Yesterday, no matter what I did, I saw Shania. I flipped on CBC Newsworld and Canada AM…Shania! Even the start page that Rogers provides…frickin’ Shania! She’s promoting a greatest hits album (after only three proper albums? cha-ching!) and got the promo tour started in Timmins. I don’t have anything against her; I just don’t like how her and the media portray Timmins. Anytime a news team goes to Timmins, you usually see the same two images; her shrine and trees…yes just tress. Shania once told the world on her ABC special a few years back that Timmins was so cold because it was 200 miles away from the Arctic Circle and that if you wanted to go outside, it would take fifteen minutes to get dressed for the elements. I recall watching this in Chico’s bedroom on Lincoln Ave. before we were about to depart for a night of debauchery, and I clearly remember asking Chico if he was ready to go. He said “yes” and we were off, far below the fifteen minute mark.

I think I could be Timmins‘s next celebrity, in much the same way Shania Twain is. Check it. We both grew up in Timmins but do not live there anymore, and rarely visit. Shania now lives in Switzerland, where many people speak German. I now live in Kitchener, which was settled by Germans and has a large German community; hell, the city used to be called Berlin back in the day. Shania Twain changed her name from Eileen to an Ojibwa word meaning “I’m on my way”. I could change my name to Wannabuyabusticket Bellini, which is a Cree word meaning “I’ll be paying off my student loan long after I’m dead”. I could be the first coder to flaunt my navel, too 😉

In other news, three weeks after the fact, we have hot water. The bottom element in the hot water heater was dummied. Go figure.