Wow! Is That A Mockingbird?

There was this funny video that we couldn’t stop watching when we had Christmas with Steve’s family. It was only a short, but we couldn’t stop laughing.

I think what made it even funnier was how hard Seppa laughed at it. First, he was just laughing because we were laughing…which made us laugh harder. Then we explained to him that the mockingbird was mocking the guy, and when he started to get the joke, he laughed for a whole different reason. That short played on a loop for so long and we just kept laughing.

Seppa is growing up, becoming more and more curious. He wants to find pictures of family members he’s never met, learn about them, figure out how they connect together.

He’s watching and always noticing stuff about people around him, but he’s figured out that sometimes, imitating someone could hurt their feelings. He’s a sensitive little guy and cares a lot.

He asks questions about things that I don’t always know the answer to. Sometimes it’s to define a hard word. Once, he asked me to define fiend, and I really had to think about it. How do you define a word like fiend without using other big words?

And some questions are super awkward. When we were at Steve’s dad’s place for his party, Seppa pointed at a picture and said “Is that Grandpa or Papa?” Papa is what he calls Steve’s stepdad. Um, that’s definitely not Papa.

Another funny thing he did was he was challenged not to talk for a while, so he started scribbling on a little whiteboard of sorts. We started trying to guess what pictures he was trying to draw. It was a fun time.

I was happy we got him the right Christmas present. I was desperately searching Mastermind Toys looking for presents, and we found a mini drone. We got one for Kliks, and then went back for Seppa. When he opened it, and when he figured out what it was, he jumped into each of our arms saying “Thank you! This is a very special moment for me!” Yea! Success!

As he gets older and changes more and more, I really want to catch some snapshots of him and not let go. Seppa is growing up.

Skidding In With Voting Info At The Last Minute

So…it’s provincial election time…way too soon. And here I am, doing my usual thing where I try to figure out voting details, especially where assistive voting is concerned. Here’s what I have learned. I even hassled some election office people to get some of this info, although I had to do a lot less hassling.

Things are improving on the assistive voting tech front. So we all know what I’m talking about, assistive voting technology refers to those machines that read the choices out loud and you can indicate your choice by using sip and puff, using paddles or using buttons on a giant game-controller-like thing. If you want to use the machines, you can use them from February 20th to the 26th at your district’s election office, or if you’re feeling brave, you can call that election office and book an appointment to use the machines on election day at the same office. Those are the options that *should* be a certainty. But apparently, if you live in a big enough election district, you might get a machine at one of your advance polling locations between February 20 and 22. But you have no way of knowing if you’re a big enough district. This is the wording on the Elections Ontario website:

You can use assistive voting technology at your local election office from February 20 to 26 and at designated advance voting locations from February 20 to 22. You can also contact your local election office to make an appointment to use assistive voting technology on election day, February 27.

To me, that means that in each district, there will be at least one advance voting location that will have the machines. But that’s not what it meant to the people who built that website. They need to make that wording clearer, and they need to give people a way to check if their district is one of the ones who is big enough to get a machine at an advance poll. Actually, what they need to do is have more machines so they can put them in more places so this stupid wording isn’t necessary, but that probably isn’t happening for a long time.

While I’m here, allow me to make fun of the accessibility tools section of the Elections Ontario website. Not all of the tools need to be laughed at, but some do, so let’s write them all down, and start cackling at the cackleworthy ones.

Eligible electors can make their own choice in accessing the tools and services required to successfully navigate through the voting process.
• Use a mobile phone and/or electronic device as an accessibility tool. 
• Bring a support person to assist with communication, mobility, personal care for medical needs and/or accessing goods, services or facilities. 
• Bring a guide dog or service animal. 
• Use magnifiers and ballot templates with braille numbering and cut outs for voter use.
• Contact your local election office to request curbside voting. The election official would bring the ballot outside the voting location for you to vote.
American Sign Language (ASL) and Langues des Signes Québécoise (LSQ) Interpreters and Intervenors are booked by the voter and billed directly to Elections Ontario.
Braille requests
You can contact us to request a voter information card in braille. 
• Requests for braille voter information cards which contain information about when and where to vote must be received by February 19.  
You can request this braille item by: 
• email: info@elections.on.ca
• phone: 1.888.668.8683
Accessible services for voters unable to go to a voting location
Assistive voting technology in local election offices
Elections Ontario app

Let’s laugh at a few of these, and ask more questions about others.
• Use a mobile phone and/or electronic device as an accessibility tool. 
Um? I never thought we were prevented from taking our phones into the booth. And if we’re the one providing our own phone, then why is that marketed as an accessibility tool/service?

• Bring a support person to assist with communication, mobility, personal care for medical needs and/or accessing goods, services or facilities. 
Just like we’ve always had as an option! Again, if I’m bringing my own help, how is that an accessibility service? I would understand if there was a special section involved if I wanted the person I brought to help me vote. I might have to sign something or whatever to let them go behind the screen with me. But this is just telling me I can bring someone with me to the building. Duh! Of course I can! Maybe this comes from the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, but it still sounds kind of weird.

• Bring a guide dog or service animal. 
Because it’s kind of the law! That is not something super special. I assumed that they would train the poll workers about service animals, but putting that out there as a service they offer sounds completely ridiculous.

Now that I’m done laughing, I have more legitimate questions. The section about sign language interpreters and intervener services breaks my brain. I didn’t post all the phone and email addresses because there’s a lot there, but there seems to only be contact names and numbers for certain cities. Does this mean that you call that city’s office and they connect with someone closer to you? Or do they have to send someone from that city? Also, am I understanding it correctly that in some places, interveners are being asked to act as sign language interpreters? How the heck is this supposed to work? They probably can’t, but there’s no information about how long a wait it is between when you call for one and when one is available. Or maybe I’m thinking too much. But that whole section seemed very confusing. But I’m glad it’s there for people who need it.

That’s what I have been able to find out. The Elections Ontario app had my voter card, so if my card doesn’t come in the mail, I have the electronic version.

Here are some generally helpful links:
To figure out your district, where you have to vote, and other important info, punch in your postal code here.

If your voter card doesn’t come in the mail, since the mail is backlogged to hell, here’s what you need to know.

One thing I’ll say for this year’s election is I didn’t talk to 3 different people and get 3 different answers. They seemed to know what they were talking about in terms of the machines, and that’s awesome. I also think this is the first year we’ve been able to vote on election day with the machine if we wanted to. I’m always afraid it will fail, and then I’ll be screwed because that’s my last chance to vote, but I’m glad it’s an option.

At the end of the day, what matters is that we all find a way to slog through the snow and vote. It’s important!

Doug Ford Sending Money Through The Mail Like It’s 1992 Is Not A Mystery And Ohmygod I’m So Irritated By All Of This


If there’s anything that isn’t super annoying about Doug Ford lately, I can’t find it. Even when I was starting to kinda get on board with his patriotic fight for Canada against Trump gimmick, he had to go and ruin it by admitting, to what should be no one’s surprise, that he was happy Trump won last November. That’s bad enough on its own, but then he made it even worse by saying he expected that things would somehow be different this time. This in spite of the fact that Trump literally campaigned on doing exactly what he’s doing right now with the tariffs and that, come on man, he’s Donald fucking Trump! If there’s a shitty thing to do to another person, he’s going to do it even if that person is supposed to be a friend. That’s all the guy does. He has no loyalty to anybody but himself, and the fact that Ford can straight face act like he had no idea says a lot about him and his fitness for the job he’s been given, I think.

And then there are these stupid cheques. A costly waste of money that will do absolutely nothing to address any real cost of living issues. They’re designed 100 percent to bribe us all into voting for him in the pointless election, which I should also remind you is going to be a costly waste of money.

All that is bad enough, but this being a Doug Ford initiative, you can bet your ass it gets worse.

Yes, this first gripe of mine probably would have happened regardless, but I’m going to go ahead and blame Ford for the extra scam because this was all his idea.

The Province of Ontario is warning residents to be on the lookout for scams to do with the $200 rebate cheques issued by Doug Ford’s government.

The $200 payment is available exclusively via cheque, which will arrive through the mail. 
However, residents should be wary of texts, emails and phone calls from anyone claiming to be from the provincial government.

In a “scam alert” on Ontario’s website, officials said the province will not contact someone proactively unless they initiated a question or query about the rebate.
Residents who are contacted unprompted by someone claiming to be a government staffer or representative should never give out their personal information, including social insurance number, banking or health information. 
The province said it will never use text, email or a phone call to offer money or a reward, or ask to sign you up for a rebate program.

Great. We have old people in our lives who are already freaked out about scams as it is, so this should make things better.

And don’t even get me started on how he’s chosen to send these damn things out. Instead of remembering that it’s 2025 and using direct deposit like a normal person, the frigging guy is spending lord knows how much to mail them! Through the post office! The post office which, in case you’ve forgotten, is still working its way through the backlog caused by last year’s strike!

The video I stuck at the top of the post asks a question that it then proceeds not to answer, but the reason for this paper mail garbage is pretty simple. It’s all marketing and branding. It would be easy for Ford to just send you money, but he wants you to see that he’s doing it and to hold it in your hand. That way, the reasoning goes, you’ll remember who gave it to you and have fond feelings about that person when you’re at the ballot box later. It’ll likely work, too.

Me though? I just see the fucking asshat who’s making me make an unnecessary trip to the bank in the goddamn snow, and then a similarly unnecessary one to wherever the hell my polling station is after that. Thanks, dingus. You underestimate my distaste for both you and winter. I look forward to voting NDP. Great work. Go pound rocks.

Pour Some Knowledge On Me

Hey there, youngsters.

It’s your old pal Steve here with a public service announcement.

You know that song “Pour Some Sugar on Me”? It still plays everywhere, so you probably do. It’s this one, just in case.

Anyway, based on a realization I had today, I feel like this is a good time to point out that to the best of my knowledge, none of the members of Def Leppard could see the future, nor did they possess a time machine. So no matter how much it sounds like that line near the start is saying “livin’ like a lover with a red iPhone”, (it most definitely sounds like that), that’s not what it’s saying. The song was released in 1988, nearly 20 years before the first iPhones were unveiled. So what you’re actually hearing is “Livin’ like a lover with a radar phone”, which makes a lot less sense than the red iPhone thing, honestly.

You’re welcome.

Definitely Going To Fool Them

“Ok now. Before we leave, I have to ask. Did you remember to properly label the drugs bag?”

“You mean the definitely not drugs bag? Of course!”

“That’s right! We can’t be driving around looking as dumb as those bag full of drugs guys.”

“Nope. We’re way smarter than that! No way in hell we’re getting caught.”

They got caught. the problem? Somebody forgot to write “definitely not a stolen car” on their ride.

Reynolds, cops say, was carrying a loaded .357 handgun in his pocket, a bag of methamphetamine, and $1360 in cash. Baggenstos had “three white pills she said were oxy…as well as a meth pipe.”
A 1:15 AM vehicle search yielded more meth, two scales, drug paraphernalia, and “baggies commonly used for selling.” And, investigators noted, “a brown bag that said on it, ‘Definitely not a bag full of drugs.’”
Inside the “Definitely” bag cops found “multiple packages” of what an officer “recognized to be methamphetamine” (and which later tested positive for the drug). In total, police seized about half-a-pound of meth.

Costly Government I Don’t Want Calls Costly Election None Of Us Needs

Premier Doug Ford confirms he will call snap Ontario election next week

Ontario Premier Doug Ford plans to call a snap election Wednesday, using the threat of 25 per cent tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump to justify his early call.
That election call would send Ontarians to the polls on Feb. 27, more than a year before the June 2026 fixed election date.
“With a strong mandate, we will be able to fight with Donald Trump to make sure we stop the tariffs,” he said Friday at a press conference.

Ford, who already has a large majority government, suggested he is not satisfied with the 79 out of 124 seats his Progressive Conservatives currently hold.
“We need the largest mandate in Ontario’s history,” he said.
“When you have a strong mandate in politics, and you have a strong mandate from the people for the next four years to last over the four years of the Trump administration, I can tell you, the opposition treats you with a little more respect, as opposed to being vulnerable. Always people think, ‘OK, they’re going into an election.’”

This is, of course, absolute nonsense. Mandates don’t get any stronger than a majority government, and if your own party hasn’t turned against your awful policies and borderline criminal behaviour in great enough numbers to bring it down by now, chances are they’re not going to do it when everyone including the opposition actually agrees that Trump is one of the province’s biggest issues and that all parties need to unite to face it down. Trump will still be president next year when we’re supposed to go to the polls, and if you’re doing a good enough job in the eyes of enough people then, you’ll get your new mandate.

This is yet more selfishness from Ford. A blatantly transparent power grab that sadly I’m pretty sure he’s going to get away with. Every poll I’ve seen has him ahead, and though I never have and never will understand the reasons for that, there’s nothing that’s making me doubt them.

But boy oh boy, would I ever love to see him have to eat shit over this. It would be great if he lost and I’ll certainly do what little I can to make that happen, but I think it would almost be more hilarious if his nice, comfortable majority became a slim, precarious minority. If he loses outright he could just leave in disgrace. A minority, that he would have to wear every day and you know it would drive him nuts. Watching him suffer through every public moment would be kind of fantastic, I think. Especially for everyone his government has made suffer through its mismanagement, cruelty and neglect.

Water Pump Blues


Watching this video of Bottleneck John playing the blues to the rhythm of an old water pump made me think of the White Trash Washing Machine, the only difference being that this one doesn’t seem to be done quite as much for laughs.

The waterpump blues duo – Live by the lakeside!!
Water splashing and rhythm swinging – I dig it, folks. This pump is simply awesome, so I HAD to go back and jam some more with it! Here’s another clip featuring my National Duolian and this old, very old invention called a hydraulic ram pump!! It’s just freakin’ cool how steady and laidback it can provide this groovy beat!!!!! The lyrics are from Son House’s song: Preaching the blues.

Filmed at Arvemuséet, Sweden by Christer Ljungeaus.

Why I Don’t Miss Social Media

DID YOU EVEN CONSIDER EVERY POSSIBLE LIVED EXPERIENCE BEFORE RECKLESSLY POSTING YOUR CHILI RECIPE ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Look, I get it. You thought what you posted was innocuous. Still, did you stop to think about everyone who has ever lived and how it could make them feel?
I know, I know—all you did was share your chili recipe, but did you consider the people who don’t like chili? The people who are vegetarians? The people without tastebuds? The people who don’t know how to turn on stoves? What about all those folks?

Not only did you share a thoughtless, cruel recipe, but you also had the audacity to call it the “best chili recipe in the world.” Really? Have you tried every chili recipe? How do you think this makes the creators of other recipes feel? How would you feel if someone said your chili wasn’t the best they’d ever had?
Oh, you’d be fine with that? People are entitled to their opinions? Well, that makes me feel pretty disregarded.