Amy Winehouse - What really happened?
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Friday, May 30, 2008
First there was Stuff White People Like,
...then there was Stuff Asian People Like...
..Now, Stuff Indian People Like.
I seriously need to get working on Stuff Balkan People Like.
(If you've got a good contribution...email me)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Samo napred, Terry!
Terrence Howard employs the Serbian parenting technique of sending your daughter away for the summer to put an end to henky-penky.
That's old school parenting!
This 'n That
"Good Samaritan scolded after buying a homeless, pregnant woman food – then leaving her to eat it"
Ok.
What's up with the media these days?
Plenty of restaurants don't allow people who have created a problem for them in the past back into their restaurants...mind you, they shouldn't have agreed to sell her the food if they weren't going to let her eat it there...but, still...I've seen many a homeless person in Timmy's so this is missing a chunk of story.
I heard the investment manager who bought the woman breakfast interviewed on talk radio this morning. I only have one thing to say...it's easy to be superior about helping the mentally ill homeless from your desk at the bank, and then judge the $8 an hour staff whom YOU left to deal with her in the restaurant...but, they told you she couldn't stay in the restaurant to eat it.
That she had created problems for them in the past.
I'll bet 10 homeless breakfasts that Ms Investment Banker doesn't want a mentally ill homeless lady sitting across her desk at the bank eating that breakfast.
Why should others have to tolerate it so that she can feel good about herself?
What's a breakfast cost a Timmy's anyway?
$5.00 tops.
That's a cheap price to pay to get on the news and look like a self-righteous humanitarian.
This wouldn't even be news if it wasn't for Timbit woman from a couple of weeks ago.
I think the real issue here is there is a pregnant homeless woman walking around.
...and that's not Timmy's problem...that's ours, as a society.
Teen moms face unique hardships: Statscan says
....no shit.
Another redundant study; courtesy of your taxpayers dollars.
And.....When the Thong is all Wrong.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Rise, Fall and Rise of a Professional Blogger."I’d been a guest on an episode of “Larry King Live,” with Jimmy Kimmel as the host in King’s absence. I had been told that I would be talking about “celebrities and the media.” But Kimmel launched an attack on one of Gawker’s regular features, a celebrity “stalker map” that relied on unsourced tipsters, one of whom claimed to have spotted Kimmel looking drunk a few months earlier. It took me a minute to catch on to the fact that Kimmel wasn’t acting out some blustery caricature — he was serious about the idea that Gawker had violated his privacy, and he was genuinely, frighteningly angry.
Back at home, after wiping off the TV makeup, I logged into my Gawker e-mail account and found my in-box flooded. I scrolled through the first of what would eventually be hundreds — and then, as the clip of my appearance was dissected on other blogs over the course of the next few days, thousands — of angry e-mail messages."
I was halfway through this article when I realized that I had blogged about her too...and the above chronicle of her public experiences online I'm sure will result in some sort of guideline advice on online sharing and the consequences of having a number of blogs that can eventually be connected...even if you don't want them to be.
(Via Funkaoshi)
The Virtuous Life: Chastity
I was reading The Art of Manliness recently and came upon this twelfth post in a series about living Ben Franklin’s 13 virtues.
It's a really interesting commentary on how chastity fits into living in todays world of "hook ups" and "bumpn' uglies".
The author quotes a friend as saying: “Sex is like ice cream. The more flavors you sample, the harder it becomes to settle on one flavor for the rest of your life.”
The quote, I think has merit.
There are people who live a lifestyle that is filled with disposable relationships, (both platonic and sexual) and a disconnect I'm hearing described by women on the dating scene that I didn't experience when I was dating.
I touched on it in this post about how Porn Ruined Sex a while ago.
I find this whole willingness of women to flash pussy in public, and straight girls going "girl on girl" in clubs to entice a man who doesn't respect them, or most probably won't even take the time to get to know them anyway, rather pathetic and sad.
The New York Times did an article called The Affairs of Men which seems to advocate a man's right to infidelity.
Forgive me for not reading the whole article, but I got bored with the theme.
I'll leave it to Boinkology to do it for me:"Maybe it’s the constant rehashing of the tired trope that men want sex more than women, and this is why they cheat; maybe it’s the author’s casual assumption that we’d all be so much better off if wives simply turned a blind eye while their husbands went off and banged 20-year-old waitresses. Though the piece does give a nod to polyandry and the notion that women, too, might want to take on multiple partners, the overwhelming vibe is that sexual variety is something that men deserve, and that their wives should happily allow them — with seemingly no thought or consideration towards what, exactly, these wives might want."
I lean towards the belief that either you are a "cheater" or you're not.
Either you have it in you, or you don't.
I don't believe in blaming the victim in infidelity, although..it's a popular justification.
In my opinion, it's internal issues in the cheater that plague him/her that have little to do with the person they are cheating on.
It has to do with virtues and internal beliefs.
Howard Stern has been quoted as saying: "Even looking at the hottest chick, you know there's some guy out there tired of banging her."
How else can you explain the luck of these girls?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Would we call this "full figured"?
America's Top Model" does.
This is "full-figured" winner Whitney Thompson.
(via Webster's Is My Bitch)
Serbs come in at #2...and let me tell you, the quoted insults are mild compared to many I've personally heard.
No other culture can get their vulgar on like the Serbs..except maybe the Russians...
Addendum: dalia mentions the video I posted ages ago of a Serbian Basketball player cussing someone off.
Check out his skills here.
I suppose I should be embarrassed by the fact that my people can cut with their tongues, but interestingly enough...I'm not in the least.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
"Let's see... I get the cages. I get the egg-shaped protest signs. But why are they in bikinis again? Oh yeah, because PETA are a bunch of fucking idiots who are completely incapable of getting their points across without them being presented by naked or scantily clad retards. Ooh, nudity... Shocking! A hundred bucks says those are paid actresses, too."
(via Hasta Los Gatos Quieren Zapatos)
"...pompous, sloppy, contradictory mess, written in bad prose, whether in French or English."
The most accurate description of Jean-Paul Sartre's work that I've ever read.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
"Wade in the Water
Wade in the Water, children...
If you don't believe I've been redeemed
Wade in the Water"
All my life, I've lived close to a body of water.
I can't imagine it any other way.
If I were to move someplace that didn't have water close by, I would miss it terribly.
Every morning, I drive along the lake shore on my way to work, and sometimes I pull into the lot close by the Sunnyside Pavillion and walk through the park to the water and just stand there and look out.
When I was young, I used to walk off of busy Queen Street, and across the walkway over the Gardiner Expressway to swing on the swings facing the water.
I'd swing out and I felt like I was swinging over the water.
I'd climb over the giant stegosaurus in the park and sit there and look out.
There aren't any swings in that park anymore, and last year when they were revamping the park, every morning, as I drove by, I silently begged them not to take Steggy away...'cause you know how Toronto just loves to destroy memories...but they only painted him, and moved him over a bit.
It's comforting to be able to see something, just the way it was when you were small and without a care in the world.
A touchstone.
Dear Downtown Toronto Pedestrian,
I know you're in a hurry (aren't we all?), but when YOUR light is red, kindly keep your half-caff skim latte, and ass on the curb until you get the GREEN!
When you step out and stand 5 feet into the intersection, you make it impossible to make a right turn.
...and don't give me that fucking LOOK.
Between you, and the insane, ignoring the rules of the road cyclists it's a miracle in defensive driving that more people don't get hit.
...and while we're having this conversation, how about taking a look around every so often.
I'm tired of you assuming that everyone else is going to look out for your personal safety.
Yeah, you may have the right of way, but that doesn't mean that you don't need to have a quick peek around to see if it's safe.
Thanks,
Radmila
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Back-scratching gunman shoots himself
...ok, this guy and the guy who shot his wife installing a satellite need to go out for a beer and form a support group.
I'm sure there is no shortage of Darwin nominees to join.
"TORONTO - The case of a Tim Hortons worker in Toronto fired almost nine years ago for allegedly stealing a toonie was put over again Wednesday as lawyers for the defendant lamented that the former employee's "frivolous" lawsuit continues to waste time and money.
Charlene Walsh, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and Amanda MacNeil were fired in June 1999 after store managers viewed surveillance video and alleged the workers were seen taking money from a cash register.
Even though the allegation centred around pocketing a $2 coin, Walsh was quickly charged by police with theft under $5,000.
Her lawyer Ernest Guiste said police had enjoyed free food and drinks from the store for years, so they were happy to do the owner a favour by arresting Walsh."
Ok.
So, they dug this shit up in the media because of timbit chick from last week?
Charlene Walsh was pregnant at the time.
Pregnant women and single moms should be allowed to steal money, and food from Timmy's, right?
Somebody pleeeze think about the children!
She's suing the franchisee for 23 million!
Too bad the human rights commission doesn't accept cases based on extortion by whacked out logic...oh wait, they DO!
How about that guy who sued a Burlington restaurant owner because he wouldn't let him smoke his medicinal marijuana at the front door of the family eatery?
Apparently, even Steve Gibson's (the smoker) wife won't let him smoke it in his home because they have small children...but, Steve thinks that he shouldn't have to walk the 20 feet from the door that the owner asked him to...to smoke his pot.
Yeah, the commission accepted that case.
Makes you want to own a business, no?
"Latarian Milton, the 7 year-old who stole his grandmother’s Dodge Durango and went on a disastrous joyride because he “wanted to do hoodrat stuff with [his] friends” is back to his old tricks. Latarian is being held on mental evaluation after attacking the same grandmother in Wal-Mart. Jesus be an extension cord! I would lay his butterball ass OUT after all this."
This is the kid who should be the catalyst to reform child abuse laws.
If anyone deserves an ass kickin', this little miscreant does.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
I Can't Complain
I've had quite the day, dear readers.
My Mama had a mild stroke this morning, and through the help of some incredible EMS workers and medical staff at St Mike's, she's totally ok.
I'm not going to bore you with the whole ordeal..I don't have the strength.
But, I will tell you that everyone involved responded quickly, thoroughly and with compassion that makes me vaklempt.
One of the EMS guys who brought Mama to the hospital told me to meet them at the emerg, and when I finally found parking and made it to the emerg, he was waiting for me outside. He told me what was going to happen, what they were going to do, what his experience has been in these situations, and what I should do.
He calmed me down.
Mama received the injection, and by 3pm her speech was normal, and her motor skills were back.
So normal, that she told the woman who was whining about being hungry in the next bed to "SHADDAP!"
Around 4pm, the EMS guy came back to check on her!
He sat with her and gave her a little lecture on accepting medical help.
He told her that even if she was only feeling 99% ok, and 1% sick to accept the help...that they don't mind. He felt better to know that she averted a major stroke because she let them help her.
God bless you, Gary the EMS guy.
People can bitch and howl about our healthcare system...but what I saw today was compassionate and stellar.
I have renewed respect for the medical profession, from the EMS to Doctors...to St Mike's.
Thank you.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Saw this movie yesterday.
Wonderful.
Funny and sad.
The acting was great.
Paul Schneider's character as Lars' brother was superb.
There are two scenes with him in them that squeezed my heart. Hard.
You should rent it.
Friday, May 09, 2008
(By special request)
"I want them to feel like that. I'm sorry, you just fired a mother of four over a Timbit," she said.
Overzealous?
Absolutely.
Internal employee issue?
Uh, yeah.
What her marital status, financial situation, and number of children has to do with it?
Zero.
Thinking this has more to do with other shit in her employee file?
100%
Thinking that she would have been hired back even without the media attention?
Uh, yeah.
People think that it's so easy to fire someone.
It's not.
That's what the Labour Board is for, and employers are very aware of the standards...even if Managers are not.
I want to know who called the media.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Everyone thinks it's all about them....(even me)
So, I'm reading "Baby Wars" on the Toronto Life website:
"Pulp Kitchen is a small 24-seat vegetarian restaurant and juice bar in Leslieville, where strollers dot the sidewalks like giant jelly beans. On a summer day in 2006, Julie Forrest entered the restaurant with her friend Karen Green and their two infant daughters to get some salads and juice to go. It was late in the morning, and no one else needed to be served.
Instead of a big welcome, the hipster behind the counter directed a frosty eye at the babies in their strollers. “It was a definite F-you look,” recalls Forrest.
A few weeks later, when she walked by, Forrest saw a handwritten sign on the door: “Attn, parents with baby strollers. Our restaurant is tiny! We have parking for only one stroller inside (but not in the dining area). Thanks!” Forrest’s neighbourhood, south of Queen near Logan, is a place of class confusion: she can buy direct-trade organic coffee and drink it while watching a heavily armed police squad circling a house across her street to halt a drug-related kidnapping. These are the realities of modern downtown life that play out on her blog, Metro Mama, and the blog is right where she headed after her salad snub. Without naming Pulp Kitchen, Forrest posted a picture of the sign and her take on it: “What pisses me off is that I think they have signs like this because they think kids (and parents) aren’t cool. These too cool for school Queen Street joints don’t want the babes spoiling their image.”"
I think that the real issue is Hipsters are having kids and struggling like crazy to stay "cool".
...and while we're at it...a giant "F-you" to you selfish, childless bastards who would like to go out and not deal with screaming babies or toddlers tearing through the restaurant.
Especially when it's a tiny restaurant.
Because who cares about other people...it's all about ME!!!
...and because hipster is a mommy now...we need to get with her program.
(Excuse me while a make a reservation at Pulp Kitchen)
What kills me the most is that the biggest hipsters I've ever met, actually grew up in the 'burbs.
It's a constant struggle to capture that "urban" thing...to the point where you're a parody.
Check out the forum discussion on the article.
There are some excellent comments, like this one:
"As parents of a well-behaved five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, my wife and I feel comfortable going out to lunch or brunch downtown for the simple reason that our kids are acquainted with the now archaic art of discipline. The old adage “kids will be kids” is great, but not when other people are paying to drink $7 lattes or take in some art. If you are sitting at Shanghai Cowgirl and your four-year-old with the grandiose name wearing the tiny Ramones T-shirt starts screaming, “I don’t want wasabi mayo!” then here’s an idea for you: hang up your hipster hat, drop the New Age child-rearing crap, and actually parent your child. Children don’t need a best buddy from Coolsville who lets them act however the hell they want. They need lots of love and lots of boundaries. So if you’re too lazy to put in the effort and say traumatizing words like “no” and “stop that” to your child, then eat at home."
Matt Hawkins, Toronto
I would like to add that this "Hipster Parenting" trend appears to be a North American thing...because while in Europe, I didn't cringe when a family sat down next to us in a cafe. Because their children sat at the table and behaved themselves, and if they didn't, they weren't consulted or negotiated with.
They were disciplined (GASP!) in public....and everything!
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Sex and Violence
I find it fascinating that some people are attracted to men and women who are dangerous...you know, like serial killer groupies.
Boinkology was joking about it in one of today's posts...and then they linked to a site for inmate pen pals.
Listen, I can't help but find that site bizarre and hilarious at the same time.
Call me insensitive if you like.
But, with bios that have things like this one, or this one do...
I really have to wonder if we're being punk'd with that website.
Honestly, it's comedy.
This is the kind of art that used to hang in the office of my Dentist when I was very young. I used to stare at those drawings and all the different things that was going on in them...and get totally creeped out.
I don't know who the Artist is, since I don't read Russian.
Maybe I'm paranoid, because let's face it...it's in my blood.
But, when the US criticizes Russia over the Georgia-Abkhazia dispute, with quotes from
White House press secretary Dana Perino like:
"Moscow must "de-escalate and reverse its measures," begin playing a true mediator role in the dispute and reiterate its commitment to Georgia's "territorial integrity and sovereignty.""
As the U.S. continues to push it's nose into Eastern business encouraging the independence of small countries whose culture and history is virtually unknown to the average American...encouraging independence that would never be tolerated in the same form in the U.S. of A.
Methinks that attempting to surround Russia and continuously poking the bear is decidedly scaring me a little bit.
Eventually, even the biggest bully in the schoolyard gets stepped up to.
I fear where the US is taking us...and I only hope for a change in leadership before the ant farm explodes in our little ant faces.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Postmortem Photography
Mental Floss has a link to Victorian Postmortem photography and it reminded me of a site I linked to a long time ago called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep which specializes in postmortem photography for bereaved families.
The photos are very touching, and not "creepy" at all.
In my opinion anyway.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Race Quiz
"Lots of people assume that race is obvious, clear-cut, easy-to-define. Because of this, we often find it easy to place people in boxes, or assign racial labels that may or may not be accurate.
Usually, mislabeling amounts to nothing more than an awkward experience for one or both individuals involved. But in some contexts, such as in the medical field - where exam results, dignoses, and treatment plans may depend on racial categories - the results of mislabeling can be much more signficant such as missed diagnoses, incorrect diagnoses and/or inappropriate treatment protocols.
Take a look at the following famous faces and see if you can accurately identify their racial makeup."
Click on picture to take the test.
I suck.
(Image from Willamette)
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
Free Rice
For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger.
Totally addictive.
I generally don't blog about work...but...
A woman just called me to tell me that her daughter did her practicum with us in December and she forgot to get her time sheet for University...and could I send it to her.
Firstly...we have about 20 students a semester that come through here...and her time sheet is her own responsibility...
Secondly, why the fuck is a 20 year old having her mother call for something she should be taking responsibility for herself?
So...
I said:
"The time sheet was her responsibility, and frankly, so is this inquiry.
Please have your daughter call me at her earliest convenience"
Mom: "But, she's in school"
Me: "Aren't you at work?"
Mom: "I'll have her call you"
(Click)
Radmila; helping your future employees grow up.
One helicopter parent at a time.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
I love me some Indian music.
Click on the photo to hear Kiran Ahluwalia's "Koka".
While you're here...check out Ethiopia's Gigi as well....and New York's Yerba Buena..
.....awww hell...check out the entire National Geographic music site.
I burned TIME there.
How could she not know?
Apparently, the wife of the Austrian who holed his daughter up for 24 years and had 7 kids with her..."had no idea" what her husband was up to.
Sarah Hampson of the Globe & Mail writes an interesting article about cognitive dissonance (although she doesn't actually call it that in the article) in marriage.
She writes:
"Tradition dictates that the bride sails down the aisle on the arm of her father, with a veil covering her face. At the altar, once the vows have been exchanged and the couple have been declared married, the groom lifts the veil to kiss her. Then, the newlyweds parade in front of the congregation, who can clearly see their beaming faces.
It should be the reverse. The bride should wear the veil after she has become a wife. Once a couple are married, it becomes paramount for the participants to believe that everything is fine, really, just fine, thank you."
It's a very interesting article mostly about how women process their preferred information...although I know that plenty of men practice it as well.
Racialicious weighs in on BBC Two’s White Season: Is White Working Class Britain Becoming Invisible?
a series of documentaries about the white working class in Britain.
What I'm gathering is that Britain's history of Colonialism, and racism cancels out any white Britons right to whine and bitch about feeling marginalized.
The byproduct of hundreds of years of an empire.
I'm not being flip about this...it's a serious issue.
I'm also not sure why Brits would not expect that over a few hundred years the people from the countries that were colonized would choose to try to live in Britain.
Perhaps if they had have tried colonizing Scandinavians (LOL...as if) the population would have turned out differently... rather than what it does reflect; South Asians, Africans, and Caribs.
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