Ok...since my frustration is complete with Haloscan and their "migration" efforts...and even though Ram from Funkoashi tried to help me with it (to no avail)...I've decided to move this blog to Tumblr.

I'm at http://my2secondshelflife.tumblr.com/ now, if you care to link me...or visit me.

It's 9 years with blogger, and I'm not moving any of my archives.
I'm lazy...and this blog can stay the way that it is.

Visit me at my new digs...as of, like 5 minutes ago.

The Mister and me went to the ROM today and took the subway for the first time in a few years. I was disappointed at how dirty it is.

When I compare it to say Madrid, or even NYC...for a small subway system, the TTC is embarrassing.

The missing ceiling slats in all the stations we were at, the absolutely gross coffee shops (went in to get a coffee at Bathurst subway station and turned on our heels. Newspapers all around one half of a table. It looked like someone pissed there and they couldn't be bothered to mop it up)...By the Way Bakery at Bathurst station looks like it needs a hosedown compared to what it looked like just a few years ago.

At Yorkdale subway station, we went to buy tickets..just as we got to the wicket, the attendant closed it, looked at us, pointed to the hand written sign he was holding in his hand, shoved it above the mouth piece, and turned his back on us.

Nice.

It's just sad.
At 3 bucks a trip in January.

I'm trying to fix my comments since Haloscan is screwed.
Hopefully, they'll be back up today.

Thanks for those to emailed me to tell me they were screwed.

The Washington Post crowns ROM the worst piece of...architecture in the world.

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Sure, there were a lot of Wal-Marts thrown up in the Aughts, but Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto surpasses the ugliness of bland functional buildings by being both ugly and useless. His aluminum-and-glass-clad crystalline forms grow out of the building's original 1914 structure, and from the street it's dramatic. But go inside and you need a map to move around its irrational and baffling dead spaces.

And where do you put art in a room of canted walls? Curators seem as baffled and frustrated by it as casual visitors. And it cost only $250 million.

(article via blogTO)

I'm not terribly fond of it.
It does look like something dropped on the building from outer space.
But, it's also typical of Toronto architecture.
Screw up the old beyond repair rather than to restore.

found at mizi(social)

Blansdowne



(click on image to see the collection of photos)

I have a soft spot for Bloor and Lansdowne.
I grew up in the area, and I'm still there every day.

Ramanan Sivaranjan from Funkaoshi has taken some great photos of a neighbourhood that is gentrifying.

20 years from now, the places he's photographed will be very different.

Ram is curating history.

Rest in Peace Maggie Jones



Maggie joins the Barlow family at an AA meeting for Peter...this is an awesome scene.
Almost as good as the Sopranos intervention scene for Christopher.

One of Tigers chicks is interviewed


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

...and she just sounds pathetic and delusional. The terrible thing is that she's on TV talking about intimate details of what she thinks was an actual relationship..


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

How much money do you suppose she got for an interview that makes her look like an airheaded idiot?

Not enough, I'm guessing.

Forget the Electric Slide...LOL

Ten Thousand Pictures of You from Robin King on Vimeo.

Awesome

(via Laughing Squid)

Cute and clever way to lead a good Samaritan to yourself if you ever lose your camera.

Click on image for the whole story.

(via bits and pieces)

Kind of cool little video of night time Toronto...in the style of Night Moves, if anyone remembers that from the 1980's and 90's on global from 2am to 6am...and then flips into something completely different

Chris Henry was rushed to the hospital early Wednesday afternoon after being found on a curvy section of a residential road. Police said the dispute began at a home about a half-mile away, and Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup as his fiancee was driving away from the residence.

This story is so bizarre.
Incredibly sad, and bizarre.

via bits and pieces

(click on image for larger version)

via Bits and Pieces

I have a yen for Latke tonight.
Do they go with crab legs?

Who cares?

The YouTube comments are funny too (even though most of them are not meant to be).

'rape trap' - is a product worn internally by women. The hollow inside is lined with rows of razor-sharp hooks, which are designed to latch on to a rapist's penis during penetration. They can only be removed by a doctor.

The product will be on the shelves of South African chemists and supermarkets later this month. South African mother-of-two Sonette Ehlers developed the original prototype in 2005 but has struggled to get it patented and approved for sale, not least because of staunch opposition from feminist groups.

SADE'S SOLDIER OF LOVE


I like it.

via osalog

via streets of Belgrade

From an article on Chantal Kreviazuk in The Star:

As advocates of War Child Canada, which assists children affected by war, she and Maida walked the talk with the hiring of their nanny of six years, Bibiane Mpoyo of Burundi.

"Living with a war refugee is really intense, it's a risk every day," said Kreviazuk. "And there are days where something inappropriate happens. It's not age appropriate, or I know that she can't leave what's happening back home at the end of the canyon on her way into our house. There's a lot of understanding and patience that has to happen, but what she brings into our lives couldn't be without her experiences and we're gaining something far more valuable than what is being risked."

I don't know if this is supposed to make us realize what giving, humanitarians they are...and that they "walk the talk"...but, what came to MY mind was:

Yes...it must be tough living with a war refugee...
...with all the "wah, wah, wah, I was brutally raped by soldiers", and "boo, hoo, hoo my whole family was slaughtered right before my very eyes" crying jags interfering with the laundry and school pick ups.

Developers building condos on Toronto transit lines will now have to buy every unit a TTC metropass for a year in order to obtain condominium approval from the city, a policy critics say comes at a high cost and without proof people will use it.

No...but, for real...City Council is determined to drive (no pun intended) developers and businesses out of this city.

Councillor Howard Moscoe, however, believes it “will cause people on transit lines to abandon their cars.”

He pushed the initiative forward, which passed council without debate. The policy states the cost of the metropasses cannot be passed on to the condo buyer.

Oh, yeah...I'm sure that will totally be the case.

The TTC has exhausted the rider, our taxes...and now new condo owners, and developers are going to have to throw money into it's bottomless pit of bad management as well.

OMG...I can't believe what a shithole this council is.

Tiger Woods alienates black community with white lovers

"When three white women were said to be romantically involved with Woods in addition to his blonde, Swedish wife, blogs, airwaves and barbershops started humming, and Woods' already tenuous standing among many blacks took a beating."

LOL...yeah, black women are missing out!

GTFOH

Mind you, at the rate that the numbers are racking up for Tiger, pretty soon we might find out that I'm the only woman left on the continent who didn't sleep with him.

Please explain to me why this climate conference couldn't be done in teleconference?

Seriously.

At least 192 delegates, 191 of them flying into Copenhagen to discuss climate change.
WTF?

via bits and pieces

I thought this was cute.
When I was little, if I got hurt...whatever hurt me would get a thrashing from my uncle or auntie.
It seems that it's universal.

Wow.

The only thing came to my mind when I saw this picture was:

"...what beauty, ruined by big ass random as shit tattoos"

Hilarious.

Things Jamaicans Love

(Need I say more?)

A morsel from the ramblings section:

"If you spot an elderly lady at the Airport check-in counter in Cayman, with a suitcase the size of a fridge, which she has just “discovered” is 40 pounds overweight, then it’s possible that this lady is Jamaican. If she opens the suitcase to reveal large quantities of cornflakes, cooking oil and flour then she is most likely a Jamaican. If she tries to persuade you to carry her excess baggage to Jamaica in your luggage then she is definitely Jamaican."

Thanks Dillydallian

That didn't take long...

"Not once -- it's probably hard to imagine -- but not once did it occur to me that I was a lesbian. Not once. I just thought, OK, I don't think so, and went off and got married again for a short period of time. And a couple years after that, I entered my next foray into being with a woman, and the penny dropped at that point..."

When someone says that they didn't know they were gay, while having sexual/emotional relationships with people of the same sex..it always shocks and surprises me.

De-nile is not just a river in Egypt.

Combine this and so many other things that the media gives young women to aspire to...and the growing number of women who grew up in a fatherless household...is it any wonder that so many women make poor choices?

20 things girls learn from twilight

1. If a boy is aloof, stand-offish, ignores you or is just plain rude, it is because he is secretly in love with you — and you are the point of his existence.

2.Secrets are good — especially life-threatening ones.

3. It’s OK for a potential romantic interest to be dimwitted, violent and vengeful — as long as he has great abs.

4. If a boy tells you to stay away from him because he is dangerous and may even kill you, he must be the love of your life. You should stay with him since he will keep you safe forever.

5. If a boy leaves you, especially suddenly (while telling you he will never see you again), it is because he loves you so much he will suffer just to keep you safe.

6. When a boy leaves you, going into shock, losing all your friends and enduring night terrors are completely acceptable occurrences — as long as you keep your grades up.

7. It is extremely romantic to put yourself in dangerous situations in order to see your ex-boyfriend again. It’s even more romantic to remember the sound of his voice when he yelled at you.

8. Boys who leave you always come back.

9. Because they come back, you should hold out, waiting for them for months, even when completely acceptable and less-abusive alternative males present themselves.

10. Even though you have no intention of dating an alternative male who expresses interest in you, it is fine to string the young man along for months. Also, you should use him to fix things for you. Maybe he’ll even buy you something.

11. You should use said male to fix things because girls are incapable of anything mechanical or technical.

12. Lying to your parents is fine. Lying to your parents while you run away to save your suicidal boyfriend is an extremely good idea that shows your strength and maturity. Also, it is what you must do.

13. Car theft in the service of love is acceptable.

14. If the boy you are in love with causes you (even indirectly) to be so badly beaten you end up in the hospital, you should tell the doctors and your family that you “fell down the steps” because you are such a silly, clumsy girl. That false explanation always works well for abused women.

15. Men can be changed for the better if you sacrifice everything you are and devote yourself to their need for change.

16. Young women should make no effort to improve their social skills or emotional state. Instead, they should seek out potential mates that share their morose deficiencies and emotional illnesses.

17. Girls shouldn’t always read a book series just because everyone else has.

18. When writing a book series, it’s acceptable to lift seminal source material and bastardize it \with tired, overwrought teenage angst.

19. When making or watching a major feature film, you should gleefully embrace the 20 minutes of plot it provides in between extended segments of vacant-eyed silence and self-indulgent, moaning banter.

20.Vampires — once among the great villains of literature and motion pictures — are no longer scary. In fact, they’re every bit as whiny, self-absorbed and impotent as any human being.

(stolen from Lyrical Lies)