That's It For That!

After much consideration I have decided to end this blog.

Never fear however, I will now be chanelling my blogging energy into writing for Reading Toronto as well as updating my Flickr site. Since I recently lost a bunch of photos in a hard drive crash, that should give me some incentive to get out there and get clicking once again.

Its been fun! Cheers!

See Ya in April

I've decided to go on a temporary hiatus. I've just been too busy with school and life in general to keep updating regularly. By the time April rolls around, and I have some more time, I'll be able to decide whether to keep this blog going, or just focus on expanding and updating my Flickr site (which is still pretty basic right now).

Thanks, and check back in April 2007.

Kensington Market Festival of Lights 2006

Homeless Funding Now!

A couple days ago I attended a protest outside of Jim Flaherty's office (federal finance minister) to protest the massive cuts to homeless programs and funding. Although we could not get in to see the minister (there was heavy security both inside and outside the Sunlife building), we did have a good picket outside, and a turkey lunch was served. Here are some pics from the event.

Kramer the Racist

Heard about those comments that Kramer made in a stand up comedy routine? They were so inflammatory, I have to wonder if its no just a publicity stunt.

See the video here.

Kiran Desai Wins Booker Prize

Seems like us brown people are popular these days on the author circuit....the most recent example being Kiran Desai, who has just won the extremely prestigious Man Booker Prize for her novel The Inheritance of Loss. And if you read it for no other reason, the cover is a beautiful blue!

Here is an excerpt from a CBC article:

“In India, the Booker is really followed by the media,” she says. “After I won, the press called my family there for their reaction. All my old aunties ran at high speed to the phone, so happy to say embarrassing things about me, like ‘Kiran was never a bright student, but she once cooked me a very nice meal.’”

See the rest of the CBC article here.

Read the Bold Type interview here.

Read the Refiff interview here.

No Seats? Greyhound Says "Free Ride"!

On the weekend my partner and I went to visit his parents in lovely Fergus Ontario. For our return trip, we boarded a Greyhound bus at the Guelph bus terminal. We were surprised to see how full the bus was for 9:20 on a Sunday night, but we didn't expect it to be totally full, which in fact, it was. We managed to get seats, but when we made the next stop at the University of Guelph, there was only one seat left, and several passengers waiting.

Here's the surprise: the bus driver advised the waiting passengers that they could either wait for the next bus (about an hour later), or ride standing, and the ride would be FREE! I was amazed by this, as I had always understood that in this situation, Greyhound would simply call for more buses to deal with the extra passengers. I'm not sure whether this is Greyhound policy, or if it is up to the discretion of the driver, but I was most pleased. I'm sure that (what I assume were) Guelph students didn't mind standing to save about $15. Somehow, I can't imagine Go Transit doing this.


This reminded me of the victory for the Bus Rider's Union in Los Angeles, which insisted that people were not sardines, and should not be packed into overcrowded buses. They demanded from the Metro Transit Authority that if there were no seats on the bus, they shouldn't have to pay the fare. This was especially salient because the reason buses were so overcrowded was that the MTA was not fully servicing minority and poor areas of L.A.