Here we have another case where I know nothing about the Heritage Moment honoree excepting what the Heritage Moment tells me. I guess he is supposed to be someone I should know since his vision has circled the world and the company “still bears his name”, but I don’t know the guy or the company. Schoolin’ failed me again where television did the real work.

That said, I like Joseph-Armand Bombardier. Based on this propaganda piece at least. We have a bunch of kids thrilled that the store has got a new shipment of some sort of sporting equipment (those big hand paddles must be for… swimming? I guess? They’re like big webbed finger gloves?), but one kid is not interested. He’s got bigger plans in mind. He uses his money to learn about building stuff and inventing and he goes on to be Wicked Successful! Outtasight! I guess he invented the modern-style snowmobile and such, which is a good Canadian invention, so I approve. But I also like his attitude. He’s shown to be focused and driven, which is the kind of person I wish I was, so I want to be like him. Also, I like the way he pulls that one kid’s hat down over his eyes as he leaves the store.

This piece doesn’t rank high in the quotability department, though. That’s where it hurts. I guess “Hey, I can pay” is something, but it also represents where Joseph-Armand’s attitude can have downsides. The guy never said you couldn’t pay, Joseph-Armand. He said the tools weren’t for sale. This is probably because he was using them even as you were asking, you lunkhead! For my money, the real quote-line here is the nearly hidden “That is propequipment!” which is delivered just right to make me love it.

I can’t rank this one too highly. Four out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake. It doesn’t amaze or amuse as greatly as some, but it does its job and that is important. It is one of the Heritage Moments that builds the backbone of Heritage Moments. Solid showing.

I must add this though: Joseph-Armand made “a lot of money serving mass” apparently? What the chunks? Was I supposed to make money doing that? The Catholic Church owes me big time. Just sayin’. Just sayin’ make me Pope is all. Just sayin’.

No, this post is not a farewell to Inspector Gadget’s resourceful niece. I’ll never say goodbye to her because she was a good role model for girls of my generation who will hopefully be remembered forever. Also, she’s fictional, so my saying goodbye would be ridiculous.

This post is about how Canada is now in the process of phasing out the penny. I assume that everyone is so interested in what my thoughts are on the topic that they would lose sleep AND lose consciousness if I don’t discuss immediately. So here goes:

So Canada is finally getting rid of the penny, eh? Well, I’m for it. I’ve already lived through the Canadian Dollar Bill and Two Dollar Bill being turned into the Loonie and the Toonie respectively, so I’m an old pro at this whole, monetary changes thing. I’ve been getting used to changes in money for years. You might even say I’ve CASHED OUT of this situation before, if you really didn’t care enough to think of a proper joke.* So I’m confident that the populace of The Houses, The Village will surely adapt quickly and the unneeded unit will be a fondly remembered part of our past, but not missed.

And good riddance. Speaking as someone with a tendency to carry a lot of change in his coat pocket, I can say that pennies add up faster in being a space-wasting nuisance than they add up in monetary value. And I might be sad if we were losing a coin that had an animal or boat on it, but it’s just the maple leaf. We’ve got that on tons of other stuff, so we won’t miss it. It’ll still be with us. Also, copper is supposed to be a really valuable resource isn’t it? People actually break into buildings to steal wires and stuff its so valuable. Well, now we’re gonna have way more copper that we aren’t wasting. That’ll help. We’ll have more resources to use on more important things.

So sleep well, people, knowing that PDR approves of the phasing out of the Canadian penny. And on top of it all, even though the logic-using parts of my brain know it isn’t remotely true, I can still tell the substantial rest of my brain that we’re getting a step closer to my dream of one day living in a world without money. Hooray!

* I really don’t care about making a better joke. Not worth the effort.

Has anyone else ever been unable to sleep, but you know you have to wake up in a couple hours, so your just laying there in bed trying to sleep and failing and you decide say to yourself “here’s what we’ll do,” and you just make rapid eye movements in the hope maybe you’ll trick your body into thinking it actually got a little REM sleep in there? Or am I the only person who has tried that? Probably I am the only one.

Anyway, I don’t think it works.

Haiku!

Potato is here.
Potato is always here.
Such is potato.

Just for posterity, I feel that I should mention that I’m now working five days a week instead of the four I’d been doing for the last… two years, I think. I’m not happy going back to five days a week, but I do need the money. And I am aware that five days is the “normal” work week and that I should “quit whining” or whatever, but I’d be perfectly happy having everyone else get an extra day off as well.

Anyway, I’m going to try to not let this extra day of life-wasting a week harm my output for this site, Let’s see how I do.

So I have just now posted an add on Kijiji advertising that I could use a roommate. I’ve never had a roommate that was someone I didn’t know, but my monetary situation isn’t going to heal itself without some kind of help. I figure I’ll help out someone who is trying to get one of those educations that there are. At least that way I’ll feel like I’m helping someone, right?

Also worth noting: Kijiji did not allow me to describe myself as an “anti-social prick”. What manner of police-state censorship society are we living in over here? I had to call myself an “anti-social jerk” instead, which isn’t nearly as accurate.

Over the last couple years I have manufactured something of a tradition here in the Nation of PDR. National Bookorderin’ Day is the one day in the year I waste some money on the ordering of new books from the Internet (I get books from my mother for Christmas as well, but I don’t pay for those, obviously) and the date of National Bookorderin’ Day is entirely decided by when the new John Swartzwelder novel is made available on Amazon. Well, the announcement of that novel has just been made: The Million Dollar Policeman will drop in a matter of months, so I’ve got to start figuring out what books will be coming with it.

Obviously this year has the Nation of PDR in a sort of financial state where maybe we shouldn’t be spending much money on books, but I remain confident that by the time this book rolls out (in the vicinity of April or May) I should have at least enough disposable income to make this one order. I’m diggin’ myself out of the red, so it’s good to have a reward waiting on the other side.