| 2005-12-16/ LEMON SLICES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 You can now listen to my Lemon Slices Mix!Can also download it (right click & Download Linked File) to your comp or iTunes playa for repeat listens on the ghettoblaster. Hoping to have part B done in a few weeks...stay tuned! >> say your shit << |
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| 2005-12-13/ HE HO HUM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Shout outs to everyone and especially the girls who skipped out of their responsibilties (naughty naughty girls .. haha...seriously, I was really touched!) and made a could have been drab and restless Sunday afternoon into a memorable - warm, fuzzy-funny tummy filler one ;)13 pics posted 1 video posted (someone had too much vino?) --> remember: the key to drinking pippin' hot tea is not to practice but to practice patience! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANDRIA, whom we all missed on Sunday! Hope you had a great relaxing one! xoxo >> say your shit << |
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| 2005-12-04/ FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-11-30/ LADYTRON @ GYPSY & NOW ON MILK | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Ah man, this totally made my morning and probably the rest of my day. I must post it! You can now listen to Ladytron's DJ set from their party a few weeks back via milkaudioDOTcom. I'm listening to it now and I can hardly contain myself from dancing. Tis was an awesome party, second to MIA/Diplo and set in an intimate venue that is Gypsy Co-op. If you were at the party this mix will definitely bring back good times. If you weren't then too bad, this mix will make you wish you had gone ;) Ear it HERE>> say your shit << |
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| 2005-11-22 / PRINCESS SUPERSTAR...SHE'S UNTOUCHABLE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Posted some of the photos (the others were too graphic for viewing) from last Thursday's misadventure to Club Filth-ee la-la land. This is not a real club, its just a name of the party organizers. The party was held at State Theatre on Bathurst/King where M.I.A.'s after-party featuring Diplo was at a few months ago. Nice venue! I was there to see Princess Superstar and did not expect in any way, the type of show that we got - pole dancers, short muscley dancing dude in see-thru back and frontal mesh underwear, a dancing human sized penis that spued out gunk and crazy gay dudes going at it in front of cameras. I never knew Princess had such a following in the gay community. Then again, I thought I was the only person that had ever heard of her. I've been listening to her since Blue Beretta and Fried Chicken way back in '96, the year of the hazy recollections of frosh semester I & II (another story for another time). I know she has a huge fan base in Europe and was I always bitching to Jon how she hardly plays in North America and never ever in Canada. So I was really excited to see her even though I knew she was only going to be doing her DJsAreNotRockstars set and not actually performing "her" music. I've listened to her DJ sets before on k7! radio and she's equally as good as a DJ as she is a producer. << My apologies to Inga, who is probably forever scarred from that night. Unusual social situation at its finest. Your innocence is lost ;) haha >> You may never come out to another show with us again.Happy Birthday to Stella! Your Princess came from nyc and made u happy on your special day, she scritch-scratched all dem records and made u and lots of other people gay. she even invited her dancing electro wig guy, andre 3000 on acid, pole dancers and more... how old are you turning again?..fourteen? eighteen? or is it up in the range of twentry four? >> say your shit << 9 photos posted |
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| 2005-11-16 / SHOUT IT OUT LOUDS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 After a week long spree of sending harassing emails to Madeline, she finally gave up and sent over the photos from the Shout Out Louds show last Monday night ;) haha I'm kidding. I would never do that to anyone ...well there are 1 or 2 people I can think of that I wouldn't mind harassing! Thanks Madeline for going through all that trouble with the USB cable. Hope it didn't blow your cover at work. ;)The show was great like I knew it would be. You can check them out here if you are curious and your name happens to be George. After the show which ended shortly after midnight, Madeline took off leaving Inga and I wandering Little Italy for something happening. I don't know where I got the energy to stay out but I really felt like dancing and there was no doubt Inga wanted to do the same. We both could shut down any dance floor on any night! There was one interesting place out of the few that we popped into. I wish I had caught the name of the place but it was dark and the bouncers ushered us into the place pretty quick so that we were not to miss the "featured" Emcee who had come up from Philadelphia for this exclusive show. We had no idea who he was and thought what the hell - what better things could be going on in the small big ugly beautiful on a Monday night? The joint turned out to be rammed with people and the Emcee turned out to be pretty good. What shortly followed is what I think reeally attracted most of the people out as I noticed right away the male to female ratio was overly outnumbered by atleast 4:1. Three black girls skimply dressed in only lingerie and sportin' 3 inch stilletoes walked onto the dance floor and started krump'n and gyrating it stripper style like in the documentary RIZE but with less clothes. It was serious. One of them even showed up the other two up by krump'n it upside down in a headstand position. Wow. That put everyone including myself in awe. These girls were definitely pros! We left soon after they came on though. I thought what was the point in staying, we couldn't beat these chicks with the moves they were pulling ;) "East has the least, if you want the best, head west" and that's exactly what we did. We walked west. Three blocks later, we were infront of Revival talking to some British dudes. I didn't mean to judge on appearances but these two guys totally looked like your stereostypical burnt out rockstar. You know with the tight jeans, half mullet hair, the scarf swung so stylishly over the pea coat and cigarette loosely perched on the lip when they talk. And of course, the thick Manchester accent didn't help with the stereotyping either. It just fuelled it. We later learned that our guesses weren't far off at all. We talked to them for a bit and then went inside to check things out. Revival turned out to be lame and then we decided to check out Alto Basso. They had told us it was pretty happening there so we went over to see. Surprisingly, Alto was quite busy for a late Monday night and good music too. W also ran into the British dudes there too. We chatted with them over a drink while trying to get clues on their rockstar persona. We were quite curious to find out if they were really retired rockstars or if they still happened to be in the scene. So I asked the one by the name of Mark Holmes, which he would later introduced himself as but at this point, I had no name and all he told us was that he was a plumber which Inga and I knew was an outright lie. That bugged us (and really annoyed Inga) so I came right out and asked him if he use to play in the band, Platinum Blonde. Ok, I don't know what it was with this band but for the past 3 weeks prior to this particular night, I've had at least 4 or 5 different conversations all with different people about Platinum Blonde. I admit, I used to listen to them when I was younger and I actually owned one of their albums but I was never a crazed fan of their music so it no doubt stuck in my mind why this band that totally went off the radar in the late 80s kept resurfacing in my conversations. Also, a few days prior, Sheila and I were talking and for some odd reason the Mod Club came into the conversation and she told me she had heard or read somwhere that the lead singer of Platinum Blonde owns the club. So this bit of info sparked some suspicion that this could be the guy. He didn't say much after I had asked him if he use to play for them. However, before we left to go downstairs to dance he did admit to owning the Mod Club and after quickly connecting all the dots to the puzzle I knew for sure my suspicion was in the warmish to hot zone. Bizarre and what a friggin coincidence. What was even more bizarre was that we ran into him again an hour after we took off on them to go dance. We went over to the 24hr Dominion after Alto for some fruit drinks before heading back to my place and no later than a minute of stepping out of the store out walked no other than the British is-he-the-platinum-blonde dude? He looked kinda surprised to see us again too. Anyway, he was kind and offered us a ride home. In the car he finally gave us the whole scoop about his days in the band (I knew it aalll along!!! ) and what he was up to now. He seemed like an interesting fellow and quite down-to-earth once the whole plumber facade went out the window of his mini coop. So now he operates the Mod Club and another club in Manchester. As well, he DJs at the Supermarket on Wednesday nights and at the Mod Club on Staurday nights. So hopefully now that I have stood in front of the bull and stared him straight in the eyes he will let me young metador walk away in me clean chaps...dumb metaphor... anyway Maxi, that is all she wrote! We ended the night with some nice, red Thai curry and rice. Le Fin! >> say your shit << 18 photos posted |
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| 2005-11-12 / LEMON RED DOT ORG | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 I waited patiently all week for this month's remix on Lemon-Red and its finally here...schweeeet!! This is one of the things that gets me through the month. Each month they post a 30 minute mix from a DJ of their choice. Usually a DJ sends them a mixtape and if they like it they'll post it as the feature DJ mix of the month. I've noticed most of the DJs are in the same circle of friends or acquaintances of lemon-red so the mixes are kinda similar with a bit of raggae, dub, hip-hop, RnB, pop, rock, you name it. They're not shy to mix in different genres of music and still keep you in the groove. I've listened to all the mixes since June and thus far there as been no disappointments. All mixes are downloadable as a MP3 so you can pop it into your iTunes playlist. The quality is really good, better than a CD even. Check it out for yourself right this way >> DJ Benzi's in da house!!Downside of the site is that lemon-red doesn't keep the 'past mixes' posted. So you have to get fast while its up. Also waiting patiently on Madeline to send over the photos from last Monday's Is The New Friday outing to the MOD Club to see Shout Out Louds. Girl, hurry your ass up!! Tis was a strange and beautiful evening. I'll elaborate when I have the house in order. |
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| 2005-11-06 / RAGING WAVES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Lastnight Maria came over for dinner, and drinks and we ended up watching 6 episodes of the second season of Arrested Development. It was a fun and very chilled night. It felt good to hang out at home and relax for a change, something we haven't done a while. It was a much needed break from going out and staying up very late. I'm pretty sure that I caught up on my sleep, 10 hours friday night and 9 hours lastnight you think that would do the trick. However, today it felt like I haven't slept a wink all weekend. I feel more tired now than I did running on 5 hours of sleep. Maybe its true what the experts say - your body gets use to a certain routine, be it sleeping, eating, exercising or sexing and when you sway off your usual track your body can respond negatively (headache, nausea, loss of appetite etc.) even if you get too much of the good stuff ;) Hmm we'll see if that's true when I get back on my 5-6 hours of sleep per night track this week.So today I had planned to get some work done on a wedding video that I shot two weeks ago. Its now 8:10pm and I haven't even started capturing the video and I'm here writing this blog. Talk about procastination!! I'm usually not this bad. I have to blame it on two supernatural beings - 1, mother nature for making today too damn beautiful out to be sitting inside and 2, the sleep Gods for making me so friggin groggy and tired, I thought a good 3 hour dose of fresh air and sunshine would make me normal again. It did for a while...while I was outside.... Jon and I were down at Sunnyside beach this afternoon taking video footage of the enormous waves caused by the 87km wind gusts. I've never seen such enormous waves on Lake Ontario before. Our love for video has been renewed by the recent purchase of a DOF (depth of field) adapter that would normally cost a gazillion dollars but Jon met this engineer guy who designed a home-made version and manufactures it in his home on his spare time for one thousandth gazillion of the cost. The adapter allows you to create shallower depth of field that normally is not possible to do with digital video cameras because of the size of the CMOS is smaller than on film cameras. It gets pretty technical and boring but ultimately it allows the user to have more creative possibilties and more of the film look. Not much DOF was used in this video clip but do check out this awesome peice of editing by Jon here >> 1 video posted |
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| 2005-11-04 / SUPERSTAR IN YOUR OWN PRIVATE MOVIE... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Here is the video clip of our chillaxing Sunday afternoon in old Polish town and High Park last weekend. Some fresh air, a little bit of sunshine and a long road to strut down makes for a great post-hangover afternoon. Video, for the most part was shot by Jon cuz he's a camera hog ;) and I edited it in FinalCut down in the CF Studio ;). The song I used in it is by Mazzy Star called Blue Flower. Mazzy, where have you gone?You will need QuickTime to watch it and if you don't have it, get it! Please be patient for the movie to stream! 1 video posted |
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| 2005-10-31 / LITTLE BIG UGLY BEAUTIFUL LONG SHORT WEEKEND | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 i'm sooo tired. I'm not use to staying up past midnight let alone having two 5AM evenings twice in one weekend and having an unexpected late Sunday evening (that I won't get into). Friday night was the Halloween party at This Is London. Nice to see so many people in costume dancing it up. Thanks Owen and Maria for being my GoGo dancing sidekick. Good times!! Saturday evening Faith had a Halloween house party. Thanks Faith for breaking out the Polish vodka...boy did it messed up alot of people including yourself...ah my tummy is turning. Clap clap to the 93 Beatrice girls, Faith, Andria and Alana for throwing (UP) an awesome party. Okay I can't keep my eyes open anymore. Just gonna post photos from the weekend and hopefully they will explain the madness.12 photos posted - Halloween #1 Friday evening & Halloween #2 Saturday evening 20 photos posted - Chillaxing the hangover in High Park on Sunday |
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| 2005-10-16 / ITS STARTING TO FEEL MORE LIKE AUTUMN...SNIFFLE, SNEEZE, COUGH :( | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 I finally caught the cold that has been going around for the past month or so. It was inevitable I'd catch it sooner or later, i do get exposed to two mother carriers of germs everyday - kids and the subway. As much as have been diligent with washing my hands, eating healthy and exercising regularly, I am guilty though of neglecting myself the rest I need when I need it most. Take for instance this weekend. Friday I felt like utter crap. Actually the whole week was pretty crappy. Sleep and sun deprived I felt something coming on and I should've trusted the signs and stayed in BUT it was Julian's going-away-for-two-months-let's-get-pissed night and I wasn't going to miss seeing him off. Going out helped rid the rut I was in all week. We met up at C'est What lounge. For some odd coincidence I always seem to go there in the fall. Its a great autumn hangout and I can't really see myself going there in the summer. Exposed brick walls, couches, fireplace, and lamps gives off a definite feeling of warmth and all the cozy comforts of home. The music wasn't deafening either so we could actually converse comfortably without having to shout and spit in each other's faces. It was a good night of conversations and drinks and we left feeling rather drunk. See photo of Maria and I attempting a Baryshnikov. I got in at 2:45 AM. Not too late for a Friday evening if I had slept in til noon or something on Saturday but I was crazy to have pulled myself outta bed at 8 am with a slight hangover, my head pounding, to go running with Sheila. Ironically, to my favour :) the run helped cure my headache and hangover and I felt awesome after for about 2 hours...then the constant sneezing started up, my eyes got itchy and I knew right then I was getting a cold :( Wonder if I had stayed in and caught up on my sleep if I would have gotten sick? Good luck Julian with your adventure in hot climates! We're all soooo jealous! ;) |
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| 2005-10-03 / CAPS & JONES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-09-29 / SEPTEMBER I'LL REMEMBER, A LOVE ONCE OLD HAS NOW GROWN NEW | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Hi
ya folks! Just an update on the going-ons of me. Some new stuff but
mostly everything has been same same in a good sunny funny feeling
kinda way. Jon and I finally bought a couch. We love it! And can't
wait to put lots of bum time on it. We bought it from CASALIFE, great
furniture store tucked away in King West Village right behind the
going-to-be Toy Factory Lofts. Prices are decent and they have good
selection.The new Criticalflicker site is coming slowly but surely. We only have use of one computer...again! Here's the scope: The hard-drive on the laptop starting going last year and finally died in the middle of July (right before I needed to send out a quote for work - Murphy and his law couldn't have timed it more perfect - fucking Murphy!). Anyway, things panned out and we ended up getting the work..thanks to Jon, the PHP guru. So FU Murphy! Anway, Jon and I contemplated over buying a new laptop (mac iBook) verses replacing the hard drive. We decided to pinch the pennies and go with the new hard drive. Basically that's all that was needed to get the lappy back on her heels and running. So we opted to buy online from TigerDirect because we heard good things about them - cheap'n fast, great service blah blah blah. Well, contary to their business mojo, they were cheap (we give them that) but damn they weren't very fast...in fact, they were so fucking slow I could've sent Timmy the Turtle crawling down to Jersey to get it and be back before another customer service rep could say "sorry, check again, its stucked in customs". Customer service, they have no clue. They kept saying it was stucked at customs (ya for 2 weeks? c'mon...just admit you fucked up already). Anyhoo, to make a long story short, they had to reship a new one to us because they lost it and still couldn't admit it. We finally got the laptop working beautifully again by the beginning of September. My love for it was renewed and we were again a happy duo until two weeks ago when tragedy struck. I was having tea by the laptop, working in Photoshop and Jon came over to show me some brush settings and he accidentally knocked over my cup that was filled with hot steeping tea. It spilled all over the keyboard and short wired everything. Algebriac equation for diaster: (Hot tea + sugar + cream) X (1 * laptop) = Fried, Useless piece of machine And so, the lessons I got outta this whole ordeal are: don't drink by your computer, don't mess with Murphy and always go with the most expensive alternative first because you will always reach the same intersection and go a little beyond no matter what road you take; the long and windy or the shortest most direct route. I'll be getting the iBOOK afterall. Music wise: PRINCESS SUPERSTAR has a new album out called MY MACHINE. Heard a few songs from it and of course, it rocked. Finally heard some PEACHES and her stuff is really cool too altho I have to say her shows are quite strange in a raunchy crack whore kinda way. Think I prefer her to be all ears, God no eyes pleasssse! Monday Night (Sept 26) : bunch of us headed down to the Phoenix Concert Hall for the M.I.A. show. It was an awesome, good vibes and lots of energy. Too packed to really dance but afterwards we cruised over to Bathurst/King for their afterparty where DIPLO was spinning. DIPLO was great, he knew all the tunes to move and shake the crowd. Everyone was into it..moving and shaking it. It was a beautiful sight. Best Monday night of this year by far! View photos of M.I.A. show. Photos courtesy of Derek on Julian's site (Derek is a friend of Julian's, who was there but never hooked up with because it was that crowded) Last weekend (Sept 23 - 25) : Went cottaging up at Tiny Beaches road on the east shore of Georgian Bay. Someone Emerson works with kindly lent us his cottage for the weekend. It was lots of fun...over indulged majorly on beers (not drinking beer for awhile) and food. The food was good tho. Played Guesstures and Cranium, not to mention this drinking (captain backslash bank roll J) game we played friday night when we got there. That was fun minus the mixing of rum shots and beer chasers. Will have to get Nick back for the rum shots rule! Great weekend overall! 20 pics posted |
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| 2005-09-09 / RAMBLINGS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-08-29 / HE'S COOL, HE'S HIP, HE'S 3 ! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 This
past weekend was my nephew's 3rd birthday and surprisingly the whole
family managed to coordinate their busy schedules to be there. Its
usually Christmas that brings us all together under one roof not a
birthday. However this was a special birthday for a special little
someone, who in the past few months have gone through some major life
changes especially with the birth of Phillipe, William's new baby
brother. He's had to learn to be a little more independent. He's potty
training and is learning to detach himself from mummy at night to
sleep in his own room, and has recently started going to Montessori
school. I'd say, that's a lot of change for a 3 year old! So this
weekend it was all about WILLIAM! We took out him out for dinner and
surprised him with a birthday song. We got him to stand up on the
table and the whole restaurant sang happy birthday to him. He liked
that alot. And on Sunday we threw him a little patio party with Shrek
ice cream cake and lots of fun presents that'll keep him entertain
for a few months, we hope. Boy! If his 3rd birthday was this action
packed, I wonder what his sixteenth birthday will be like? HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
CUTIE PIE! Love from all of us!28 pics posted |
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| 2005-08-26 / 40 - LOVE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Its
been a tough morning getting anything done. I had it planned out that
when I got in from my run at 9 this morning that I would get my laundry,
have everything pack for the trip to Quebec tonight, tidy up the apartment,
and send off my tax papers to have audited done by noon so that Boutsy
and I could meet up for tennis, have lunch and then go pick up the
car. Its now noon and I've only showered and had my coffee. Atleast
I got laundry started. Somehow between making coffee, showering and
putting a load of laundry in the wash, I got distracted by this damn
computer writing this damn post. I'm not really one to analyse and express my emotions outwardly on others except for during sappy love movies but I can't help not write about this melancholic, sadness thingy feeling I've been having now that its dawning on me that my summer is a week away from ending. Its been a great summer filled with activity every weekend. Lot of adventures and good memories I wish I could have shared with more friends but the ones I shared it with I'll treasure with me forever. And the wonderful new people I met this summer, its amazing how perpendicular our lives are and its only now that we've intersected paths. I'm gonna miss you summer :( I remember going through similar emotions when I was younger back in my elementary school days. Weeks before the school year ended I would get all sad, emotional and cranky because I thought I wouldn't be able to see my friends for the whole summer (2 months felt like eternity when you're a kid!) and I was really going to miss them. Then in the final weeks of summer before a new school year I would get sad all over again because I was having so much fun with new friends, sleeping in, and going to bed late. Summer was so fun and carefree...everyday was an adventure and school friends, who were they again? Obviously, life cannot be like that and so I've growned up a little since then. Now I only feel sad when summer is over but the same fleeting moments of sadness and reflection have not changed from when I was kid. I wish we could control time like a DVD; pause it on the fun and happy times, skip over the sad and emotional periods, fast forward over the embarassing ones or to just be able to go back to certain conversations you've had with your significant other to get the evidence to prove your point. If only Carl Jung and Einstein were alive today they could make it possible. I would start this summer all over again. The more I think and reminiscence the more powerful this feeling gets so I have to stop and get my ass in gear and go out and enjoy my last remaining week of freedom! I think I'll cruise on down to Trinity Bellwoods now and smash some balls at Boutsy. 40 - love and I'll feel alot better. |
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| 2005-08-08 / SUPERIOR, IT IS SAID, NEVER GIVES UP HER DEAD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Summer
never feels complete without a road trip. This summer we decided it
was time to venture north into the Canadian Shield to see the greatest
of the great lakes - Lake Superior! We've heard alot about it from
ordinary people and friends to avid campers but it wasn't til we got
there and saw it for ourselves that we knew what all the talk was
about. The place was truly majestic!Here are some tidbit facts that shows how great Lake Superior really is. It is the largest of the Great Lakes in surface area and volume. It is the second largest lake in the world by volume. First is Lake Baikal in Russia. Superior could contain all the other Great Lakes plus three more lakes the size of Lake Erie. The shoreline length is 2,938 kms. This is comparable to drivng from Thunder Bay to Orlando, Florida. Crazy! The deepest spot is 406 metres or 1,332 ft. Average depth is 147 metres or 483 ft. Average water temperature is 4 degrees celsius. Brrrr! Not only is the geography magnificent but the amount of fish species and wildlife are as equally impressive. And it is by far the cleanest of the Great Lakes! We left Toronto early Thursday morning on July 28th. Hwy 69 took us along the eastern shores of Georgian Bay to Sudbury then from Sudbury Hwy 17 guided us the rest of the way. We were expecting a drastic change in landscape after Sudbury but that didn't come for atleast another 5 hours when we were North of Sault Ste. Marie. The 285 kilometres of hiway between the Sue (what the locals call Sault Ste. Marie) to our camp at Rabbit Blanket Lake was breathtaking! The hiway ran parallel along huge cliff faces and up steep inclines and down deep valleys. Memories of Big Sur, California came flooding back. We got to our camp passed nightfall and found out there was a fire ban. We were a little disappointed because it meant no hang outs by the fire roasting marshmellows and smoking out the skeeters. Lucky for us the misquitos weren't as bad as they were in July but there were enough of them still hanging about to be annoying. Our disappointment over the fire ban quickly dissipated over a few cold beers and we retired happily for the night full of anticipation for next day's adventure. However, only two hours into my sleep my pesty bladder acted up. I knew I shouldn't have drank anything before bed, especially alcohol. My bladder is very sensitive. One drop of alcohol and I have a bladder condition I call pee-initus which over activates my bladder and causes me to go very 10 minutes. Fortunately, the pee Gods were on my side and spared me from having to go so often. Thank God, I only had to go once during the night. After trying to convince Jon to come with me had failed and holding it just made it worse; it took me about half an hour to work up the courage to go out by myself into the dark, animal infested wilderness where monsters from my childhood past lurk in every shadow. I generally try to focus on happy things like the sun, good food, love etc but most often those thoughts turn horroric by the slightest sound or shadow. Its amazing the power of your imagination. It can be your worse enemy at times, especially if you are in the dark by yourself. I was quite surprised how fast and efficient I managed to do everything once I worked up the balls to go. Crawled out of the tent, ran for a clearing, squatted, peed, slayed a few demons here and there with my flashlight sabre and then kicked ass back inside the tent. In the end, I think the toughest part is getting yourself pysched up to go.  Morning
came with a picturesque view of the mist hovering over our lake. The
sun slowly rising over the tree tops. We knew it was going to be a
gorgeous day. After a classic Canadian breakfast of eggs, beacon and
sausages we headed out for our first hike. We decided to do the Orphan
Lake Trail, an 8 km loop that traversed through forest, lakes, swamps,
vistas, pebble beaches and finally out to Lake Superior. The terrain
was fairly easy but there were some big climbs. We got hot and sweaty
pretty fast. 3km into the hike, passed Orphan Lake, we came out to
Baldhead River and followed it along to a waterfall and little grotto
with huge slabs of rock all around it. The water was crystal clear
and frigid but we couldn't resist jumping in. It was beautiful. We
hung out for a few hours before returning on our trek out to Superior.
We were actually pretty close already so it didn't take us long to
get there. The shoreline of Superior where we came out to was a 1km
wide stretch of pebble beach. Closer to the water the rocks turned
into smaller pebbles just small enough for you to safely walk in and
be able to swim. Where we were beached we were nestled in an inlet
sheltered from the wind but even so the water was still f'n cold.
Our swim was more like a quick dip in and out. On the way back we
had missed the sign for the trail that looped back to the parking
lot and so we ended up hiking an extra 4km along the coastal trail.
We saw a bald eagle on top of a 300m vista. That was cool. And on
the way back to camp we saw a moose cross the road. It was a great
day out and I was well dehydrated so no bladder interruptions for
me that night.Okay, I need to sum up this entry. Its getting quite long and there are still 3 more days left of the trip I could write about. Alright, here it is: Third day - hiked Sand River trail, swam at Catherine's Cove, went into Wawa for hibachi supplies, went out to Old Woman Bay and watched an incredible lightning storm til 2am. Never got rained on once. Fourth day - packed up, drove 8 hours to Manitoulin Island, ate some good fish'n chips, took a choppy 2 hour ferry ride across to Tobermory in a lightning storm, boat was really rocky, thought I was going to puke, got to Tobermory at 1am, drove to Singing Sand and stealth camped on the beach. Fifth day - everyone woke up cranky (we managed to only get about 6 hours of sleep in 2 days), went to Sauble for about 2 hours, got some swimming in then heavy rains drove us back home and we lived happily ever after. It was a fun trip! Next time we'd like to spend a solid week at Superior and actually do some interior camping along the coastal trail. Thanks for reading! Hope I didn't bore you too much. 36 pics posted |
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| 2005-07-19 / LAZY DAZE OF SUMMER | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-07-13 / BEATS, BREAKS & THE BEACH | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-07-08 / GMAP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-07-04 / THE LONG WEEKEND | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-06-28 / BIRTHDAY CHEERS! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-06-27 / BABY GOT BACK | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-06-19 / SWINGIN' BIRTHDAY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-06-15 / BON VOYAGE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-06-13 / CARIBOU & FOURTET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-06-06 / WALLACEBURG | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-05-31 / 10K WEDDING | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-05-17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2005-05-10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Man, I'm terrible at keeping this blog up-to-date.
I promise to post my past month's going-ons very soon. Jon and I have
been working on a tight deadline for the past 3 weeks to get a fashion
site up for DIZMA Designs. She'll be showcasing her summer 2005 collection
at the Toronto ClothingShow this weekend. The site will be posted
on her server soon. Watch for it soon...its HOT and its gonna make
you sizzle! Happy Birthday to my big bro Rajmy! And congratulations to my bigger bro, Boumy, and his wife, Marie-France, on their second baby boy. Phillipe was born May 7 at approx. 6:30am, coming in at 9lbs. Big Boy! |
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| 2005-04-13 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I officially registered myself up for the 10K Toronto
run (www.runto.ca)
that will take place on May 28th out on Toronto Island. It will be
my first organized running event so I am pretty excited. I encourage
anyone with two legs and a good set of knees to face up to this 10K
challenge. It'll be one you won't regret after you get over the 3
days in bed recovering from exhaustion, dehydration and shin splints. I'm putting together a trail map of the routes that I normally run for anyone interested in training for 10K or more. The trails are composed of short and long runs, anywhere between 5K to 15K. View it here. |
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| 2005-04-09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Not everyone is aware how much I love the dance
of break. Its known mostly as breakdance, B-Boying, B-Girling etc.
Whatever name you know it as, its an amazing style of dance that entails
both finese and athleticsm. My first memory of break was sitting alongside
the street curb outside my parents place in Sarnia when I was 6 or
7 years old and a bunch of neighbourhood teenagers were out there
with their cardboard and ghettoblaster bustin the moves. I was totally
fascasinated!! After they were done, I ran inside the house and tried
to copy what I just saw. Let me just say the only moves I mastered
that day was the moon walk, the front rock and the back-spin. Break
was really big in the late 70s and mid 80s and then it died down a
bit in the 90s. Even though its popularity faded down a bit there
are still many, many people out there who are still hard at play and
many competitions still busting about around the globe. Here is an
awesome video
clip Jon found at eBaums world. Its awesome! |
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| 2005-03-28 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The pictures from Quebec are posted. Click here
to view them. |
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| 2005-03-27 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Well, we are back. We actually got back a few days
ago, on Friday. So sad its over :( We had a really great week. Got
out 4 times to snow board - one day at Mont Tremblant and the rest
of the time at some local ski hills (really nice ones) just minutes
from my brother's place in Cantley, Quebec. We would have liked there
to be more snow but couldn't complain too much about the amazing weather
we had all week! Can't complain bout the nice tan we got out of it
too! Our boarding definitely improved by week end. We were falling
less and less everyday we went and gained more confident with our
turns. Next season, we'll just have to pick up the speed! Jon was
able to record me coming down cautiously on my board. I hope someday
to look back and laugh (and remember the pains and soreness you go
thru to learn it). Click here
to watch it. Another great thing about our week was that I was able to spend some time with my 2.5 year old nephew. Last time we saw him was at Christmas. Boy, has he ever changed! He's got quite the personality. Very talkative although 50% of the time I don't understand what he's saying cause he talks in french. He understands what we say to him in english so atleast he was able to respond to our questions with a non or a oui. Probably next time I see him he will have changed even more with a new little brother in the house. Wonder how he'll take to being the big bro? Days that we weren't boarding or hanging out with William we went hiking in Gatineau Park or hung out downtown at the market. We especially enjoyed the active hikes in Gatineau Park. Huge park! Lots of trails! If you are an avid x-country skier this park is for you. They have over 100 kms of groomed trails and its free! So our break was relaxing but not tooo relaxing. We did something active everyday all day and ended every evening with a nice cold beer or two. |
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| 2005-03-18 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| See ya'll in a week and a bit. We are off to Quebec
for some fun-in-the-snow boarding extravaganza. We're keeping our
fingers crossed for cold and snowy conditions (atleast until we get
back). If we don't get it at Mont Tremblant, we've kept our plans
open to head further north to Mont Sainte-Anne which is about an hour
north of Quebec City. Keep your eyes glued to the web cams at Mont
Tremblant or Mont
Sainte-Anne and you might see us zipping by. BTW - Happy
St. Paddy's Day to all you Irish folks out there! Keep the green in! |
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| 2005-03-13 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weekend was pretty mellow. We had the itch to go
boarding but the right-side of my butt is still sore from last Sunday.
I'm afraid if I fall on it again I won't make it to our Quebec trip
next week. I was really looking forward to doing nothing this weekend
and that I did. I slept in both mornings and finally had time to catch
up on some chores. Now that everything is cleaned and put back in
its place I feel less agitated and more at home. I really hate clutter.
I don't know why but It makes me really clastrophobic. It might be
because I grew up in a cluttered house with 4 siblings. My parents
are pack rats. They never throw anything out and they're constantly
buying new things! I swear they have 3 of everything. I'm always telling
them that they don't need this and that. Sometimes I feel like the
parent. I love'em but I'm can't live with'em. Anyway, my place is
in order now so I can finally relax and shutup about it. This morning I managed to crawl out of my hole at a half descent time to go for my usual 10K run. It was perfect out, not too cold. The sun felt great. It took me a while to wake up but after the first 3kms (which always feel like eternity) I found my rythmn and pace and was pumping right along with my tunes. I've been running for the past 4 years and I don't think I could've kept up with it as long as I have if it wasn't for the music and the geniuses behind media storage technology for making it so portable and light! Here's my playlist. Its a mixbag of upbeat tempos for running and downbeats for those sweaty cool-down sessions. Happy trails!
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| 2005-03-11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Counting the days to March Break. I have March
18 to the 28th off and Jon and I have made plans to go snowboarding
up in Cantley, Quebec and Mont Tremblant for that week. Hope the weather
holds up! So let it snow, let it snow!! |
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| 2005.03.10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WELCOME to my blog! I finally have enough content
to post this site. This past month I've been reworking the functionality
of the site and resizing tons of photos dating back to 96' and there
are still more to come! I hope to get a video archive going as well
but for now, enjoy browsing the photo archive. I'll get the Laos
& Thailand pictures up soon for those of you who haven't seen
it before. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would love
to hear from you. You can blog me here. |
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2005-03-06 |
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Jon and I took a spontaneous
road trip up to Blue Mountain this evening to go snowboarding for
only 2 hours. We got Boutsy's and Aven's night pass and thought
we had nothing to loose by going up. Little did we know the warm
temperature we had all weekend here in Toronto was also like that
up in Collingwood and thus made conditions horrible for anything
downhill. There were ice patches every where and the snow was really
packed down and hard. So if you fell there's nothing there to soften
the blow. Needless to say, we did terrible. I think I pulled my
right tricep muscle from trying to catch myself from sliding face
first into the snow. And my right butt cheek is still sore from
a fall that I took when I caught my heel edge on a toe turn. After
about 7 runs and a lot more bumps 'n bruises later, we decided not
to risk injury riding in those conditions. We rather save it for
the nice powdered snow in Quebec (keeping my fingers crossed). Tonight
was a good experience. It was kinda like a reality check that we
won't always have perfect conditions like that of Devil's Glen last
weekend. So I guess we will have to tough it up and learn to ride
in crappy conditions. I'm glad however we didn't pay full price
to go all that way and get our butts kicked. Thanks guys :) |
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2005-03-05 |
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| 2005-02-28 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For those who followed the Bachelorette...wasn't
tonight the worse ending in bachelorette history? I can't believe
I got sucked into watching the full 3 hours to see two gorgeous men
get rejected by one confused mediocre gal. I was happy to see that
Jenn choose Jerry over John Paul at the final rose ceremony though.
My $$ was on Jerry right from the beginning when he walked up the
stairs to meet her. You could tell something sparked between them.
Poor Jerry. You are brave to go on knowing Jenn was going to say no
to your final proposal. For that, you are a true gentleman. |
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| 2005-02-26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I fought hard against hitting snooze this morning but somehow my body willingly crawled outta bed at 6am to go snowboarding. Jon had gone just last monday with work and was so hyped about it all week. He really wanted me to try it. It was the most perfect day to go - it was sunny and snow conditions were beautiful. Lots of fresh white powder. We ended up going to Devil's Glen Private Ski Club up near Collingwood instead of the more busier hills near Blue Mountain. I'm glad we did because there was no lineups for the lifts and having more room on the hills made it so much more relaxing to learn and practice my turns. Jon's friend, Brad, met up with us later in the morning. He works at the Club on the weekends as an instructor and lucky for me, he was off today and was able to give me some one-on-one lessons. Thank you Brad! I was pretty amazed at how fast I learned as I had envisioned horrible accidents for myself prior to going. By early afternoon I was able to do both heel and toe turns. Brad said in his 2 years of teaching he has never seen a girl get the toe turn on their first day. YAY! I guess that is a plus for me. On the drive home I could not stop thinking about how awesome the day was. Now I understand why Jon was so hyped about it all week. Can't wait to go again! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Perhaps one of the most interesting and colourful words in the English language today is the word "fuck". It is the magical word which, just by its sound can describe pain, pleasure, love, and hate. In language, "fuck" falls into many Grammatical categories. It can be used as a verb both transitive (Jon fucked Jane) and intransitive (Jane was fucked by Jon). It can be an action verb (Jon really gives a fuck), a passive verb (Jane really doesn't give a fuck), and adverb (Jane is fucking interested in Jon), or as a noun (Jon is a terrific fuck). It can also be used as an interjection (Fuck! I'm late for my date with Jon). It can even be used as a conjunction (Jane is easy, fuck she's also stupid). As you can see there aren't many words with the overall versitility of the word fuck. Aside from its sexual connotations, this word can be used to describe many situations:
Three
great parties in one week is a great way to end September...or any
month for that matter. First, M.I.A. and DIPLO two Monday nights
ago ...yeah, yeah, I know I mentioned it already in the previous
post but so what, I don't mind saying again...and plus, I like to
rub it in your faces because you missed an awesome show and a wicked
party. A night like that doesn't come around often so we definitely
made the best of it. It was sooo much fun...I'd redo that night
all over again and again...and a again. Shit...you get my spliff...
This
was my first week back to work (school). It wasn't as bad as I had
anticipated. First day was crazy as usual. That was no surprise.
Nearing the end of the first week, I'm sensing the kids are starting
to calm down from both the "new school year" anxiety and
the excitement of seeing their friends again. So far I'm happy with
my grade 6's and 7's. They seem like a good bunch. And the grade
8's for whatever reason be it puberty (most likely cause), family
or just the passage of yet another summer they all seemed to have
matured into young, responsible teens. Looking forward to a new
school year.
Jon and I headed north
to Mississagagon Lake (near Bon Echo) with Rajmy and Karen this
past weekend for yet another relaxin' in the sun - swim all
day - feasty BBQ affair. With temperatures soaring above the
40 mark and no relief from the heat in sight I think I can get
use to getting out of the smog domed city every weekend. Already
this year we've had 37 serious smog days the first of them occuring
in February. February of all months! What is usually the coldest
month of the year and we had a series of smog alert days. That
kind of phenomenom normally does not occur in the winter! Definitely
a sure tale sign industries and consumers are still using and
polluting.
The
Beats, Breaks & Culture festival that went down at the Harbourfront
Centre last weekend was smashing once again. This is my favourite
festival in Toronto by far for 3 reasons: 1. They always have
a crown line-up of musicians and DJs from house to hip-hop and
tecno to funk-punk 2. There are tons of activities besides the
music from video projections, graffiti, breakdance competition
and visual arts to films. AND 3. Its all free!
Julian
sent Jon who then sent me the web link to this wicked internet
program called GMAP Pedometer that uses googles' mapping system
with longitude and latitude coordinates to record and tally
up the distance of your run, cycling or walking routes without
having to wear a GPS on you. I was considering buying a GPS
but held off on the purchase because I wasn't too fond of the
idea of wrapping another thing to my body while I was running.
Its hard enough for me to keep my mind off how hot and sweaty
I feel in my clothes! Definitely for me, less on is best! So
that is why I am pretty excited over this new technology and
also, because I like looking at maps.yea I'm a geek. I've recorded
some of my routes already (see links below) and it seems to
be pretty accurate. Minor problem that I've noticed - the permalink
sometimes breaks up your route when you copy and paste the url
into another browser. Its still in the debugging phase so errors
like that are expected but it is still fun to map it out.
This
photo is not to commemorate the fourth of July (America's Day)
celebrations. Its there to solemnize the Canada's Day festivities
three days of late. Cheers to this big and beautiful and culturally
diverse country of ours!! I'm proud to be a Canadian ;) Instead
of going up to Ottawa this year to catch the Canada Day fireworks
and all the hoopla that follows I opted to stay home and relax.
The weekend turned out to be quite eventful. 
Hip
hip, hip hip Hooray!!! Big cups go out to Boutsy. Happy 27th
birthday!! Have a safe and fun trip in London. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed for you and Aven getting tickets to Wimbledon's
final showdown on centre court. That would be so wicked! I'll
look out for you guys on TV. Take lots of photos, especially
of Federer and Safin if you happen to see them. Enjoy the cheap
beers (apparently beer is cheaper than pop drinks over there
- crazy - people must get drunk all the time). Have fun figuring
out the Britiish tube. Its looks crazy confusing!! We'll celebrate
when you get back. Faith should by back from Europe by then
too. Have a great time!!
Last
weekend I went up to Cantley, QC with Rajmy, Karen and Boutsy
to visit my nephews, William and Phillipe. Cantley is about
a 4.5 to 5.5 hour drive so its not often that we get a chance
to see them. I was pretty excited especially to see Phillipe,
who is the new edition to the family as of last month. He's
really cute and chubby and round like a little butterball
which makes him so nice to hold. He's a good baby so far -
sleeps alot and doesn't cry much. As Phillipe slept most of
the weekend, William was bouncing and running around like
a jack rabbit. He's alot of fun but has tonnes of energy and
can play all day long if it was his choice. I'm glad Boutsy,
Rajmy and Karen were there too so we
Big whoop whoops go out
to Michelle! Happy birthday girl!!! Lastnight we celebrated
her 29th at the 
Safe
and happy travelling go out to Faith, who is gallivanting Europe
for the next 4 weeks and 
Last
Saturday, Jon, myself and Julian went to see 
...Next
in the line was Fourtet. I was positive
he was gonna be awesome after hearing the Russian circus...he
came out by himself along with his computer and mixer boards.
Usually his shows are with live instruments but I was still
expecting a good performance. The first few songs had really
good beats, a bit dark but it was good. After that though, he
started going off on tangents too yet his tangents consisted
of high pitched glitchy electronic sounds which were as equally
annoying as the squealing guitars. I was very disappointed!!
He played one song that I knew. The rest I'm presuming is from
his new album with added effects done on the fly.
This
past weekend was my semi-annual migration down to see my parents
in Wallaceburg. Jon and I, along with Faith and Tom ventured
down Friday night so that we could have enough time on Saturday
to relax, spend time with the folks, and play a bit of tennis
on decent courts with real nets! Playing on good courts in Toronto
means having a membership to an all inclusive club. Public courts
have been reduced to nothing more than gravel courts with fence-chained
nets, some of which are barely standing. David Miller's campaign
to "clean up the city" means less tax dollars toward
maintenance of these public facilities that promote health and
active lifestyle for all. Its nice to want a clean city but
I think it happens by educating people to be responsible and
not by hiring a few dozen city cleaners to pick up someone else's
garbage or by putting more of those road sweepers on the street.
They are loud and smelly, cause dirt and debris to fly around
even more and they don't really pick up anything anyway. What
a waste! 
Big
hugs to everyone who made my 29th birthday weekend a fun one
in Niagara Falls! For those of you who missed it, you can read
all about it at 
