Night out.

Yesterday I got off work early, at 10. So, Veena, and Sreng came by work to pick me up. To my surprise, they said they wanted to go downtown. I had nothing to wear but my work clothes, but that didn’t stop us. So, we went down to Church, and the surrounding areas. I called up Daren, and he met us a Zelda’s. We got martinis and slushies, the best place for those kinda drinks.
After that, we went for a walk. The weather was so nice, I can't believe we are getting such a mild Winter. Daren showed us some of the cool clubs down there, definitely places we will have to return to. We made our way to Remington’s, but Veena was not allowed in. She’s a girl, poor Veena. So, as usual, Pooncho decided we should eat. Next door there is an awesome pizza place, where you get the biggest slices ever! I love this place. So, we ate there, and then continued our walk down the streets of TO. We made our way to Crews, where we watched Fahrenheit put on a pretty unenergetic show. Usually, she’s jumping around, and slamming the stage while doing her splits. It was probably because it was the end of the night, and she was tired. The show ended, and we left. We all went home after that, and I made it to bed by 3:30. Fun times.

Hudson's Bay

The Hudson's Bay company was sold today to an American named Jerry Zucker.
Hopefully he can do something to bring the company back to where it once was.

gloomy or just restless?

Hello all!
Wow, yesterday I must say I was really really tired. I also feel a little down in the dumps too. I know I’ve only got the rest of the year before I’m finished school, but I can’t wait. While I’m in school, I don’t really live my life. Actually, I feel like my life is on pause most of the time, except for the odd vacation here or there. If it weren’t for seeing my friends on Sunday nights, and going to work, I’d have no life at all.
I think I’m just a little jealous of those around me who are living interesting lives of their own. My time will come, I just need to be patient. In the mean time though, I need to cut myself some slack and have more fun.
That’s my “top of my mind” post for you all.
=)

Commercials: Hot Mario Bros.

I offer something new to you all! The election is over, and it’s time to have some fun. The Conservatives won a Minority, so we have to stay on their ass, and make sure they don't fuck us over too bad. But, now it's time for a lighter note.
My election blogs are over, but I have something much more fun instead: funny commercial blogs! Yes, I have come across some commercials that you just must see.
Today’s are from Japan, and are for video games. To be more specific, Nintendo DS games. This system has blown away everyone’s expectation in Japan, and they are sold out all over the country. Today I have some commercials featuring everyone’s favourite plumber: Mario Mario, and Luigi Mario! Enjoy:

For the new Mario and Luigi RPG:

http://touch-ds.jp/mediagallery/st24.html

For Mario Kart:

http://touch-ds.jp/mediagallery/st23.html

(there’s more related commercials if you click on the arrows just below the video window. Click on the last one, it’s really funny!)

Don’t forget to vote! No vote is ever wasted, even if it’s for a party that you know will not win. By voting, you help that party get funding to ensure their survival.
Vote, so that you can bitch and complain all you want. If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain later.
Happy Voting.
(I can’t wait for Tuesday, when the campaign is finally over!)

Election: Types of Governments

Okay, I understand that all this election stuff is confusing. It confuses me to. So, today I will clear up what it means to have a “minority government” verses a “majority government.”

Majority government:
This is when a party wins at least 155 of the 308 seats in the House. In each seat, an MP that you elected from your area will sit, voting on legislation, arguing, farting, etc.
The party in power can do just about anything that they want in this case. If they put a new law or issue up to vote, it is very likely that it will pass because that party has the most members to vote for it.

Minority government:
When the governing party wins fewer than 155 seats. Things are harder to pass in this case. The government has fewer seats, and is outnumbered by the total seats of the combined other parties. This means that the other three parties can defeat any motion by just voting against the governing party. This is what we just had in government with the Liberals for the last two years or so. What happened: Liberals teamed up with the NDP on some issues and outvoted the Conservative + Bloc alliance. This is how the equal marriage law passed. Many of the Liberals voted for it, along with all the NDP’s, Bloc, and independents (MP’s that are elected to parliament without being part of any particular party. Or, they have been kicked out of the party they were elected under). Also, minority governments can be brought down if the other parties give a “non confidence” vote. This is what happened to the Liberals, and why we’re in an election right now.

So, lets all hope that if the Conservatives win, it’s only with a minority government. That way, the other parties will be able to keep them in check. Also, they can be booted out before 4 years is up.

Return to Brokeback

Hello Hello!
Today was busy for me. I went shopping this morning, then went to the eye doctor, then went to school at 11, and left at 10. That was my day=)
Yesterday, Veena, Sreng and I went to the movies. We saw Brokeback Mountain again because they were playing it at AMC and Sreng is addicted to it=). Was it boring watching the same movie for a second time? No. I have never seen a movie twice at the theatres before, but I didn’t mine. Actually, it was nice seeing it again, it is very well made. It also won a handfull of awards tonight at the Golden Globes (I am not saying that the Golden Globes is a good award show though. If you look into it, it has very little credibility). But, it does point to good signs for the Oscars.
After that, we fattened up a bit a Demitre’s with some ice cream on waffles. Yummy.
Time to go to bed now, my one hour of free time is up.

Elimination Communication

Okay, I’m about to write about something so crazy sounding, you will find it hard to believe. I did too when a friend of mine told me about it. But here we go:
You can train your baby to tell you when they have to use the washroom, right from the first weeks after birth. It’s a process called "elimination communication", where the parents learn to recognise the baby’s signals of having to defecate. By using this technique, you don’t have to use many diapers, or any at all. It takes a lot of time to learn obviously, and you have to be with your baby most of the time too.
Here’s a FAQ that might help explain this process to you.
A friend of a friend knows a couple that does this with their baby, and it works well for them. They take their baby to the potty when he tells them that he has to go (by crying, moaning). The parents also learn to time how long it will generally take milk and food to digest.
Judy, it’s something for you to look into, I guess. Imagine being in the mall, and then taking your month old baby into the washroom stall to pee? I wonder what other people would think?
I guess you'd save a tone of $ though, from the cost of diapers!

Election: Conservative Plans

The Toronto star had a front page story today about the Conservative platform (which really seems to be coming to light now).
First off, the rumour that Harper really like the states and Bush is TRUE. Don’t try telling me different either. The Liberals may not have been all out enemies of the states, but they stood their ground (Not joining the invasion of Iraq, saying no to the Star Wars/Missile Defence program, and softwood lumber).
Stephen Harper is in favour of the Missile Defence ‘shield’, which is Bush’s plan to have weapons that could shoot up into space, or shoot down to earth from space. They want to place some of these weapons and radar in Canada. The Conservatives said they want to bring this issue up again “for discussion”. What’s there to discuss? Bush has enough power without us helping him get more.
Oh, and another issues too: Stephen Harper would take Canada out of the Kyoto accord. This is the agreement that countries made to reduce their pollution emissions. Has it worked? No. Although everyone cheered when Canada joined, we’ve done nothing to follow it. Actually, our emissions are growing at a faster pace than the US’s (who, did not join the agreement.)
So, does it matter that Harper would pull Canada out? Not really, but it does show that he would do almost anything to make businesses happy. They would be the ones who would have to shell out $ to revamp their factories to be more environmental. Now they will love Harper even more.

BP: Bye to Blair

Today was a sad day over at BP. One of our crew is taking flight (and I really mean flight!). Blair, one of the new managers (and one of the greatest) is leaving for South Korea to teach kids American culture. He’ll be there for a year, and will probably experience so many new things, and grow tremendously as a person. All the best to you and your girlfriend Blair, you’ve got balls!

Not too busy week

Time to shower!
Yes, I am going to shower, for the first time in 2 whole months....
Okay, that was just a joke. But, I am going to a baby shower! I just got your invite Judy, and am super excited. I love the card too, it’s so cute.
This past school week has been kinda quite (the quite before the storm?). I went to dinner last night with a new friend Daren. I promised to meet him over a year ago, but got swamped in school work. I had a nice time Daren, and you have to take my friends and I out to the hot spots in TO. We went to the “Underground” restaurant at school, which has great food at decent prices too.
There is also a ton of election news, but I won’t go into detail.
The Liberals want to remove the Not Withstanding clause (see post below for details.) That will never happen though, as they would need a majority government to do so, and are nowhere near getting that.
The Conservatives are all upset over the Liberal’s “attack” ads against them. So what did they do? They started running more “attack” ads against the Liberals. Oh, they’re all a bunch of babies, eh?.

Election: Tuition and Tax

Just some quick things:
The Liberals have promised to help pay for College and University tuition beginning in September of 2007. They would pay half the cost of your first year, and half the cost of your fourth year. This would save you up to $5.000.00

The Conservatives have promised to change the tax amount for the poorest tax bracket. Instead of taxing them 15% (like they are now taxed), they would instead tax them 16%. Yes, you read that right. The Conservatives would raise the taxes of the poorest income earners. They have also promised to lower the GST to 6%, but that benefits the rich most of all (since they spend the most).

And don’t forget to watch, or read the highlights of the leadership debate on tonight (Monday) on the CBC.
That’s it for now!

Election: Equal Marriage

There was a great article in the Toronto Star on Thursday that dealt with the issue of same sex marriage. Its point was this: if the conservative win the election, even with only a minority, equal marriage laws will be lost. How could this happen? Like this:
Okay, so Stephen Harper promised to put the issue up for a vote in the house (where all the MP’s are). So, let’s say he gets elected, and does this. What happens? Well, about 80% of the Conservatives votes against equal marriage, about 40% or so of Liberals also vote against it, and the NDP and Bloc all vote in favour for it (these numbers came from how the MP's felt about this issue about a year or two ago. They're what TorStar gave). How does it add up? Well, the motion would most likely be defeated, as more people in the house have voted against it. So, then the Supreme Court would have to have its say on the issue, as they help protect people’s rights, and all that stuff. They would say again (like they did in years previous) that denying non-heterosexuals the right to marry is against the constitution. ie- it is a violation against their rights as Canadians.
So then what could Stephen Harper do? Well, he doesn’t necessarily have to listen to the Supreme Court, and he could go with the Not Withstanding clause. This allows him to override laws protecting the rights of people. A more detail definition for the government website reads that using the notwithstanding clause allows government to...

“override section 2 of the Charter (containing such fundamental rights as freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, freedom of association and freedom of assembly) and sections 7-15 of the Charter (containing the right to life, liberty and security of the person, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention, a number of other legal rights, and the right to equality).
source:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/bp194-e.htm

He could then move to change the constitutional definition of marriage back to being “between a man and a women”. He would them allow for “civil unions” as they just did in Britain.
Now, Stephen Harper has said repeatedly that we would NOT use the notwithstanding clause in this issue. But, the question is this: can we believe him. Many Conservative are dying for him to change the definition of marriage, and will push him to do so.
What do I think will happen? Well, I don’t see them taking away the right to equal marriage. Maybe I’m just being naive here, but I can’t see it happening. It’s something that makes Canada seem so good to the rest of the world. In Vegas, everyone knew about Canada’s equal marriage laws, and viewed it as part of an overall accepting, people-friendly image of the country. As a Canadian, I pride myself on being accepting to all different types of people, and also being treated equally by my country.
Just something to think about when researching who to vote for.
Oh, and I want to make something clear: not every member of a party supports the overall position of the party. With this issue for example, not all Liberals support equal marriage, and not all Conservatives are against it. Find out who you will be voting for in YOUR riding, it makes a huge difference on some issues (ie- abortion rights, equal marriage).
What do you think?

Crazy Dream

I usually have really cool dreams. But every once and I while I have one that I just have to share with everyone. This morning I had one of those:
So it starts off with me being at Wasaga beach with a group of people I don’t know. It’s a cloudy day, and the water is very wavy. Looking around, I notice that among the dozen or so people with me is Jack White, from the White Strips. I said to his sister (who was also there), “hey, that’s Jack White!” She said no, that his real name was -----, I don’t remember the name she gave me. So, I was like, okay whatever.
Then, the tide started coming in, and we realised that it was getting dangerous. Some guy came running towards us in a real hurry. He told us that the water had flooded his whole property, and to look and see for ourselves. So I did, and there above the waterline was ground, with water rushing off it (dreams defy the laws of nature). We started running up the hill of the beach, which lead down to lower ground. We kept running and then, we saw the water continuing to rush, and that it was now coming down the hill we had just come from. We went up another small hill, then down a steep hill to a building. We stopped there, and that is where I started getting scared. “where else can we go now?” I thought to myself. I went further into the wooden building, and found a squared staircase that went down a few floors. I went down a floor and heard spooky noises. I went back up and told the people that we could go down there if the water continued to come, but that there were “demons” down there. Someone said “what?” and I repeated that there were monsters down there. Anyways, we all went down a floor, and found that it connected to a big mall. While entering the mall, I noticed a guy about my age with our group. We started walking closely through the mall together. I was happy, because I didn’t feel lonely anymore, since I know had company (we might be stuck in this mall for a while). We then came to a bus stop (ya, I know that we are supposed to be inside a mall, but whatever). I went inside a shop to buy bus tickets. I bought one weeks worth, but discovered something very different about these tickets. They weren’t tickets at all, but instead, they were balloons! Those really long party balloons! And not only that, but you needed five to get on the bus, so I now had 25! They were falling and floating all over the place, as I couldn’t hang on to them all. I was so confused at this point and then I woke up.
I wish you all happy dreaming!

Learn the Parties

Hey guys and gals. So, the election is coming up, and it’s time to start reading up. How should you decide who to vote for? Well, first of all, don't believe the generalizations about them (which are nicely are pointed out in this picture to the left).
Also, you shouldn't choose based on one specific promise that they make, because they don’t have to keep any of them if they are elected.
Oh, and a big thing: Remember that you don’t vote for the party leader, just the candidate in your area. And, that person may have views that stray from the party line. So, learn who is running in your area, and find out if they share your values. It’s tricky, but it’s not that hard to become informed on all this. Keep it simple, and ask questions.

Please, please, please, if you have any questions, ask me them! Post a comment on this message, and I will answer it to the best that I can. I follow politics and have studied them in school. I’m no expert, but I can help out. So ask away, no question is stupid, ask anything.
For example: which party gave us the GST and why? or, what is this whole sponsorship scandal about?

Have fun, and here’s the main parties’ website for you to look through:

http://www.liberal.ca/default_e.aspx

http://conservative.ca/

http://www.ndp.ca/

http://greenparty.ca/