Archive for March, 2005
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Site pains.
By Karen | Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005 | No Comments »
Bear with me for a few days. I’m switching to a different web host and eventually moving my blog to Movable Type, so for the next day or so, you may have trouble finding my website. It’ll be better soon. I hope.
“Why do women always pay more?”
By Karen | Wednesday, March 16th, 2005 | 1 Comment »
That’s the name of an article from today’s Globe & Mail. It’s common knowledge that certain products/service cost more for women than men: hairdressing, clothes, dry cleaning, etc. This bill will be up for discussion on April 14th so I’m keeping an eye on this one.
Lorenzo Berardinetti, a backbench MPP for the governing Liberal party, has introduced a private members’ bill in the Ontario legislature that, if passed, would mean men and women would pay more similar prices for these types of goods and services.
Mr. Berardinetti said he’s looked at other jurisdictions, such as in California, which has already enacted a similar law in 1996. Another state, Massachusetts, has the Public Accommodations Act, which ensures fair gender-based pricing for hair and other cosmetology services.
A 1994 study by the California Assembly Office of Research looked at five major cities in that state. It found that 40 per cent of hairdressing salons charged women more for a hair cut than men. It also found that 64 per cent of drycleaners charged more to clean a woman’s shirt than a man’s shirt.
Random rants.
By Karen | Tuesday, March 15th, 2005 | No Comments »
Read this article on the latest in American gay marriage rulings. Here are some snippets. Pay attention to the last paragraph.
San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled Monday that while withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians has been the status quo, it constitutes discrimination the state can no longer justify.
“The state’s protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional,” Judge Kramer wrote. “Simply put, same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before.”
Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a Republican, predicted the judge’s ruling would spur efforts to amend the state Constitution to ban gay nuptials, as was done in 13 other states last year.
Mr. Haynes has introduced a bill to place such a constitutional amendment on the November ballot, but if the Democrat-controlled Legislature defeats it, he said gay marriage opponents would accomplish the task themselves by petition.
“This ruling demonstrates absolutely what we have to do, which is to amend the Constitution so that we can take the question out of the hands of any judge anywhere at any time,” he said.
OMFG. Doesn’t democracy fundamentally let its citizens adjust rights and freedoms as societal needs change? Why then should a democratic nation, and a state like California–that boasts the largest gay-friendly city in the world–vie to amend state Constitution, preventing their pro-gay-marriage citizens’ voices to be heard? Argh! Such narrowmindedness is astounding.
Today’s commercials are getting absolutely ridiculous. To make it worse, it’s the bad ones that you can’t get out of your head. For example:
“It’s a table saw!”
-Canadian Tire Christmas commercial
“(Whoosh) My wrists are on fire.”
-Anime-like Aspirin commercial
“He who hestitates loses last slice…hahaha!”
-Martial Arts Delicisio commercial
The Alexander Keith’s commercials have also gotten extremely tired. I no longer want to buy these products or shop at Canadian Tire, just to boycott their choice of advertising agency.
New job!
By Karen | Friday, March 11th, 2005 | No Comments »
As of March 28th, I will be working for a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software company in Yaletown. You will undoubtedly hear more about it from me if you haven’t already been called or MSN’ed. Can’t sit still anymore, looking so forward to starting!
Yippee!
IQ quiz time.
By Karen | Thursday, March 10th, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Here’s the results of the latest quiz I took. I’m a little disappointed. My brother and I are competing!
The Super IQ Test
How Smart Are You Really?Karen, your Super IQ score is 120.
The way you think about things makes you a Concrete Thinker. This means your intelligence is grounded in a clear understanding of what is happening around you. In situations where others are confused, things are crystal clear to you. In addition, you have the unusual combination of strong verbal and numerical skills. You are able to solve equations and then use your verbal skills to explain those solutions to others. Only 6 out of 1,000 people have this rare combination of abilities.
Ahhh, that’s better:
The Classic IQ Test
What’s Your IQ?Congratulations, Karen! Your IQ score is 136.
Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns.
Some randomness.
By Karen | Thursday, March 3rd, 2005 | No Comments »
March already? Wow. The pace has slowed down somewhat since MIS Showcase ended, but my memory cannot reconstruct the events of the past month in any logical order. So here are some random tidbits.
The Bay outbid Roots Canada to clothe the Canadian Olympic Team through the 2012 Summer Games. Personally I find it difficult to envision a fashion line cooler than what Roots has provided. All I see is a bunch of atheletes huddled under HBC’s signature (ie, unattractive) Bay Blanket. Read more here.
Junior Achievement is one of the NPOs I’m currently volunteering for under the Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) program. I wish they had been more involved in speaking at independent schools back when I was still a student. Gonna try to get LFA, St. Pat’s, St. Andrew’s and St. Joseph’s to consider their program.
Speaking of LOT…a picture of my mentor and I made it into the Winter 2005 LOT newsletter! Very cool.
CIPS Vancouver, an IT professional society that I’m a member of, is hosting a Women in IT event on March 17th. Looking very forward to it. If you want to learn more, it’s $15 for the first 25 students that register. Get in touch if you’re interested.
Kurt has finally posted a new rant! Check it out. If he ever got a radio gig on the iPod radio thing that Jonny was talking about, he’d be a popular and prolific station. Too bad his written stuff is so lean…but typing and spell-checking are two activities that he does not seem to enjoy.
Job search update: following up on leads with ICBC, Telus, and Pivotal. First interview scheduled for tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!
March babies: Happy birthday to my cousin Leanne (Mar 11) and my MOH, Jason (Mar 2)!
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