Report # 1018
I have one hour before my grandmother comes to pick me up, and I still have to get this typed up and pack my suitcase, so I’m in a hurry. I’ve got my plane ticket to Mexico booked so I’ll be flying to Mexico City on July 13, and I should arrive in Monterrey a few days later. I tried to get a trip booked to Monterrey with a Mexican airline, but for some reason they aren’t accepting my credit card online this time, so I’m kind of sick of trying to book on there so I’ll probably just take a bus ! It would be a lot longer than the plane obviously, but that’s ok, I’ve been on long bus rides before.
Sunday was the hottest day here, as the temperature here got up to over 32 C (90 F). When it gets that hot the rooms upstairs get very hot, but it wasn’t anything unbearable. I went for a nice run during the day before jumping in the pool and cooling off. My grandmother and her friend were over for dinner and we had hamburgers and fries with cheesecake for desert, so it was a great meal. On Monday morning I took the bus and the skytrain downtown to see the Canada Day events. Monday was probably about as hot as Sunday, but being by the water with a nice breeze, it definitely felt cooler.
There were sooooo many people sun tanning on the beaches and swimming in the ocean, and I can’t blame them as it was the perfect day. There were some concerts and shows going on, and lots of people with Canada shirts, hats and flags; everyone was definitely having an amazing time. I did my part for Canada Day as I went to Tim Hortons twice in one day…. there can’t be a much more Canadian thing to do than that ! I had my normal meal at the Tim Hortons close to home before heading downtown, and in the evening after walking so much I stopped at a Tim Hortons downtown to have a sandwich and a iced raspberry lemonade. I must have walked close to 20 km that day because I did the whole Stanley Park Seawall, through Cole Harbour, some downtown streets, to Gas Town and back to the city center to watch the Canada Day Parade.
Luckily I got there pretty early so I was able to get right by the curb, with a good view of everything that would pass. Some other people basically came and squeezed in front of me which I didn’t like so much, but luckily I was taller than they were so it didn’t ruin my view really. The parade was about an hour and a half long, and it started with the Vancouver police doing some stunts with their motorcycles which was pretty cool. Afterwards there were marching bands and a group walking through holding all of the provincial flags. What followed though was what impressed me the most…. there were parts of the parade for so many different countries.
I saw China, South Korea, Japan, India, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Azerbaijan, Thailand, and a number of other countries. I was just so impressed that the Canada Day parade was able to showcase countries from around the world. I don’t think there is another country in this world that celebrates, embraces, and shares diversity and showcases a multicultural society better than Canada. Not only are people here able to be Canadians, but they can be proud of the countries they come from and share the culture and customs from those places with the rest of us, and I’ve always thought that is an incredible thing.
After the parade I took a few more pictures of the crowds and I made my way to Waterfront station and took the skytrain back home. It was a super long day and I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got home at around 10:00 pm. I didn’t even stick around for the fireworks which I’m sure would have been super awesome, but I just didn’t want to stay around downtown a couple of more hours. I did manage to make it to a gift store and buy a friend some shirts so I’m glad I got that done. Crazily enough one of the shirts that says Canada was made in Mexico. Those shirts are never actually made here, but usually in China, so I was a little surprised by that ! At the end of the day most people aren’t really looking where their clothes are made though.
Yesterday I finished uploading all of my photos to Facebook. It was a lot of work as I had taken over 600 of them ! I will post some here probably the next entry, but I just have no time today. I ran to Tim Hortons yesterday morning and I did some lawn mowing before relaxing in the pool, sun tanning and swimming. So I’ll try and quickly finish this up, comment everyone, pack my suitcase, and get out of here. Today I just wanted to mention something about comments. Comments are obviously an integral part of Xanga, and if there were no comments, the site would be rather boring. If no one actually took any time to comment, we’d all just feel as if we are writing to ourselves, and that is just plain boring.
Obviously it’s interesting to type up something and see what was typed up on a certain day years in the future, but hearing the thoughts of others, their opinions, their advice, and whatever they have to say is such a cool thing. I can imagine I’ve left thousands of comments over the years. If I was to estimate I’d say I probably leave just over 500 comments a year which throughout a year doesn’t sound like too many, but it kind of is ! When I read someone’s entry I try to comment on what they’ve wrote, instead of just typing up something useless like “I Hope you are well, have a great weekend !” Oh course I say that within the much larger comment, but my point is I really do think about what I say and put effort in my comment.
That being said, over the thousands of comments I’ve left over the years on other peoples’ pages, I can imagine some of them don’t always impress people. And there shouldn’t be anything surprising about that either, because sometimes I’ll leave my opinion or say something about something that happens…. and maybe that person doesn’t necessarily agree. That is fine as well as if we all agreed on everything 100 % the world would be such a boring place. One thing that should always be constant though is respect for other people. There has been the very rare comment over the years that has got to me, or that I didn’t appreciate, and in those situations I usually respond and maybe start a debate !
Of course the comments that are just plain empty of any thought, I don’t bother with them, and in the cases of people who leave nothing but empty comments all the time, I usually just stop bothering on their pages altogether ! So what am I getting at today ? Well the other day I left a comment on someone’s page, and I was politely told that what I said was not all that appropriate. Thinking back on it I would agree with the person and I will definitely be offering an apology. Sometimes I try to be funny, or say things in a certain way, but there are times when people aren’t looking for that sort of comment, so we should all watch how we say things sometimes and be respectful at whatever situation a person is going through.
Seeing as I’ve left thousands of comments over the years, I’m bound to get sloppy on rare occasion and leave something where I haven’t expressed myself in the best way or used the best of words. It’s ok… this sort of thing happens and I am sure it’s happened to most of us at least once before. Of course it’s great to have our opinions and type up what we want to say, that is what makes Xanga so interesting, but in some situations, we all should think maybe just a little more before saying some things, especially regarding posts where people have been going through so much. Ultimately we should all be here to support one another and be the best friends that we can be ! Obviously no one is perfect and the odd time we can make mistakes, but it’s how we respond to those mistakes and treat one another in general that really counts.
I can say that I appreciate 95 % of the comments I’ve gotten over the last eight plus years, there have just been the very few that have bothered me, but I can understand how someone else feels if they read a comment that bothers them. So all I’m saying today is that when it comes to reading other peoples’ blogs and saying something, we should all put in that little extra step to construct our comments in a well-meaning, non-critical, and understanding way. Of course if someone is upset by anything, that’s ok though, it happens…. but it is how we respond to that and carry on that really will decide how everyone views one another. So at the end of the day it’s all about respect and if we respect one another, there should not be any problems ! For the next question:
Have you ever been left disrespectful comments before ? Or well-intentioned comments that someone took the wrong way ? Have you ever left any of these types of comments yourself on another bloggers’ page ?
Well that’s all for me today. I will talk to you all on Saturday when I’m in Calgary. I wish everyone all of the best with everything, bye for now!
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