message from god

Woohoo! Doug hooked up the colour scanner for me today. Much more interesting (i.e. not recycled) blatherpics coming soon...

Because of a cold bug and errands, I didn't come in on Friday. Spent the weekend doing Christmassy things like helping my sister and her family get and decorate their Christmas tree, and have Christmas dinner with my in-laws (Jeff's brother Case and his wife Debbie won't be able to be here next weekend). They gave us a cool fountain thingy for our office, and also a nice sweater for me (I'm wearing it today, if you check the officecam this afternoon). Had fun with nieces Brittany and Olivia; both were sick, and Case got sick yesterday. Hopefully I've escaped the bug since I have one already (fingers crossed).

Doing the Christmas tree thing with Sara and Annie was fun, too. After they chose the tree, we had hot chocolate in the tree farm barn, then drove back to their place for decorating. The lower half of the tree was decorated in record speed; Ruth and I added breakables to the top half, and Kaarel added lights.

Spent this morning at the bank and doing more Christmas shopping, got into the office around noon. A few minutes after I got settled and started working, a mysterious computerized voice suddenly boomed from the other side of the room. It said:

"DEBBIE OHI...THIS IS GOD SPEAKING. I HAVE SENT YOU A MESSENGER NAMED DOUG. DO AS HE SAYS AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED."

I almost fell off my chair laughing, but was also confused...there was no one else in the office; how was Doug managing this?

Current theory: Doug checked the officecam to see if I was in, did a remote login, uploaded the sound file with the God Message to Amanda's computer, ran it, logged off. What a technonerdboy. :-)

I am going to have to get Doug back, of course.

>:-)

self-defense

HEY! Just found out that Andy Barrie aired the "Technonerdboy" track from our CD on CBC radio this morning!!! I didn't hear it, but we got calls from my mom-in-law and our friend Alison George right after. Very cool. Our second time on national radio! :-)

Jeff was quite sick yesterday, spent most of it incoherent or unconscious in bed. I opted to stay in the livingroom couch last night so that both of us could get a full night's sleep, but I had trouble sleeping anyway and didn't end upfalling asleep until 5 am. Was woken three hours later by a call from someone at Jeff's old workplace (he still does contract work there) who wanted to ask Jeff how to adjust colours in Photoshop.

Yesterday I took a break from work to get a nutritious lunch from Burger King (I would have bought a Happy Meal from MacD's, except they've run out of the Toy Story 2 toys I want). Then I bought some paper towels from a corner Hasty Market. While I was getting them, a large man leaned up against me and started whispering swear words into my ear. I ignored him and went to the checkout counter to pay for my purchases. He got a bottle of pop and brought it to the counter as well. While I was paying, he leaned against me again and started biting my shoulder. Didn't hurt (he only got the cloth of my winter jacket), but I jerked away from him while the women behind the counter yelled at him to get away from me. He grabbed his purchase and ran out of the store without paying.

Even though I wasn't hurt, I have to admit that the incident shook me up a bit, mainly because I felt so helpless. What should I have done? I'm asking for advice. I didn't want to confront the guy...he was very large, and also didn't seem to be entirely all there, if you know what I mean. My tactic of "just ignore him and hopefully he'll go away" obviously didn't work. If he -hadn't- run out of the store at that point, I probably would have started yelling...hopefully that would have gotten the attention of people outside.

I know that chances are good that nothing major would have happened anyway, but it was the man's unpredictable behaviour that made the situation prickly (i.e. somewhat frightening) for me. For a few seconds, I really didn't know what he was going to do, what was going to happen to me. I *hated* feeling helpless and passive like that. Makes me want to go out and take a course in self-defense, but somehow I don't think that would have helped much in this situation.

let it snow

Lots of snow today in T.O. Sort of weird, looking out my window...because of the air currents, the snow looks like it's floating UP past the window.

Worked at Jeff's office yesterday...configuring new laptops, tweaking settings, packing up equipment. We went to Planet Hollywood's for dinner. Altho the restaurant opened in the neighbourhood a while ago (Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were in town for the big event), this was our first time there. Lots of movie memorabilia (our table was beside one of the gun-thingies from the first Ghostbuster movie), movie trailers playing on big screens everywhere, loud music. It could be a fun atmosphere if one was in the right mood, I'm sure, but we were both pretty tired. After dinner, I went home and Jeff went back to work, didn't get home until 2 a.m. (!!).

Paul and Beckett had sent me a chocolate orange, and I've just finished it, yum. For your amusement, here is a list of the "Nutrition Facts" on the box:

Amount/Serving, where a serving is 5 pieces
Total Fat 12g
Total Carb 27g
Cholest 10 mg
Fiber 1g
Sugars 25g
Sodium 30mg
Protein 3g

Zander Nyrond has a new webpage at http://www.compulink.co.uk/~zander/index.htm.

Update 3:10 pm - Whooboy, snow's coming down a lot harder now, and news reports say that a major storm is headed this way.

adsl, woohoo!

Can't recall if I've mentioned...we have ADSL! It means I'm literally online ALL THE TIME. No busy signals, no fighting with Jeff over who gets to go online (we can both log on at the same time). And it's cheaper than what I was paying with my other ISP.

My relatives in Japan have sent me a bag of incredibly delicious mini-chocolate thingies, each individually wrapped. AUGH. I keep them "hidden" under my desk, but I can hear them calling me...calling...

holiday pet peeves

Thanks so much for the suggestions and encouragement in blatherchat and private email about my Hasty Market encounter a few days ago. Here are just a few of the comments:

"Debbie-- Sorry you had to endure the masher in the grocery. You might have been better off to pummel him with a loaf of french bread. The proper loaf can double as a bat any day. Seriously, get the manager, get other help, get the cops and get out, not necessarily in that order. My response to thugs and bullies is never correct. I spent too many years in the brotherhood of arms and I still believe in peace through superior firepower. Your response always must be something you can live with; something to protect you, something that works for you. Informed vigilance and a little self defense knowledge are probably your best bets." - Richard

"Ouch, Debbie. Sorry to hear about your Hasty Market encounter. I would guess that experts might be able to tell you which course of action would be the most statistically likely to work, but it's still something of a roll of the dice, especially with someone as unpredictable as this guy sounded. Certainly going straight to a place with more people (the checkout) sounds like a good idea. Knowing self-defense is a good thing, although you hope to not have to use it. Still a big plus, though, both in case it _does_ get to that extreme, and to take some of the fear out of the situation for you (and, besides making you feel better, your lessened fear will probably be visible to the potential assailant)." - Paul

"Sympathies Debbie. As far as what to do. Every situation is different but the options come down to Fight, Shout, Run or combinations of the three." - Teddy

"Hi Debbie, My sympathies. Yup, I've been in a situation like that, too. In fact a couple. The one that bears the most similarity was when I was walking home after a late shift (about 11pm) down a very quiet and dark suburban road. I was aware that someone was following me, I peeked. It was a man. I speeded up, he speeded up, I slowed down, he slowed down. I crossed the road, he crossed the road. Basically it became entirely clear that he was following me for a *reason*. And what good reasons are there after 11pm? And despite several years of very aggressive martial training, what happened? I froze. My legs turned to jelly and I acted just like a rabbit frozen in headlights. When he eventually made his move, I couldn't run because I was so frightened. So I stood there and shouted at him, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING FOLLOWING A WOMAN AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT! STUPID MORON!" etc. etc. And to my intense relief he mumbled something about wanting to know the way somewhere and ran off. I stood there for a good couple of minutes before finally getting into the house, bursting into tears and collapsing on the floor. Not nice. Fear paralyses us all. On the other hand, I'm quite capable of sticking up for other people in very dodgy situations. I've broken up fights,and tackled disruptive drunks, but I can only do this for someone else. As soon as it is *me* that is threatened, I freeze. On a very basic level - we're all just rabbits." - Annie

"Hey Debbie, when someone bothers me in a public place(with other people around) I usually firmly and politely ask them to leave me alone, in a voice loud enough for others to hear. When I am alone, I do my best to find a place where there are other people, and if not, I confront them (similar to what Annie did) because most people will not take the risk of attacking an aggressive woman." - Andrea

I've resolved to take a self-defense course in the new year. Even if I wouldn't necessarily be able to -use- some of the solutions proposed in the course, at the very least it might help improve my self-confidence in future similar situations.

Jeff's still sick. My bug's still hanging on, but isn't nearly as bad as his. I've actually finished my Christmas shopping. Sadly, I didn't get to send out Christmas cards this year.

MY HOLIDAY SEASON PET PEEVES:

Rolls of wrapping paper that are -taped- closed inside the package. It's impossible to take the tape off without ruining several inches of wrapping paper.

Saggy socks that come off when you remove your boots.

The version of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" on Rosie's Christmas CD.