I am not the Jo you're looking for

1:31pm: Don is Cancer free!

YAYES!

12:55am: Happy Pui!
I think it's Pui's birthday today!

PUI DAY! :)
(I pronounce pui as rhyming with day, but with a "u" sound. Please don't correct me, it'll only confuse me.)

5:12pm: Angry
I've already ranted about this on LJ, but fuck it, I'm going to rant about it some more.

As you may know, AirCanada broke Don's wheelchair last month. He's now been basically house-bound for over a month. Isn't that awesome? And the problem at this point is not Air Canada, but Harding Medical Supplies, the wheelchair repair people we've been getting dicked around by using since the Chair came from the nice Charity people.

They've lied about basically everything, promised phone calls when X happened and then not called, refused to answer questions, and it turns out they've tried to bill us twice for things that they can't bill us for - first for something that should have been covered under warranty, and the latest bill they can't even charge us because it's supposed to be covered by the nice Charity people - which they know.

We first called them to get the Chair on August 24. It took them five days to get around to picking it up. They told us then that we'd be sorted by that afternoon. We didn't get anything back from them until the following Monday, when it took me three phone calls to get anyone to tell me what the hell was going on. Then it was waiting on the assessment. Then it was waiting on AirCanada. Then it was waiting for parts to be delivered. Now we're still waiting on parts, which apparently will be in on Wednesday. That will be more than a month since we first called them, and we have no idea how long after that it will take for the chair to be repaired.

Don's surgery will be the same day the parts are scheduled to arrive. He's going to be flat on his back in bloody cancer treatments for however long after that. Harding has basically stolen the last days of summer from us. And although I totally get that some of this is not their fault, they could have avoided a lot of our irritation by simply communicating with us, returning our phone calls with the information we requested, and not acting like our anger is somehow completely unreasonable.

5:14pm: Rain!
Because I'm secretly 12 years old, I'm no end of amused the Hurricane DANNY became Tropical Storm DANNY became Post-Tropical Storm DANNY because this rather pathetic spate of rain outside.

On the other hand, maybe I don't need to wash my bra now, because I didn't bother with a coat.

1:43am: My email is full of wank about how OMG hard it is when people call you out for being shitty to other people (apparently saying in response to criticism of your "real women self esteem" blog something like "You're just jealous because you're not me, signed Barbie, the Goddess you'll never be" causes people to rethink your commitment to diversity), and now am in shitty mood, despite Montreal being lovely (except for all the damned vampires).

So. Someone talk me out of sending a nasty email to the NDP about how if Ed Broadbent is giving a speech about a "more equal Canada" for all, will they be providing a transcript for Deaf Canadians to be able to read that speech, or will they continue with Accessibility Fail: But We Really Care About Disabilities (except when they're not "cute")?

The vacation part of my vacation is lovely. My stupid insistence on reading the internets? Really shite.

6:54pm: At some point or another, racefail will stop long enough for me to be able to get away with my little shit-fit about how colourblindness is a disability, and could people stop using it as their go-to for "I don't see race" or "Look at the racist who pretends they don't see race". It's ablist and pisses me off.

Also, Montreal is nice, except for all the damned vampires.

11:18pm: Aca-wank on Disability-L
I'm on a mailing list for disability-related research that is in the middle of the strangest flame war.

In short, folks are getting into a dick-measuring contest that includes who's older (and thus more expert) and whose google-fu is better over the original of the phrase "Nothing about us without us." (They're also arguing over whether the OP [who has gone silent] meant the phrase in general or its application to disability in particular)

It's just so O.o?

If it weren't on a closed mailing list, I'd post it to something, mostly cuz nothing brings the glee like aca-wank.

8:25am: Happy Birthday To Me!
It's my birthday! Yesterday, when we celebrated, was awesome! I hope today is equally awesome.

It's really funny looking at the photos. I've been out *so* much this summer, compared to last summer when you couldn't pry me out of my flat with a pry-bar and a promise of ice cream. This year, Don's got a tan (Don hasn't had a tan since he was a wee lad), and my face looks like I've gotten a lot of sun. And this is awesome. :)

I'm thinking of making a post to F_L about someone who didn't die (that is, John Barrowman), but I'm wondering if that's too much snark.

Birthday Pics!

10:35am: Do what you want cuz a pirate is free!
The entire internet is irritating me. Let's talk about Pirates!

It's the Tall Ships festival in Halifax right now. I will bring good photos soon, but the light yesterday was shite and after everything else going on, I didn't feel up to going out to take night photos. I'll try tonight.

But, it was really weird. We watched this one ship come in - the Liana's Ransom - that's going All Out Pirate for the Tall Ships, and everyone on it who wasn't paid to be there looked like the grimmest, most serious people ever. Just frowny and unhappy. I wonder what was up with that.

So! Tonight we're going out to ride a Pirate Ship, and I'm very excited. And Sunday is my Mad Hatter's Tea Party birthday party. And Monday is "Does Don Have Cancer?" day.

11:50pm: Don is now taking morph1ne twice a day. And lyr1ca twice a day. And Z0l0ft in the mornings. And some op1at I can't remember the name of if he can't sleep at night.

When I'm in my "We will solve this problem through RELENTLESS CHEERFULNESS", I keep thinking that if we're ever in a real money bind, we can at least sell all this stuff for a decent street value.

Tonight, though, I just feel very very sad. And like I did something wrong. Before I "made" him go out and do things, he wasn't on this massive amount of drugs, just one, as needed. And now, "as needed" is all the time.

OMG!cancer test is on 9 July, and the results come in on 20 July.

10:04pm: I just spent a delightful evening reading sections of "Flowers in the Attic" out loud to Don.

I am very mean. But quite satisfied with my evening.

10:24pm: I'm sure everyone's seen the fandom argument going on about Warnings.

I'm very tempted to Share My Thoughts on this subject.

Instead, have many pictures of cows!
Cow tag on flickr

10:30pm: Trolls are funneh
This is probably the "best" comment I have ever read on the internets, and I suspect it will be deleted before you have a chance to see it in the wild.

So, I shall reproduce it here, but it's a brand new comment to a post Feministe had up in December. (original)

I think I may be the "Anna" "she" is referring to, but I'm not certain and can't be arsed to check. (I put "she" in quotes because... well, you'll see.)

( Only homosexuals are attracted to geek guys )

10:37pm: Get Out Your Congratulatory Macros!
I just got my acceptance email to my School of Choice! I'm going to Grad School!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEE!

8:58pm: So.

We went to the Specialist Doctor, who... didn't do a biopsy. *sigh* They decided to talk about having a biopsy instead. It should be soon, though.

In short: Probably cancer, probably not DeathCancer. Biopsy in a couple of weeks, results a couple of weeks after that, and then decisions when that's over. However, if one needs to pick a cancer to get, Thyroid Cancer is the way to go because it is relatively easy to treat and has a relatively low chance of killing him. This is not making stress go away, because if it is cancer, then there's surgery, and surgery is harder on him than your average person.

It's been a very very long day.

1:01am: ( needle stuff )

3:01pm: The Happy Little Pony in Don's Throat
The "they think it's cancer" test is on Monday.

As we do, we've made horrible jokes about all of this, and have started referring to the "nodule" in Don's thyroid as the "Happy Little Pony in Don's Throat".

I really want this to be over, one way or the other. It's the waiting that's so hard.

4:02am: So, Steven Moffat. Creepy or incredibly creepy omg?

I just watched the episodes of Doctor Who with The Library and counting the shadows and stuff, and wow. I'm... wow. And then the one with the new entity that talks when you talk and ...

I may never sleep again.

2:55pm: Thesis Stuff That Didn't Make Me Cry!
I just feel the need to tell everyone that I am very smart. :)

(Got good feedback for both my letter saying "please accept me to your school" and my thesis proposal, which basically can be summed up as "You know what you're doing, now let's hone your skills." I think this is ace.)

3:31am: Wanted: One Spouse
Don's been stuck in T.V. tropes for four hours now.

Well, that's it. I need a new spouse. Any volunteers? Remember: same-sex marriage is legal in Canada!

2:47pm: Via UFB, which I know not all of you watch
LJ is now running ads that are from the National Organization for Marriage and equate The Day of Silence with oppression of straight people.

I have dreamwidth codes up for grabs. Read more about dreamwidth here. Leave me a comment if you want one, and we'll talk.

2:39am: Don goes into find out if it's thyroid cancer on June 1. That feels a very long time from now. I'm fairly certain that the month will not make a huge difference one way or the other. And I'm kinda trying to be firmly "No cancer here", so obviously all they'll find is it's a cyst or a fatty tissue thingy or something. I don't know.

Now that thesis is done, though, I have more time to worry. Obviously I need to come up with something else to do.

4:43am: I was surfing round LJ and found this:

"Hi... you're getting this cuz you're in the GOMS communities.

Leave them and I trouble you no more. There are plenty of other, better, snark comms on LJ that DON'T have lunatics stalking them and their members.

Seems reasonable enough..."

I don't know what the GOMS communities are, but the pics attached to that post were disgusting and horrible, so if you are in a GOMS community or know what it is, you may want to avoid it.

I am going to be sick.

12:06am: *sigh*
This is the final assignment for my third year course. Presumably people who are in this class have completed at least two years of university, as you needed at least 3-year standing to be in this class.

FOMAT: Your essay must be typed, double spaced with a 12 pt. font. Minimum length is 5 pages. It should have a short bibliography of at least three published works (which may include works, articles from Encyclopedias, Journals etc). Reference to your sources is essential. You can adopt any method of citation, but be consistent.

Encyclopedias. This explains why there was no squawking from the prof when people were citing Wikipedia as a source.

7:18pm: I just sent thesis off to what might be my final beta read.

YAYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11