As I was leaving work this evening, I was fortunate enough to walk by the filming of the upcoming movie "Cinderella Man", starring Russell Crowe and Rene Zellweger. They were filming 1 block North of my work in downtown Toronto.

It was quite an interesting scene to watch them film this scene. They have the old Madison Square Gardens sign installed on the side of the Hudson Bay Company building, and it looks exactly like the old Madison Square Gardens. I estimated there to be approximately 60 autos from the 1930's, and from where I was standing, it looked like there were about 75 people dressed in the 1930's attire on the sidewalk outside of the arena.

Since Cinderella Man is a boxing movie, the Madison Sq. Gardens sign had upcoming bouts displayed on the sign.

I was quite impressed with the whole thing. I'd say it's my second best movie experience I've had in Toronto so far. The best is when I was walking home from work and there were 3 army helicopters flying around Toronto City Hall shooting lasers at each other when they were filming Resident Evil movie last fall.

Here is an image of the Old Madison Sq. Gardens to give you some perspective on how the replica looks in Toronto:

It's quite evident that I'm actually owned by my dog. She has total control over me. I might as well go to the Humane Society and get some id tags for myself, and heck, I might as well buy myself a collar while I'm at it.

Here are the top 5 reasons why I'm owned by my 2 Year old Jack Russell named "Mojo".

5. When I call home, my first question is "How is my puppy?"
4. After returning from the beach, Mojo gets bathed before I get to shower.
3. When I take her outside for a pee in the morning, I hold mine in while she's relieving herself. There's nothing more humiliating than watching her relieve herself while my bladder is about to burst.
2. I adjust my sleeping position based on the location of Mojo. If she's sprawled out horizontally across my bed, I bend my body so that I don't interrupt her precious sleep.

and the number 1 reason why Mojo owns me:

1. When I'm walking her down the street, the girls always ask me what her name is, and they ask if they can take her home. They have yet to ask what my name is or to take me home ;)

I had originally thought that the great city of Toronto was mainly commercial, city sights and sounds, public transportation, pollution, etc. Coming from a smaller town, being used to the quiet outdoors, and the vast selection of bicycle trails, I failed to realize that Toronto has a hidden gem in its existence.

Unbeknownst to me, a plethora of bicycle trails resides in the heart of the city, with a varying skill level required for each trail. There are paved paths down in the Don Valley parallel to Don Valley Parkway, there are offroad trails near the infamous Bridle Path, and the trails extend East as far (and possibly further) as Victoria Park.

We probably covered 60KM's of ground today, and saw many things that we didn't even realize they existed in Toronto, such as water falls, small rapids, steep ravines leading down to the river, cliffs, and off road trails with fallen down tree obstacles.

If you ever get the chance, check out this trail. It starts downtown near Parliament and Front, you can also access it if you go down Queen Street East, before going over the DVP, you walk down the stairs to get to the trail.

Just got a call from MBNA mastercard. Yet another reason I never want to deal with this company again. Here is a rough transcript of the call:

Jim: "Hello"
MBNA Lady: "Hello sir, I would like to let you know about a new promotion MBNA is offering"
Jim: "I'm not interested"
MBNA: "Is there any particular reason?"
Jim: "Yes, I don't ever want to deal with MBNA again. I get MBNA junk mail every 2 days, I get phone calls on Saturday mornings when I'm trying to sleep."
MBNA: "Well, it's actually a really great offer ......"
Jim (Interupts): "ON SATURDAY MORNINGS WHEN I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"
MBNA: "This promotion allows you to .... "
Jim (Interupts, MBNA lady is still blabbing about the promotion): "Take care now, Bye Bye Then!"
MBNA: (Still blabbing)
Jim: BYE BYE NOW, TAKE CARE!
Jim (Hangs up).

Driving down the road today, I took notice to an oddly shaped license plate for the Northwest Territories. It was something I'd never seen before. I decided to do some research on the history of the NWT license plate. It turns out that in 1970, the Northwest Territories decided to shape their license plates like a bear. Here is what it looks like:



I think Ontario should do the same thing with our license plates. We could shape our license plates like a smog cloud. It can be a reminder to drivers that they are polluting.

I was out enjoying the beautiful weather this evening on my street legal dirt bike and a middle aged gentleman in a Honda Accord began to accelerate at the green light without taking notice to the scruffy looking dude running across the road directly in front of him. He slammed on his brakes, and hit the scruffy looking dude. The scruffy guy shook it off, continued to cross the road without looking back and put his hand behind his back to give the finger to the driver of the car. I couldn't help but chuckle after seeing this spectacle.

I've been using Launchcast for a few months now, and I must say that it's a brilliant way of delivering music. It's an online radio station that works similarly to a classic radio station, except for every song that comes on, you can rate the song, the band and the album. You can even tell it to never play this band again, and if you don't like the song you can skip it. (Don't skip too many times or you will use up all your free skips).

As you are rating the music, the data gets collected, and the radio station caters to your taste. It starts playing all songs that you like, but it still throws in random new bands, so you're still exposed to new music. When you listen to a classic radio station, you're often subjected to the taste of the general population as opposed to your own taste, and you're often not provided with new music that you've never heard of (Unless you listen to the Indy hour).

Another feature offered by Launchcast is the "Moods" feature, where you can define different moods, so if you're at work and in the mood for Jazz music, you can listen to all Jazz songs. If you're at home and in the mood for Techno music, you can change your setting to reflect your mood.

Launchast is free, but it has commercials every once in a while advertising to pay for the service. If you pay for it (approx $3US per month on the annual plan), you get commercial free music, better quality, and unlimited skipping.

The more rating you do, the better your station becomes.

Visit Yahoo! Launchcast @ Link

This book is about a 17 year old half French / half German boy who fought in World War Two for Germany. At the beginning of the book, he is youthful, full of life and energy. Throughout the book, he seems to age 10 years, and loses all his emotions, love and spirit. He sees things that are impossible for people in our day in age to even imagine seeing. His German perspective on the war is interesting to say the least, and makes you realize that the average German soldier was just fighting for his life, not for Hitler.

Some people question the credibility of the author, but as far as I'm concerned, this is irrelevant. The extreme events that took place, and the diminishing of his soul are things that could have happened to any German foot soldier during World War two. Especially someone who fought in the battle for Stalingrad, probably the worst catastrophe I've ever read about.

Here is Guy Sajer on people reading about the war:

"Too many people learn about war with no inconvenience to themselves. They read about Verdun or Stalingrad without comprehension, sitting in a comfortable armchair, with their feet beside the fire, preparing to go about their business the next day, as usual. One should really read such accounts under compulsion, in discomfort, considering oneself fortunate not to be describing the events in a letter home, writing from a hole in the mud. One should read about war in the worst circumstances, when everything is going badly, remembering that the torments of peace are trivial, and not worth any white hairs. Nothing is really serious in the tranquility of peace; only an idiot could be really disturbed by a question of salary. One should read about war standing up, late at night, when one is tired, as I am writing about it now, at dawn, while my asthma attack wears off. And even now, in my sleepless exhaustion, how gentle and easy peace seems!"

Murderer and rapist Karla Homolka is going to be released from jail on July 5th, 2005. The same day her rape and murder victim Leslie Mahaffy was born. Talk about a lack of respect for Leslie's family.

I say we start a website called KarlaHomolka.com, and when Karla Homolka is released from jail, we post her address, phone number, and any other pertinent information that we can get our hands on.

Every time you throw a brick through her window, you post it on the website.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a very entertaining film, and even more entertaining than Bowling for Columbine and Roger & Me, due to the fact that the topic is something that affects all of our lives. The USA is a world power, so many Canadians follow American politics because many of the decisions made at the White House affect Canada and many other sovereign countries throughout world.

Michael Moore employs his regular movie making tactics by taking his opinion on a subject, and presenting partial and full interviews with various people and releasing statistics that help to sway the movie viewer into having the same opinion by affecting their emotions and only showing them one side of the story.

It would be impossible to release a movie to give the viewer a fully balanced perspective, because there simply isn't enough time in a movie to do this. He has taken his views on George W. Bush, and used different methods to make the viewer believe that George W. is a complete idiot and an evil person. In Bowling for Columbine, Moore took partial clips from speeches from Charlton Heston and displayed them out of context to the viewer to convey him as an evil cowboy. Such tactics were also used with George W. in Fahrenheit.

The White House has charged that the movie is "outrageously false". Michael Moore put it exceptionally well in his description of the credibility of his movie: "Do not let anyone say this or that isn't true. If they say that, they are lying. Let them know that the OPINIONS in the film are mine, and anyone certainly has a right to disagree with them. And the questions I pose in the movie, based on these irrefutable facts, are also mine. And I have a right to ask them. And I will continue to ask them until they are answered."

I think it's great the someone like Michael Moore has the power to reach a huge audience to expose President Bush's depravities in the office, and if Moore's film helps to get Bush outvoted in the next election, then I'll be a happy person, and I think the people of the United States of America will be better off. Every time a bomb is dropped on Iraq, a new Bin Laden is potentially created and even though the world could potentially be stable short-term, in 20 or 30 years, the Iraqi kid who lost his whole family will grow up and have a certain hatred for the country that invaded his homeland. The problem with fighting a war with terrorists is that they could be located anywhere blended in with the rest of the public, they are extremely patient with their planned attacks, and they are always willing to call off the operation if everything isn't as planned.

Go see the film and take it as an entertaining Hollywood film, but make sure to get a balanced perspective on all the political matters, because it's hard to find a balanced perspective if you're watching a biased movie or watching a biased American Television network.

I attended the Dave Matthews concert last night in Toronto. I've always had a certain respect for Dave Matthews' talent, but I had never purchased any of his cds. When I first found out that lawn seats at the Molson Amphitheatre were over $60 with all the fees included, I was curious as to why the tickets could possibly be so expensive.

After attending the concert, my question was answered. The Dave Matthews Band is amazing to hear live. His voice, and the music sound even better than on the recorded cds. The musical talent behind him, and the mixture of instruments, the energy every member of the band exerts makes for an amazing show. In certain songs, different members of the band take their turns performing a solo; including a violin, saxophone, drums, keyboard etc, and the way all the instruments sound together is incredible.

The Dave Matthews Band took music to the next level last evening, and I'm glad I had the chance to see it. I now understand why the ticket prices are so high, and why the show sold out so quickly.