Ontario works Oct 3 - Cooking and Settling in for the long run

It's October 3rd. Dell will be looking in my old bank account for the payment for their computer. It isn't there. In a day or two they'll be phoning my old place, where my woman (ex-woman) will tell them I don't live there anymore she doesn't know where I live now.

They'll probably send it off to collections immediately. And put me on a black list to never buy their equipment again.

I walked to the mall again. Needed some shampoo. I couldn't beleive I was gone two hours. I just walked there and hung around a bit seeing what was on sale , and walked back.

It's wierd looking at your life and thinking you'll never work again. I joke to my friends that my schedule is pretty clear for the next thirty years or so.

I moved 50$ to my savings account. I figure over four years that will get me 2400$. Thats enough for a brand new computer every four years, plus if anything big breaks (microwave, rice cooker, electic razer , etc) I can just go out and get another immediately.

I am settling in for the long run here. I walked to the mall twice today. Probably took two hours the first time as well. I wonder how long I'm going to stay an overweight type two diabetic at this rate.

Cooking

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There's an "XSCargo" store in the neibourhood. I bought a rice cooker there, since my woman is a philipino and taught me how to use them. It's pretty simple really. One cup of rice. Two cups of water. Press the button , come back in 20 min. When the light says "Cook" , it's still cooking. When the light says "Warm" , it's keeping it warm. There arn't any other lights.

Rice is a "base" , in Philipino cooking. That is to say , you don't just cook a side order of rice like you do in the west. You cook up a larger amount of rice as the main dish , and you throw ...whatever's in the fridge , into the mix.

I fried up two eggs and a small "steakette" (looked like a hamberger to me !) chopped it up , threw it on the rice.

Two of those little cointainers that come with the rice cooker was too much. I left half in the pot, and even what I did eat , I'm still not hungry eight ours later.

EDIT: forgot to mention. Why the big deal about rice ? An 8kg bag of rice costs 12$ or so and will feed me AND my woman for 2 weeks. And there was some left over in the bottom. And we're both heavy rice eaters. Eating rice is cheap cheap CHEAP ! And you're never hungry.

Haircut

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In my time as an online gamer , I have made many many charactars , and I have tried the widest variety of hair styles you can imagine. And I have decided that , in real life, I will do the "goatee and pony tail" thing. I mean if Sean connery can do it , so can I. Besides, you save a ton on hair cuts. I mean you just look in the mirror , hey , the pony tail is longer than six inches , snip snip , no skill required, no paying a barber 20 bucks a month. An electric razer and a pair of scissors and you're good to go.

I'm poor, I have better things to spend 20$ a month on.

And I don't have to work. No one holds me to any uniform code. So why not ?

Internet

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My data stick (basically it hooks into the cell phone network and gives you internet that way) sucks. I'll never be able to play online games with it. I finally got a 10$ extension usb cable (at XSCargo..probably triple that anywhere else) and stuck the data stick way way up near the ceiling with a little duck tape, and I got 4 bars reception. And it cuts out on me every few minutes.

I spend a couple of hours trying in vain to play an online game, or even to watch a TV episode online. Kept cutting out , and the tv episode made you start all the way over at the beginning , and wouldn't let you skip the commericals, and by the time you got to part 5 of the episode (each part was 5-10 min long) , even skipping over the show to the next commerical , it cut out again.

I called up my provider and downgraded my internet to the lowest plan on that stick.

I tried talking to my brother about getting a real modem in at my expense. Plug it into the phone line ? you could see the panic in his eyes and in his wifes. Absolutely refused. But it will be in my name and ... no dice.

Makes me wonder who took them for a ride.

It was obviously a hot button issue for them , so I decided to let it slide. I would find other ways to pass the time . And my cheap , intermittant data stick would still be enough to check mail and look the occasional thing up.

The Long Run

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I am debating how to spend my suddenly copius amounts of time. Learning french is a possibility , I've wanted to do that all my life. But I wanted to do it to help me get a job , and suddenly that is no longer a neccessity. Then again , even on disability , you're allowed to work a little bit, and being bilingual would certainly help me get a little extra cash here and there. Or maybe I'll get enough from disability that I won't care and won't even try to work ever again. I've heard estimates from 350$ / month + rent to 500$ / month + rent, the +rent part being where you move into social housing and Disability pays for it all. If I get five hundred, they can go whistle , I'll never even try and work again in my life.

Piano lessons are another possibility. I have an electric piano and the three main lesson books already , I just never had time to go through them. (Actually I went through all the way to the end once, when I was much younger many many years ago , and then forgot it all)

Or art lessons. I got a book on pencil drawing , and 500 sheets of el-cheapo no name brand blank printer paper is less than $6 at the local super market. (Weird place ...it sells food , clothing, electronics, even has a pharmacy at the back ... more of an everything store than a grocery store)

With the money I'm not spending on a high end internet connection (25$) I can probably buy a cheap second hand stand alone computer game every month.

I think I want a large bachelor pad at some social housing place. A one bedroom is simply too large, and larger places mean more mess you eventually have to clean up. Besides. I have two big shelving units that act as room dividers , so that bachelor pad is going to get chopped up into a (tiny) unofficial one bedroom anyways. And I saw a place that sells similar units relatively cheaply , in case I need more.

And if one of my relatives gets into trouble there will always be a couch to sleep on , or a spot on the floor at minimum. We're all getting older arn't we ? Sister's a type I diabetic and her feet are already numb soon she won't be able to walk , other sister in a car accident , brother's already had one heart attack. I forsee a string of people partaking of my couch in the next few years as they shift out of working for a living and onto disability or retirement.

Makes me wonder where I can get a cheap couch with a pull out bed in it.

So many decisions.

Well there's no hurry. I have time to think about these things.