Life without a laptop

After three weeks, I got the laptop back today. (Not bad, considering it was gone for almost three months last time I needed warranty work done.) You know what? It was kind of nice getting a break from the computer for a while - it gave me a chance to catch up on my reading and watch some movies I'd taped off several months ago. On the other hand, without the computer I couldn't do any legal research from home, nor could I watch any of these Top Gear and Fifth Gear episodes I'd downloaded. But perhaps the biggest problem was keeping track of my money - I do most of my banking online (I can't recommend President's Choice Financial highly enough), and without MS Money I had to keep track of my spending on my PDA. Not impossible, but a serious nuisance.

In other words, the break was nice, but I'm glad to have the computer back. Regular posting will resume tomorrow morning, but I will say a few words about today's Labrador by-election: I'm pulling for Conservative Graham Letto, of course, but the smart money says the Liberals will hold a seat they've lost only once since Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada (in 1968, when Newfoundlanders took out their frustration with Joey Smallwood on the federal Liberals, sending six Tories to Ottawa).

We all know what happened on Thursday, of course. Unfortunately, an extra seat for the Liberals means the Conservatives will need the support of the Bloc and all three independents (or the NDP) to bring down the government. An early election is looking less and less likely, and while I hope a steady parade of shocking revelations from the Gomery Inquiry will remain foremost in voters' minds, I fear Canadians will grow increasingly numb to them as time goes on. Already, in the past week, we've seen an awful lot of people get angrier about people calling Belinda Stronach nasty names than about the Liberals wasting and stealing millions of taxpayers' dollars.

Posted by damian at May 24, 2005 04:42 PM | TrackBack