The great debate

First things first, Merry Christmas, and an early Happy new Year!!

On a previous post of mine a certain "Rob" whom I don't think that I know, posted a comment about the debate over Metric vs. Imperial (or US standard as he liked to call it) systems of measurements. Well I am here to clear up the debate, Metric is the winner hands down. Now I don't know if Rob was just pointing something out or trying to make a point, but he got me thinking about this, which led to a post.

I know both systems and I use both systems everyday. I am used to inches and feet and things like that, I lived in the states so I understand miles and Fahrenheit, it is not that I don't get it but that if you think about it, imperial makes no sense what so ever. Now before all you Americans hate on me remember that this is only my opinion, as well as the opinion of the the world... seeing as only Liberia and Burma (AKA Myanmar)are the only remaining non-metric countries

Metric makes way more sense and is way easier to use and remember than imperial, you see everything is divisible by 10. All you have to do it know the order in which things go to make it all work, and it is the same right through from solids, to lengths to liquids and so on a so forth. You see everything starts at 0 and is divisible by 10. Let me give you an example or how easy it is, and if you don't believe me just check out this website for yourself. http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm

1 kilometer is 1000 meters, 1000 meters is 100000 centimeters, 100000 centimeters is 1000000 millimeters. Now on the flip side of the imperial try this on for size. 1 mile is 1760 yards, 1760 yards is 5280 feet, 5280 feet is 63360 inches. Now unless you are a math major there is no way that you will always remember that, and if you do, then tell me how many feet are in 23.5 miles? there are 124080 and you all needed a calculator and also had to remember how many feet are in a mile. But if you asked how many meters are in 23.5 km that is done in my head in an instant 23500 with no calculator. Now you take any type of measurement that you want, area, volume or weight and it will always be the same as it is always divisible by 10.

And then there is the great debate over Celsius vs. Fahrenheit. The only thing that I have to say about that is that things start at zero, not 32. If you have $32 in your bank you aren't broke, but if you have $0 in your bank you are broke. Likewise with temperature. "Man it is below freezing it is like 28º" just doesn't make sense. You cant be positive something and still be below freezing. Take waters freezing point and boiling point In Celsius it is 0º and 100º respectively, while in Fahrenheit is it 32º and 212º respectively. what the heck does 32 and 212 mean and how were those number decided upon. Now I could go into that, but I am afraid that I have bored you enough already so I will just give you a web site to visit about Mr Fahrenheit and all his craziness about multiplying by 7 1/2 and 15/16 etc. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a891215.html

So I think that it is pretty clear that metric and Celsius make more sense and are the way to go, but if you are still not convinced, just ask anyone who works for a large manufacturer, mill working shop, hospital, or is from a country other than The USA, Liberia and Burma, and they will all tell you that metric is not going anywhere and is the way of the future as it is the world standard. So you had better get used to and and quit sniveling about how imperial and Fahrenheit are the best. Any questions, I didn't think so, I win you lose get used to it!

Tower of Babel, the bad side!

Okay, I know that most of you are going to think that I am a being a bit prejudice and need to learn to have tolerance, however, here I go.

I was at work the other day, and I was going to meet one of my employees to go over a job that I needed him to do. It was a simple job that was going to take a day. Nothing major or anything that should cause problems... I should know better!

We had done a job in the summer of removing and insulating and then re-pouring a 2600 square foot concrete pad. Now before you all ask, no we aren't in the concrete business and we used subs. So here we were prepping the pad with insulation, as it was going to have a walk in freezer on it, re bar and gravel, standard for around these parts. Well the job went well and we were done in 3 days. The freezer went up no problem and we were ready to get paid. or so we thought.

It is number months later and we are still waiting for final payment, and not just a little amount, enough to make a grown man cry! So I go over there to find out what is going on and it turns out that there is a crack where the old concrete and the new concrete meet. NO WAY, CRACKED CONCRETE AT A JOINT.... as you can tell I reek with sarcasm! concrete is going to crack and when you take it from one temp to another in a Short time it is just going to crack sooner!

Anyway to make a long story short, the company that we are doing the work for is Chinese, not a problem. However, these particular Chinese are a problem. You see I took my man down there to fix the "crack" so that we could get paid, and all I got was the run around. Here is what happened in a condensed form.

(Chinese owners) We are not ready for you, come back on Monday.
(Matthew ) We will come back, but you need to pay us the money that you owe us after we are done.
(a bunch of angry Chinese and gestures towards me and my guy)
Can we do part of the work now?
(a bunch of angry Chinese and gestures towards me and my guy)
We need to complete the work so that we can get paid
(a bunch of angry Chinese and gestures towards me and my guy)
Can we come back Monday, do the work and then get paid?
(a bunch of angry Chinese and gestures towards me and my guy)
For the love of everything holy and pure answer my questions...

and so on and so forth. Now you can see what my problem was. I do not know Chinese nor do I pretend to know it. I was talking with these clients in the only language that was common to both of us and out of the blue and for most of the time I was left wondering what the heck was being talked about. Here is where I have the problem, you are dealing with me in a business setting, I am not at your door asking for money or a donations. We did work for you and you owe us money, and we are in bed together in the business sense, so SPEAK THE COMMON GROUND LANGUAGE!!! not speak English because we are in Canada, but speak the language that is common to both parties.

After dealing with this for 2 hours, I had enough and told them to speak to me so that I could understand them. 3-4 of them were talking in front of me in Chinese like I wasn't there. Enough is enough. I finally told them that we were coming Monday and that they needed to talk to me so that I could understand what was being said. I know that they were talking badly about me, and that is okay, but have the balls to say it to my face!! Different languages are good, but when you use your language to your advantage on purpose, well then you are in the wrong in my opinion especially when you know that the opposing party cant understand a word that is being said and the conversation involves them. I wish that I was able to speak another language at that point just to make them feel as angry and frustrated as I was!

One final word that I have, is to bite me if you think that I am being harsh, prejudice or anything of the sort. You deal with what I had to and then come and talk to me!

What the HECK happened!! you know who you are!!

So I want to name names, but unless it is mine then I have decided to leave people to their anonymity. However, I really want to hang a couple of people out to dry for something that I was promised and never came to fruition. Let me lay it out for you, and those of you who I am talking about, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!

I have a problem with cats, yes yes I know that it might be an obsession, but also just in general I have a problem with cats. So anyway as you have all read I have a little thing going with these devil creatures in my neighbourhood, ranging from a pulled hamstring to me throwing all the cat shit into the neighbours yard (don't worry it is the cat owner's yard!) So I was with some friends awhile back and the topic of Satan's pets came up. We all got to talking and after a few bottles of wine and a some beer, we came up with a great idea for these creatures of the depths! When we were gone to Grand Rapids for American Thanksgiving, two individuals would take it upon themselves to rid me of my problem(s). It was all planned to perfections, the covert operation was going to take place while I was out of town and therefore wouldn't be liable for the deaths that were about to occur... PERFECT!!!

How it was going to happen was late at night two "friends" were going to use all their skill in tracking, guerrilla warfare, sniper ability, and last but definitely the most important BLOW GUN SKILLS!! You see I have been shot with a dummy dart from the end of a blow gun, and all I can say is D@#MN does it hurt. You put a lethal dart in there and "Bye bye kitty Kat". We left and thought that the plan would go into effect and thought that it had, that was until the last snow fall.




You see when we returned home, there were no real signs of the local pests, "great, they are dead at last" I thought to myself. Then the truth started to reveal itself. After the latest snow fall, when I retrieved our morning paper, there they were taunting me... foot prints, and not just any prints but those of a demonic cat! I decided to investigate a little more to make sure that it was cat prints for sure and it lead me right to a little dirt mound that reeked of cat!!! I couldn't believe it my "friends" had let me down, there had been no killing field in the middle of the night, there had been no stuck cat crawling under some tree to die a slow and painful death, there had been no.... you get the point.

So to those of you out there, and you know who you are, I relinquish my friendship and ask that you never speak to me or of this again. I left my heart wide open and it was broken and left for dead with a little spittle on it. The sad thing is that the joke was on me and not on the cats. It wasn't the cats that died, but a little part of me died that fateful morning when I went to get the paper... I will forgive but the heart wont forget, a cat hater scorned is, well a cat hater scorned.

Cats 3 Me 2

to be continued....

Incompetence at its very worst

Okay, what is it with drivers in Calgary. I swear we have some, if not the most incompetent drivers in the world!! I was driving on crowchild yesterday and everyone around me spontaneously decided that it would be a good idea to completely and totally ignore the speed limit. Now normally I would be fine with this as long as they are ignoring it to exceed the posted limit, however this was not the case. Everyone started to slow down to around 60km/hour now if it was slick and people were sliding out of control... GET 4 wheel drive and don't make it my problem. The speed limit signs don't say "80km except in rain snow or any inclement weather", they simply say Maximum - which interestingly enough is used because it has the same meaning in french and English, but I digress - 80km. So take your skirt off and drive the speed limit, we do live in Calgary and have had snow before you should know how to drive in it!!



So now I am going 60km when I should be going 90km at least. As I look around I begin to notice something, and believe me when I say that this is not meant to be sexist, but 80% of these drivers were women. So to all you women out there, please tell me why this happens and what makes it necessary to go 60 in an 80 zone.

When I was finally able to get near my destination, the same thing was happening. I was driving down 26th ave and everyone was going 35-40km. Now for those of you who have driven this road before you will know this to be true. For some reason people treat the entire length of 26th ave as a playground/school zone. I have checked and to my knowledge there are only 3 school zones and 1 playground zone on this street, so it baffles me that it is treated like the whole bloomin' thing is a 30km/hour zone. Now just to prove that I am not a sexist pig, this time 90% of these drivers were over the age of 70 and mostly men. Now I don't have a problem with the elderly, on the contrary, but I do have a problem with people who are too old to drive the speed limit, or for that matter see the signs for the speed limit. Once you pass the age of 70, I believe that you should have to be re-tested for your license every year MINIMUM.

So to end this rant, all I want and ask for, is for the people in our great city of Calgary to take a moment to realize that the gas is the one on the right, and please stop riding your brakes and drive the speed limit or faster. People who don't are the cause of accidents, Speed doesn't kill, incompetent and slow drivers kill!! And for all who don't agree, feel free to comment all you want as long as you realize I am right and you are wrong.

CIAO!!