Report # 898

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a wonderful weekend. The weather here has been absolutely fantastic…. very warm and super sunny ! Friday didn’t end up being so bad at work. The fence credit notes that I had to enter were very straight forward and I didn’t have any problems entering them. I just have four more simple ones to do on Monday morning, and that will only take me half an hour.

I will then have some super annoying month end procedures to do with my own stuff, but after tomorrow I will be able to get all of the month end stuff mailed out and things will be back to normal. I will then be able to focus on my final month working here. I think I’ll tell the manager that I am leaving on Wednesday, which will still leave her plenty of time to find a replacement for me and giving that new person time to be trained properly. So basically I have four full work weeks left….. 21 days of work remaining !

After work I went to my Spanish class with Carlos. He showed me many of his photos that he had taken from his trips to countries such as the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Monte Carlo. He’s definitely been to some amazing places in his life. He gave me a cd of a Mexican singer so I’ll definitely have to listen to that. We continued reading my story and seeing as I have four classes left I’ll have to try and get it finished by then. I also told Carlos that I had some reference letters that I would like translated and he said he could do those during class so that will be great practice for me.

I think it will be a great idea to have my reference letters in English and Spanish, though I only have two. I will ask my manager at my company now if she will be able to write up a reference letter sometime in the next month as it would be great to be able to get one more. On Saturday I went downtown to Vancouver with a friend. We walked around Coal Harbour and talked for a while and after we just had some lunch at Red Robin. I didn’t know if I was going to make it back home in time for the work barbeque that my parents were having at our house, but I did.

After eating at Red Robin I took the Skytrain back to Surrey and I picked up a dark chocolate frappuichino at the Blenz coffee place before getting on the bus and going home. I wanted to try some of the food that we had there so I had some chicken, ribs, cornbread, and cookies. Before all that I had my frappuichino, two classes of coke, fries and a chicken burger. The food we had catered came from a restaurant called “Memphis Blues House.” So it’s practically southern barbeque fod.

It was delicious but I can definitely understand why a lot of people have trouble staying thin eating it ! There were over 20 people here, though I think they were expecting close to 40 so there was lots of food leftover. In the evening my dad introduced me to my mom’s hair stylist and her sister. They are both from Mexico so we talked in Spanish for a while and I showed them some pictures. They were very friendly and the hair stylist, Esperanza said I should come to her salon to have my haircut before I go.

I told her that would be a good idea as Dora prefers that I have short hair ! Her salon is not too close to here but if I have time I will definitely go one day. I talked to my mom’s friend as well at the barbeque and I think on Wednesday afternoon I will be going over to talk with her neighbour as she is from Mexico and might be able to help me or at least give me some information about working there. There are still a number of things I’ll have to do in the next few weeks, but I’ll be sure to have everything in order before I go.

I talked to Dora for a couple of hours in the evening and I read her my story, though I think she kind of fell asleep before I finished. It’s completely understandable though as she’s two hours ahead of here and she works incredibly long hours during the week. I was up kind of late but I stayed in bed until 10:00 am this morning. I went for a long run this morning as I wanted to burn off all of that barbeque food from yesterday. I had put on 1.5 pounds so I had to really work myself hard !

This afternoon I’ll just take some pictures around the yard and relax by the pool. I will be careful not to get too much sun as I kind of overdid it yesterday. Recently I read a story in the paper about a high school psychics teacher from Edmonton who could lose his job for giving his student a 0 on his assignment. Apparently the school has a “no 0 policy.” The teacher knew the potential consequences from the start but he did what he had always done in the past and what he thought was the right thing to do.

Now I can understand if a student does all their homework and really has tried hard, seeing a 0 on their paper would be incredibly unfair and harsh. Even in university, for some of my courses, as long as the students at least did all of their homework, they would at least get half marks for the effort they put in. Whoever if a student has purposely not done their homework and has a habit of never even bothering…. they don’t deserve anything better than a 0.

High school is really such a joke. It’s practically possible to get through grade 12 with hardly even trying….. as my brother found out in grade 12. He literally slept in through all of the morning classes almost everyday, and he still managed to get through grade 12. It’s amazing how the school systems have made it so easy for the students to pass even if they hardly try at all.

So instead of making ridiculous rules such a saying teachers can’t use 0′s on marked assignments, the schools should be supporting these students with no desire to even try and at least attempt to encourage them and try and get them to be good students. Obviously this won’t work in some situations, but I think a lot of students would feel really good knowing that the teachers and school staff really care about their success and want to try and help them not only pass, but get good grades as well.

Then again these same students probably have their parents pay money to the universities to allow them to bend some of the admission requirement and attend the school. There is corruption everywhere ! This of course isn’t a case of corruption, but a case of injustice. The teacher who will probably lose his job has taught for many years, is 61 years old and is probably hoping to retire in four years. Just let the man work and do what he loves to do, firing him would be such a bad message to send.

It would show that schools care more about making it seem like all of their students are super smart and committed with a 100 % graduation rate. There are so many things wrong with these, and if school staff and the school board want to continue to run from the facts, sweep the problems under the rug and portray their academic situation as much better than it really is, they are truly failing and entire generation of young people and setting them up for some painful reality checks in the future.

For the next question:

Do you feel high schools prepares student well enough for going to university, working, and facing the challenges of the future, or has it basically been dumbed down to allow almost anyone to get through ?

Today I’ll leave you all with some pictures from April and May… I’m still catching up on my pictures. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.

Sources: www.nationalpost.com ‘Edmonton teacher may lose job for refusing to let kids skip assignments.’ By: Joe O’Connor. June 2, 2012

Report # 897

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having an awesome week. Summer has finally arrived here and from what I’ve seen it’s going to be warm and sunny for the next two weeks….. it’s about time ! It’s basically going to super sunny and in the 20′s for the next few weeks, with a few even warmer days. This will be great swimming and tanning weather so hopefully people will be ready. Monday was not such a nice day as it was rainy and cool, but the rain stopped as I arrived at Surrey Central to meet my friend Danny.

Danny will be returning to Mexico in a couple of weeks so it will be nice that the weather will be perfect the last two weeks she’s here. We took the Skytrain to Commercial Drive, which is a street in Vancouver with restaurants from all over the world….. though I have to say it’s predominantly Italian ! I told Danny there must have been a flood on that street on Saturday as the tears from all of the Italians after watching Spain defeat Italy to win the Euro cup would have created a little river.

There is no question right now, Spain is the king of the soccer world. They won the Euro Cup this year as well as in 2008, and winning the World Cup in 2010….. they have to be considered one of the best soccer teams in world history now. This was actually my first time ever walking down Commercial Drive before… I think Danny knew more about it than I did. I have seen a lot of places around here in my life, but I certainly haven’t seen everything.

We walked around for a while and eventually went to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner. I ordered a chicken dish with spaghetti, but apparently I accidentally ordered it with vegetables so I didn’t get my spaghetti…. that was disappointing. The chicken was delicious though ! And the restaurant we were in was actually very Italian. The owner was actually from Italy and there were people in the restaurant speaking Italian, so we definitely picked an authentic place to eat.

After dinner we walked to a Gelato (Italian ice cream) place and I ordered a cone with two flavours thinking it would be small, but I was wrong. It ended up being way too much ice cream and I didn’t feel too great after that. Danny and I headed back to the skytrain and headed back to Surrey where we each took separate buses. I told her we will definitely have to get together one more time before she goes back to Mexico.

The month end week has gone really well at my work, though tomorrow will not be too much fun. I’ll have to enter in credit notes for a totally different department since they are just swamped. I’ve never done any before and I’m not sure how it will go, but I certainly had hoped to pass my last month here avoiding thee Fence credit notes, but so much for that. I will have a bunch of issues to work out on Monday, but aside from that it’s been a pretty good week, I just hope everything goes ok during the closing days for the month of June work.

A few years ago I became aware of something called “Eurovision.” Basically Eurovision is a song contest that happens every May in a European city with contestants representing almost every European country. I’m not sure how the votes work, but basically the country with the winning song is voted and that determines in which country the next year’s Eurovision song contest will be.

Usually the songs are sung in English as I suppose it’s seen as the universal language and a language that the contestants from all of the countries know…. usually at least some what. Sometimes English is mixed with a contestant’s native language, and there are some times they sing their songs completely in their own languages. This year a girl from Sweden was chosen as the winner, so next year’s competition will be in Sweden. For those interested they can have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVsNxNOUm0

Now I have heard a number of songs from singers from tons of different countries who have performed in the last few Eurovision song contests. A lot of the songs are very well done and usually the people can really sing. (Though of course everyone will have their own opinion) I am definitely amazed at how well almost everyone speaks English, and when they sing people would have no idea they are from a far off country where a language most people in North America would know almost nothing about.

I was thinking it would be great to have a competition like that over here. Now people will say there is always shows like American Idol and the X Factor which is true, but these aren’t shows that bring people from many countries together to share music in a huge way together. And in all honestly I think shows like American Idol and the X Factor have over stayed their usefulness.

I mean when it gets to the point that Britney Spears gets paid more money than the majority of people make in a lifetime to be a judge on a singing competition show…… something is seriously wrong. It’s kind of ironic that they hire someone who can’t even sing themselves to judge others ! Just another example of why the economy in so many countries is messed up though….. just a bad waste of money in the wrong places.

Anyways back to my point, I think it would be awesome to have a Eurovision style contest for this side of the world featuring all of the countries of North and South America. I really think it could have an appeal among people over in this side of the world, and it would be a great way to connect countries and cultures in a much better way like has happened in Europe. While I don’t ever see this happening, I really do think it would be totally awesome. And one can always dreams ! For the next question:

Are you familiar with Eurovision ? Do you think a contest very similar to Eurovision would work on this side of the world…. why or why not ?

That’s all I have for today. I’ll leave you all with some pictures that I took from my trip to the Vancouver Aquarium in April. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

Report # 896

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a wonderful weekend. I have one more day off today as it’s the holiday in place of Canada Day which was on a Sunday. I should have went to the nearby park to watch the fireworks, but it would have been pretty hectic as I’m sure there were thousands of people around. It’s definitely not the same, but I could hear everything from my window !

I had my Spanish class on Friday and after reading more of my story, I talked with Carlos for a while and he asked me if I had any plans of going anywhere. I was going to tell him anyways that day that I would be going to Mexico so it ended up kind of being a coincidence. I told him my last class would be on August 3 so that will give him lots of time to find a new student if he wants. I will definitely add him to Skype so we can stay in touch and talk when I’m in Mexico. He has been tons of help to me and I definitely was lucky to find him last year.

On Saturday I had breakfast at White Spot with my grandmother. After we went to Extra Foods and I helped her with her grocery shopping. We went to her house after and we started looking through an old box of obituaries of her friends and family members as well as tons of wedding invitations…. it was very interesting. I walked home and had a pretty relaxing rest of the day a while later. I ran to Tim Hortons on Sunday morning and I really didn’t do much of anything else the rest of the day.

I talked to Dora for a few hours in the evening and that was great as always. Unfortunately I wasn’t thinking that today is not a holiday in Mexico so she was up talking to me until 4:00 am her time, and she had to get up at 6:00 am to go to work. I can imagine she’ll be absolutely exhausted today. She’ll definitely need a good eight hours of sleep tonight. I was in bed until a little after 10:00 am and once again I ran up to Tim Hortons. I might go out with a friend today so I’ll have to see what happens.

Seeing as it’s been over eight months since the last time, it’s time to update my comment standings. I won’t go through everything in detail this time around, but next year I’ll have even more statistics. This time just the two lists of which people have commented the most, and from which regions I have received the most comments. And I did calculate since I started this site in 2005 I have received 4,391 comments. So getting to 5,000 will be a nice achievement !

Here are the lists:

Top 10 Comments by Username

1. Duckmomo (and other names) = 217

2. Goaliegirl30 = 203

3. Onescrewloose = 160

4. Jennylove = 139

5. Phoenixdown17 (and other names) = 122

6. Thuggurl (and other names) = 105

7. Pepin909 = 104

8. RybabyG (and other names) = 102

9. Jazziegal97 = 102

10. zsa-md = 92

Top 10 Comments by Location

1. California = 464

2. British Columbia = 232

3. Alberta = 220

4. Pennsylvania = 187

5. New York = 185

6. Nebraska = 177

7. Wisconsin = 161

8. Illinois = 155

9. Florida = 149

10. Ontario = 148

There I’m all done until sometime next year ! Thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful comments ! For the next question:

What is something you do to help the environment ?

Even though I only did it because I had plans to leave in the near future, I sold my car last September and I’ve taken the bus ever since. I also always am using tupperware to carry my lunches !

I will leave you all with some pictures I took during the Vancouver Sun Run back in April. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Thursday, bye for now.

Report # 895

I have to quickly type this up as it’s 3:15 pm and I still have a few more things to do at work before I rush out to mail the invoices and head to my Spanish class. The week has gone by really well with some fairly nice weather, though nothing spectactular yet. This will be a long weekend as Sunday is Canada Day, and we will get Monday off in place of that day. And it will be the month end week at work so it will be sure to be hectic.

I basically did the same thing throughout the whole week which was to work, stop at Tim Hortons, come home, eat, have shower, add more to my story, watch an episode of a telenovela and talk to Dora a bit before bed. The routine was almost exactly the same every single day, but that’s ok with me. In just over a month I will be ready to leave my job and visit Calgary and get ready to go to Mexico.

Today I just want to be very brief with what I want to discuss. ABC should be ashamed of themselves for broadcasting the shows “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” for practically 10 years without having any bachelors or bachelorettes who weren’t basic white people. Are the people at ABC just a bunch of racist network hacks or are they total idiots ?

Do they feel not as many people would watch these shows if one of the bachelor’s or bachelorettes was someone other than a caucasian person ? If that is the case, than society in general should be ashamed. Who honestly would stop watching a program they like just because it happens to feature someone who isn’t caucasian as the main catch ? Well obviously stupid racist losers, but this is the 21st century and there should be no problems with mixing in diversity, not only for the lead role of the bachelor or the bachelorette, but some of the participants vying to win their heart as well.

ABC isn’t the only guilty party here. What the hell has the host done ? He has associated himself with such discrimminatory program for so many years and obviously he hasn’t spoke out much else something would have been done. He too should feel very ashamed especially seeing as he is raking in millions a year probably on salary and he can’t stand up and speak out against something that is so evidently wrong.

Sure there are racist people in the world, but if a network is seriously trying to avoid adding diversity on their shows in an effort to not lose appeal, they are clearly not in the right business. And I think it’s safe to say that the people at ABC have failed miserably and they all should be hammered for such a horrible racist injustice. This is just so shameful I’m shocked nothing has changed in 10 years. I honestly believe people at ABC should lose their jobs for this !

I just encourage everyone to speak out to what you believe in and just enjoy the wonderful diversity in this world. Just because the Bachelor and Bachelorette shows can’t appreciate the wonder of diversity doesn’t mean we all have to be as stupid. It’s 2012 and a show without diversity is just not acceptable, and as long as there are shows like those programs on ABC that continue to act like they are trying to appeal to a bunch of white rednecks, there is a long, long, long way to go, and that is incredibly disappointing to know.

For the next question:

Do you feel that the people behind the Bachelor shows or working for ABC are racist or discrimminatory ? How would you explain their horrendous lack of diversity ? What can be done to promote diversity going forward ?

Today I have my final set of pictures from Mexico ! Just some more beach pictures from Los Mochis in Sinaloa. I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Monday, bye for now.

 

Report # 894

Hey everyone, I hope that you are all having a great start to the week. Summer just isn’t coming here this year. There have been some decent sunny days, but nothing warm enough to be swimming in the pool and really enjoying normal summer weather. The never ending spring continues ! I really didn’t do much of anything on the weekend. I just went running and for a few walks and cleaned the house. It had to be the least uneventful weekend in quite a while.

Work has started off well this week and I now have just 28 more days of work remaining before I go to Calgary and then to Mexico. A few weekends ago I read an article in the Vancouver Sun about a man who fell from a balcony very high up and he ended up severely injured and has now spent basically 30 years in a wheelchair. After reading the article I thought back to when I was in grade 10 and someone came to the high school and give a talk.

It was a man in a wheelchair who had told us about how he had fallen off a balcony when he was young and had ended up severely disabled. The article said that this man had given speeches in schools, so I really think it was referring to the same person who visited my school all of those years ago. At the time I was very inspired listening to the personal story of someone who went through such a life changing experience, yet not only didn’t give up, but started to live his life in the best way possible.

And beyond all that, this person not only adapted to the new challenges he faced, he fell in love with someone, they had a family, and he has been a source of inspiration for many others. A story like this shows me the power one person can have as an individual if they really choose to do something good. In some situations it’s really easy just to give up, but that is never the right thing to do. While not all of us will overcome adversity and inspire thousands of other people, as long as we are giving everything we have to the life we are living, while being a good person, that’s really all that matters.

Knowing that there are some people out there who have not only been through life changing experiences, but have overcome any adversity that has been in their way, truly is inspiring to all of us. And this goes to show that despite the disabilities of people, many of those individuals are not only able to do so much more in their lives than many fully-able bodied people…. they are doing it on a day to day basis.

So none of us should feel sorry for anyone who is disabled, we should support them and really respect them, as many of them are doing so much good in this world. So my real message here today is that we all just need to take a page out of the books of people who have been through life changing accidents and who have been able to turn their loss into something special for everyone to cherish.

And with that being said, we should all do what we can to make the lives of people living with additional challenges easier in anyway that is possible. Whether it be lending someone a helping hand, offering your friendship, or the government working to make lives of those disabled people better, we can all do something. By helping one another, we get a better understanding of ourselves as a society, and I can imagine such valuable personal connections and friendships possible between so many different people with many stories to tell.

I can definitely say I’m so inspired by many of these people who have done such amazing things. Whether it’s those who have gone around the world in a wheelchair, spoken to so many young people in schools around the world, or athletes given the chance to compete in the paralympics. There is no shortage of inspiration for any of us to draw from. And it’s just great knowing that the people who have lost part of something that we all take for granted (mobility) are able to compete and inspire the rest of us day after day. Now we must find ways to give back to them.

For the next question:

Is enough being done for people in wheelchairs living with disabilities ? What sort of things inspire you ?

I will leave you all with some more pictures from the beach in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Friday, bye for now.

Report # 893

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a great start to the weekend. Today is looking a lot better than I thought. It’s not really sunny, but it’s definitely not cool and there is no rain so for a day that’s cloudy I really can’t complain. Yesterday I was totally fooled however. I got up to go to work and it was super nice and sunny. By the time I finished working though it had clouded over and it was raining a lot. I got pretty wet leaving work, but it wasn’t that bad so I survived.

I went to my Spanish class and I talked to Carlos lots and read more of my story. It’s now 45 pages ! Next week I will tell Carlos that my final class will be on August 3. This will give him over a month to find a new student if he wants to find someone else. I’m thinking I will tell my work that I’m leaving around July 16… that will give them 3 weeks notice which is more than enough.

After my class I headed home and arrived just before 9:00 pm. I called Dora and we talked for a few hours. It’s always great to talk to her ! I talked with Dora and she has talked with some people she knows in Lázaro and there is a place there that helps people from other countries with work documents, so hopefully I can find something and be able to go there and have everything work out.

Today I got up just before 10:00 am and then I just went for a run to Tim Hortons. Maybe I’ll play tennis with Curtis sometime this weekend or see a movie, but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing yet. Last month the government of Canada allowed Conrad Black to come into the country on a temporary one year visa. Conrad Black was a Canadian citizen, but he gave up his Canadian citizenship a number of years ago so he could become “Lord Conrad Black.” In the British house of Lords… whatever the hell that is !

Conrad Black was also a business man who owned many newspapers among other things, but eventually he was charged with Fraud and some other offences in the United States and he spent 3.5 years in a Florida prison. So just recently he was released for prison, and seeing as he was not a US citizen and was convicted of a crime, he was not able to stay in the United States. And he was a Canadian citizen, but he gave that up, so I don’t think he should be allowed in Canada either.

Personally I think he should just be shipped over to the UK to spend the rest of his life. He had a choice…. he didn’t have to get rid of his Canadian citizenship, but he chose to because he was not permitted by the Canadian government to become Lord Black without giving up his citizenship. I am just disappointed when the Canadian government allows these type of people to come and live in the country despite their sketchy histories.

There are so many super talented people from other countries who would love to come here and would bring so much to this country yet its so hard for them to come. For example, I have a friend from Venezuela, and she came to live in Calgary as a refugee a few years ago. She had done everything legally and had been given the green light to work while her case was being reviewed. Recently she told me that her refugee claim had been denied and that she is supposed to leave Canada in the near future.

She has told me she is very scared and has put two years into her life to try and stay here and she really doesn’t want to go back to Venezuela. Worse yet she told me the people reviewing her file think she is from Colombia. The people reviewing these files are government employees and they are supposed to be super professional and know exactly what they are doing. She has gone through all the correct processes and done interviews, and the immigration people think she’s from Colombia. Are the people running these departments idiots ?

If after all of this they don’t even know correctly where a person is from in a case they should have reviewed, they clearly have no clue what they are doing and are a bunch of incompetent government hacks. And how one earth can the people in these departments be making decisions that truly effect the lives of individuals when they don’t even know what country they are from ? Obviously the immigration system in Canada is a mess (though it’s a mess in most countries) and it needs some thorough cleaning up. 

If my friend has to go back to Venezuela I will be extremely disappointed in the people who are working in the immigration department. She is a great person who has come here with many skills and has worked hard from the start. She was tutoring Spanish in Calgary and she got a job working in a place that has lots of chocolates. She speaks great english and is working hard, while contributing to the economy. If she is forced to leave I will be thoroughly disgusted in the people making the decisions in this country.

She told me her church pastor is going to go with her to some places to try and help her out and she does have a few options. I just wonder how many cases have been similar to hers and how many times the idiots working in these government departments have made such serious decisions such as whether a person can stay in Canada or has to leave, without really understanding the person, their story, or where they are from at all. 

I realize that Canada can’t just allow every single person who wants to live here in, as that will just bring in too many people and there would be labour shortages, but there are so many hard working dedicated people from many different countries around the world who would add so much with their presence here in Canada, and clearly more of them need to be given an opportunity.

As long as the government is denying the requests of so many talented workers to come and live here, while allowing convicted criminals who have renounced their Canadian citizenship to come back into Canada….. there are some serious problems. I seriously hope my Venezuelan friend will be able to stay here because if not I will be filled with shame and disappointment at so many people and more thoughts that there is so much corruption and incompetence in the heads of the people working in the immigration departments.

For the next question:

Are you happy with the immigration system in your place, why or why not ?

I will leave you all with some pictures from the beach at Los Mochis in Sinaloa. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Tuesday, bye for now.

Report # 892

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a wonderful week so far. It’s been a perfect start to summer as today was sunny and around 23 C. (73 F) Tomorrow will be super nice as well, but then the cooler rainy weather will return unfortunately. On Sunday I had lunch at Boston Pizza at Central City Mall and after I walked around for a while and had a frappuichino from Blenz. It was a dark chocolate mocha frappuichino which was very good, but unfortunately seeing as I had it just before 8:00 pm, I didn’t sleep very well that night.

Work has not been too busy this week. There are a few small projects that I can do on the side, but it’s nothing overwhelming. There never seems to be exactly the amount of work I would like to have. Some parts of the year it’s just way too busy, and other parts it’s kind of slow. I guess that’s just how it goes. My allergies have been bothering me so much today so I had to blow my nose tons of times and take an allergy pill as well. Hopefully tomorrow will not be so bad.

I’m feeling really tired today as well so I really need to get myself into bed before 11:00 pm, to ensure that I’ll get a solid eight hours of sleep tonight. As I said the other day, I went to see The Dictator, on Saturday afternoon. I laughed a lot, but some parts were just too gross. Overall though it was an extremely funny movie that I think a lot of people would enjoy. A little over a month ago I saw Bad Boys 2, which was full of non-stop action and had some humorous parts as well.

I’ve seen a number of other movies of different genres that I really enjoyed as well. So to me no matter if it’s a horror movie, a romantic movie, a comedy or whatever, if the movie is entertaining than that’s good enough for me. I don’t think that there needs to be hundreds of people around the world getting paid really good money to watch movies and give their opinions. People should just read what a movie is about, see a preview and decide for themselves what they are interested in seeing.

However most people are too lazy to bother doing that, so just just rely on the reviews of film critics, or their own friends and family members. Really though an opinion is subjective and many people will believe entirely different things. So if people are really interested in seeing a movie they really should go check it out for themselves. Just because their friend, family member, co-worker, or whoever didn’t like it doesn’t they won’t !

And it’s important to note that a movie doesn’t have to be a five star masterpiece to be entertaining. I’ve seen lots of great movies that only received two or three stars. So my point today is just because some extremely out of shape movie critics who make their living eating popcorn and sitting in front of screens day after day and talking about every single aspect of a movie say a movie is no good, doesn’t necessarily mean that a person would not enjoy it as we all think differently.

Of course there are some films out there that almost everyone can agree are complete trash, and those should be avoided, but for the most part people just need to think for themselves. And normally outsourcing jobs is not something that people would support, I have no problem with outsourcing movie critic jobs. The jobs would be taken over by people themselves who watch movies and think for themselves. Of course no one would be getting paid for their opinions, but saving money and allowing people to think for themselves seems like a great idea to me.

For the next question:

Do you pay any attention to the reviews movies are given ? How do you decide which films you want to see ?

I will leave you all with some pictures from Los Mochis in Sinaloa. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Saturday, bye for now.

Report # 891

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a wonderful weekend. I am officially 27 years old now. I was 19 when I started this blog so I officially feel ancient now. To think I’m closer to 34 years old than to 19…. that’s just horrible ! I never should exaggerate but it’s just scary to think about. I guess I have to go back to 2005 and read my old blog entries if I want to see what 19 year old Kyle was doing. Anyways I’m not 34 yet or even 30. I have 3 more years of 20 something so I will have to stop worrying.

On Friday I got a birthday card from the manager as well as a lottery ticket, but I wasn’t able to win anything off of it. It’s very nice of her to get everyone a birthday card all the times….. no other boss in the past has done that before. After work I stopped at Tim Hortons and then went to my Spanish class. My story is now 38 pages written, so I’m sure by now it’s the longest story I’ve ever written in my life. I still have a lot more to add to it as well. Getting it all typed on the computer will be lots of work.

I arrived home just before 9:00 pm and my parents had ordered some chicken souvlaki for my birthday. Afterwards I had a piece of chocolate cake. It was not an ice cream cake this time as I never feel too great after eating them so it was just a regular chocolate cake with lots of icing, but it was very good. We had all this stuff on the 15th, a day before my birthday, because my parents had a dinner to go to on Saturday evening. Unfortunately I ate too much food late in the day so I didn’t feel too great after.

To make up for all of that I went for a great run yesterday morning. Well it was great except for the weather. It was absolutely pouring so I got completely soaked by the time I got home. My grandmother came over in the afternoon and she took me and my brother out to Denny’s for lunch. Afterwards we went to Colossus to see The Dictator. This movie was sooooo funny, but some parts were a little too gross. I had some popcorn after having lunch at Denny’s so I was totally stuffed the rest of the day.

In the evening my parents came home and I got a new shirt and a Tim Hortons gift card and a $ 300 cheque, so it was a great birthday. I even got to talk to Dora to start my birthday on Saturday morning just past midnight, and to close out my birthday so that was really special as well. This morning I went for another run and I bought my dad a book for Father’s Day. Once again it was pouring and I got pretty wet. I never mind though as I have a shower always when I return anyways. It’s been horrible how rainy this month has been.

I will be having another meal today as well, so just a weekend of lots of eating out. It’s been a great birthday weekend, but it will be nice to get back to normal starting tomorrow. In the movie the dictator, the dictator character said something like “America founded by the blacks and owned by the Chinese.” He had lots of funny lines like that, but that made me think about Vancouver. In Metro Vancouver there is a very high population of Chinese people, and even when you are in the Vancouver International Airport, the messages are in English and Chinese.

Some people have blamed the people from China for moving here and paying so much money for houses and making all the housing prices go up. These people are not only being short sighted and discriminatory, they are being so hypocritical. I have met a lot of Chinese people and they are usually very intelligent and hard working people who are super friendly as well. Sure there are many wealthy Chinese people who move here, but in the end that’s a benefit for Vancouver.

They are coming here and starting up businesses and really working hard to contribute to the economy. I’m sure the Canadian government prefers these types of immigrants than the people who come here with little money and not as many skills. Though of course everyone who wants to come and work hard should be welcome. And with regards to the high housing prices in Vancouver, that is certainly not the fault of anyone other than the demand in general.

There are many Canadians who do the same thing in other countries. For example I know there are many Canadians who have taken advantage of the economic struggles in the US and who have bought houses, apartments or vacation homes for dirt cheap in places such as Florida, California, Arizona or Las Vegas. And probably some people in other countries as well. So people can’t be upset that there are people with money from other countries who are coming here and buying houses too.

I do think the issue of housing affordability needs to be addressed in the Metro Vancouver area, and that is something that is important to look in to, but to blame any people from another country coming in and purchasing properties as the reason for the high housing prices is just not right. In the end people just need to think a little harder as to what is causing these problems instead of blaming it on one group of people or another. Problems can be solved a lot better when people of all walks of life work together, not when groups start passing the blame around.

Ultimately I feel that diversity is a wonderful thing. And it’s just awesome that Vancouver has been able to appeal to so many people from many different countries. It would be so boring living in a city full of nothing but white people. So I for one hope the trend of people from other countries moving here continues. And the fact that they have the skills to get good jobs and the ability to move right in and purchase homes is nothing but good news for the economy here.

For the next question:

How is the housing market in your area ? Are there lots of people from other countries living there who have moved there and purchased homes ? Do you feel this is a positive or negative trend ?

Today I will leave you all with pictures that I took while on the train from Creel, Chihuahua to Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.

Report # 890

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a great week. The weather hasn’t been as nice since an incredible Monday, but from what I’ve seen tomorrow will be a great day. It seems that there is one really nice there, then three not so great days and another real nice day and then nothing special….. this June weather has no consistency. On Wednesday morning I got absolutely drenched walking to work. When I left the house a very light misty rain was coming down so I didn’t worry about bringing and umbrella…. that was a bad mistake.

By the time I got off the bus to walk the 10 minute portion to work, the rain had started coming down and I got soaked. Once I was in the office I dried off fairly quickly. There was no rain in the afternoon luckily. In the evening my mom’s friend came over and she talked to me about one of her neighbours so might know some stuff about living and working in Mexico since she is Mexican and her husband is Canadian. My mom’s friend said that she would talk to me if I wanted so I’m going to try and go over there next week.

It will be good to get some more information from someone who knows more than I do, and my mom’s friend said she told her she has some family there who could possibly help with a job, so it is definitely worth going over there and listening. Of course my first goal is to be able to go to Lázaro and be with Dora and find a job there. I will do everything I can to make that work, but it’s always helpful to have a few options available. It will be interesting to talk with this lady and see if I learn anything.

Aside from that I’ve just been working this week and coming home and doing my usual things in the evening which I do. I talked to the lady I work with in my department about when I plan on leaving as she is trying to plan her vacations. I told her that my last day will be August 7 and I will be sure to talk to the manager well in advance, so she has time to hire someone that I can help train before leaving. It’ will be a good time of the year for me to leave this company as well as it is the quiet season in this department so things won’t be too hectic.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the debt crisis in Europe and it’s just very sad to think about. First I had read about all of the economic problems and political instability in Italy and Greece, and now Spain has been having problems with their banks and has no money really. Iceland I think is completely out of money as well, and I know the situation in France has been dire too… and for that reason the French voters sent President Nicolas Sarkozy packing last month and giving the opportunity to socialist Francois Hollande.

Yesterday I read about all the houses in Ireland that have dropped in price, and a few months ago I basically read about how England is a shell of it’s former self and practically was made out to be a fallen empire. I think only Germany is really doing ok, and even they are not immune to the economic crisis in Europe. Now should all this effect us in North America and what we are doing over here ? I would hope not, but the politicians in this side of the world better be paying attention else they’ll find themselves leading countries no better off than all of the struggling nations in Europe.

Now I understand that every country has it’s own economic issues and it’s not like the economy over here is doing wonderfully either. So it’s really not realistic for European countries expecting other nations to come to their aid with financial support. Well China already seems to own half the world so maybe they’ll be willing to lend a few more bucks to help out some struggling European nations…. but the Chinese will want their money back eventually, just ask the United States who also have been plagued with debt struggles.

In Canada the manufacturing industry in Ontario and Quebec are struggling terribly as well, so really no nation is immune to the economic problems in the world. Back to Europe though, I feel most badly for the people. I’ve talked to a number of Europeans before, and they are usually such sophisticated and intelligent people, very capable of having incredible jobs. Unfortunately many of these people probably find themselves un-employed, and thinking about emigrating to another country. And if Europe loses a lot of their star citizens, the continent will suffer even more.

Now ultimately, politicians have to spend their country’s money more wisely. It would help if Europe didn’t give half their money away paying tons of whopping million dollar (well Euro in their case) contracts to soccer players and nascar drivers; though just as many people over here are using their talents to exploit the wealth in industries such as sports and entertainment over on this side of the world as well. I do think these global economics issues are cyclical meanings some years the economy will be doing great in some areas, and not so great in others, while other years it will be great almost everywhere, or horrible almost everywhere.

Still though the leaders of these countries are elected by their citizens to have their best interests in mind. This means doing all that they can to keep the employment rate low, spending responsibly, and not spending money on unnecessary luxuries or wars. The money to help Europe out of the dark cloud of economic horror is there…. it’s just been put into the wrong places. When politicians finally realize how to manage this money properly, there will be a brighter future for not only the citizens of Europe, but for everyone.

So what would I think needs to be done to get Europeans back to work and living in countries filled with economic stability ? Well first off all of the millions of dollars wasted on unnecessary wars, luxuries palaces, and athletes, needs to be pooled together and invested to create more jobs. European countries should also do what they can to make it easy for foreign companies interested in doing business in those countries as that would also bring tons of new jobs to Europeans.

And finally stop having tax payers waste money preserving long past the best before date lifestyles of the royal families. I will always believe this is a colossal waste of money ! The Catholic Church as well should also be paying their own expenses instead of having tax payers pay for the Pope and his extremely luxurious lifestyle. If all of these things are done I definitely see a stronger Europe in the future, and of course people living on this side of the world will feel better knowing their is far less economic uncertainty in the world.

The calls for the destruction of the European Union will almost stop (though there will still be some crazy protestors), and more importantly, the majority of extremely intelligent and hard working Europeans will be back at work contributing to their country’s economy using their skills to do the work they enjoy doing. Overall this would be great for everyone.

There is no over night magic to do all this, but it’s certainly possible, and if politicians can get together and have some serious discussions in their countries with their citizens, I really do believe things will improve. And at the very least that’s a much better outlook than how things are now. For the next question:

Do you care about the economic crisis plaguing a number of countries in Europe, why or why not ? What do you think should be done to get a country full of debt out of an economic recession ?

So there you have it ! Tons of ideas on how to fix Europe from someone who not only doesn’t live there, but someone who has never left North America before…… I’m sure any European reading this will just tell me I have no idea. And maybe they are right, but at least I’m trying to help ! I will leave you all with some pictures from Divisadero and Barrancas Del Cobre in central Chihuahua. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

Report # 889

Finally a super nice day ! Unfortunately it had to fall on a Monday while almost everyone was working or in school, but other than that today was super nice. It was warm and sunny and just a great June day. Sunday wasn’t too bad either, though Saturday really wasn’t that warm. I think it will be rainy again over the next couple of days, so hopefully everyone in here enjoyed this lovely Monday.

On Saturday I talked to my grandmother and got my trip to Calgary booked. I have actually booked all of my flights for August now. My last day at work here will be Tuesday August 7. I was going to leave on the previous Friday, but seeing as Monday is a holiday, by sticking around until the 7th, I’ll only have to work one more day and I’ll be paid for two, so it makes sense. I will fly to Calgary on August 8 and then come back home on the 17th.

I will spend a couple of days at home and then on Monday August 20, I will be flying to Mexico City. On August 21 I will be flying to Hermosillo, Sonora to spend a few days with a friend I met in Vancouver last year. On August 25 I will fly back to Mexico City and spend sometime there with Dora before going to Michoacán. From there on it will all be a mystery to what will happen, but I suppose that is part of the adventure.

On Saturday evening I walked up to Village Sushi and had some Japanese food. I ate way too much as those teriyaki dinner boxes come with a bit of everything. I could have definitely done without eating the deep fried vegetables ! On Sunday I went for a run in the morning and for another walk in the evening. My grandmother came over for dinner and we had some sort of roast with the family.

Work went pretty well today. Tomorrow I have tons of invoices to mail out, but after tomorrow I should be 100 % caught up and everything will be back to normal. Recently I had read a story online about US track and field athlete Lolo Jones and how she is almost 30 years old and still a virgin. Obviously things like this should usually be private issues and not in the news, but the fact that a story has been made about this is very interesting.

I first off have to say that it’s so refreshing to hear about someone who has such convictions and can actually live by them. And of course any person who can’t respect those type of convictions really are not going to be the right person for her, or anyone else who has similar beliefs, to be with. The fact that she has stated there are some guys who didn’t return her calls when they found out just shows what kind of losers a lot of men are.

I am sure she is not alone and there are a number of people around the same age who are also virgins, and not because they can’t get a date and have an opportunity to have sex, but because they choose to wait until after marriage. Now I have faith, but I am not associated with any actual religion, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing if two people who are in love find themselves ready to have sex when they are in a committed relationship, yet not married, however I totally respect the people who want to wait.

If I had been in a situation with anyone who was older and still a virgin because they have decided to wait, it wouldn’t bother me at all. I was a virgin until I was 23, and I still think that’s longer than the majority of the people in the world ! I think Lolo Jones has done a cool thing by talking about this, even though it is entirely a private and personal thing. She will show many other people they are not alone and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a virgin and deciding to wait until marriage.

The only people who would truly ridicule a person for believing in something like that are just a bunch of narrow minded losers who obviously care about one thing way more than the more important things in life. They are one dimensional individuals who clearly are missing the main points of being in a loving relationship and respecting the views of their partner. So in the end those who are waiting until they find their special someone, a special someone who will be supportive of their views, they will be doing themselves a favour by not lowering their standards and ending up with some sex crazed maniac.

In the case of Lolo Jones, I think she should be applauded for talking about this in such a public way…. that’s certainly not something a lot of people would be able to do. At the end of the day, she’s a great athlete with great morals, and like many other people out there in a similar situation, she is waiting to find a special someone who will respect her and her beliefs while being a great partner and not making a deal out of something that shouldn’t be an issue. Unfortunately for too many people in the world, these standards seem too hard to meet.

For the next question:

What are your thoughts on virginity and waiting until marriage to have sex ? Would it bother you to date a virgin at this point in your life ? Do you feel that Lolo Jones has done a good thing with talking about this in the media ?

I’ll leave you all with some more pictures from my trip through Chihuahua. I hope you all are having a great start to the week. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Thursday, bye for now.