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If it weren't for this cold at the worst possible time, I would be so happy. My job's going okay even though pay day looks really far away, I missed having a steady paycheque. I need energy to study for midterms this month and go to my baby cousin's birthday party. Plus, there's Halloween, one of my favourite events. Why did I have to be sick now?!

Peter called me after work yesterday. Asked if he wanted to go downtown with him, Jake and Dimitri and one of their girl friends. But I was just feeling too sick to go. Hope they didn't get into trouble.

Well, next time I work, I'll be cashier on my own. I know pretty much what I have to do now, but the produce still annoys me. They keep changing the codes to enter for stuff and sometimes, I can't find the sticker. Plus, pay day seems so far away. The rest is pretty much a no brainer. Mostly did returns today, putting stuff back that people didn't want or put back on the wrong shelf or something. It's not hard, but you have to move around a lot and people are always asking you where stuff is and the cashiers are always getting you more stuff to put back, so you're never theoritically done until the store closes. Also have to watch out for damaged goods to stick in the carts.

Now that I'm a cashier, please do some things to make your life, my life (and other cashiers lives) a little easier. The vast majority of people are pretty understanding these days, but there's always a few jerks our there. Please observe these rules:

-Hand me the money, don't drop it on the counter. I don't have a skin disease.
-Don't complain to me about the price of this or that or if this or that is damaged, I can't do anything about it, just give me the damaged item and I'll take it off your hands.
-Don't get pissed off and give me grief when I can't give you change for 2 $100 bills, or a cash back when your purchase is under $10, when I have to grill you for ID before I sell you cigarettes or other s**t like that. It's store policy which I have no say in and if I break it, I can (read: will) be fired. The policies are in place either because it's the law or to stop the store from getting ripped off and to keep prices low.
-Finally, don't talk down to me. I'm a Biology Specialist at the University of Toronto and most of us are in some kind of higher education institution right now, trying to pay at least part of our way through schooling. We're not idiots, we're not losers, we are making something of ourselves. We choose to do this job because it's close to home and the hours are good to get around our classes/studying, we could get better jobs if we weren't so pressed for time in our classes/studying/projects/social lives/family obligations and we don't have to take s**t from you.

Finally, I just wanted to put in my final view on some controversial topic. From time to time, I've decided to post my views on certian topics just so you know where I stand on the issues. Today, guns.

Now I live in Canada, so this whole stuff about guns in the U.S. is fairly mind boggling. Now I have seen Michael Moore's film "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11", both dealing with issues that the American public is very squeamish about. Now, Michael Moore is very popular in Canada and I think he's rather cool, but not for reasons you would assume. I disagree with a lot of opinions in his movies. However, he does not lie about his intentions, which are namely to ask questions and annoy those who think it's okay to cheat the general public.

For all it's hype, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is probably the least controversial of his movies. About 80% of his facts, findings, speculations and accusations can be found in a CBC (Canadian Brodacasting Corporation) documentary that air about a year or so before F 9/11.

"Bowling for Columbine" is certianly a lot more controversial and Canada is a lot less utopian then he portrays it. We do have this problem with weed growing in the major cities, and if he wanted to hear about gun murders, he could have just gone to the bad end of Scarborough or the west side of downtown Toronto. A lot of people really don't want to own guns in my area and most who do are cops. The least he could have done was pointed out how most of the guns the gangs get their hands on come from the U.S. (thanks, guys).

As much as it claims to be about guns, the movie pretty much implies that America is a country where consumerism is completely driven by a belief in fear and paranoia. It's not an idea that people like, we hate the idea that we are being controlled or that someone is manipulating us to do something. I don't agree with a lot of the movies opinions, but he is so popular because he asks good questions that most others have been to gutless to ask these days. Maybe if journalists did this investigating and dared to ask some hard questions instead of covering Britney Spears' prenup, Moore wouldn't be so popular.

My opinion on guns is this: Gun ownership should be a privilege, not a right. Your constitution was made when the nation was in a state of active war on it's own soil, not lobbing bombs at a country an ocean away that most of its citizens know nothing about. People a long time ago were allowed to have guns to shoot their own dinner and defend their home town at a moment's notice. Why do you insist on having an assault rifle? What use is a gun that can hold a silencer and a grenade launcher to you unless you want to commit a violent crime, do you need it to shoot deer? In your whining about your right to own guns, are you also implying you have a right to mow people down for fun?

Wanna know why the U.S. has so many gun murders? It's probably because gun nuts see it like this: You're the only country that insists on this right to own guns. You feel you are entitled to it. It's your right to have power, it's your right to have as much as you want, whenever you want. And when you give guns to people who have that kind of attitude and teach your kids to have this kind of attitude, don't be surprised when you have a massacare on your hands.

That's all I have to say about that, thanks for listening. Now if you'll excuse me, I need some tea.