Uninspired, but I have the urge to write...
Since I've managed to avoid posting an entry for over a week I've decided it was about time I posted again. Although I must warn I haven't much to write about.
Let's see...
This past weekend other than going to work on Saturday morning I managed to remain quite the hermit and stay at home. Whilst at home however, I managed to watch a few movies. I'll focus my attention on the best of the bunch, which was Russel Peters: Outsourced.
I bought this DVD the day after it came out, over two months ago I believe. Anyway it was so hilarious. If you're not familiar with Peters' comedy it's pretty much race-based. He's an Indian guy who was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. His comedy act pokes fun at every race and he tells his jokes all based on real life stories that happened to him.
The DVD was so good I even watched the commentary, which is basically him and his brother in a booth talking over his performance. It was equally funny and also informative on what goes into making a comedy show and all the things they have to go through.
Moving on...
Over the last while I think I've been slowly rotting my teeth. I've gone to a couple bakeries now and bought baklava, which I had never tried up until a couple weeks ago. It's so freaking good. I went with a friend of mine from class. We were delivering papers, which is one of our chores. And during the route we went to this bakery and she bought 2 of each different type of pastry. After eating the baklava then I think I've become hooked.
Another time we went I bought more for myself and I brought them home. My family liked them, and my Mom ended up buying some from another bakery, although those ones were way sweeter, so I could only eat one.
I think I'll try different things if we stop by the place again, as I don't want to get too sick of one thing.
Ah, this weekend Ramadan finished so my friend Kashaf can go out again finally. To celebrate we're going for some Indian bbq in Little India on Gerrard street (somewhat downtown Toronto), then after we plan to go watch The Departed, which I've wanted to see for so long now. I've never had Indian food straight up in a restaurant before so it should be an experience for the taste buds.
I was going to go to the final regular season game for the Argos (Canadian Football) on Saturday as well, but with work and the dinner/movie thing I wouldn't get a chance to rest all day. That would've been fun too. Ah well.
So that's that.
Peace.
Talkin' bout friendship
Over the past year or so I've developed more friendships with girls than in quite some time. And I don't know about other guys out there, but it's been a good experience.
In the past I believe I would've considered myself more of a "guy's friend", only comprehending the guy's side of things, as it were. Lately though, I've noticed it's not so bad to have female friends; it's pretty refreshing actually.
I believe I've had more thought-provoking conversation, longer conversations and ones where I've learned to, get this, listen more to what others are saying as opposed to having to speak. I've also come to learn that many girls dislike having girls as friends, which I've thought to be interesting to say the least.
With many of my guy friends, or even just guys in general, I've noticed the conversations are shorter and it almost seems you have to compete with ideas and certain things like that all the time.
I wish I had developed more friendships with girls earlier on, but I suppose as with many things they only gain interest in time.
Oh and I include my blogger friends Monika, Deb and Sahar whom I've gotten to know outside the blogosphere in this analogy as well.
That's my schpiel.
Peace.
It's about time...
I saw this posted on a friend's myspace and I was pretty much blown away at it's amazing truthfulness that is so rarely seen in media today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAYL_5E5_60This rant stems from a Fox news interview done with former President Bill Clinton. At the time I watched this interview I was astonished at how even Fox News could so blatantly call out the former President for not doing anything about 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden.
Here's the clips form that interview should you be inclined to watch:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAnuqicla4IPart 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErrdLvWjm8oThink what you may, and discuss.
Peace.
Alright, Still
The DinnerYesterday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. We had my brother, his fiancee, my sister and my two nephews over. So that's a total of 8 people including myself and my parents.
The big part of the day was obviously the huge meal. It was prepared amazingly by me mum and in the end my stomach was far too full, which is a good thing.
I think this year was the first time a turkey dinner managed to knock me out. I ended up falling asleep around 4pm because I could hardly keep my eyes open. I had to set my alarm for an hour later because I had to go to the Lily Allen concert.
The WaitI met up with Alex at the subway station by his place and we headed down to Lee's Palace where she was playing. While waiting in line, we were standing by this door that goes into the place, but more for equipment and whatnot. As we were standing there this group of people came up and one woman went to try to open it, but it was locked. It was then that I noticed the short person behind her in this checker-like print trench jacket with her hood up. I couldn't see her face but i knew it was ..Lily Allen! She was there for about three seconds before they went to the main entrance. I was all "holy shit it's Lily Allen" in my head, but I didn't do anything interesting :(
The ConcertI'd never been to Lee's Palace before so I didn't know anything about it aside from having a smaller capacity than other places. So when we went in I was a little suprised to see a bunch of seats surrounding a floor for people to stand and jump around. We ended up grabbing seats near the front area on the side. They had a little railing contraption for holding drinks and a waitress coming around taking orders. The convenience for alcohol over took getting in close to the stage.
Opening for Lily were her buddies and DJs Aaron LaCrate and Mark Ronson. I'd heard of Ronson before, but I only knew of LaCrate from his MySpace profile. Both provided good entertainment, but it was drawn out pretty long.
Mark Ronson doing his DJ thing.Once Lily came out she performed LDN which was her first UK single, and everyone cheered her on. After that she went from song to song, stopping once to admittedly catch her breath. I believe she played eight songs before saying goodbye; I knew that couldn't be it. After some cheering from the crowd she came back and performed Alfie, a song about her brother. I was still shocked to see that she left after that one. In the end though it's not that suprising as her library is only 13 songs deep as of yet. After that Aaron Lacrate came back out and DJ'd a bit more. We had another drink and then left.
Lily Allen dancing on stage while performing.I was a little buzzed but nothing I was proud of. So we went to a pub where we got a pitcher of my growing favourite, Stella Artois. We chilled out there and watched sports highlights, and I was sepecially proud of seeing the Eagles beat Terrell Owens and his Dallas Cowboys team. It was a nice capper to a good night.
Now thoroughlly drunk we headed home. I took the subway back to suburbia and then took a cab the other half of the way because I felt the $30 was worth getting home an hour or so earlier.
So there it is. I had a great time and her first performance overseas seemed to be pretty successful. I can't wait til she comes back and with hopefully more songs to sing.
Peace.
CLR makes things work better
After just finishing my first month into school I feel incredibly beat. I've gone through many different feelings in this past month and I feel it's been a good experience, even though at the time I wanted to crawl into a hole and escape.
As I've already written about recently I'd been going through deep concerns about where I was headed and how managing through the daily routine was becoming difficult. I'd like to say now that it was more of a feeling akin to a piece of equipment in need of CLR rust removal. Over the summer months I hadn't done anything with regards to journalism and this blog, while it's good for getting my thoughts out there, isn't at all a journalistic avenue, simply because I haven't made it one, not because it can't be one.
Anway, I digress...
I think this week, after getting the opportunity to talk to the mayor over the phone for an interview and on thursday doing a couple more differnt interviews I've begun to get into the groove again. Getting into the groove for me requires a lot of habit and necessity. I need to
have to do something before I'll do it, and I need to do something over and over before I become comfortable with doing it. It's my nature and it even reflects how I work with people to a point. I need to get to know you and feel comfortable with you before I begin to open up and be the "real me" as it were.
With my three classes under way I have somewhat more of a vision of where this semester is going which gives me a better sense of assurance I can manage in the end.
This long Thanksgiving weekend will be a balance of further research for my next school endeavour and also time with family and friends.
Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian buds. Happy Columbus Day weekend to my American amigos and have a good weekend to everyone else!
peace.
It's that time again..
It doesn't seem like all too long ago when I was writing about the end to the
2005-2006 season for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The year didn't seem to start out with too much promise for the Leafs, with many predicting their aging bodies wouldn't be able to keep up in the newer fast-paced NHL. That coupled with injuries made for a very long season for us Leaf fans. Sure they showed signs of greatness, especially near the end of the campaign, but it wasn't enough. They were unable to sneak in to the playoffs as some other teams were. Even if they did get in, truthfully they wouldn't have done much.
The results of last year ended up with plenty of change coming into this year. Most notably gone is the coach, Pat Quinn, replaced by Toronto Marlies head coach Paul Maurice. Quinn did an admirable job as coach of the Leafs from 1998-2006. In all but the final year he got the team into the playoffs, and was runner-up for the Jack Adams trophy for coach of the year in 98.
Also gone from the team are many players, who seemed to only be patches to fill spots and save money with the newly introduced salary cap last year. Those players include forwards Jason Allison and Eric Lindros and others. Forward Tie Domi, defenceman Aki Berg and goaltender Ed Belfour have also departed. The Leafs have replaced the likes of them with forwards Mike Peca, defencemen Pavel Kubina and Hal Gill and goalie Andrew Raycroft.
Will these players restore the team to the days before my birth when they one the Stanley Cup once upon a time? Likely no. I do believe it is likely they can make the playoffs this year if they remain healthy and the younger players can step up their play when called upon.
Alas, this squad isn't a champion. They are but an attempt to further improve the likes of Alex Steen, Matt Stajan, Kyle Wellwood and other young ones. The future is not quite now. In Leaf-land we finally have something to look forward to with our young players, however. Justin Pogge is our future in goal and is someone we can definitely build a champion around. The Leafs aren't going the route of a drastic overhaul of their team as many teams have, but seem to be adjusting piece by piece to further their agenda.
I'm aware of this and I realise a championship isn't on the horizon any time in the near future. I will however hope, as ever Leaf fan before me has had to do. I will hope I can call my team a Stanley Cup Champion. One day...
Peace.
