Sad Ending... Or Is It?

By June 27th, I will be dead.

On facebook, that is.

By deleting my account right before the clock hits midnight on June 26th, I will destroy a good portion of my existence, in a formless and otherwise be non-existing realm called internet. Well, not 100% will be destroyed as I will still keep this blog.

Myself and facebook always had this awkward relationship. The kind of relationship between two co-workers at a job, where they don't talk to each other unless the job required them to, and just work. There's a bit of awkwardness, and while not exactly hate between the two, but some sort of tension created by the inability to start being friendly because of silly hesitation or shyness. The fact that I only have 45 "friends" is good proof of that as I never really aimed to have over 200 "friends" as everyone else. But no one really aims for it. It just happens. Maybe I wanted to have a little more control even though I was swimming with the current.


The real reason why I'm quitting facebook is to keep my rights to my information, and especially my photos from slipping through these hands as type and click them away. Even though I only posted about 10 photos in my "album" and they were rather crappy shots that I couldn't really care less about (compared to my other photos per say), I still don't want to lose anymore. If I don't have an account, then I can't upload. Simple.

Furthermore, I find going to a pub with my real, existing friends more enjoyable than posting on someone'e wall. If someone really wants to contact me, they'll find a way to contact me. If not, there's a good chance I don't even want to talk to that person in the first place.

Sure, as most facebook-defenders would say, "Yea but, using facebook, I was able to find people I went to middle school with and we post on each other's walls every blue moon. This stuff is great. *Goes back to playing farmville*" If I wanted to keep in contact with people I knew from any schools that I attended, I wouldn't need facebook's aid as I would have gotten the information before we were even separated. And yes, I do in fact, "dislike" farmville.

Walking

This past week, I have been walking. A lot.


I walked to Lake Shore on the West side from Downtown, I walked home, walked others home, etc on more days than not during the past week. I even feel like buying one of those "step-counters" to see how much mileage I get out of my legs alone in week. To many people in this city, walking appears to be a chore. Even when one asks me of directions, and if my answer is something on the lines of, "15 minutes to the East" or "3-4 blocks down South," the one who asked frowns as if I told him/her something I shouldn't have.

I walk pretty fast and that credit goes to my slightly longer than average legs I have. I normally don't turn around when I walk because I'm busy looking ahead while passing by people. Even when I have plenty of time to get to my destination, I can't help it but to haul-ass over there. Often, wondering why no one else seems to be walking a little faster. It gets me frustrated sometimes because I just can't seem to get around them when they form some kind of wall in front me, but that's my problem, so I just find a way to go around them.

I go around people instead of asking them to move aside with the words, "Excuse me" since it just doesn't seem to work anymore. Not only are people slow, but appear to be deaf as well. headphones, cell phones, or chatting to another and simply forgetting about the surrounding is also the trend in the city. One trend, I cannot follow, not out of will, but simply because I can't. Even when I have my headphones on, the volume level is relatively low. So low, I can hear the person next to me loud and clear most of the time.

Before I turn this post into a complete rant, I'll get back to the topic. People consider walking as chore. It is evidently so as charity events will raise money for #km run/WALK. I find that part a little ridiculous, but at least it's better than nothing.

Walking is by no means a hobby of mine, but it's something I'll never refuse to do. I need to walk from point A to point B at some point in my life to get something done and I know it. It's something we naturally do, so it may be better to accept it and try to be less negative towards it. It's just a walk, no one is begging you to sprint.

After all, doesn't everyone want someone that enjoys "long walks by the beach?" Well, perhaps not, but it isn't going to stop me from liking it anytime soon.

Fireworks: One of My Weaknesses

I'm normally all-in for green, environmentally-healthy stuff. However, I have the tendency to let fireworks slip right through that "rule" of mine. It creates plenty of smoke where it explodes and it also causes hell of a noise pollution, but it's so shiny!

Anyway, instead of celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday this weekend, I also let my eyes take in the pleasure of watching lights exploding in the sky by Ontario Place. Like everyone else. Cheers.

Priceless Photo Gifts

I love photo gifts. I really do. I think they can be as thoughtful and valuable as hand-made gifts, if done right. And to those with a busy life style, but still want to show their friends, family, and significant others that they care, it can be done so via purchasing a photo gift with the right photo on it.

For those that are not too familiar with photo gifts and don't know where to get'em, you're in luck (as long as you live in Canada). Black's Photography offers quite a selection of photo gifts. So much, that you can probably fill the whole room with photo gifts... which is very, very creepy if you really think about it.

And like all good things in life, there is also a downside. You want to plan ahead is it normally takes 2 weeks for these photo gifts to be completed and shipped to the store you ordered from (followed by you going there and picking it up), which doesn't make it easy to be a last-minute gift. Needless to say if you order something for Christmas, you might get it back after the new year. Sometimes, never, as the order might even get lost in the busy Christmas season.

While I was scanning through these somewhat unique collection of photo gifts such as poker chips ($10 for one poker chip is bit outrageous), book marks, and so on, one item in particular got my attention.

A photo cutting board.

As you probably guessed it, it's a cutting board with a photo on it. What strikes me as odd is that, the example of photo they used is all the same photo for each gift idea, and the cutting board gets no special treatment of this rule as it has a picture of someone's kid on it. Yes, it is suggesting you to slap on the photo your child on a cutting board. Only very special kind of parents would do this. And we can only hope they're in jail.

But perhaps we can have some fun with this. I myself enjoy cooking and I'm sure someone out there enjoys it as much as I do, if not more. Since putting on a photo of your child (or anyone else's) is a mere suggestion, you're free to put any other photo you pick (as long as it isn't pornographic). Here are my suggestions that some people might be able to use.



I'll let your imagination do the rest with these suggestions.





Who knows? A cutting board with your ex's face on it might make that tedious lettuce chopping, just a little more enjoyable. Have a (or the) devil for a mother-in-law? there can be a little stress-relief exercise of chopping whatever you want in the kitchen.

Now, let your imagination go wild and put a photo on that cutting board that you think is best for you. Remember, the whole point of photo gifts is to be extremely personal. So go pick something that really hits you on the spot (in a bad way)!

Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna go find a picture of an arm with slashes and cuts all over it to slap on to this photo cutting board. What? don't give me that look like I'm putting a picture of someone's kid on there. That's just sick.

What The Hell Is "Final Price"?

I've been busy with a few things for a bit. As I predicted earlier, the month of April was pretty hectic for me and I still have a few things to round up in terms of editing and what not. Thankfully, this is the last day of April. Actually, the last day of April just passed about an 2 hours and half ago for me here. Time to start a new month!

Anyway, on with the topic of today's post instead of sad excuse(s) for not posting on regular bases. It seems to me that consumers (of the city of Toronto to say the least) have changed. To say it frankly, they've gotten cheaper. A few may be missing a few screws in the head, but when ever I'm at any store, I come across this typical situation. I've quickly made a comic (via MS Paint so bare with the quality) to show you such situation.



Alright, so the last column never really happens. And yes, we are still in a recession despite what the media is hiding, but here is the break down of it if anyone is buying anything in a shop. You go in to the store, you pick out the item you want with or without a help of an employee of the said store. Then you pay for it and move on. Instead, we have people asking what the "final price" is after looking at a price right next to the word "sale". Has the good chunk of our population forgotten how to read numbers? I don't seem to understand how anyone can stoop that low and ask such a foolish question. And better yet, there are others that could be actually needing the help of that employee somewhere else in the store; such as a guy wanting to ask if they have specific item on stock because he is willing to pay the price on the tag and move on with his life.

Perhaps I'm more sensitive to this topic because of years of sad experience in retail. But why is it that people don't seem to learn, and instead they forget things that everybody should know? The price of what you pay is on the list, then plus tax. Simple as that. By the way, tax is still 13% as I hear that question in shops more often now than ever: "What's the price after tax?" or "Can I not pay tax?". And yes, you can calculate the price after tax from a regular cellphone now a day (it's legal so don't be afraid to give it a shot!), but that knowledge also seems to be on a level of lost art of some sort. By the way, not paying tax is indeed illegal unless you're a native (chances are, you are not), which HST will also screw when Canada day comes around regardless of your origin.

But can anyone really blame these "smart" shoppers? All they are looking for is a good deal. Maybe in a few years, people will even try to negotiate with a waiter of a restaurant for the price of their meals and it'll be considered normal. Who knows? Even still, I still have a few words of advice; If you're looking for a deal and truly want to negotiate the price of a product or service, go buy a car before HST kicks in. That's one place I can think of where negotiating the price seems normal so you can pay a fair amount of money instead of a godzilla-sized price for the car. And lastly, if you truly want to be a smart shopper sniping out those good prices of the stuff you want to buy, learn to be patient to find those good deals in a place other than retail. Ebay and the rest of the internet exist for a reason and contrary to most urban myths, it's not as devil-ish as people make it appear to be. Happy shopping.

End of April

It's been a few weeks since Spring arrived (kind of) to the city of Toronto and while we do have some windy/wet days here and there, it's safe to say that it is getting warmer (quite slowly). That also means the Sakura (cherry blossom trees) bloomed not too long ago. Actually, it's been a week or so since they bloom, I just haven't had the chance to post this yet -.-;;



On the bright side, before heading to work last Wednesday, I took some photos of the cherry blossom trees near the infamous Robarts Library (they have many old and rare books) in U of T territory. Despite posting just one photo with this blog post, I took a good amount of photos that I am somewhat satisfied with. Unfortunately, most of them are cliche shots that everyone else probably took from the same angle since I didn't want some ugly looking building (*ahem* Robarts Library) to be in my frame.

While taking these photos, for some reason, I started thinking about what a good photo is. And quite frankly, after looking at some of the shots that my friend took (he takes photographs for various magazine and newspaper companies), I started to grasp the idea of a "good photograph." As it gets warmer, I plan on taking my camera out more often. Hopefully, someday, someone can take a look at one of my photos I took and say, "That's a good photograph."

Well, that and a cheque for it will be nice XD

I Hate Perfectionists- Oh Wait, That's Me Too!

For the last week or so, I've been rather busy with several things. Actually, just two things; my day job and editing a short documentary for a co-worker of mine (and hopefully it'll be published!). The editing is done (for now), but even still, I think it's safe to say the busy days (and nights) are here to stay for a while.
I'll be quite honest on my thoughts about editing any video: I hate it. Yes, I get better every time I edit something, but it's tedious, time-consuming, and worst of all, it brings out the perfectionist-side of me. In the film and broadcasting industry, that's the mindset you need to have; you simply cannot stop with "just good enough" work, you need to aim and achieve the "perfect" work. My co-worker saw that in me and requested for my help as an editor, which I took up on since it was for a good cause either and hey, it may help to get my name out there, who knows?
But going back to the perfectionist-side of me, here. I hate it for several reasons. First, when I get into my "perfectionist-mode" every single one of my cells in my body is trying to defy my philosophy called, "No human is perfect." It also reminds me of somebody I used to know in the past who was a perfectionist. For some reason seeing a perfectionist used to get me pissed off back then, but I guess I just regret how I didn't understand why we all need to be perfectionists sometimes.
Anyway, here is my advice to all the perfectionists out there: Don't forget that we can't be perfect in an imperfect world and sometimes, things are most beautiful because it is imperfect.
Well, time for me to get some sleep while I still can. I barely slept for the past week due to editing -.-;;