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someone pour me a drink

A couple of months ago, I bought a sports watch at Zellers.* The clerk at the store convinced me to get an in store credit card, so that I could get a twenty-five per cent discount.

Against my better judgment, I agreed.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks later, when the bill arrives. Knowing that store credit cards have usurious interest rates, I pay off the balance in full immediately.

Fast forward to a few weeks after that, when I get another credit card bill, showing that I still owe the full amount plus interest.

Annoyed, I call the credit card company to complain. The woman on the other end of the phone was polite and helpful. She quickly identified the error, fixed it and told me to have a nice day.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks later when I start getting calls phone calls from “credit services.”

Now I'm downright irate. I call the credit card company again. The person with whom I speak this time has no record of my previous phone conversation. When I ask to have my card credited with the amount that I have already paid. He informs that's “not how things work.”

This is how Zellers proposes to resolve the problem:

They will send me a cheque covering the amount that I have paid them. And I will send them a cheque to cover my bill.

Allow me to restate this – Zellers is sending me a cheque for sixty dollars. And I'm expected to mail them a cheque for sixty dollars.

They can't just credit me with the money I've paid. I can't pay them online or over the phone.

Zellers and I have to send each other cheques for the exact same amount, so that they can cross in the mail.

At this point, I inform the agent on the other end of the phone that I want to cancel my card. He says that I have to call another number to do that and that he can't transfer me.

I place that call, cancel my card (“No, I say firmly, I do not want to give the company another chance”) and am then told that I have to call a third number to cancel the insurance on the card.

Nearing hysterics, I call the insurance people and am bluntly told (after being on hold for a while) that the insurance is cancelled automatically when you cancel the card.

My spouse will tell you that I am extremely tolerant (to the point of ridiculousness) of bad service, generally speaking. But this experience left me feeling that someone at Zellers needs to give some thought to getting it's act together.

*For readers out side Canada: Zellers is a large chain (like Walmart or Kmart). The Hudson's Bay Company just sold it to Target.

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The Quick Brown Fox

A couple of months back we introduced Web Fonts to Blogger in Draft. Today we’re excited to not only launch Web Fonts to ALL Blogger users, but also announce we’ve added an additional 35 fonts to the mix, for a grand total of 77 fonts!

Henry Ford once said “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it’s black.” When it comes to the Internet and fonts, sometimes this hits pretty close to home: “You can use any font you want so long as it’s Arial.” With the introduction of Web Fonts, this is now a far cry from the truth!

Web Fonts, brought to you by our good friends at Google Fonts, let you spice up and further personalize your blog. Just have a look at what we’ve done with the post titles of this blog! And for those of you interested in fonts for non-latin alphabets such as Cyrillic, Greek and Khmer, we have those too!


Ready to give it a try for yourself? Simply go into the Advanced tab of the Blogger Template Designer for your blog, select the type of text you’d like to change (Post Title, Blog Title, etc.) and click on any of the new Web Fonts for a preview. Don’t worry, nothing will change on your blog until you select “Apply to Blog”, and this means you can play around with all of the fonts and only make the switch when you’re ready.


For the full list of fonts and more information, please take a look at the Web Fonts page in our Help Center.

Go ahead. Jump over that lazy dog!

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Appetite for Destruction

Do you think that sticking to a diet is all about willpower and dedication? Well, not so, according to a study printed in the February 2010 issue of Appetite and posted on Science Direct. While motivation and dedication play a role in diet adherence, diet complexity matters more in whether you will stick with it.

The researcher team, lead by by Juta Mutta, found that people were more likely to stick to diet that was simple and laid out menu plans and recipes like Brigitte, the German diet program. They compared two diet plans, the German recipe plan and Weight Watchers points plan, in a sample group of 390 participants. Perceived rule complexity was the strongest factor in whether the participants stuck with the program.

"Even if you believe you can succeed, thinking the diet is cognitively complex can undermine your efforts," said Mata, now a professor of psychology at Stanford University.

Mata added that dieting is more than just in your head and relies on environmental factors, such as removing the cookies and other snacks from the pantry, as well as choosing a diet plan that will work for you. Should you decide to choose a plan that's more complex, evaluate the diet rules before beginning to make sure it's plan you can stick with. If it requires doing a lot of calculations and monitoring, you may give way to the complexity after a while and "fall off of the wagon."

This is where many dieters resign themselves to failure. In addition, the researchers said that the longer you can stick to your diet plan, the more likely you are to be able to maintain the weight loss in the future.

What about me?
In truth, I've never liked diets that made me think too hard. I've always liked plans that were pretty much laid out for me. And I've done the best when I have sample menus to go by. So, for me, there seems to be something to this research. What do you think?

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Mentally ill woman locked up in chains for 20 years in Aceh

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 01/20/2011

A woman with a mental disorder has been locked up and chained in a small room in Aceh for about 20 years by her parents.

The 41-year-old woman, Butet, has been locked up since 1990 while her younger brother, Janter, has suffered the same form of incarceration for 15 years, Bungani Boru Saragih Munthe said.

Butet, who has lived with her aunt since she was a child, grew up a normal girl, but started to show signs of suffering from a mental illness when she was at senior high-school. She said that she was under distress because her aunt always treated her badly, her mother was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Tribunenews.com.

After she graduated from school she could not find a job, and traveled to Jakarta to try her luck. However, she remained jobless. Her mental illness became more serious and she was sent to live with her parents in Kutacane.

Her mother said that Butet often stole things from her neighbors and acted violently.

After the report was made about the neighbors, a military officer forced Butet’s father, Samsudin Purba, to lock her up. She was put in a room measuring 4 by 4 meters behind the house.

One night several men broke into the room and gang raped her.

“Butet told me about what happened, but we did not believe her because she was insane,” the mother said, crying.

In the same room, Butet later delivered a baby, who was immediately given to a childless relative.
After the rape, the parents made several efforts to cure the woman, eventually selling their land, house and valuables to pay for her medical treatment, but to no avail.

Samsudin died in 2005. Not long after Butet was sexually molested, prompting Bungangi to move to Pane district in Simalungun, along with her children in 2006.

In the new surroundings, Butet’s condition improved slightly and she was allowed to communicate with her neighbors. But she remained chained in her room. Her brother, who also suffered from a mental disorder, was locked up in a separate room.

"Good morning, good morning,” Butet said in English as reporters visited her. “Come here, take my picture, I am an artist," she said, switching to Indonesian.

Bungangi, who worked as a traditional masseuse, said she had had another child who used to suffer from a mental disorder, but had recovered and now led a normal life.

She said they had inherited the illness from her husband whose three siblings also suffered from the same mental illness.

Asked why she locked up her children, she said, “At least this way I can see my children die before my eyes, rather than their being killed by people out there”.

She said that the neighbors often gave food to her family, but they never received help from the government.

Pane district head, Jan Petrus, said he did not know that the two residents had been chained up for five years. He said that he had been stationed at the post for two months and had promised to help them.

Related Article:



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The Top 5 Diets

The Zone Diet
The Zone diet is different to other diets in that it discourages the intake of carbohydrates, bad fats, processed foods and sugars and focuses more on us eating more meat, fruit and vegetables. Dieters are encouraged to also calculate the amount of calories that they need a day and it also incites regular eating patterns and regular consumption of good fats and low glycaemic foods. It is a healthy and controlled way of eating which guarantees an effective weight loss although many people may find it costly and difficult to follow.



The Atkins Diet
The Atkins diet is very a low-carbohydrate diet. If we reduce the amount of carbs and eat more protein and fat, our bodies will naturally lose weight by burning our stored body fat a lot more efficiently. The problem with the Atkins diet is that because the body is burning its own fat, depending on what you eat it can have a few unpleasant side effects in some people such as bad breath and constipation. And with such a restricted diet, where you are eating a very limited amount of fruit and vegetables and quite simply just pure protein and saturated fats, you are increasing your risk of heart disease and some cancers. The potential is there to lose a lot of weight very quickly on the Atkins diet as you will tend to feel fuller for longer by eating a lot of carbs, but this kind of diet when followed long- term is harmful to your health.

South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is quite similar to the Atkins diet in that it is another low carbohydrate/protein rich diet except it is a lot more balanced. Instead of sticking rigidly to low carbohydrate foods throughout the dieting phase, it focuses on how each good and bad carb foods effects your blood sugar levels. You stick to two weeks of strict restraint of what you can and cannot eat and from then onwards you can start introducing healthy carbohydrates and fruit to your diet again, it is all about experimenting with your diet and watching the weight patterns, learning what triggers your body to gain weight. If you begin to gain weight again you can easily revert back to the two week strict diet plan. As low-carb diets go, this is a far healthier diet as it not only allows encourages dieters not to cut anything out and to eat everything in moderation to maintain a healthy weight. This means you are far more likely to stick to this diet and reach your goals with great success.

The Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet is as it sounds, eating Cabbage Soup in place of your main meals and very little else. It reduces the body’s calorie levels to the point of near-starvation. You are allowed fruit and vegetables alongside the soup but you must only eat to the point of feeling satisfied not stuffed! This diet should not be used for longer than a week as it is generally used when weight is to be lost very quickly e.g.) for a wedding etc. Alcohol is not allowed, water and unsweetened juices are the only beverages you should be drinking throughout the week. You will lose weight relatively quickly on this diet but it is only suitable as a very short term fix, side effects include flatulence and bad breath. People with long term health conditions should consult a health professional but for healthy otherwise fit people, this diet should not cause any harm.


The Capsiplex Diet

The Capsiplex Diet is the only diet where you do not have to modify your daily diet at all! Its only requirement is that you take one Capsiplex pro-slimming supplement; it is totally natural and contains fiery Capsicum extract. Ideally one should be taken 30-60 minutes prior to exercise. It is an excellent supplement to your diet as it effectively boosts your metabolic rate making you burn fat and calories quickly and safely. If you have problems with snacking, Capsiplex’s appetite suppressant can cut your food intake by up to 50% making you feel fuller and more satisfied with the food you do eat.

Advanced Health LTD

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Tsunami-hit Mentawai in need of medicine, health workers

The Jakarta Post, Thu, 01/20/2011

More than two months after the tsunami struck Mentawai Islands, many victims are in desperate need of medicine and health workers, a humanitarian worker says.

Health Project manager of Mitra Peduli Mentawai Dr. Louisa A. Langi said that at least 134 people in evacuation camps on Siberut Island suffered from various illnesses such as diarrhea, fever and acute respiratory problems, kompas.com reported Thursday.

Many people were evacuated to Siberut Island as the area was relatively not affected by the devastating tsunami, which swept parts of Sipora, Pagai Utara and Pagai Selatan islands, last Oct. 25.

The lack of medicine was alarming, Louisa said, adding that even paracetamol was not available.

She called upon the government to pay more attention to the evacuees, especially those suffering from illnesses.

Head of the provincial disaster management agency Hermensyah said Wednesday that the budget was allocated only for victims who were directly affected by the disaster. As for the medicine shortage, Hermensyah said the problem could be settled with continuing funds from third parties.

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almost wordless wednesday: playing hookie


He said, "That was perfect."

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