What the hell is this?

OK, I was on the internet today and I saw that some travel site was listing the top 10 ugliest buildings in the world. 

I was surprised when they listed the ROM in there.  I have not lived in Toronto for a long time, but I had remembered the ROM as a nice old building.  I jumped on to google to see what this ugliness was all about.

It seems that since I moved, the powers that be decided to do a little renovation to the museum.  I have to agree with the internets, this is one of the ugliest things I have seen in my life.  What I think makes it infinitely worse is the fact that this not only destroys a nice building, this is destroying a whole area of the city.

The ROM is right at Queen’s Park, where the provincial government is located.  Home to some nice old buildings, this chrome and glass explosion really does not fit at all. 

Maybe I am just becoming an old crank or something, but I can’t see why anyone could have thought this was a good idea. 

Updating the links section

OK, so i noticed that my "links to friends blogs" section is really really out of date. So, it is time to make a few changes.

OUT:
Wong Family Blog : I know its cruel to remove your own family, but hey, last post was May 2007.
Warren in Vancouver : removed as Warren has TWO new sites.
Shelley in Toronto: Last post Dec, 2008. I know Shelley has moved on to Twitter as her main vehicle.
Nader and Rina in Singapore: Sorry brother, no updates in a year.

IN:.
Mike P : infrequent updates Plaka, but you are still at it on occasion.
Warren's personal Blog: moved from the old address.
Warren Cartwright Photography: his new professional endeavour.
Rymal Family Blog: Jay & Bonnie are pretty much Twitter folks now, but I left it on for the moment.
Save the New York Times: a site by the Doris.
M-cause: Ryan's cause and marketing related site.
I'd Rather Be Gaming: blog from Ozvortex in Australia that sometimes comments on here as well. Good one for board gamers like me.

I think that cleans up the links section.

Poorly thought out Advertising

Ok, so I was at the gas station this morning when I noticed this advertisement on the side of the building. Excuse the poor quality of the image, it was taken with my phone.

The German text reads “whether Coffee, buns, or sweets…. Drink and Drive” then at the bottom, “your bake-shop”

This brilliant poster was of course on display at a gas station. For those who don't know, German gas stations also sell alcohol. Beer, wine, vodka, whatever you like (to those of legal age of course.) I know that western media has become somewhat hyper-sensitive and politically correct in recent years, but come on...

I have to think that this is a ill conceived campaign. I can not believe that someone first thought this up, then managed to sell the idea to the company doing the advertising. Do they not think that this could be seen in a negative way?

Saint Martin’s day walk 2009

It is that time of year again and Liam’s kindergarten made the annual Saint Martin’s evening walk with the lanterns last Thursday.  It was actaully the day after St. Martin’s, but given the size of the kindergarten classes, they do walks on three separate  nights so that the size is manageable.

Following the genius theatrical performance I wrote about last time, the kids all put on their coats and got their lanterns together to head out into the night.    Liam had made an elephant lantern that he was very proud of.  I thought it looked pretty good.  I am certain that he had quite some help from the kindergarten teachers making it, but he has been getting very good at drawing animals. 

So, with the whole group in tow, we began the walk.  Something I also enjoy trying to do on the walk is take pictures of them using a slow synchronized flash, so I can see some details of the kids, but also get the ambient lighting and interesting light trails from the lanterns.

Here are a couple of them strolling along the dark streets of the village.

Like I mentioned, Liam was pretty proud of his elephant lantern and  took many opportunities to hold it up and make many elephant noises.  He is also getting quite good at his impression.

Another Great Theatre Production

Well, before this year’s Lantern walk (to come in another post soon)  Liam’s kindergarten class put on a play about “Elli the Elephant”

The kindergarten was all set up as the theatre and in case it is not immediately obvious, the setting of the play is Africa.This year the kids made animal lanterns to use for the St. Martins walk, and I guess that gave them the idea to use them as puppets to do the show.  The story is essentially that Elli the Elephant has lost his herd and is asking other animals to help him find them.  Here Elli is talking to Giri the Giraffe.  All of the animals are named in this way.  Then a word with Gepi the Leopard (Gepard in German)After talking to Lions, Leopards, Tigers, Alligators and a host of other animals, Elli found the herd.  This was represented by the Elephant parade.  The parade was acted out by all the younger kids.  The puppeteers  were the older kids, the ones almost ready to move on to school.   They were better able to handle puppets, remember lines, and tall enough to reach over the wall.There you have it.  Not quite as big a role as in the play last year, where as you may recall Liam was the scene stealing hedgehog, but still, he did very well.  A fine play and I look forward to the next big production. 

Candy from a bygone era

I was in a toy store today shopping for a gift for my nephew, when I happened across  the candy section of the store.  There was a pretty wide range of sweets, the typical chocolate and hard candies along with some of the more unusual modern things like cell phone candy and the like.

Then I noticed this and had to look twice…  Candy cigarettes. something I remember having as a kid (popeye brand for me thanks,) but I thought had vanished in a poof of political correctness years ago. 

Of course I had to buy some, a bargain at 40 cents a pack.  Despite the fact they are now called “sticks” and not cigarettes, it is pretty clear from the packaging that they did not spend a lot of thought on the redesign of the product after changing this word.

First up we have King-Lion brand.  Look at this… I opened them up and sure enough, the “sticks” looked just like I remembered them.  Very clearly modeled on its tobacco counterpart.

The sticks are paper wrapped pseudo-chocolate. 

Just as all teenagers know, smoking makes you look cool.  Now I can have that whole defiant rebel look going on  without any of that pesky cancer and heart disease.

I do have to say, the use of the word “chocolate” is very generous.  It is barely chocolate.  It is barely edible in fact… they taste really quite bad.  If it were not for how cool they made me look, I would not have kept up the habit all afternoon.  The package actually calls it “chocolate flavoured confection” which contains Sugar, hardened vegetable oil, whey powder, soy, cocoa powder and vanilla.  After reading that, perhaps I should still consider they health effects of these bad boys.

One last thing, these “sticks” are not just for the boys anymore.  Obviously they have found small girls to be a key demographic that must not be missed.  So if the King Lion brand are a little to butch for you, there is the amazingly feminine “Aerobica” for the ladies. I particularly like the 1980’s workout lady image on the packet.  From the taste of these, they have very likely been sitting around since those leg warmers were in fashion.

Oh, before you condemn the Germans for still having this on the shelves, it is not a product they make.  This fine children’s confectionary is made by the good folks in the Netherlands at PIETERMAN

http://www.pietchoc.nl/

Just like Papa

Like lots of little kids, Liam likes to do the things that his parents do. I work from home fairly regularly, which means I spend the day in the office in front of my laptop. Recently, Liam seemed to become very jealous of this behaviour and was going on and on about how he needed his his own computer.

So... I dug up this rather old, non-functional laptop and stuck it in front of him to see what would happen.
It turns out, this was just what was needed. Liam started banging away on the keys immediately and seemed to not care at all that the screen was black. Now he has fairly much claimed this laptop as his and it is staying in his room on his wee table. Or when I am working, he is often dragging it over and sitting next to me at the desk while he works too.

Crazy boy.

I dearly love Penny Arcade

How great is this comic...

taken from the fine folks at Penny Arcade

A Musical Interlude

Today is forecast publishing day at work. This means I have to sit and type in lots and lots and lots of data. It can in fact be a little mind numbing and I like to do it while listening to music.

Last week I heard the new Ian Brown song "Stellify" and it reminded me to listen to one of my all time favorite bands, the Stone Roses. That has led on to my re-enjoyment of some older tunes lingering in my iTunes.

I think this song is forgotten by lots of people, but I still find it catchy:


Of course, the Specials are never forgotten

then there is Madness