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The Provincial Benefit rate rose to 4.33 cents per kilowatt hour in the fall of 2009. The Provincial Benefit is an additional fee charged only to wholesale electricity buyers and people who sign contracts with distributors. It is money that, like a tax, goes to the government - but unlike a tax is only charged to people that have made the choice to participate in the privatized electricity system. Like my house - we were Direct Energy Subscribers.

I have a problem with Direct Energy because of how they treat me and my friends. Even though the Ontario Energy Board is the entity that issued the rule about sending written notice to cancel the same rule is relaxed when it comes to cancellation. The OEB developed a rule to against making provider issued forms mandatory, but did not clarify what a standard cancellation looks like. You have to make your own, taking a risk in missing the essential information and any other applicable notices.

I support people being able to generate their own electricity, I do so myself as much as I can - but I still enjoy the security and stability provided by Welland Hydro - our hometown hero even if they are after our money. Welland Hydro needs money, and in exchange they offer a service - a real business model. They fix the lines, build new ones, look out for energy deals that are passed on to the subscribers, and my personal favorite is that they support municipal wireless Internet in Welland. Other utilities may do the same, and I hope they do.

My issue is with the tag team effect that Direct Energy and the Province of Ontario have on our bill. Welland Hydro averages just below 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Direct Energy sold my house a flat rate 8.9 cent plan, and with that comes a 4.33 cent provincial adjustment in August 2009. We used 2850 kWh!

Lets do the math: 2850kwh(8.9c+4.33c) = 2850kwh*$0.1323 = $377.06

Flop on top the line charges, debt reduction fees and a large bill becomes a ridiculous one. So with no further pause - how to cancel with Direct Energy and save some money by avoiding the Provincial Benefit charge:

START HERE:

1) Gather your Direct Energy Contract, an envelope, a stamp, a pen, and a piece of paper.

2) Read your contract, and if necessary call Direct Energy to find out exactly how much it will cost to terminate. It is very important to agree to the terms - and understand them. I'm not your accountant and cannot guarantee you wont lose more money this way.

3) Write down your intention to end the contract, and agree to the termination repayment option as seen in the contract.It should go something like this:

"This is my intention to terminate my energy distribution contract with Direct Energy, effective immediately. I have read the section of the contract regarding termination repayment and agree to the terms. I would like a formal invoice for the termination to be send to me as soon as possible.

Signed,
(Your name here, followed by your account number on the contract)"

4) Send out the letter to the address on your contract. It will take some time, but they will process it properly. If they don't - don't ask me what to do, in fact ask an attorney or someone who can officially speak for either the Ontario Energy Board or Direct Energy.

Finished. Your money will go to your local utility and you can complain about them exclusively. No distributor, no additional fees/taxes that others don't see. While you're feeling so smug and saving some money consider looking at some solar panels and stick it to the utility too. Good luck.

Addition (04/22/2010): We have seen a major reduction in our bills since cancelling, nearly $150 over last year. We also saved money by cancelling cable and switching back to an antenna from Antra in Ontario (don't forget the pre-amplifier). And five other money savers: E-Bike (temporarily nix gasoline and insurance), Garden/Conservatory (more of a hobby than an economical choice), and LED Lighting (Good or Best)

ONLY LINUX USERS WILL UNDERSTAND THIS - AND ONLY THE ONES THAT KNOW HOW A STANDARD DESKTOP DISTRO WORKS.

Have you ever had one of those nightmares where you "wake up" and it is still the nightmare. I recently had the honour of having that with a situation that was all too real. The Linux Nightmare (Disclaimer: I'm still a Linux User, but I definitely won't be using it the way I was in the dream)

Basically: The dream consists of me repeatedly trying to solve an Xorg Error, Manage file revisions, and "boot" myself. Yes, in this dream I am a human running a Linux variant on my brain. My brain.. yea. In any case is starts off with the file revisions.

In the "File Revisions" segment I wake up to greet a family member only to discover that there are two of that one person. I question each of them about the other but they do not interact (because as I discover they are two separate versions. One is a newer version and is able to confirm the same activities prior to my inquiry and add more new information. This is where I'm glad that violence is not the answer, rather than "delete" one of them I decide to "reboot".Apparently this means go back to sleep, which clears my "temp files" but left a bad echo in my long term memory.

Upon reboot everything goes haywire. Sounds and sights are garbled, this is some top grade scary shit combined with my everyday life. Eventually it stops, kicks back to terminal which involves me face down on the ground attempting to issue manual "verbal" commands to solve the problem. But when your brain runs Linux and everyone else knows nothing about Linux there is no "Google Search" for answers. So I remain on the cold cement until I realize that the horrible wrrgarbl that happened to the world is really an Xorg problem, so I try to start it again. Same problem but now I am in my bed, which must mean I rebooted again and knew better than to do anything until I saw the error through. This happens a couple more times while trying to edit my "xorg.conf", which I cannot replace with defaults because that would eliminate my personality.

Its a tough deal because everyone thinks you are sleeping. Oh, did I mention that to issue commands I have to shout things like "SUDO REBOOT NOW" and "SUDO NANO SLASH ETSY SLASH X-ORG CONF". Nobody hears you though because even your sound controllers aren't working. Eventually I give up and shutdown. Good thing I awaken to loud ass noises, the human equivalent of wake-on-LAN. And this is when I figure it out. Its a dream! Oh, but I'm not supposed to remember dreams. This is a feature addition after too many system failures like this or something. My version disabled that due to the massive brainbender in the first dream.

So I almost deleted the dream including the repair sequence when instead I chose to offload it to en external device, unmount it then reboot.

Well I'm not sure what external device that was but I woke up, so I'm assuming it worked and on the plus side I can share this horrible experience with you people on the Internet. I'm convinced that Linux nightmares will be the new "Naked Test" dreams in this community.

The private, invite-only, hunt club in south Niagara known as True Sport Hunt Club has been in operation for more than half of a century and the website by the same name has been in operation for nearly half a year. Now, thanks to a show of support from more members the website is growing. New pictures, new posts, and new users (only from the member base) have been able to show the pride that they have in their favourite leisure activity and how it helps the local community and the province at large.

Without conservation societies, most formerly known as "hunt clubs", hunting trapping and fishing in Ontario would be a horrendously confused and significantly more dangerous system. The club receives information through its members and associated organizations like OFAH (Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters) and can act in a positive way to deal with problems while having fun. Simple facts like "What to do with invasive fish", or "Why is it that the province issues doe tags" may be explained without the true intention of the regulation/guideline.

As I have come to learn, it is not a free for all - but there are still problems. Hunting alone is dangerous, and may lead to an untimely demise. Hunting with others carries different dangers and that is why attire, tools, weapons regulations and common knowledge need to be shared and recognized. The clubs accelerate this process and along with proper insurance can get more interested people involved.

Check out TrueSportHuntClub.com and see how it grows.

People have occasionally asked me why I post/use/run my website, KurtisMcCartney.com - and their questions represent different ways of thinking.

1) Control and Freedom - Posting through a third party (ex. most modern social networking sites) means that I play by their rules, cede control over my posts, and may even be limited in my options to publish these works outside of their terms of use. At KurtisMcCartney.com I define the terms, limited only by he laws of my nation, province, and regulatory agencies. This may not be an issue for most, and some nations will protect their users rights even if they did agree to a contract.

2) Continuity - Do you remember the sites you frequented in 1998? Are they still around? Did you lose information you posted before the first dot-com burst? Well - I remember, they're gone, and I lost information and I wont fall for that again. When I manage the backups I only have myself to blame. I still stick to standards when it comes to my CMS and database, but I wont have to worry about a server in Arizona failing when I keep my work in Canada.

3) Richard Stallman - If you don't know about RMS, I recommend you read some of his works - don't take all of them to heart but definitely learn and feel what resonates with you. This is the closest thing to saying "Because I can"

There are always more reasons, but for the people that still don't understand I can only recommend that you learn more about the dissemination of knowledge rather than trying to "game" social media. Its not always about fame or family, but its always about what we know.

Allow me to break down the problem. How it started and how it spun out of control. Before I was aware of it, a faulty wire disconnected between the ZenAlliance server and our local router. The Router received requests for KurtisMcCartney.com, which also was the adopted name of the router itself. It took the requests rather than passing along a Null for access to the server. Unfortunately outsiders receive a 401 response from the router itself - because it is "open for business". Then the magic starts.

The 401 I receive internally and through a proxy. The 401 is common internally, but outside - never. Then I discover the missing wire and perform the appropriate repairs. The Zen Alliance Network is back online. No problem! Except for no external access to KurtisMcCartney.com. Not a problem for The router it shows an all clear. Not a problem for the server, local access is fine. Then my view changed.

It was from outside! but who could it be? My domain provider? My ISP? International Political Conspiracy(j/k)? ALL TRUE (Except the conspiracy). I checked a service that bounces the website around the globe, only to discover an inability to access it in the United States, Britain, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. I was live and online in Mexico and Italy though. I was also live on Google as they had my newest local posts in the search listings. Here is my best interpretation:

DNS Cascade - where the report of death spread between name servers until access was limited go much that even I couldn't access it through the proper URL. After 12 hours of uptime, the problem is solved. Thank goodness.

Apparently my ability to access this very website is null. Except for locally at the server. I am still accessible in Mexico and Italy according to something. I am tired and frustrated with looking for the mystery problem. In fact I created a new one and solved it already.

Error was deleting tables in my MySQL database trying to fix the problem (Table Overload?). It made this site fail hard. I fixed it by deleting entries about the module tables I deleted - in the System table. All it was. System table. Sorry this post isn't eloquent. I need more sleep.

Today I discovered more issues possibly related to my recent server upgrades. It turns out that while I can access most of the Zen Alliance sites through their URLs the main site (KurtisMcCartney.com) continues do have issues with responding to its URL.

I'm trying to break it down step by step to see if it is one of the following problems:

• Integration of the Media Server - New Memory Load
  
• PHP-Based Torrent Manager - Upgrade Issues?
  
• New Security Scheme - Open Access to Media Server Causing Failure
  
• Drupal Multisite Problems - Naming, KMcom is only one reliant on Default
  
• Domain Name Provider Issues - How can I lose my own name?
  
• ANYTHING ELSE

I'm hoping to have this solved ASAP, but until then I have to study.

I would like to clarify that I am not a doctor, I support modern medicine. Though in Ontario there is a major problem with the care I can receive from a physician - namely that each visit can only deal with one ailment and one can only have one appointment per day. I'll speed things up and get back to the rant in a second.

My Allergies cause a build-up and discharge of nasal fluid. Discharge is through the front if I am awake or standing. I sleep and therefore have Post-Nasal Drip, effectively sucking back my nose juice involuntarily through the night. My Post-Nasal Drip causes additional ailments in my throat, mouth, and on my uvula (the hanging ball at the back of my throat). The swollen uvula is the worst offender in making me cough. In fact I coughed so much a couple of years ago that it caused what my doctor believes is a return of my childhood asthma symptoms. Restricting the airway while it is already swollen even made me cough up blood on a couple of occasions - but I have since healed.

It took a long time to stop feeling sick, and it was because I fought my way up the ladder to allergies. If I had originally known the cause I could have fought it rather than the problem. I fought the problem, one problem at a time.

Thanks originally to a very expensive asthma medication. My Uvula continued to make me cough, which originally was faced with cough syrup- but now I choose a salt water rinse for flare-ups. The Post-Nasal Drip continues to be an unavoidable part of the process, but I did learn that I was blowing my nose so badly that it only inflamed my sinuses and led to another infection there. (Technically a salt-water rinse in the nose would work, but I accidentally associated Neti pots with water-boarding.) Alas, my Allergies - kept in check with a medication with catchy advertisements or its generic form. It was the problem.

The Medication worked marvellously,unfortunately my living space was a hotspot for all of my allergies. My doctor couldn't have known this, or recommended changes. If took my frustration with the new rules in Ontario about visits to justify the effort put into researching what my body was doing wrong and how to stop it.

My bed was clean, but used a powerful scented detergent. I live among cats. The dampness of my basement caused a growth in radical spores. I eat more foods I am mildly allergic to than I used to, including beef. I had stopped using an air purifier and noticed more dust in the air and around the house. Even with a full dose of allergy medicine, no wonder my body was still *ruining my world*.

Now I know better. Now I can fight the cause of my ailments.