Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Met with bloggers at CBC, went to Jack Astors, waitress drooled over baby and made fun of my “I’m Kind of Big Deal” t-shirt, 3/4 of s knocked things off table onto ourselves, found a lost health card on Queen St. I did some shopping, and stopped at Kelly and Tracy’s office before heading back to Richmond H. to have All Stars wings with cousins. They have wings at that place that you have to sign a waiver for. Watched CSI and then The Mentalist, wrote this, went to bed. Early morning tomorrow to catch the GO!

I didn’t post a Day 2, yet.
Canada Day, I hung out with Kelly and Tracy downtown. We had middle eastern lunch, did some window shopping, strolled through the Eaton Centre, and down some trendy and cultural streets. The weather was perfect because I brought an umbrella. I left the XO at home base today, it would have broken my back. I left a little room to pick up a book and some trinkets. I’ll probably do more shopping tomorrow after meeting with some bloggers at the CBC. If you want to join the tiny group, leave a comment or email to get the details.

We’re headed to the beach to look at the Ontario Place fireworks. There was a stage off Dundas Square that had entertainment. OP is run by the province, so the city couldn’t cancel it because of the garbage strike. Most people I’ve talked to are not in favour of this strike, they don’t feel employees paid by taxes should have the right to strike or ask for pay better than non-unionized workers.

This is a hoot, even if it’s not a real play.

And on the topic of things that are fake, I would totally see this My Little Pony movie:

And I love this bat trick, I think I’ll teach it to myself as soon as I get a bat. Maybe I’ll need a softer stick to start with.

Then you could spin it around like mad too.

Waking up at 4:35AM wasn’t so bad. I got to the airport fine, and didn’t get extra attention from security. The flight was smooth, and I watched most of “Defiance” [8/10] a moving movie about the Jewish resistance in Belarussia.

Ben got me at the airport, after I pickedup a stowed bag, and the one I checked. We had sushi at Hockey Sushi, which was busy even at 3:00 PM.

Playing XBox 360 soon, and learning a bit about XAML graphical programming right now.

ADDED: Yeah, I needed a nap, which isn’t surprising. Watching some Law and Order, and about to have a burger for supper.

It’s a big day. Not only is the weather perfect outside, compared especially to the bluster-fest that yesterday was, I went to an IMAX movie “Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs” [7/10]. And I learned that a skateboard can pretty much keep up to my mountain bike if I don’t pedal vigorously.

It’s also the day before a big vacation to Ontario. I’ll see some sights, take in Canada Day events, meet some bloggers, visit a cottage, and hopefully the CFL Hall of Fame before I return. It’s always a little nerve wracking to leave pets, plants, and home in the care of friends and neighbours.

So if you’re a blogger from Toronto (or area), leave a comment or send me an email and we can meet somewhere for tea. It’ll save you a trip out to Regina to meet “Saskboy” ;-).

It’s hard to act globally, unless you go to a standard grocery store, and then you’re a global actor in many ways. So to act locally, grow a garden, and support your local farmers’ market. The Rurban Fringe has challenged me and you to the 100 mile diet. For you metric people out there like me, that’s the 160.9344 km Diet.

- One of two chokecherries I planted that actually took off and produce fruit now.

I don’t know if I’m up to being really strict with how far my farm food comes from, because I could probably get 200km beef, and still be doing better than by buying at Extra Foods or Sobeys. And it would take a long time for an apple tree I plant now to bear fruit, and I don’t know even if there are local orchards for that sort of thing here. Creativity would help, and I don’t know how much additional energy I have for that this year.

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And while you’re eating better, you might even reduce the likelihood that you’ll end up on this wall of cancer survivors and those who didn’t make it.

I threw a semi-birthday party for a friend Saturday. It’s much more fun to have a birthday party in June than in December, and he and I aren’t in the same city usually around Christmas so it made more sense to celebrate the semi or half birthday than “real” birthday. Sure, some people thought it was strange, but they were probably just jealous that it wasn’t their semi-birthday too.

It was their unbirthday though. It was my unbirthday too, and I got a cupcake with a candle in it because of it. I won’t be repeating that for all of my unbirthdays. We listened to music videos on YouTube after a fantastic BBQ steak and baked potato meal, and played Beat the Experts. We were hoping to BBQ in the park, but the high winds kept us close to home instead. As it was, I went through an ungodly number of matches.

Earlier in the day I saw “17 Again” [8/10] a mostly funny and entertaining movie about a man who grumbles about making the wrong choice at 17, and ruins his life due to the grumbling and not the choice. He finds himself 17 again suddenly, and has another shot, but is it for himself, or for his family? So mystery and laughs follow.

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ADDED: Oh burn! The UDP stays on its rocky road, with an update from the Leader Post that should make business people scratch their heads in bewilderment as to why they’d support a money pit like a nuclear power plant.

Astronauts like to take pictures, and they go onto the Internet. I like the Internet.

A cupola is going onto the ISS too.

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Hat tip to Space Weather

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The garbage (and other services) strike in Toronto looks to me as if it will go on for some time. The city can’t help but to be arrogant, when there are so many clueless taxpayers (I was going to write “citizens”, but many probably wouldn’t qualify in the sense that they contribute positively to the country) complaining about unions on newspaper comment sections. The profound ignorance and greed is tough to bear. They propose things that are illegal, and frankly stupid.

The steady stream of negative comments come from people claiming not to belong to a union, and they make less money and have fewer benefits than the city workers they see as beneath them. Go figure eh? And unions aren’t good because they give their members better benefits and wages, and protection from employers who are abusive?

These people feel so strongly that the city is trying to cheat them and beat them down, that they are going WITHOUT PAY to protest and protect collective bargaining and the spirit of democracy. Sure, they could just quit and get other jobs, but then they leave one of the clueless commenters at the Star to get hired and stepped on by a declining salary and benefit package. So the complainers may get just what they want… a city without unions, and lower paying jobs for city workers, and they’ll get those jobs. Goody for them!