| Sunday, September 24, 2006 |
| How to perfect a ruin day |
| following day i went in to see john from cingular and he hooked me up with a new (used) phone of my model for free saving me a couple hundred that i would have needed to dish out to get a new one. That John is a nice guy. Almost as nice as the guy at the burger stand at the beach who hooked me up with a free burger for being at the right place at the right time. But to kind of even everything out, waves were choppy and infrequent as opposed to frequent as smooth yesterday. Karma. |
posted by DarrenGene @ 5:44 PM  |
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| Saturday, September 23, 2006 |
| How to ruin a perfect day |
So there I am in the middle of the ocean along with 50 or so others, on a friday afternoon soaking in some cancer on my board watching, listening, waiting for the right opportunity to paddle into the perfect wave and then coming to the slow painful realization that my cellphone, which is tucked securely in my pocket, isn't waterproof. After 10 minutes with a blowdryer back home I can confirm this fact.
Right now I'd like to direct your attention to a comment made by Matt on my sept 17th post:
At 11:57 PM, matt said...
"u say that now...but once winter rolls around and we're knee deep in snow u're gonna be laughing under the sun sippin ur corona extra and throwing cell phones into the water...wait...NO POPEYES!?!?!?!...i'd rather be in TO=)"
Oh the ironing. And I'm pretty sure that's not irony either. |
| posted by DarrenGene @ 3:51 AM |
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| Sunday, September 17, 2006 |
| forget what you heard |
derek on his xanga threw up 13 reasons why Hawaii is better than North America and for the most part his main reasons make sense like hot girls and hot beaches. I suppose I could say the same about Cuba being better than north america too for having been on the beaches and the resorts etc for one week. Having been here for almost 2 months now, let me fill you in on some reasons why home (toronto) is better than Hawaii.
1) change: sure the sun and the rainbows are gorgeous but the little subtle things like leaves changing color will never happen here (and no im not one of "those ppl" and never will be to hop into a car and drive X amount of miles just to see the leaves change)
2) food: what I gain in zippy's (the healthy mcDonalds with real edible local food at McDcs prices) I lose in Popeye's chicken which probably means I gain a couple years but is life without the cajun classic living at all?
3) the decisions made by George Bush and congress have a more direct impact on me here being part of the US than being the "quiet Canadian neighbour". And when Bush puts on a public address on the TV, it's not like i can just skip to global or sportsnet to avoid seeing his face. He's on almost every channel here and i have digital cable.
4) dresscode is more liberal which is good when we talk about all the burnnners up here but then again, not everyone's beautiful... on the outside (good save)
5) the sun sets at 7pm.
6) Our homeless situation is ridigurous not to say that toronto doesn't have a bad homeless problem because it does but here it's exacberated by high housing costs (double that of Toronto) and substandard and prejudiced social services
7) Filmmakers here are a huge distraction: Lost season 3 is filming at the school where I'm working now and it is absolute chaos. I'm not saying I'm not going to watch the show anymore. Maybe i'll just download it and rip to CDs and sell it for profit to steal some of theirs to make up for the hours of inconvenience of having to park at the bottom of the mountain rather than in our designated parking spots that they stole from us. |
| posted by DarrenGene @ 9:00 PM |
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| Friday, September 08, 2006 |
| i heart oppression |
i've been posting enuf crap about beaches and all that when at most that makes up one or two days a week so i figured i'd clue u into the other 5 when i'm on campus. Welll for starters, I'm here for a minimum of 2 years to get my masters in social work currently with a concentration working with children and families. Half of my education is in the classroom (two weeks in) and the other half is out in the field (I start next week). But yeah, of all my classes, one of my favs right now has to be social welfare policy which looks at American social welfare and policy making from a historical and a current perspective. It's my fave right now cause it's picking up where sociology left me: Reinforcing just how our world is so utterly twisted.
When money is diverted from lifesupport programs to keep the poor alive to fund new business ventures that will only benefit the well-to-do whites... When the world once again discovers that (surprise surprise) poverty does exist by watching news reports of Blacks trying to find shelter and food from the devastation that was Hurricane Katrina and having the federal government offer empty promises of aid that have yet come to fruition... when the cash needed to help Katrina victims is given right back to the rich through ridigurous tax deductions... when we look at our welfare system that punishes single moms thru the means of humiliation and degradation yet holds a blind eye to deadbeat dads who don't pay child support... when these and countless other atrocities continue to occur undetected or unpoliced and have been happening since day one... then i realize why I'm in this field. That's because I know about how twisted the world we live in is and I'm blessed (cursed) with the obligation to be an advocate of change (or status quo keeping if i don't check myself). Makes you wanna stand up and club a baby seal or better yet, your congressman.
But at the same time, and here's where I get hypocritical, this system that we live by, based on inequality, is the very system of privilege that i have used and abused to get me here up to my ivory tower where i can now post this rant. It's like I'm trying to bite the hand that's feeding me. My family has benefited from "the system" and I now live on their benefits that they have given to me. I am by no means an innocent bystander. In fact, I reinforce my own "privilege" everytime I open my mouth or type text onto the web (no not everybody has internet or a mouthpiece to speak their mind).
Room is open for comments but keep in mind that this isn't so much a thought out essay as it is me reminiscing about my social deflowering and upchucking these details to you kind folk.
Keep your eyes and ears open to what's going on around you. From Wu Tang tracks to CNN. It's all there laid out in full.
But yeah, sides from that, school is good. Opinions are diverse. People nice. Fitting in ok sides from everybody pointing out that I "talk funny". Learning O Canada in French in an attempt to avoid being assimilated. That and trying to retain my "eh" and for the hell of fulfilling Canadian stereotypes, might as well start saying "oot and aboot" (out and about) |
| posted by DarrenGene @ 6:13 AM |
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| Tuesday, September 05, 2006 |
| at bellows beach (with jordan) |
so i haven't quite mastered the surfing yet coming close to face planting on coral a couple times but just give me and jordan a boogie board on some baby waves. It's just that hard being this good... Yeah we're losers =p
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| posted by DarrenGene @ 4:30 AM |
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