Faces

Two weeks ago I had a bunch of posts planned. Had some great ideas, nice introspective, artsy-ish, reflective stuff. Then life happened and Toronto had that explosion and the Olympics started and Bolt and the Jamaicans won and my wife turned all Janet Pym on me and set her trained squad of killer wasps on me (Wu-Tang had killer bees she has wasps go figure) and well lets just say I got sidetracked and never got a chance to post on them.

Now I cant even remember what I was going to talk about. Actually I still remember one but not the angle I was going to approach it on two weeks ago so let me make up something.

Faces. They define us on a casual level don't they? Like for instance living in this multicultural society that is Toronto I've learned to at least partially figure out race and nationality from faces well not only faces but clothes and speech and mannerisms and attitudes and other stuff too (its called stereotyping) but lets just deal with faces.

Have you ever noticed that similar faces can span races? Like I ran into a black acquaintance the other day and realized that her face was very similar to that of a Chinese friend of mines' in terms of the shape and the cheekbones and stuff like that. I also had a situation where I met this Indian guy who's since become a friend and couldn't believe how much he looked like one of my black friends back home. Uncanny resemblance. Kinda weird when you think about it actually.

And think about how we work on face recognition. I'm always seeing people and thinking hey he or she looks like so an so. Its an ever evolving process too because if this person somehow becomes your acquaintance later on or you see them enough times you start to realize the dissimilarities between them and the person you on first casual glance thought they resembled. Then they themselves are entered into your face database and suddenly you are comparing other folk to them.

Then there is the whole faces with regards to location situation. This time I wont go into my some folks don't recognize me outside of the office spiel or my but the guy was 5 inches shorter, at least two dress shirt sizes wider and wearing a tux while I had on a suit spiel either but sometimes I see someone I've had some minor interaction outside of the regular place I'm accustomed to seeing them at and then I try to figure out where they are from.

Its like detective work. OK like seeing the restaurant server walking his dog or the hardware girl buying groceries out of uniform. You're like I know her but from where? I know she works in a retail capacity now is she from Wendy's or is that the girl from the book place? your mind churns and then click oh its the girl from Tim Hortons. Right!

Wrong! Oh its that lady who works in the office down the road that I see at the station every week. Happens all the time.

Whats interesting about that is if I went back into the same store or the same location I normally see the person at I'd have no problem recognizing them because in your mind there is that association between place and face. Its part of your built in face recognition protocol I think. But when you see them out of uniform or on the bus or playing with their kids in the park suddenly it becomes a detective puzzle to your brain. Takes a while to figure out sometimes too.

That's all I got to say for now.

Denouce her

Lol I just realized that that title could apply to all three stories lol

1) Madonna compared John McCain to Hitler. When's Obama's camp going to denounce her? Tap tap tap, I'm waiting patiently here. I mean he denounced Ludacris for his song in which he took shots at Hillary and McCain so lets go I'm waiting on a Madonna denouncement. Hurry it up already!

ps: Was I the only one who thought his VP selection was Joe Budden. I could just Obama on the phone. "No you fools I said Budden, Mood Muzik Part 2 son. B.U D ah forget it its too late now lets just go with this Biden guy". Just kidding.

2) Funniest thing I've heard lately. Friend went to Subway last week and as they were wrapping his sandwich he noticed a fly in the lobster salad container on the counter. He tried to discretely bring it to the servers attention when she said "If you want it, it will be extra."

3) Ever so often I regale you with tales of how my wife is trying to take me out i.e have me knocked off, eliminate me, off me. You laugh, and say I'm imagining things but I think she really is.

Case in point. Yesterday I go out into the garden to trim the hedge. I leave the door unlocked and I'm trimming away when without warning I'm attacked by wasps. Angry wasps. Guess I must have gotten too close to their hive. I took a few stings in the top of my head and one on my shoulder which really, really hurt and I throw away my tools and fling my arms up doing the St. Vitus dance. I then proceed to do my best Usain Bolt in the 200m impression leaving the wasps in the dust and run pell-mell to the door to get away from the savage beasts. Only thing is I get to the door and my wife has the damn thing locked cause she supposedly went upstairs. Likely story!

Try telling me that wasnt a deliberate move to off me? Yea uh huh!

When ya gotta go

Ya gotta go!

So we're driving up highway 400 Saturday afternoon and I see a dark colored car pulled over to the side of the road. I'm thinking poor fella must be some sort of car problem when I see the driver off to the side in what at first glance looks like what can only be described as the peeing stance.

No! I'm imaging things I think or in the favorite words of my favorite 2 year old. No way!

But then as we pass I take a glance back and see dude and a steam cascading in the air from his open zipper. He's not in any bushes, he's just next to his car but highly visible (maybe not to drivers but definitely to passengers) from the highway peeing up a storm.

Definitely not something you expect to see or want to see on the side of a major highway, in a major city, in a first world country but hey sometimes you just absolutely positively got to go right?

What a ting!

Houses

Did anyone catch this item with Presidential nominee Senator McCain saying he doesn't know how many houses he owns?

Must be nice huh?

Wow! I ain't mad at him for owning his real estate, more power to him but it just looks bad to say something like that as Presidential nominee. Especially in this era of sub-prime loans and massive foreclosures. It just smacks of a diss to poor people. It also says he really doesn't know whats important to the people these days like not having their homes grabbed from beneath their feet cause of some shady wall street orchestrated financial loan scheme.

Still Americans want their presidents to be rich, after all the whole process with its drawn out processes and campaign is geared towards those with deep pockets. They just don't want to be reminded that these dudes are rich.

Meanwhile the Republicans are trying to pitch Obama as the elitist one. (Actually they're both rich & elitist but at least Obama didnt make that comment.)

Eat Crow Michael Johnson

19:31 or was it 19:30 by Bolt to break Michael Joshnson's record after johnson said Bolt couldnt break his record. tek dat Michael!

Congrats Bolt. Do ya dance star! Big up!

Cause we all look alike

Thank you China

The newspaper, which has a daily circulation of over half a million copies had meant to make a reference to Bolt in the run up to one of the most anticipated races of the Olympics. However, when it came to selecting an image it seems Chambers and Bolt (despite there being no distinct similarities) were confused.

Dwain Chambers (top) vs Usain Bolt. No distinct similarities except skin color you mean.

Guess Chambers should be happy Bolt never rob or murder anyone or he would find himself on the wanted posters and likely in jail.

Chambers: "But officer de man neva favor me"
Officer: "Stop lying boy ya think we stupidee. we see right through your Dwain alias. Ya coulda at least use a name dat dont rhyme wid Usain.!"

The really sad thing about it is you know almost every black person can relate to this incident too.

ps: big up the jamaican 100m women! beautiful and talented. respect!

Satire

sat·ire (săt'īr') pronunciation
n.

1.
1. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
2. The branch of literature constituting such works. See synonyms at caricature.
2. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

Sigh! People just don't understand the meaning of satire anymore. Thought this post at LivingGuyana was kind of funny and as I'm apt to do I shared it with a few folk. Why is it that half my replies implied that folk thought this was real even though I clearly pointed out it's satire before giving them the link?

Sigh! Ya just cant win.

Bolt

How aptly named is this guy? Bolt wow! 9.69 and he was celebrating at the 80m mark. Congrats! Big up Jamaica!

Asafa choked! Maybe with Tyson Gay not making the finals he wasnt motivated. I'm mad though cause he got beat into third place by a T-pain lookalike. That not right!

Still Caribbean 1,2 big up Trinidad.

Last night on CBC (Canada) they had this discussion about why Jamaica has produced such amazing sprinters over the years. I didnt exactly catch the name of it but they claimed there is some special protein that Jamaicans have more of than men from other countries. Yea what da? its a cop out but whatever.

Anyway whatever this protein was they said that 70% of Jamaicans have it compared to 30% of Australians or something like that.

I dont know bout y'all but it sounded like somebody had been watching Star Wars and the Jamaicans suddenly had mediclorians in their blood that made them Jedis. lol

Olympic coverage

OK in general I'm not feeling these Olympics. So here are three of my gripes:

1) Olympic coverage sucks. First off the US coverage is all or mostly tape delayed. I saw a sticker on NBC saying live swimming and its the same race I saw on CBC 12 hours earlier. What gives. Then the CBC (Canada) coverage royally pissed me off today.

100m second round: They show the first two heats then switch to Women's soccer. I figured ok heat 3 doesn't really have in anyone of note in it but they'll switch back for 4 and 5 when Bolt and Powell are running. Plus there is a Canadian in Bolt's heat anyways: Anson Henry of Toronto.

Do they switch back? Nope. They continue showing the first half of a preliminary women's soccer game and I was left to scramble finally finding coverage of the sprints on the French CBC station.

Now I am upset cause (1) Bolt and Powell are the favorites and the sprints are way more interesting than soccer (2) You're telling me you couldn't switch away from the first half of a soccer game for two minutes to view a sprint that takes about 10 seconds to complete. (3) If you want to make the argument that you are covering Canadian athletes and don't give a hoot about Jamaican Bolt and Powell fine but Anson Henry a Canadian was in one of those races. You'll show every moron swimmer and diver who cant get within throwing distance of the medal podium but you cant show a Canadian sprinter. Why the second class treatment of Henry? That not right! shame, shame, shame.

That said Bolt just ran the easiest 9.92 I've ever seen. The dude wasn't even focused, his head was looking to the side half way through the race. Crazy!

2) These Chinese people aint easy at all. Ya mean the girl thats actually singing wasnt pretty enough to be shown on tv? Cuhdear! Scarred for life!

Forget Ashlee Simpson and them so this is the most infamous lip-synch since Rob & Fab dropped. Thats Milli Vanilli in case you dont know. Yes you know its true oooh oooh oooh!

Man is that messed up. You know that couldn't happen in North America. Parents would sue and people would get on real bad. But ya cant have pins wid China. They do what they do and you cant stop them.

3) These foolish Spanish Basketball players. All I can ask is if you are going to China why would you take a team photo like that? Of course I'm judging by North American and Caribbean standards here.

Spain seems to be known for its racism and its downplaying of its racism. Remember Tierry Henry and that soccer coach? and more recently Hamilton Lewis at the F1.

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton was subjected to abuse at a Barcelona circuit in February, while former Spain coach Luis Aragones also used a racist remark about France striker Thierry Henry to motivate one of his players. Monkey chants rained down on England's black players during an international friendly against Spain in a match played in Madrid in 2004, soon after Aragones' outburst.

Hmmm! I'm a say it first bring back TJ get rid of Jose! What! You know y'all Toronto people was thinking it too.

4 years ago

today I started blogging. Whooptie doo!

Anyway thanks to all my readers and fellow bloggers. Glad that someone finds something I write semi-interesting. Much respect.

Not as inspired as last years anniversary post Blogging is dead but whatever.

These were my favorite posts all year.
My letter to my neighbour with the big tv.
Oil of Obay
Pink Caddy
One Day
Yes we can

Shady Aftermath

In the aftermath of the huge explosion here in Toronto on Sunday, residents of the affected areas try to put their lives back together. Most have been allowed to return home but a few streets closer to the epicenter of the blast remain uninhabitable for the moment due to structural damage to buildings and asbestos fumes in the air.

Two dead (the firefighter and one worker at the plant) and a few injured but tens of millions of dollars in damage. Still it seems like its only luck and god's grace that more lives weren't lost though. There are two schools close to the accident site which could have filled with kids if this had not happened at night and in the summer and what if this explosion had happened during the day when residents were milling around the neighborhood? God's grace I say.

The question or questions remain with us though. Why was a propane plant allowed to build in the middle of a residential area? Its not like the plant was there prior to the housing. Nope the housing has been around for a long time while the plant was only granted permission to build there three years ago.

Apparently residents complained but the city is sort of helpless to do anything once the Province gives permission for an industry to build in your neighborhood. And while the city would like propane plants and their ilk to be a minimum of about 1.6km from housing the province allows propane plants to literally set up shop next door. Just lovely!

Seems to be a reoccurring motif regarding life in Toronto lately. The city council is ineffectual, the mayor seems to always be out of town when crap happens (not blaming him for being out of town though its just luck of the draw) and the province could give a damn. Great way to run a supposedly "world class" city.

Also it has come to light that the propane company, Sunrise Propane may not be have been entirely on the up and up.

They have operated under a variety of names possibly to avoid indemnity and seems to have forged documents in the past to get out of paying their debts. Makes one wonder right? This explosion could just be a fluke accident but when you start seeing a company with shady dealings like that in its past, it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence that they were operating under the proper guidelines and codes. Who knows how they were running that plant and if its possible some negligence or attempt to cut corners could be responsible for what happened.

I guess the reports will come out eventually and we'll see what really happened but for now you just have to wonder.

TO: 08 welcomes the world

History is indeed written by the winners and sometimes the losers themselves forget.

Most people remember that the 2000 Olympics were in Sydney, the 2004 in Athens and know that the 2008 are currently being held in Beijing. (Most not including me as I actually had to google the 2004 Olympics to verify they were in Greece) but do you remember which other cities bid for these specific games and lost?

Not a clue right?

Well in general me neither except that I do remember that Toronto made an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 games.

Yep it was big news back in those heady days of 2001. Toronto, world class city that we claim to be needs to do more to publicize our greatness and we need to bring the Olympics here said one camp. The games will put us on the map! There was hype, there was excitement, there were waterfront plans and plans for building a new Olympic stadium. There were slogans, there were celebrity endorsements, there were even t-shirts from Roots.

Meanwhile another camp took a different perspective. This Olympics thing is a real waste of time they said. Sure it will or could be an amazing spectacle but at the end of the day events like the Olympics and other major sporting spectacles (read Cricket World Cup) lose money for the host city and then its the poor taxpayers who live there that feel the pinch. Toronto already isn't the richest city so why put ourselves into further poverty to show off to the world for two or three weeks.

But the bid went off with much pizazz and fanfare.

And at the end of the day in 2001 when the votes were counted to choose the 2008 venue we lost. Soundly beaten by Beijing.

Some say it was because Vancouver got awarded the 2010 winter games and the IOC didn't want back to back games in Canada, some blamed Toronto mayor Mel Lastman and his idiotic "I'm not going to Africa because they might put me in a pot of boiling water and eat me" comments, (as if people in Africa so hungry they want dry up, tough meat like he to eat. chupse!) for losing us votes, others just accepted that the Beijing bid was just too strong and we couldn't compete with the overall politics of holding the event in an emerging superpower China.

To be honest most locals were probably a bit let down by the loss, it would have been fun holding the event here, but at the same time we all had mixed feelings because some of us might have wanted the spectacle but all of us sure as hell didn't want to have to pay for it out of our pockets.

Still when I see the Olympics on television this week I cant help thinking what if, what could have been and wondering do Torontonians actually remember that this could have been us?

Oh well, wasnt to be. We weren't the winners but maybe in hindsight we weren't exactly losers either. Still sucks that we've been forgotten by history though.

Still sucks.

Major Explosion!

Huge explosion of a propane facility in Toronto this morning. Video here. It looks almost like a nuclear bomb went off.

12,000+ people evacuated so far. CP24 has become our local version of CNN in terms of the extensive coverage of the story all day, not sure what happened yet or if there were any casualties but it seems pretty crazy.

The area they evacuated is really big in my opinion. Sheppard to Wilson, Dufferin to Keele. Wow!

Don't think I know anyone who lives in that area but some of the folks who are relating stories on tv right now say the explosion was head as far as Aurora, windows and doors were blown out, one woman says she was blown off her bed.

Firemen still battling the blaze almost 12 hrs after the explosion. Will take a while for the smoke to clear figuratively speaking so that we know what really happened at the plant.

Update: heard one firefighter is without vital signs.

Shame on PETA

Thats why I think these people are idiots. Read this.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said on its website it would run the ad in the Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic.

However, city editor Tara Seel said the newspaper had no intention of running the ad, which uses imagery of "an innocent victim's throat" being cut, in reference to the slaughter of cows, chickens and pigs on factory farms.

"His struggles and cries are ignored ... the man with the knife shows no emotion ... the victim is slaughtered and his head cut off ... his flesh is eaten," reads the ad, which is posted on the website.

Madness! Those PETA people are crazy and sick. How do you compare killing a chicken or cow to killing a man. Ridiculous!

Then there are these morons

"God handed us a gift," Phelps-Roper said in a phone interview on Thursday.

She said McLean deserved his death by beheading on a Greyhound Bus last week.

"(His death was) supremely unemotional. You got God shaking in rage. There is no emotional component ... He was a rebel against God. He was taught to be a rebel by his parents. He came from a rebel country ... They brought this wrath upon his head. And it sucks to be him and it sucks to be them," Phelps-Roper said.

This is a comment about the guy who got beheaded up here by some so called Church from the U.S. These people call themselves Christian but only giving Christian bad name.

Shame Shame Shame

When you least expect

Before I start I found this today and thought I had to share. Classic Satire! I love those guys.

Anyways I had a whole post planned on a different topic to what I'm going to speak on now but sometimes blog posts just fall in ya lap.

I'm on the bus coming home this evening when we stop to let off a passenger at a stop and then I noticed that the bus isnt moving at all. Look outside and some sort of disturbance, disruption thing coming down the road. Now I had noticed the 6 or so youth but just assumed they were playing.

Alas no, looked like a big fight about to break out.

So Bus driver stops the bus to report disturbance. Interesting I thought, disturbance on the street not on the bus, well sidewalk if you want to be more precise so what did he stop the bus for? Maybe its protocol, maybe he was just being a conscientious citizen. I don't know.

Anyway I couldn't hear what was going on so although I could see the actual incident I really don't know what it was about although I can sort of guess it had something to do with ownership of a bicycle.

Then two guys had this one young man, in an Iverson jersey, (henceforth called AI jersey fella) restrained and the bicycle was on the ground where they stopped.

Now by the way, I thought about not mentioning the Iverson jersey just cause it's like hip hop. If I mention that somebody was listening to hip hop when something happen suddenly hip hop going to be blamed so I figure somebody going blame AI for this or the guy will not be as sympathetic or going to get labeled some sort of thug because of the AI jersey but oh well I cant leave out details just so.

Anyway some older folk came down the street including one woman who looked like she should have stayed inside considering the top she was wearing. They pulled AI jersey fella away and then there were two camp on the sidewalk gestering vociferously (but not vociferously enough that I could hear them in the bus).

Now this incident went on for a good 10 minutes all of which we were park off by the bus stop. The interesting thing to me was the reaction of one cat in AI jersey fella's crew. Now there were three young guys in that camp and the two older folk trying to calm down things or at least it seemed that way from my viewpoint.

Now AI jersey fella was at the heart of the incident and he was talking to the older folk while one of the other guys looked like he was ready to rush in the other crowd and share some liks. Then there was another smaller chap with them who ran back inside a house. Now he to me was the person of interest.

Now I dont know about you but anytime something happening so and I see somebody run back to a house I get a lil worried. I could just imagine the conversation outside from the gesturing.

"Oh yea alright then, if you is a man wait dey til I come back"

Now any bajan will tell you that the phrase wait dey til I come back really means you better start running now cause this other person is going do something stupid. They going to come back with rocks or knives or guns or their big brother or father or mother with rocks and guns and knives and then trouble going really start.

So I in the bus imagining these words being exchanged and all sorts of scenarios and wondering to myself why this foolish bus driver don't start the bus and report the incident from someplace safer like perhaps three bus stops up the road. I mean doesnt he have an obligation to his passengers first? Suppose the fella that run back inside come outside letting off shots like he mad and something happen to one a we on the bus?

As it stands if it was me we wouldnt have stopped at all. Sorry but as it stood looked like a fair battle to me, sides were pretty even and I've seen enough crap to know that you dont really want to get into any sort of crew battles. Next thing ya know somebody decide to lik me cross my head or worse so no not I in this one.

But it was interesting because it caused me to ask a couple of questions. What is the bus drivers obligation to report the incident and what is his obligation to the people under his care.

I still waiting on answers on both. What y'all think?

Shame on Owen Sound

By now everyone has heard of the beheading story that happened up here in Canada. As details emerge it gets freakier and freakier by the minute. If you thought the beheading part was bad the details about him eating the victim is like something straight out of Silence of the Lambs.

It'll be interesting to watch the fallout from this because I think the fact that the perpetrator was a recent immigrant will get much play.

I'm just thinking I ain't sleeping on the TTC no more.

Anyway a story that may have slipped under the radar with all this talk of beheading is the stabbing of a black Toronto man up in Owen Sound last week which is being seen as a case of possible mistaken identify and possibly as having some racial overtones.

I guess we all look alike right. Poor dude is in critical condition cause someone accused him of a crime and then beat the crap out of him. Could have happened anywhere I guess so I wont be too harsh on Owen Sound. There are probably people like this crimes perpetrators everywhere.

The ironic part I guess is that Owen Sound marks the northernmost point of the secret route to freedom for American slaves and they were just about to have a big Emancipation day celebration when this incident occurred. Sad. I hope dude recovers from this attack.