Assorted musings because I haven't had time to write, but as we once said 'this place needs more actual content.' Let's begin:
Politics
I joined the Conservative Party of Canada. It cost me $15.00 CDN. This is not a thing which I ever expected that I would do. As I age I become more fiscally conservative, but I've always been socially progressive, and have tended to vote centrist, though I've voted for different parties on the basis of candidate and platform at times. When Canada's Progressive Conservative party merged with its right-wing competition and dropped the 'progressive' I would've said that they and I were clearly at odds. Nothing about the Stephen Harper era made me feel much differently. Fiscal management might have been better, and social progress wasn't reversed as much as feared, but the muzzling of science and many other policies concerned me greatly. But the Conservatives were voted out, Mr. Harper retired, and more than a dozen men and women are in the battle to replace him. Included in this group are Kellie Leitch, policy-wise the most Trump-like of the pack, and unilingual Kevin O'Leary of Shark Tank fame, who has a Trump-like TV Star background but seems both smarter and more tightly wrapped. i've often said that I thought professional managers might do better than lawyers at governing, but I have some personal antipathy for Kevin as I once outlined here. Most of the other wannabees are running far behind Kevin and his reality TV-star cachet.
So, what the what? Well, an interesting argument is making the rounds on social media. In short, the idea is that if we, the average Canadian, don't want to have Trump-lite as our right-of-center option, then the time is now to support one of the moderate leadership candidates. In my case it's Michael Chong, an actual progressive conservative who is concerned about (and has meaningful and science-based policies on) topics like climate change and immigration. So I've tossed him my $15 token of support, and I'll get to vote for him in 6 weeks or so if he's still on the leadership ballot. And even if the worst happens, at least I can say I made a modicum of effort to stop the alt-right train before it left the station in Canada.
Entertainment
Apple TV had Star Trek Beyond on for a $0.99 rental. I was a Star Trek kid, and while I never fully warmed to the "Kelvin" universe, I had more than a dollar's worth of fun watching it.
Last night I saw Logan. You'll have seen the accolades. They are well deserved. We'll see if this film gets the Oscar nomination that Deadpool did not. The CG character work is truly seamless, the actors outstanding. The character-driven story is great, even if I was left at home afterward pondering some fridge logic with my hand on the actual fridge door. What really struck me was that in a theatre of mostly, if not all, adults there was nothing but silence in the third act. No fidgeting, no munching. Just people giving the screen their full attention. Much as the notion might alarm Fox, I think this puts a proper cap on the X-Men franchise for me. I stopped seeing the main line of X-Men movies a while back, but now I feel like their story is done. It truly is Unforgiven for the spandex-and-cape set.
I also spent odd moments today trying to pop my imaginary claws, which I haven't done in a good 40 years, since I was buying Uncanny X-Men comics for 30 cents at Mike's convenience.
Employment
Without fanfare I passed my six month probation. Having an income is good. My co-workers are nice. I've almost (but not quite) gotten past the imposter syndrome where I expect to wake up back in my old job of almost twenty years. I feel like I'm on the back slope of my career, which is unnerving. I still expect to end up in a blue vest at Wal-Mart before the end. But I might, almost, be ready to relax into it and feel like a real part of the 'new' place. It's becoming natural to say "we" and meant it, instead of translating "you" to "we" as a deliberate mental act. Also we are trying to put out a new software release, and the software gremlins are out in force, thus my reduced e2 presence of late.
Death and Taxes
I penciled in my 2016 taxes. With only four months of household income, my marginal tax rate is quite low. Not so low as to make up for the reaming I took in 2015 when all my severance was taxed at the maximum rate, but, as far as 2016 is concerned, I was low-income. So a little refund will come my way, and very welcome it will be. They'll totally audit me though, my return is going to trip all of the warning indicators in Sudbury. The next challenge will be doing my Dad's estate taxes, I have never done that sort of return.
Romance
I bought my wife a nice Purdy's chocolate assortment for Valentine's Day, only to learn at the last moment that she had decided to cut out chocolate from her diet. The chocolates are in a Lego store bag in a bin, unpresented. The day kind of went on all fail-y like that. Sigh.
There's also the Love Boat, I mean, romance quest. It's so totally not my thing, but so far we're all treading lightly. If only my old co-conspirator were here to grab this quest by the neck and shake it up with some purple prose! But hey, challenges outside of our comfort zone are the fun of quests, are they not?