Some Success, but Mercury still has a Good Laugh

I assume that the retrograde Mercury was responsible for a large part of what happened to me tonight. I was busy waiting for the decision from the Rental Board to arrive in the mail. I finally went down and picked up the mail. Yup. There it was. A letter from the Rental Board. With trepidation, I opened the envelope, and extracted the piece of paper inside. It seemed a bit thin for a judgment. I had a bit of trouble reading the French, and then I realized why. What I was reading was not the judgment, but information telling me how a judgment could be appealed. But where was the judgment? I checked the torn envelope I had already thrown into the wastepaper basket, but there was nothing else in it. It appeared to me that they had mailed me the judgment letter without including the judgment itself.

Putting it all down to more garbage to deal with being caused by Mercury being retrograde, I decided that I would make myself a cup of coffee, and then write a blog entry about the situation. It was at that point that I noticed something weird about the stuff on the desk where I dumped the mail. I noticed the back of a staple which was holding several sheets of paper together. There should not have been anything like that in that spot. I checked the sheets of paper, and sure enough, there it was! The judgment! I somehow had managed to remove it from the envelope without even being aware of doing so.

I read the judgment, and found that I had had some success. The judgment of November 27 had been revoked, and a new hearing was ordered to be held. So it looks like I won't get dumped into the streets in the middle of winter no matter what else happens.

So I guess at least it ended well - at least for now.

A decision, but what was it?

A hearing was held at the Rental Board on January 8. The subject was whether or not the judgment of the first hearing about whether or not I should be evicted from my apartment should be revoked, on the grounds that I never received notification about the hearing. At the end of the hearing, everyone was told that a judgment would be sent by mail, and that it could take up to three months.

After the hearing had taken place, I learned that it was possible to go to the website of the Rental Board (Regie du Logement) and find out the decision that way, rather than relying only on the mail. So for the past week, almost every day, I checked the website. Tonight, the website finally said that a decision had been reached, and that the decision had been mailed out to the concerned parties today. However, when I tried to find out what the decision was, the website said that the decision was unavailable and would soon be posted. So I'm none the wiser as to what the decision is. Which makes it impossible for me to plot a course of action, since the activities involved in preparing for a new trial are of course completely different than those involved in moving out either within 30 or maybe only within 10 days.

This is the type of thing which makes one wish for a revolution that will topple everything once and for all.

Revocation of Judgment

After a night of not sleeping much, I managed to drag myself out of bed and was down at the Rental Board (Regie du Logement) at 8:45 AM. There I found out, to my surprise, that it was quite common for the slips announcing the hearing dates to get lost in the mail. For a fee of $65.00, I was able to get a Revocation of Judgment, which essentially puts an end to all proceedings until a new hearing can be held, which probably won't be until after the Rental Board re-opens on January 3, 2009 after the holidays.

Copies of the Revocation of Judgment form were sent by registered mail to both the husband and wife who own the building on Tuesday morning at about 11 AM. I was told that if the landlord tries to take action before he receives the registered mail (he lives in Beaconsfield), there would have to be a bailiff there with him, and I should show the bailiff my copy of the form, which would stop the eviction. If need be, I should call the police, and show them the form. I have also taped xerox copies of the form on both my front and back doors and on some of interior walls of my apartment. Hopefully, that should be enough.

So, maybe, I am safe for another little while.

An Ending

You may or may not have noticed that I have not written many blogs lately. I have been having landlord problems, which may end up with the Russian Mafia coming and throwing all my possessions into the street. So you may hear even less from me. I will now put down a timeline of the events of the last 8 months, so you'll know what I've been facing:

Jack Nathanson
E-mail: nathanson1947@yahoo.com

 

Friday, April 11, 2008 – My father passed away at about 10:40 PM in the Jewish General Hospital.

 

Monday, April 14, 2008 – the funeral took place.

 

April 14 – 16   –   The Shiva (mourning period) took place.

 

Monday, April 21 – Some workmen came to my apartment to upgrade the electrical wiring. They worked mainly on the kitchen, leaving holes in the wall after they had finished (as of December 6, the holes were never repaired). I stayed away from the apartment most of the day because of the noise and commotion. I got back in the late afternoon just as they were finishing up. The workmen said goodbye and left.

 

I was about to lie down and rest, when there was a knock at the back balcony door and the landlord, Igor Ezril, came in. He said that this was the first time that he had seen the apartment since he had bought the building and he was dissatisfied as to how dirty it was. He said that it was in such bad shape that it could not be cleaned and that it would have to be gutted and renovated. He wanted me to move out as soon as possible. He said that since I was Jewish and he was Jewish, he did not want to make trouble and preferred that I would move out voluntarily. He said that all the people in the building were complaining about all the cockroaches in the building and that I was causing them. When I suggested cleaning up the apartment instead of moving out, he said it was in too bad shape to clean up. He eventually left.

 

April – June 2008 – The landlord would come knocking on my door, usually around 8 or 9 AM on Monday or Friday morning, asking me either when I was moving out or whether the apartment had been cleaned. I was starting to have trouble sleeping because of this. At times, I didn’t bother answering the door. Eventually, there came a time when I answered the door and found no one there. Either the landlord had already left, or I had mistaken a random noise for a knock at the door. I stopped answering the door.

 

I started to try and clean up the apartment at this time, but I was still primarily occupied with settling my father’s estate.

 

June – August 2008 – Things quieted down. I was primarily occupied with settling my father’s estate.

 

Friday, September 12, 2008 – There was a knock on my door in the late morning or early afternoon. It was the landlord. He said that he wanted me to move out but did not want to make trouble. He said that if I found a place to move to by October 1, he would provide me with some men to help me move. This happened two days before the unveiling of my father’s tombstone. I told the landlord that for me to be able to move out within two weeks was impossible.

 

Sunday, September 14, 2008 – the unveiling of my father’s tombstone at de la Savane cemetery.

 

Around September 19 or 20 – I checked my mailbox, and found a notice telling me to go pick up a letter at the Jean Coutu pharmacy at Queen Mary and Westbury.

 

September 22 or 23 – I picked up the letter at the Jean Coutu pharmacy. It was a registered letter from the landlord telling me that they had given me the last verbal warning and from now on, if there was any more trouble, they would take legal action.

 

September 29 – October 1 – Rosh Hashanah

 

October 9 – Yom Kippur

 

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 – There was a knock at the door. A man came in, identifying himself as a City of Montreal Inspector. He examined the apartment, took some photographs, and left.

 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 – A bailiff came to the door and handed me a letter. It was from a city inspector named Lounes Adi, commanding me to clean up my apartment or else.

 

Thursday, October 23, 2008 - A second bailiff came to the door and handed me a letter. This letter indicated that the landlord had made a demande at the rental board, based on the letter from the city inspector which I had received on October 21.

 

October 25, 2008 – Three women came in and cleaned the apartment at a cost of $250.00.

 

Monday, October 27, 2008 – I went to project Genesis. There, I received 3 pieces of advice:

 

1.    Get the City Inspector to come back and certify that the place had been cleaned.

2.    Take photographs to show that the place had been cleaned.

3.    Go back to Project Genesis when I get notification that a trial date has been set so that they can help me with my case.

 

Friday, October 31, 2008 – At about 2:30 PM, I phoned the number at the bottom of the letter from the City Inspector (514) 872-5160. I asked the woman who answered to speak to Lounes Adi. She said that he had finished work for the week, and that I should leave my name and the notice number, and that he would call me back on Monday, November 3.

 

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 – In the morning, I received a call from a man who said he was a City Inspector. I told him that the place had been cleaned, and he seemed surprised. He said that he would come and look. When I asked when he would come, he said maybe Thursday, November 6, but he would phone before coming.

 

November 6^th and 7^th – I spent almost all day at home both these days, but there was no word from the City Inspector. (As of Sunday, December 7, 2008, I still have not heard from him).

 

October 27^th until December 7^th, 2008 – On my October 7^th visit to Project Genesis, I had been told that I would receive a notice telling me when my trial at the Rental Board would be held. I never received such a notice.

 

Saturday, November 8, 2008 - At approximately 7 AM, I was awakened by a knock at my door. It was the janitor, who apologized for disturbing me, and told me that they would be spraying for cockroaches at 10:30 AM.

 

At 12:30 PM, one exterminator showed up, and proceeded to saturate my apartment with a white powder, presumably boric acid. After a while, he said he was finished, and he left.

 

I managed to get things back in order, and assumed that the extermination was finished.

 

I stayed up fairly late on Saturday night, which turned out to be a mistake. Because on approximately 10:30 AM, Sunday, November 9, 2008, I was awakened by the sound of two men having a loud conversation in my apartment. The front door of the apartment had been left unlocked, but there wasn’t anything of value outside my bedroom where I was situated. I assumed that it must be some workmen sent by the landlord to repair a hole left in the kitchen wall in April 2008, when the electrical wiring in the building had been upgraded.

 

All of a sudden, the bedroom door was opened, and in came an exterminator ready to spray my bedroom. He told me to get out. This time, I HAD RECEIVED NO ADVANCE WARNING WHATSOEVER! And I would never have expected a second exterminator to show up ONE DAY after an exterminator had just shown up.

 

After a while, he told me to get out and stay out of the apartment for five hours. I told him that I had a cat who was hiding under my bed or elsewhere in the apartment, and that the cat would not come out until the exterminator had left. His response was to yell “Ferme ta guele!” at me.

 

By this point, I was on the back balcony of my apartment, from which a fire escape leads four steps to the ground in back of the building. I was trying to figure out how to call the police, when the janitor came out of the apartment onto the back balcony. He had presumably just come into the apartment from the front door. He told me to stay calm. Eventually, it seemed as if the exterminator had gone, and the janitor told me to go in and retrieve the cat. The janitor then left.

 

The balcony door opens into the kitchen, and when I went in, the cat came out from one of the lower kitchen cabinets. I picked up the cat, and brought him onto the back balcony, closing the kitchen door while I did so. The cat and I were now both on the back balcony. The cat was meowing to be let in to the apartment. I looked in through the window on the door and saw the exterminator spraying the kitchen floor.

 

I climbed down the fire escape and walked over to a friend’s apartment. The cat was still on the balcony, meowing to be let in. A couple of hours later, I came back with a cat carrier which I had borrowed from my friend, managed with some difficulty to get the cat in, and brought him over to my friend’s apartment, where both the cat and I remained until 10:00 PM.

 

At 10:00 PM, I came back to the apartment, to find that it had been sprayed to such an extent that a lot of the posters and papers taped to the wall had been destroyed and had to be thrown out. Maybe the number of cockroaches was such that it had been necessary to do so. I don’t know.

 

From that point on, the front door of the apartment has been kept locked, but I think the janitor may have keys for it.

 

On Friday evening, November 14, 2008, at about 8:30 PM, there was a knock on the door. It was the janitor, coming to tell me that the exterminators were coming to spray again at 9:30 AM on Saturday morning.

 

November 15, 2008 - At about 9:20 AM, there was a knock at the door. It was the landlord, the janitor, and two exterminators. One of the exterminators checked the drawers of the bureau in my bedroom for evidence of cockroach infestation. He found cockroaches in there.

 

They left for a few minutes to get the supplies, and one of the exterminators returned and proceeded to spray the inside of my bedroom bureau drawers with a white powder – presumably boric acid.

 

I went onto the kitchen balcony for a while to get out of the way, while the exterminator continued to spray the apartment. I saw him spraying in the kitchen for a while.

 

I waited outside for about 10 or 15 minutes longer and went back inside. The exterminator had already gone. On checking my bedroom, I found that the floor was wet, meaning that the exterminator had sprayed it with the liquid spray. The total damage was that one poster, partly damaged in the second extermination on November 9, had to be thrown out, and one book, “Commune with the Angels”, had fallen on the floor and come out of the plastic bag it was in. As it may have absorbed some of the liquid pesticide, I threw it out as well.

 

I removed the cat’s bowls from the bedroom, cleaned them thoroughly, refilled them with food and water, and left them in a hallway where the floor was dry. I then heard a sound that sounded like the exterminator, but soon realized that he was not coming back to my apartment. So I went out for a few hours.

 

Saturday, November 22, 2008 - I went to the Dorshei Emet (Reconstructionist Synagogue, 18 Cleve Road) at about 10:30 AM, as I had not been notified about any exterminators coming. When I got back home around 4 PM, it was obvious that someone had been in my apartment. Two lights that had been left on were turned off, and a chair in my bedroom and my bed had both been moved. I don’t know if they actually sprayed or just checked for cockroaches and then left.

 

After this, there was no evidence of any exterminators coming into my apartment. The number of cockroaches seems to have dropped to close to zero.

 

Saturday, November 29, 2008 – I went out for a few hours, but there was no evidence of anyone having been in my apartment when I returned.

 

Friday, December 5, 2008 – I went out for the evening, and had returned home by about 10:30 PM. A few hours later, I decided my mailbox downstairs for any mail. Among the letters, was one which purported to have come from the Rental Board. It said that a trial of the case concerning me  at the Rental Board had been held on November 21, two weeks earlier, and, in my absence, judgment had been made against me. I had never received prior notice of such a trial, so I have no way of knowing whether there had been a trial, or whether the letter was a forgery.

 

 

 

Deena's Blog Challenge or How I ended up on Multiply

By the spring of 2004, I finally realized that one could get a Yahoo e-mail account without actually having to own a computer. So from August of that year until a year later, I could only use the computers in the library. This limited my use of computers to a great extent, but at least it was better than nothing.

A year later, I found out that my brother had a spare computer in his basement in Toronto, and this computer was eventually brought to me in Montreal, and connected to the Internet in late July 2005.

In September 2005, I found out that a Pagan online study group, Blackcauldron, was going to be starting soon, so I joined, not even sure if I would have the time for it. That is how I met Karen, who was leading the group.

A few months afterwards, I found out that Karen had a blog on Yahoo 360, so I started to follow that blog.

Around December 2005, Karen's blog went completely private (so that only she could read it). I missed reading this blog so much that I ended up starting my own Yahoo 360 page. I was quite active in 360 for close to two years.

Around October 2007, I began to hear from many sources that Yahoo was planning to discontinue 360. I started to tell everyone I knew about this.

More and more rumours began to circulate about possible effects from the impending closure of 360.

I had already started a Multiply page in the spring of 2007. So when a lot of people began to move from Yahoo to Multiply, I had already a back-up site.

Around this period, I mentioned to Karen that 360 was about to close. Karen investigated, and decided to switch to Multiply, along with a lot of her friends.

And thus, this group got formed.

Robot that looks like young girl unveiled

(from the Telegraph)

A life-like robot created to look like a five-year-old girl has been unveiled by scientists in Japan.

 

By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 3:07PM BST 08 Oct 2008

Life-like: The team at Osaka University's robotics department claim Repliee R-1 is the most realistic robot suit ever created Photo: TIGERLAND2222

The robogirl, known as Repliee R-1, has flexible silicone skin and contains dozens of sensors and motors, allowing it to move and interact with its surroundings like a human.

The robot even has eyes that blink and pig tails, creating a spooky effect has led to comparisons with the boy robot David in Steven Spielberg's 2001 science-fiction movie AI: Artificial Intelligence.

The team at Osaka University's robotics department behind Repliee R-1 claim it is the most realistic robot suit ever created.

It has been designed to do basic tasks for the elderly and disabled, such as fetching objects. The scientists hope that its life-like features will put people at their ease, and help them get over their reluctance to interact with a robot.

Cyberdyne, a robotics firm, hopes to start mass producing the models within days, according to reports.

An earlier version of the robot - Repliee Q1 – was unveiled by scientists in 2005, but was criticised for appearing to have "spasms" because of technical glitches. It was modeled on a young Japanese woman, complete with trouser suit.

At the time Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University predicted that robots would soon be so life-like that they could fool humans into thinking they were real.

"An android could get away with it for a short time, 5-10 seconds. However, if we carefully select the situation, we could extend that, to perhaps 10 minutes," he said.

"More importantly, we have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her. Consciously, it is easy to see that she is an android, but unconsciously, we react to the android as if she were a woman."

Under the Bed

After my last blog entry, I began to get the idea to look under my bed to see what was underneath.

I did not know what to expect, but I already seemed to be in enough trouble as is. So on Sunday night, September 21, I started to look under my bed.

The first thing that I noticed was  a green plastic garbage bag. I did not think that much of importance was in there. But I was not prepared for the shock that soon faced me.

There were mainly papers in the bag, but what shocked me most was their extreme unimportance.

On opening the bag, the first thing that I saw was the guide booklet on how to do my provincial income tax return for 2003. In the same bag, there were a few phone and hydro bills going as far back as 1999 and even 1998.

So why was I saving this useless junk? To understand the situation, we must go back to the summer of 2004, when I first met Ouija.

In August 2004, they were doing a renovation of my apartment, which included replacing part of my bedroom floor. In order for them to do this, it was necessary to move a lot of stuff out of their way. So the papers, which had been on top of a small desk, were placed in a green garbage bag which was then stuffed under my bed for the time being. The Guide to doing the tax return for 2003 had been used within a couple of months of the period when the renovations began.

After getting rid of most of the contents of this bag of junk, I continued to look for more stuff under the bed over the next few days. I found a bag full of electric lights and extension cords, which were the remains of the lights that had been hung up over the plants in the kitchen prior to the 2004 renovations. Then I found some gardening stuff which had been removed from the kitchen when the renovation had been done in the kitchen. I was then able to extract an Adler electric typewriter from under the bed and put it in the hall of the apartment building.

              (to be continued)