that i'm ever going to watch a dvd.

the video source is a falling apart mini lenovo thinkpad chromebook i bought brand new in 2018 for $100 from factory direct because it was end of life, then. it needs a mouse and keyboard to be plugged in. this model could be converted into a laptop and, because the chrome os is end of life, i might do that. for now, it just streams youtube, and it does it fine. i may need to replace this soon, probably with the busted dell chromebook i'm typing on.

and, there's an ethernet switch on the bottom that i bought for $10 about 2022ish:

this is the mini keyboard i just got for $15:

the monitor is a philips. it does not have high end specs, and takes a vga in, but these fall of civilizations videos are vibrant, if you ask me. if i'm watching a lecture, it doesn't matter, and this is a good size without getting too big, which is the actual concern. but if i'm watching some vivid film with vibrant production, the goal is reproduction, and this monitor will do fine. what this monitor won't do is make dull source material glow, via over saturation.

these are 6 ohm yamaha ns-e55s that are rated at 50 watts. they pair well with the low powered nad, which can do about 35-40ish at 6 ohms (much lower at 8 ohms). there's also a button to cut your input volume from cd or digital media, which is helpful for cds mixed during the loudness era or youtube videos mixed into the red, with people yelling at you in them.

these speakers were sold with subwoofers, which i don't have.

this the the $5 chair i bought in june. it's a nice chair, but it was dirty when i bought it, and i take it nobody wanted to clean it, so they just sold it.

in the far corner next to the computer table/desk, is my first plastic organizer, which i bought in 2018 because the previous basement had no drawer of any sort at all. i have taken the cutlery, pills and other kitchen things out of it and distributed it more loosely, so that at this point it's largely a tool box, but with a lot of plastic bags in the bottom shelf.

above the toolbox is a small floating shelf with a bottle of vodka and a little tin container with rolling material in it, along with an assortment of lighters. the pill bottle is a shot glass, but i haven't touched that bottle of vodka since the start of 2020.

this is a combo shot of the northwest wall of the kitchen/hall/dining room.

this is the south wall of the kitchen, facing towards the living room. it's much shorter, and contains only the two fridges and the one stove.

this is the new mini fridge i bought for $100, to store produce in, mostly:

this is the fourth floating shelf, right above the mini fridge, connected to the two walls, and with an old scale as a weight to keep it put. it will just hold light plastic containers. i keep margarine containers for storage, specifically. this wood was purchased in 2013 and cut for a corner shelf.

this is the big fridge that came with the apartment:

the fridge was dirty and required a lot of effort to clean it, but it's otherwise fine, besides the missing piece of plastic. i added a piece of wood and really just taped it to the side. the bottom drawer was from a different fridge or not from a fridge at all and i just took it out as i don't need it.

the stove was far worse than the fridge, but look at it now. i scrubbed it inside and out. i added a shelving unit to the side of the stove to hold two items i want to plug into the stove, namely a coffee warmer and an indoor grill / panini maker. the idea is you move the grill to the stove top when using it.

not all of the elements worked, but i cleaned them and that fixed it.

the stove was particularly gross, but i got most of the grease out.

the pan compartment was one of the grossest things i've ever seen, but i cleaned it up:

here is a picture of the shelving unit from the side. this is another $0 curb pickup. it's mostly full of food bank food now, but it should eventually be full of items like doritos, when i get back to my normal diet.

this is the coffee warmer, with a coffee on it. this was left by the previous tenant.

this is a picture of the grill, open. it was $30.

and that's it.

what's left is (1) that wood plank for under the cabinet and (2) if i can find a very tall, skinny bookshelf, i will park it in here for bathroom stuff, but i might leave it in the bathroom, instead.

total cost for kitchen, including items previously purchased for last apartment, but not including food or cleaning supplies, including hst or shipping per itrem:

console table: $30

plastic drawers: $34

knife holder: $10

wall pegs for shelves: $10

computer desk (main table + side table + monitor stand): ($60 + $40 +$20) + hst = $136

chair: $5

mini fridge: $115

indoor grill: $35

wood shelf: unclear

kitchen scale: $14 <----replacement item

bagel toaster: $17 <-----replacement item

single serve coffee maker for cappuccino grounds: $23<-----replacement item

12 cup coffee maker for regular grounds: $23<----replacement item

mini keyboard: $17 <-----replacement item

ghetto hutch: $0 (curb find)

stove side cabinet: $0 (curb find)

extra utensil holder: $0 (curb find)

kettle: $0 (left here by previous tenant)

coffee warmer: $0 (left here by previous tenant)

extra cutlery, dishes, mugs, pans, tongs, juice maker: $0 (left here by previous tenant)

============================

$375 new items + $94 replacement items = $469 + wood shelf, probably $20-25

that's not bad, i don't think.

here's a vantage shot of the new eating spot that i'll be sitting in to eat at.

oct 29

one of the items left here by the previous tenant was a three stage activated carbon hepa filter, which she seemed to use for her cat. the air quality has not been too bad, actually, but an overwhelming stench of pot or gasoline (it wasn't clear) took over about 6:00 am in the morning and was still going by 9:00 am. the heroin addicts upstairs are getting evicted this week, so i'm going to be patient about second hand smoke until they're gone.

this plug-in device, which pulls air from the room, filters it, and puts it back, has been running for about 7 hours, and the air is noticeably cleaner to breathe, even if the smell is actually still lingering. it's hard to get rid of the stench of mariijuana when gross people smoke inside for long periods.

it needs a new filter, but i'll hang on to this.

16:12

nov 4

my video intercom came in in the mail today, so the only thing i'm waiting on is a package of nitrile gloves. unfortunately, as expected, the cable is only about 3 m long. i am going to need to run the cable through the garage and through two doors, which should be 5 m max. i'll have to see, but i think i'll need to buy another cable. that's ok. i can use this one to test it.

i'm also deciding that because i'm going to be putting a lot of wall shelving in here (the bedroom is a little small, too small for bookshelves, but it has that big closet/laundry area off the bathroom, which i consider preferable in concept; it means that multiple shelves on the walls are a better idea) and because i have a garage area that i intend to use to work in, it makes more sense to just order the wood i need and order a cheap circular saw to cut it with. i'm going to buy the same amount of wood, whether i cut it here or at the store. i can't bicycle with these wood planks, so i'm going to need to either walk it or cart it but some of the wood is going to be upwards of ten feet, so that even carting it from the closest store (a home hardware) becomes awkward. home hardware is also known for being overpriced. so i'm probably better off getting it cheaper online and mailed to me, and paying the $60 difference on a new saw. when i was a kid, i had a basement bedroom that had a kind of built in shelf (it was actually that the wall was about a foot from the brick, and the space lower to the ground was filled with insulation covered over by drywall, while the space higher up was not, it was just drywall over the outer layer) that i used to store paperbacks on. i'm going to build something similar to that in here, but it will be with three ten foot shelves held on to the wall with those adhesive pegs. that should be helpful to me as i work through the j's journal section of the multimedia presentation, which is the first thing to do when i get things set up properly.

it would be a shame to leave this space. it's huge. and it's cheap. i'm trying to get the furnace to work correctly and get a fan installed and get a new door on the side and i think i should be good to go after that. the landlord is absent-minded and distant but seems to be better than the last few, it's just that you have to bug him to do stuff. that's fine.

so, there's going to be another bunch of purchases when i next sit down to do it and it could actually be quite a bit, but everything else is in now except the gloves. today, i have the follow-up hearing for my harassment suit against the landlords in the last basement i was in and i will be filing something in the court of appeal tomorrow, regardless of how that goes, although i need to know what happens before i finalize what i'm filing.

11:52

nov 9

i've been having some laptop problems.

if i don't sign into google on my chromebook, google operates like it normally should. however, as soon as i sign into the chromebook, the google ui completely breaks. at first, i thought it was somebody hacking my router again, but it wasn't acting that way more broadly. after a fair amount of testing, i'm concluding that the problem is not on my end, but rather that it is google that is doing this intentionally, apparently by blocking javascript from working. specifically, google is blocking java from working on search only; everything else works fine. the cookies from the google server are set to no javascript.

i've sent google some complaints. they're going to need to figure out what's going on and fix it. unfortunately, it might be because the chromebook is expired, and that might be how this works nowadays on expired chromebooks.

i think i'm going to be more likely to switch these devices to linux than buy a new chromebook, as that is why i bought them in the first place. in the mean time, i need quick access to gmail, particularly.

i'm going to try a few things. can i spoof from guest mode? what if i actually log into the device?

in the mean time, i basically can't search anything without logging off. so i'm going to need to log in on this chromebook and set up a second chromebook that is not logged in so i can search on it.

20:39

yeah. it's the browser version.

if i open the chrome developer tools and spoof it, it runs normally.

it follows that google is now actively trying to force you to by a new chromebook by blocking access to google search for browsers of a certain age, and they can go fuck themselves.

ok. i was a little freaked out. i get it now. i can run searches in a developer window if i need to. that's fine.

21:02

nov 10

all of my passwords are 100 digits and intended to copy and paste. it tooks some time before i could log into one, and:

(1) the first account actually loads javscript

(2) subsequent accounts do not

(3) all of the user agent switchers for subsequent accounts need newer versions of chrome

this is extremely depressing.

i have no intention of purchasing another chromebook. if they're going to block search functionality, i'll have to turn it into a linux device.

it's very frustrating. at least i have a better understanding of what's been happening, but i'm upset about this.

for now, i see no other option besides running two chromebooks sat the same time - one logged in for services and the other logged out for search. but i can do that right now on this device, logged into the stub account, and i'll have to stick with that for now.