I always win

I'm still obsessed with LOLcats . I fight the urge to use kitty pigdin in every e-mail I send. In conversation, I find myself using "LOL" in situations where I want to convey something funny. It's completely out of hand. My embrace of anarchy is limited to the LOLcat grammatical kind. In most other aspects of life, I am a rule follower -- for instance, postal codes . Most of my American friends had never heard of the + 4 before I came along -- and I'm Canadian. As for my Canadian friends, I drive some of them crazy with my insistence upon the proper usage of the Canadian postal code . Did you know that hyphenating a postal code can interfere with scanning equipment, and possibly delay the delivery of mail? It's true . Punctuation should be avoided. Fixed-width fonts should be used. And never use the # sign. NEVER! This brings me to the FSA (forward sortation area) of the Canadian postal code. I want to live here, because it just might be the ...

This week, I saw the Neville Park "mini-ravine" for the first time. I was driving down Victoria Park Avenue to meet a friend in the Beaches neighbourhood. Vic Park gets very quiet and residential down by the lake. It jogs slightly to the east at Bracken Avenue... and that's where I had to stop and take a look. In front of me was a landscape I had never seen before, yet it was strangely familiar. I've had a recurring dream about an almost exact replica of this beautiful, south-facing, tree-lined ravine. The light was poor, but I took a photo anyway. You can see Lake Ontario in the background. On my way back home, I got this shot of downtown Toronto on Kingston Road, just east of Woodbine. Again... not the best light. I shot several, but my hands were freezing and the best vantage point was in the middle of the road. Once home, I did this: It's basically the same thing I've done with this blog. I haven't quit or bailed on it for...

In the Family Guy episode "Peter's Daughter" (originally aired November 25 2007), Meg is thrilled to receive a Maroon 5 CD from Michael, the med student she's dating. Says Michael: "I remember how you told me you like terrible music, so I thought you might appreciate it." LOVE IT There were many other moments where I howled with laughter... Peter's "Officer Nasty" striptease... the Sanka commercial... ...and this: I LOVE IT SO MUCH! _________________________________________________________ update - November 29 2007, 12:30 a.m. Well, the clip is already yanked from YouTube . Wow, that didn't take Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation long. The clip (all 20 seconds of it) was a spoof of Aliens , with Mike Henry doing his campy best. I understand and respect copyright, and if I headed a major entertainment corporation, I would probably have my staff chase down full-length episodes from sites like YouTube. But a 20-second clip? Th...

I've had it with electroshock weapons . Members of my family have served the public as police officers, and I know that policing is a demanding, difficult, and dangerous job. But let's not kid ourselves: this is not Star Trek technology, and a Taser® is not a phaser set on stun . (And Dr. Crusher isn't beaming distance away, waiting to offer the services of sickbay.) Since October 14 2007, I have been following the story of Robert Dziekanski with great sadness. Dziekanski was killed when RCMP officers shot him with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport. The government of British Columbia has announced a public inquiry into the events. Amnesty International is concerned about these weapons, and would like their use to be suspended while they are studied more closely. Heather Mallick hits it out of the park on cbc.ca today: He was Robert Dziekanski, who had just made the first plane flight of his life. Unable to speak a word of English, sleepless, dehydrate...

No more sugar rationing! The war is over. Breadlines are a thing of the past! Food is plentiful. TTC tokens become available again! Now that the Toronto Transit Commission price increase has taken effect, commuters can actually buy tokens again. The price has increased to $2.25, but this is a bargain compared to the $2.75 cash fare many riders were forced to pay because of the recent token rationing policy . Those fancy tokens must be made of gold and platinum for the TTC to be so anal about them! "Tokens are expensive to produce … we simply don't have enough if everyone stored 100 at home." - TTC chair Adam Giambrone I am sure that some riders stockpile tokens at the old price. But Giambrone is delusional if he thinks that we all have a few hundred extra dollars lying around to invest in subway tokens. People buy tokens for two main reasons: they can save a bit of money compared to regular cash fare, and they can enter a station via turnstile. (That second featu...

born: summer 1990 died: October 24, 2007 August 1990 autumn 1990 Christmas 1991 winter 2003 you showed up not long after we did you made Hallowe'en that much more fun you kicked immeasureable amounts of raccoon butt when I was nauseous from new meds and knocked out from dimenhydrinate, I woke to find you curled up in the nook of my arm when S and I were still together, I would wake up sandwiched between the two of you you threw up the night Stephen Harper was elected mice, birds, rabbits, snakes... you were so generous with your gifts thanks for being a great pet... we love you

I just got back from seeing Tori Amos in concert at The Sony Centre with Thistle . This is the 7th or 8th time I've seen Tori live -- I have to go through some shoeboxes, find the ticket stubs, and get an exact tally. What can I say? I love you, Tori (there! I said it on my blog, instead of yelling it out during the show). "Space Dog" sent chills through my body during both of its bridges. And I loved how Pip gave us all the finger after she finished. I'll close with the refrain from the end of Hey Jupiter - The Dakota Version . These lyrics have always blown me away. Tori played it tonight as her final encore. I go from day to day I know where the cupboards are I know where the car is parked I know he isn't you