According to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Fire Department has removed Internet access from all its fire houses. The reason? They determined that the computer at one of their stations was used to "to visit 'inappropriate sites', possibly including pornography".

The entire station in question will be disciplined. The report quotes a CFD spokesperson about the type of discipline to be handed out.

"Members who had access to the computer will be orally counseled..."

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After receiving word from Charles, the McDonald's restaurant manager on campus, I headed down to make good on his offer.

Chris drove me to the Village around 12am. I stepped up to the counter and told them that Charles said I could have a free meal. The girl behind the counter looked at me incredulously.

"Um, no he didn't".

"He told me that he would leave a note with you guys that Erwin could have two free meals."

"We don't know anything about that."

At this point, I thought I could take it two ways: I could demand my meal because Charles said I could have it or I could just save the fight for another day.

I decided to be gracious and not make a scene. Why? I thought about it from their point of view. I had no reason to believe they were lying to me. They probably did not receive word from Charles. So, from their point of view, this crazy guy comes in and starts demanding free food.

If I were to be angry, I should direct my anger towards the manager. He told me he'd do something, but he didn't.

In light of this, I called the restaurant looking for Charles today. I missed him by ten minutes. They said he'd be in at 10am tomorrow morning.

I am definitely going to call him again. I'm debating right now whether or not to call the head office again. So far, in my mind, McDonald's have committed two errors: the first offense and then by screwing up their efforts to reimburse me. I'll see what the manager has to say, and then I'll assess if further calls are needed.

I'll keep everyone posted.

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Since about Monday night, the server which handles my web hosting and e-mail has been experiencing a major malfunction.

Around 1am in the morning, it decides to quit. Every morning, I call Stephen to reboot the server. Afterwards, all the mail I've been not reading starts to trickle in.

Today, Stephen told me he has no idea why this is happening nor does he have the time to figure it out right now. In fact, he has advised me to back up any files I need as soon as possible. He's leaving for Texas on a two-day business trip. What does this mean?

It most likely means I will not be able to receive e-mail on my primary account. For now, please use erwin@interchange.ubc.ca. It also means that I won't be able to post to this blog. For some reason, you'll probably still be able to access the site, but I won't be able to write to it.

Alright, I have to end this here and go back up some files. See you on the other side!

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The manager of the UBC McDonald's restaurant called me this morning. He wanted to hear the details of the incident himself.

He told me he knew exactly who was working that night on the grill. He would question the individuals involved.

In the meantime, he offered to compensate me thusly: two combo meals of my choice and two desserts.

I agreed, though I would have preferred the regional office to send me coupons for free stuff. It's more official that way. In my case, I have to mention my name to the staff. The manager said he'd leave a note to all the staff that I'd be coming in.

I'm not sure if I like that. They'll all be asking why I deserve the free meals. Have you seen that scene from Road Trip? I don't want them to mess with my meal.

Anyways, we'll see happens.

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On Monday morning, I called McDonald's Restaurants of Canada located in Burnaby. A customer representative took my information down and I reported what happened.

She told me the manager of the McDonald's location I was at would call me. She also apologized to me for my less than stellar experience.

No offer of compensation was made at the time. She did, however, imply that the manager would make it right. She didn't get into specifics unfortunately. So, I might get a simple verbal apology or free cheeseburgers for life. I think reality might lie somewhere in between those two.

If the manager doesn't call me by Tuesday afternoon, I will contact McDonald's Restaurants of Canada again.

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You have to admit, there are some similarities.

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I know I wrote that the Flames would win the Cup in game six, but I still think they'll do it tonight. Fate and will are still on their side. Once again, I begrudgingly accept that the Calgary Flames will be the 2004 Stanley Cup champions.

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This evening my friend Pat and I were walking a mutual friend of ours back to his lab. After we dropped off Adrian, we took a small walk around the Forestry building. I was getting hungry. Pat suggested we just go to McDonald's to pick something up. I know their food is bad for me, but I agreed nonetheless.

When I got there, I ordered a two-cheeseburger meal to go. We arrived back at SJC and retired to our separate rooms. I grabbed one of the burgers and threw it in my microwave to heat it up. I wanted it to be nice and toasty while I watched the 11pm news.

I sat down at my desk and unwrapped my cheeseburger. I had my eyes on some sports highlights when I bit into the burger. It tasted fine, but I detected something was missing. Being a veteran consumer of burgers, I knew something was not right. I looked down at my food. The burger was awfully thin, even for a McDonald's burger.

I carefully opened my burger to reveal its contents. There, I found ketchup, mustard, onions, a pickle, and a slice of cheese. The supposed "meat patty" was nowhere to be seen. I was dumbfounded. I ran over to Pat's room to let him look at it. Adam was in the hallway and I showed him as well. I said there was no way the other burger was missing the meat as well. We went back to my room.

I grabbed the other burger and opened it. Same damn thing. No meat. I was mad. I walked all the way to the Village to essentially get two cheese sandwiches with some ketchup and mustard. You want proof? Look below.



If you know me at all, this type of consumer shenanigans is right up my alley. You can bet the farm I'm calling up McDonald's Restaurants of Canada tomorrow morning. It's going to be fantastic. I can't wait. I am wondering what type of response they'll give me. I don't think they're stupid enough to make excuses, but it intrigues me what they will say.

I will keep you posted on this one.

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As a web site that is freely accessible to anyone on the Internet, sometimes I feel I have an obligation to use this forum to make the world a better place.

In light of this, I think everyone should watch this special message.

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After Tampa Bay's rousing victory last night, several of us quickly organized an informal LAN party. We had more people this time, I think we got eight people to play, rather than the six last week.

Again, it was lots of fun. There was running and even some gunning. We tried out a whole bunch of different maps that took us from small French towns to the city of Stalingrad.

So, while it was a great way to spend my Saturday evening, I always hate the way I feel after it's all done. I feel dehydrated. For some reason, my room seems messier that before I started. I feel hungry and there's never any food in place. My legs feel cramped. I stink.

I think the key is to not stop playing, but to maybe limit my playing time to maybe two hours or so.

Ok, I gotta go clean this place up now.

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