Category Archives: Rant

WTF Friday 3.0

Posted in Jobs, Rant, Writing, WTF Friday by

I shall warn you now that this is a rant and I am writing this to just help myself calm down. It’s probably, for the most part, incoherent. Now that warnings have been issued, welcome to another edition of WTF Friday!

Image found here

Yesterday at work, a guy called my office to complain about the material in the paper. Not just any material, but my column. MY column. The column I kill myself over trying to think of shit to write about until an hour before deadline. The column a ton of people have told me they love reading. You know what, asshole? FUCK YOU. I’d like to see you try and write a column every fucking week when there’s nothing exciting going on.

I’ve realized that he’s called NUMEROUS times in the past after *69ing his ass. Once he complained because there were no photos of men in the paper, except for two ads. Are you kidding me??? This time, he called to tell me that I talk about my personal life too much and that I should write more about current events. He used the column I wrote about the new cellphone while driving ban that happened not too long ago. Well, Buster, I wrote about that because it affected me. This week I wrote about my addiction to coffee. Would you prefer me write about the inflation rates of coffee or some BS like that? I doubt it. If I find an issue boring or uninteresting, I’m not writing about it and even my boss has a hard time convincing me to.

I wonder if he understands the concept of our newspaper. We’re not political. We don’t run stories on who’s dropping out of the political race, which politician is for what policies or what kind of issues are going on at City Hall. We stay out of the “He Said, She Said” bullshit as much as we can. We market ourselves as a “good news” newspaper and we like to try and keep it that way, no matter how depressing the City may be at times.

So really, I’m just trying to say that, if you don’t like my shit, no one is forcing you to read it. Skip the page if it bothers you so much. I will keep writing about whatever I please. My boss has never told me that my writing is too self-involved and if she wanted me to write about something else, she would. Like for next week’s paper, I wrote about Kamloops’ huge Earth Hour fail after she suggested I write about it and told me some quick facts. Had I not found it interesting, I wouldn’t have wrote about it.

Okay, I’m done bitching. For now. Usually I can take criticism but apparently not at the moment. Come on skin, get thicker. If only I could actually tell him “Fuck off”.

How do you deal with people criticizing you?

On a completely different note, I’m looking for someone to create a nifty WTF Friday button so I don’t have to keep stealing the WTF kitteh from the interwebs. Email me if you want to help! :)

WTF Friday 2.0

Posted in Fail, Rant, WTF Friday by

Image found here

It’s time for the second instalment of WTF Friday! This week, it’s letter time! (Idea from the fabulous Amber!)

I present to you my irks of the week!

Dear fat lady at the gym,

Seeing you awkwardly trying to quickly get nekkid and change is more horrible than seeing you change at a regular pace. There’s change rooms for a reason. If you’re shy, use them, but who cares if your boobs hang low and wobble to and fro!?

Nakedly yours,
Kara

— —

Dear self-scan checkout user,

It’s not the machine’s fault that you don’t know how to properly use it, nor is it mine. Follow the prompts and you won’t have any problems. No one’s forcing you to use it. And no, I won’t stand there and do it all for you, even though it would be easier and faster that way.

Your friendlyish cashier,
Kara

— —

Dear housing market,

Stop becoming a seller’s market.

kthnx,
Kara

— —

Dear dirt in my eye,

I don’t like how you and the wind team up and attack me as I walk around corners. It really hurts my eyes, and I’m than certain that the people watching me walk down the street think I’m crazy as I thrash my head around dodging dirt.

Bitterly yours,
Kara

— —

Dear sweet tooth,

You are the death of me. Because of you, I feel guilty for skipping the gym this week. More guilty then usual, actually.

Not so sincerely,
Kara

— —

Dear giggly girls at the gym,

I would like to have a nice workout without having to listen to you yammer on about some cute boy or your outfits for the following week. You’re like I’m able to drown you out with my iPod.

Your elder,
Kara

— —

Dear homeless crack addict,

No, you cannot have my camera so you can trade it for crack money. Nor will I take photos of you.

Get away from me,
Kara

Happy weekend ya’ll!

Dear Editor

Posted in Conversations, Jobs, Media, Rant by

Sometimes I wish I didn’t work in the media industry. Crazy, I know, because I love my job and everything about it, but being a year-old Bachelor of Journalism graduate is tough.

Yesterday there was a Letter to the Editor in the local daily newspaper, and this is what it read, with my comments in bold:

French-first insults Canadians

I write this in protest. Not to the Olympics, but to the organizers. The opening ceremony was beautiful. I’m insulted that French was spoken first and then translated into English.
We are not a French country, not owned by France, not a French holding, French island or French province owned by France.

(You’re right there, but we do have a province that speaks French as a first-language, but go on …)

We are Canadian and English is our first language. Not French!

(Actually, Canada is a BILINGUAL country and we have TWO OFFICIAL languages.)

I am insulted that a lovely girl with a beautiful voice had to sing a crappy version of O Canada and that 90 per cent of it was sang in French.

(Without actually searching for the song and re-listening to it, I believe only one verse was sung in French. I watched the Opening Ceremonies.)


How are our children to learn English if everything is half English and half French? My Aussie and British friends watching wanted to know when Canada became a French country?

(Last I checked, not everything is half-and-half.)

I am proud to be Canadian and while Quebec still believes it’s French owned, it’s about time Canada opened its eyes. We are a Christian country with English first language and French as a second language.

(Again, no it’s not. And I doubt that ALL of Quebec believes it’s French owned. Not everyone in that province wants to separate. What bothers me most is that WE ARE NOT ALL CHRISTIAN.)

No other host country of Olympics would insult its people by speaking French first and its native language second, so why have we been thus insulted?

(Lady, you’re starting to piss me off…)

All I wanted to do after reading this letter was write once in defence of Canada’s history, but I shall not since one day I hope to work for this publication and fear it wouldn’t look good. I can only hope that someone out there in Kamloops feels the same way I do and writes in.

Anyway, to elaborate a bit more on my thoughts:

We have TWO official languages. Our cereal boxes have English AND French on them, which I thought was AWESOME while growing up. We started learning French in Grade 5 and had to take it in high school up to Grade 10 until it became an option. I can only remember one entire phrase that I learned (May I please go to my locker?) but never in a MILLION years did I not know English better because I read or heard French being spoken somewhere.

This person’s comment about Canada being a Christian country really bothered me the most, mostly because I am not a religious person. Yes, Canada may have been founded on Christian beliefs, however, in today’s world, we are free to believe in whichever religion we choose and not be judged by it. This is what I love most about being a Canadian. I would pray to gerbils and it would be fine.

My point is, I found nothing wrong with French being spoken first and then English. I was never insulted. I understood that there is a French version of our national anthem and I actually expected Nikki Yanofsky to sing part of the anthem in French. I found the writer of this letter to the editor highly ignorant.

What do you think of the letter? And more importantly, for those of you who watched the Olympics in the US or other countries, what did you think of the French and English being spoken during the events??

I shall note that I left out the woman’s name on purpose to protect her identity, even though she left it in the paper.