Brickworks

I went with S.V. to this soon-to-be multi-use complex for all-natural food, conservation centre, wilderness education facility, etc. etc.

Right now, it's a gutted old brick factory. Interesting history. Most of Toronto was built with bricks from this factory and the nearby quarry.

Evergreen is trying to gather enough capital now and start to retrofit the place. Estimated construction cost: $50 million.

It'll be good. It's kind of inaccessible though. They hired a private short bus to shuttle people between the site and Broadview Station. The site, just off of Bayview, south of Pottery Road. By the Don River. (Which, by implication, is next to the DVP.)

The problem I saw was that the whole place is on a flood plain. Ankle deep water is a common occurrence. The place is also expected to have 3 & 1/2 meters of water every 300 years or so.

They're not planning to do any damming, re-directing, or draining. Instead, they're going to build canals and grow plants everywhere. Probably a few more points for their proposed LEED Platinum design.

I had a good time. Got to wear a hard hat (I forgot to take a picture) and hung out with a friend.

Li

CF: Oedipus Lex: Some Thoughts on Swear Words and the Incest Taboo in China and the West by Youqin Wang

During the SARS crisis in Hong Kong, there was a story of a man whose mother got infected. His mother was scared of the hospitals, so he decided not to take her in for quarantine and took care of her at home.

One night, he found his mother had stopped breathing. He tried to resuscitate her with a mouth-to-mouth but she died anyways. He died the next week from SARS.

Couple

They're really a cute couple. I saw them on the subway. Must be 16. Both of them very beautiful. And happy.


Reminded me of what Q. said to me the first time we hung out at Queen's. I was in first year. He was in third and deep depression. I think it was my third week there and completely fucked off of vodka.

"Dude," I said, " fucking hot chicks everywhere. So how many and how hot?" I was being a jackass.

He was really drunk on Amaretto. Hazy. He looked at me me. Half-opened his eyes. He was about to give me a talk.

"Sam," he said, "you're Chinese. In Kingston, the white girls only fuck white guys. Maybe a black guy. And all the Asian chicks want white dick. Except for FOBs. They mostly fuck other FOBs. So for guys like us, we're pretty fucked."

I nodded and said nothing. Inside, I was kinda angry at him. What kind of dumb-ass shit is this he is blabbering about? Q. is a little older. I suppose that gives him more experience than I did. But if this is what experiences teaches, I think he should've asked for his tuition back.

I never did accepted this advice. Even if, incidentally, I made many of the same observations that he did.

Q. transformed himself from a CBC to a FOB and started fucking FOB's.

I don't think about it. In Chinese, they say, "the boat will straighten itself out."

Jackass

Boston Cream

I was eating a Boston Cream donut at Tim Horton's and it was ok. Adequate. Not really the best donut. It's sweet and a little crunchy around the side.

Krispy Kreme is much better. They are soft and warm.

I am salivating as I write. Then I started thinking. It wasn't too long ago when Krispy Kreme announced they were entering the Canadian market. It was like an 800-lbs gorilla jumped into the donut room. Everybody thought that Tim's was in trouble.

It just didn't happened. Tim has expanded since then to include warm breakfasts, espressos, and even accepts limited credit card payments. They are on a roll. Krispy Kreme ... well, I am not sure where they're at right now. (But Google Financial does! KKD:NYSE is sitting at $3.16, down 2% from yesterday. For course, they used to be at almost $50 five years ago.) I think they still have one store near the airport.

Funny thing is that Krispy Kreme has a much better donut. They probably also have a lower cost per unit. (I am assuming, but those Tim Horton factory bakery are pretty efficient too.)

But I guess it is a matter of synergy. A good combination of products and services. Krispy Kreme makes a good donut, but you can't really hang out there. It's just a donut factory. But people do chill at Timmy's.

Quote from "Cheap Labor" by Jeffery Paul Chan

"For him, China is a matter of the heart, not just a matter of the skin like it is for us."
- Uncle Pius

IMAGE_049

Subway Car Gallery

I randomly stumbled into a subway car that the TTC portioned out for the Contact photo exhibit.

macau

pic of old macau my uncle took

TTC ad strange tile choices

The TTC is doing one of those ads to equate itself with an active lifestyle again. Great idea, but the choice of visuals is odd.

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My Mobile Office for Today

getting stupid

i am trying to read right now but my head is just pounding.

the last time my head hurt like This was at a chess tornament 10 years ago. my opponent was a very good, very unconventional player. I ended having to over-think about every move. I barely won that game and almost lost to time out. Afterwards, I couldn't even play the next game.

The book I am reading is written in highly academic language . but this isn't the first time i read something this formal. Post-modernist, but the ideas are actually very simple. Imust be geeting stupid

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Sunday Morning

Lazily crawling out into the internet.
No company except Tennessee JD.

Nothing doing, lazy Sunday.

what a personal blog ought to be like -- natural storytelling

http://otherendofsunset.blogspot.com/


I just read a few entries of this.

WoW!
The guy used to be the CIO and VP of Engineering at Google.
He switched jobs last months to become the President of EMI.

So, that's right, a music exec that writes like an angel and seems impossibly human.

So apparently, I keep a messy desk