In response to my inclusion of V.M. Rabolu on my Insane page, I received an email the other day providing me with the information I need to make an informed decision on the sanity of Mr. Rabolu.
 
Katia writes:
 
M. Rabolu knows what is going to happen because he has awake conscience. He took out all his defects(ego). He is a Christ. If you doubt, do what he did, he worked with the Three Factors. He has conscience. We didn’t…we sleep and think we are awake. Have you saw the movies Excalibur, The Messeger? … see many people sleeping there?? …all are tips from the Divine Law to help humanity to see how we are.

Oooo, I hadn’t thought of it that way. (But I also didn’t have the benefit of the brown acid). Okay, now that I have this information, I’ve made my decision: V. M. Rabolu stays on the Insane page. And Katia gets added to his page.

So, today I go out for a walk at lunchtime, you know, for a little excersize (otherwise I’m sitting in my office all day). I decide to walk over to Yonge St and back, about a 15 minute walk at a good pace. I get over to Yonge, turn around, and I’m walking back when I hit a red light at King St & Church. There’s a woman standing there also waiting for the light to change. She’s about 35 years old, a little heavy, but otherwise appears to be completely normal. She says to me “Excuse me”. Living in Toronto a lot of people say “Excuse me” when I’m outside and ask for all sort of things… money, food, directions, to sell me speakers, etc. Half the time I’m in my own little world so I don’t register immediately that they’re talking to me. But in this case, I’m standing there waiting for the light, and the words register in my brain almost immediately. I look at her, and she says “Could you help me cross the street?”
 
I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve been asked to assist with a crossing by elderly women and blind people before, but never by apparently fully functioning and relatively young woman. Not sure that I heard her correctly, I asked “Help you cross the street?” and she responded with “Yes”.
 
The light turns green, and I want to cross, so I look at her still confused by the situation but respond with “Sure, let’s go now”. She grabs a hold of my arm, relatively tightly and we head out to cross the road. The crossing went about as smooth as you would expect. We walked at a normal pace, the whole time with her holding onto my arm, past people crossing in the other direction and we eventually ended up on the sidewalk on the other side of the road.
 
I looked at her and asked “Is this good?” and she quickly nodded, said “Yes”, and released me. And I continued on my walk back to work.
 
Given my obession with phobias (as demonstrated by this website) it occured to me that a phobia was possibly the cause for her to ask me for help. It must be tough getting around downtown by yourself if crossing the street requires a companion. I wonder if she gets stranded. I wonder if a dog would solve the problem. Then I’m back at work.

Well, just in case my Google Ads (on the left) were getting around to showing non-phobia related links, this blog item should fix it. Have a look at Irrational Phobias 8, which is a Photoshop contest held by Worth 1000. There are a few gems in there. But what I want to know is when they’re planning on holding a contest for Rational Phobias. OH, wait, never mind.
 
Turns out there are seven other contests that preceeded this one. Have a look at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
 
Interesting fact: Worth 1000 is the site where I discovered the image used on my Meatsicle website. I contacted the woman who created the image and asked for her permission to use it on the website.

You read the title right, and it’s not a metaphor. The bathroom at my office is getting increasingly strange. Over the past few months things have been appearing in the office bathroom. Here, let me show you:
 

It all started with a harmless memo warning people not to put paper towel in the toilets. Makes sense. Nothing really strange about this, except each bathroom on each floor had three of these put up. One in every stall. A bit of overkill, but I guess cleaning out toilets is irritating. Notice that this memo is “Important”, in quotes.
 

So then a few weeks later, this sign showed up reminding us how to wash our hands. We’re staff in a software development firm, not McDonalds, but hey, flu season is bearing down upon us and it is a good thing to wash your hands, so, uh, okay. The thing is: software developers are notoriously obsessive compulsive and washing hands kind of goes with that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone not wash their hands, but I do see people come into the bathroom just to wash their hands. But, okay, fair enough. We should all wash our hands. Got it. Understood. (I like how each bullet on this sign seems to relate to a different type of activity, but yet they felt compelled to put “touching pets” and “handling garbage” on the same line).
 

When this sign went up, I honestly thought it was a prank perpetrated by the interns that work in our office. But it was put up using the same plastic cover and tacks as the memo. And, it was on every floor of the building, not just the floors on which my company resides. Surely this is a joke. But if it was, don’t you think someone who works in the building would take it down? I guess someone was going into our bathrooms and peeing all over the floor and walls. And we’re obviously illiterate, so it’s best to tell us how to pee using only illustrations. Actually, it never occurred to me to lean up against the wall like this picture suggests, but damn that looks comfortable. I’m going to have to try it.
 

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any stranger, this CAUTION tape showed up on the floor underneath the counter. Not a place where I’m likely to go. At first I thought maybe it was unsafe to hang out under the counter in that specific area. However, the flash from my camera has revealed the real reason: it looks like they put in some new grout. Either way, I’m not going under that sink, it looks dangerous.
 
Using my bathroom at the office has become a real learning experience. I’ve learned to wash my hands first, dry them on paper towel which I should then flush down the toilet while leaning against the wall and peeing all over the place before taking a nap underneath the sink.

It turns out there’s actually someone behind President Bush who assists him with his speeches to ensure they are exactly badly formed right to appeal to the U.S. population. See this documentary on the Presidential Speechalist. And learn how a true leader should speak.