Survivor? We Call It Camping ~ Canadian Thread #5

[Jacquie]

xfcanadian I'm aware of media hype. I do try to say things about Toronto with tongue in check. In my opinion the media in T.O. has nothing better to do with their time so all they can do is report on every gun incident in the city. They 6pm news cast have become so Americanized that I don't even watch them anymore. Toronto is a very safe city and I am proud to say I was born there. I get nervous saying I lived in Scarborough with all the problems with gangs there but hey you have to live somewhere The only thing I think Toronto could do better with is their recycling program and garbage pick up but that is for another day or post

 

[allmaple]

well, he thinks i have wasted 5 years and lots of money, because you don't 'need' a degree to become a police officer.

but cant you get higher in the force with a degree? i know thats why my friend took the crime and criminal justice (or whatever it is called at guelph) instead of the college program back in london. and im pretty sure they wouldnt let people into the lab without a degree... oh parents...

Jacquie i hear a lot about torontos weird recycling and trash pick up from my uncle. it sounds like too much effort that doesnt really work out in the end if you ask me

 

[xfcanadian]

I get nervous saying I lived in Scarborough with all the problems with gangs there but hey you have to live somewhere

ahhh, i can see where you are coming from with the crime, since that is a more dangerous location. My roomate was from there, and we would always make jokes about Scarborough to him :lol: Don't worry, i grew up in Surrey BC, that is ghetto :lol:

xfcanadian, that is interesting. I know Edmonton was #1 in Canada for while, dont know where it stands on the crime charts now though.

I don't remember where Edmonton was...they must have lowered their crime rate i guess! Nice place, i love the mall :thumbsup:

but cant you get higher in the force with a degree?

Exactly! They don't quite understand the concept of what is needed versus what is required. I don't want to be a traffic cop the rest of my life :lol:. My dad sort of looks down on the police, since he equates it with less educated people, but that is so far from the truth. There is a lot of compitition in the force, and it is always better to be educated. Plus for forensics, you do need a scientific background, and i could go back for a masters, if i wanted to later. I even went to a career night here at school, and heared from a woman who works in the field, and she has a BSc and a Masters. Arrhhh....parents can be super lame.

 

[Jacquie]

I get nervous saying I lived in Scarborough with all the problems with gangs there but hey you have to live somewhere

ahhh, i can see where you are coming from with the crime, since that is a more dangerous location. My roomate was from there, and we would always make jokes about Scarborough to him :lol: Don't worry, i grew up in Surrey BC, that is ghetto :lol:

Fortunately for me the part of Scarborough I grew up in was and is not really a part of the problem that exists today in Scarborough. I grew up in the west end of Scarborough and not in the east end where most of the problems exists. That being said there were gun shots fired today not to far from the high school I went to. Oh well all I can say is I'm glad my parents got out of Toronto last summer.

So what does everyone think of Mayor Miller, or as some reporters call him his blondness:guffaw: idea of banning guns. Doesn't he realize that hand guns are a banned item anyway and that the ones that are being used in crimes are the result of ones being smuggled up from the US.

I caught something interesting on the radio yesterday about a doctor in Calgary that says he feels that all people injured in car accidents that don't wear the seat belts should pay for their own medical care. I agree on that one. Interestingly enough this came after 4 young people were injured in a car accident on Saturday night. They were thrown from the vehicle they were in and weren't wearing their seat belts. Don't people know that those things save lives. Rant over with

 

[allmaple]

so is there an election coming up or something? i got some conservative propaganda in the mail and it was so funny it made me laugh. it basically said 'who knows your children better? stephane dion or you?' the flyer was about dion voting against the conservatives plan to give parents $1200 a year for child care, and the conservatives were trying to make him look bad for doing so. except that the liberals wanted to integrate day care with the schools, make it universal, and create more spots. the conservatives giving parents 20 bucks a week will do dick all to help with child care. this is why i hate politics, even when a party has the better plan the one with the worse plan tries to make them look like the good guys and the other one look bad

 

[Jacquie]

Unless the current Government is forced into an election, we shouldn't be having one until fall 2009. I think all parties will be sending out the propaganda until we actually get an election.

Now don't shoot me or anything but I have to wonder why any government has to give money to people for day care I find it annoying that my tax dollars are going to help other people put their children in day care so they can go out to work. Isn't that what their money is for.

 

[allmaple]

i saw something great on the 401 the other day. a sign that said 'drinking and driving, mandatory $13500 fine' which i think is awesome. i dont understand how someone can be so stupid to drive drunk, im glad this is being done. is this an ontario thing or canada wide?

and one of my fav gossip sites, perez hilton, is doing something special for canadian readers. i think you can only see it if you are on canadian internet. he asked readers to send in pictures in front of canadian landmarks. so i sent in a picture of my friend, her half sister, and i in front of jumbo the elephant in st thomas. and it made it onto the site!! if you dont know jumbo, he escaped from barnum and baileys circus when it was in st thomas in 1885 and was promptly hit by a train and killed. he is the reason why jumbo=very large

 

[xfcanadian]

well, i am going to try this again...i wrote a nice big post, and then there was a power surge, and my computer froze *sigh*

so is there an election coming up or something? i got some conservative propaganda in the mail and it was so funny it made me laugh.

i heard june 9th...which is the day i graduate (hopefully) Yay, gotta laugh at the american style politics Harper tries to pull. I would like to think Canadians are smarter than that...but it does seem to work unfortunately.

Now don't shoot me or anything but I have to wonder why any government has to give money to people for day care

well, some people have to have both parents working just to cover the rising cost of living. I don't mind if the program supports single mothers, who are in tough situations, it would help reduce youth crime, but i see what you are saying.

o i sent in a picture of my friend, her half sister, and i in front of jumbo the elephant in st thomas. and it made it onto the site!!

hey congrats!! I just looked at it...perez is so addicting. I definitely wasted too much university time reading that site LOL. He does love us Canucks

Gah, i am having the worst week of my life right now well, two weeks. First off was my exams, and i had so little motivation for this semester, i didn't study enough...so now i am worried about failing two classes. They went terrible. And during exam period i find out that i am 0.25 credits short to graduate! That is half a regular course :scream: They are willing to let it slide, thank god, however i got the email during exams...so i was pretty much crying in the library.

Also, since i was in engineering originally, i have a lot of 'physical science' courses, so they don't count as 'biological science'. I had switched into molecular biology and genetics (MBG major), and then this year i felt i didn't really need to do the two semester research project, and i didn't want to spend another semester in school. So i decided to switch into a major in Biological Sciences with a minor in MBG, since i took all the courses. However, since i don't have enough biological science courses, my MBG ones go towards the major, and they won't give me the minor, because of overlap. So now i am left with a major in Biological Sciences, which sounds very vague. Even though i pretty much have an entire degree in genetics (i am missing the equivalent of 2 courses), i won't get any credit...and MBG courses are hard, it is one of the hardest science programs at the school. I know it doesn't matter so much the actual degree, but the courses you took that counts, but i still feel very cheated and disappointed in myself. So instead of being happy about graduating, and getting through university...it seems like one big upset, and i am scrapping by to get out. And i am stressed about getting my marks back, praying i didn't fail two courses.

And after 20 years of being in school...i am completely lost. I don't know what to do! I feel like i should be studying something. I have a part time job, but thats about it. I do have a plan, but still...it will take time to train for the police, and my loans are not going away!

And to make things worse...haha, my ipod that i bought in September had broke, and i sent it in to get repaired. It was an obvious hard drive issue. Yesterday they sent me an email stating that they couldn't reproduce the problem i was describing, and it was sent back in working condition (which i thought was strange, since it wouldn't turn on at all). Well today i received it back, still broken. The note inside said the problem was due to water damage, and that isn't covered under the warentee. That is kind of funny, since i have never spilled or dropped my ipod in water! My dad ended up phoning apple, and screamed at them for a couple of hours. It turns out, there is a water sensor in the head phone jack (a water sensor which is outside the device, exposed to the elements! what a fantastic idea apple!) and it should be white.

When it turns red, then it means it has been exposed to water, and apparently that means the damage was due to water. Mine was red. They didn't even bother to open the device, they just look in the headphone jack, and sent it back broken. On the phone, they called us liars (well, not the exact word, but they refused to believe it hadn't been exposed to water), and refused to do anything about it. So apparently getting water in your headphone jack, outside of the casing causes the hard drive failed! Yeah right! It took a couple of hours of my dad yelling at them (he is an electronic technologist, he knows how to check electronics, he took them they were full of crap) for them to finally agree to send me a new one. It is so ridiculous. It is bad enough that apple refuses to let the stores handle their products, so even if you buy a product service plan, you still have to deal with apple directly for repairs. I have never experience customer service that badly. If they are going to use water sensors...at least put them INSIDE the ipod. That would take more money though! much cheaper to put them on the outside. Its bad enough the ipods are made so poorly, so many of them break very fast.

crap. Sorry for the long post, i needed to vent At least the weather is nice...

 

[Jacquie]

xfcanadian to helps to get things off you chest every once in awhile I hope things work out for you with school

The weather is lovely today. Too warm for this time of year but when was the last time we actually had a proper spring. We always seem to go from freezing cold to too warm.

So if Toronto gets a transit strike on Monday how will it effect people living in the GTA? It will only effect me by it taking longer for me and the hubby to drive to work. If we do get a strike I'm thinking if we leave home around 7 we should be able to get to the store by around 9. The drive is 25km. Parking at our store could be a premium though. We are on a side street off Yonge which is being turned into a no parking zone from 7am-7pm. Oh this whole idea of a strike is not pleasant. Why doesn't the Ontario government just pass a bill and make all transit in the province essential services which would prevent them from striking.

 

[allmaple]

i heard june 9th...which is the day i graduate (hopefully)

zomg! im graduating june 9th as well! im in bio sci as well so i bet we will be there at the same time too. 2:30? kinda freaky... hope everything works out for you with graduating. ive never had to deal with the academic advisors but i dont think it is as easy as it should be. there should be allowances for people changing majors etc. sometimes you dont know what you want to do and you shouldnt have to stay in school longer and pay more money because you changed your mind. especially since they are raising tuition by 4-8% next year, which is crap. i know when my brother was in the states his first year every one in first year was undeclared, you didnt have to pick your major til second year. thats a much better way to do it since some people just dont know what they want.

and do not even get me started on strikes :lol: there are so many proffessions that should be considered essential but are allowed to strike. transit, teachers, proffessors... especially in a big city like toronto public transit is so important. on global news last night they said each street car takes 65 personal cars off the road. how are they supposed to deal with peoples transportation issues in case of a strike? its just going to cause a ton of problems.

speaking of global news.... this is probably the greatest video on the internet right now. of a global news correspondant named rob leif (i think). ive watched it so many times and still laugh!

 

[Jacquie]

speaking of global news.... this is probably the greatest video on the internet right now. of a global news correspondant named rob leif (i think). ive watched it so many times and still laugh!

Ouch but it was funny :guffaw:

Toronto just turns into more of a traffic nightmare than usual with a transit strike. The people that are hit the hardest but the strike are the poor or the people who have no choice but to take transit and have to work at the office. These are the people that will be hit the hardest during a transit strike. I think this will be my third strike I've had to deal with :scream: but I just hope McGuinty will not let the strike go on long. He can't because it jsut cripples everything.

 

[allmaple]

heres a fun little picture that was on icanhascheezburger today:



thought it was cute, figured id share

 

[Jacquie]

I certainly hope no Moose where harmed here :lol:

Thanks for sharing allmaple All laughs are appreciated at the moment in light of the fact the TTC is likely to go on strike Monday morning :censored: Now you all know what TTC stands for don't you....Take The Car :guffaw: and you all thought it stood for Toronto Transit Commission And they keep wondering why the ridership keeps going down every year.

 

[xfcanadian]

zomg! im graduating june 9th as well! im in bio sci as well so i bet we will be there at the same time too. 2:30? kinda freaky...

haha, that is freaky...you're stalking me I will probably be the one who trips and falls on the stage...if they call us up, not sure how the grad will go down yet. That sounds like something that would happen to me :lol:

That picture is funny :lol: we could always start hucking week old timbits if all else fails. I like in the south park movie, how Canada has this massive army, hahaha.

Ahhh TTC strike...glad i live in the suburbs That sucks, i am not too fond of unions for that reason, they get greedy. The BC fairies were much worse, it was insane.

 

[Jacquie]

Ahhh good news for Toronto. There is no strike The union and the city came to a tentative agreement late this afternoon.

I not in favour of unions at all. At one point they may have been beneficial for the workers but not anymore. I jsut hope that this time the province will come to their senses and make all public transit in the province declare essential services so they can't strike. The public should not be held hostage for the benefit of a few individuals. Rant over.