got a couple interesting forwards today that i'd like to share...first one is short and sweet. second one is long but a good read:


Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbemls. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.


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Article on Canada from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence, just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he
doesn't always lock his front door.

He wears Dockers. You hardly know he's there. And then one day you discover that he has pot in his basement, spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen mowing the yard is his spouse. Allow me to introduce Canada. The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up there, but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic have been building an espresso machine.

Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along brother ever joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include "freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway.

And then there's the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors are authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession, as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession of under15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if your garden is full of wasps, it's smarter to go for the nest rather than trying to swat every individual bug. Or, in the United States, bong.

Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand. These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a drug problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals must all be heavily armed, the law-abiding civilians helpless and the ! government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign. (The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the government will get around to the confiscation eventually.)

They don't even have a death penalty!

And yet .. nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course, there
> are still crimes committed with guns -- brought in from the United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit viol! ent crimes. They're probably more focused on shoplifting boxes of Ho-Hos from convenience stores.

And then there's the most reckless move of all: Just last month, Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful moose, what can they be thinking? Will there be married Mounties (they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell, not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families. Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course, but more than those libertines up north.

This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our stereotypes about Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome country of polite, be! er-drinking hockey players, not founded by freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by
loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good government than liberty and independence.

But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive about letting people do what they want to?

Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according to polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by large, well-organized religious groups and thus has more in com! mon with those of Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran.

Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts more immigrants per capita than the United States. These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound.

Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult -- more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't afraid of homosexuality. Most of all, they're not afraid of each other.

I wonder if America will ever be that cool.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Author: Samantha Bennett
Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Copyright: 2003 PG Publishing
Contact: letters@post-gazette.com
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/

Twas a great weekend - really action packed and I am SO TIRED as a result. I ended up taking a nap tonight around 5:30 - 6:30. I hope that doesn't make me stay up all night tonight. Actually, I'm yawning so much right now so I should be okay to fall asleep...
Played golf twice (Friday and Sunday) and played tennis on Saturday so it was a pretty active weekend. My golf game has regressed of late. I thought I was hitting well about a month ago but my games this weekend were back to the common inconsistancy that I'm used to. It's so frustrating and I totally wanna get better - guess I have to play more to do that. Ended up at he Bier Market last night for Tai's b-day. I had a good time and there were some funny stories that came out of the evening. Today, hung out at my niece's place in the afternoon and played with her. Her mom is allergic to dairy products and must have had a trace at some point so it was kind of scary cause she was having a really hard time breathing. Eventually, it worked out but it was weird cause we all felt so helpless just standing there trying to help (but not being able to do anything). Is there such thing as an EPPI Pen for dairy allergies or is that just for peanut (and other nut) allergies?

I'm going to Waterloo this weekend...that will be really intersting cause it's been a very long time since I've been there. Look out FED Hall and 16 and 17 year old froshies - I'm coming back to school!!! Speaking of youngun's in school...man, with the double cohort - it must be pretty funny at a lot of universities this semester.

On my way to la la land but wanted to pop in and say hello first. Talked to my brother for the first time today in like 3 weeks. It was good to chat and nice to hear what is new in his life. I was also able to fill him in on some cool stuff happening dans mon vie. Life is working out nice these days. I am actually getting more and more into my job (something I didn't think I was going to say just a few months ago). Also, I have amazing friends and hang out with them lots. I am also running again now and going to sign up for a couple 10K's over the next few months so that will motivate me to keep it up. Just gotta watch the diet and I'm all set.

On Tuesday night, I had an excellent dinner with JLo at seven numbers. The food was pretty good but the style and atmostphere were really nice. The story behind the restaurant is that when the restaurant first opened, they didn't have a name but only their provincial license, which consisted of 7 numbers - 1447582. The name around the neighbour just became "seven numbers" and it stuck. Here is a review of the restaurant. It was cool to hang with JLo cause it had been a while since we chatted. And chatted we did...a little bit about everything and a lotta bit about other stuff. Tonight, Kris had a bunch of us over for a bbq after work and we ate like kings. After we played some old skool card drinking games (including cheat which was a real blast from the past). It was a fun evening and total jokes all night long.

Now to something more serious before I go to bed. Tomorrow is approximately the 2 month anniversary of my uncle's death. They are having a charity golf tournament in his honour tomorrow and I'll be playing around 2:00 pm. It will be quite emotional to play tomorrow. I'm looking forward to an excellent round with Kama kaka since it's been a while since I last played a round with him.

Good night all,

Reading the blogs of Etch and Sparks is really inspiring. Both of them are such good writers - excellent mix of wit, substance and humour. I know that at one time, I used to write better and of late - I must say that my blogs have been sub-par. You know why it is? I know exactly why it is. I haven't been reading. That is exactly the reason. I haven't read a book in months. In fact, it's been so long that I can't even remember the name of the last book I read. I have been "reading" The Life of Pi for over a month now and I'm only on page 35 or something pitiful like that. What the heck is wrong with me? It's not like I'm watching TV at the expense of reading. That couldn't be further from the truth actually.

So what can I do about this? One thing that I like (that I saw in both of their blogs) was the thought of learning more. James is back in school at UW and Etch is contemplating a few night courses here and there. I would like to do something like that too...especially a course like Film or Geography or Travel or Political Science. We'll see if something like that happens. It's all about baby steps I guess.

Today has been a fantastic day. It started early (woke up at 6:15 am). Left the house to drive to St. Thomas at 7:15 am. Arrived at 9:00 am and had a product demo all day till about 4:00 pm. After, I visited another customer in Ingersoll and found out that I closed my first deal!!! That's right, I got my first sale ever. Kind of cool actually because I know that I worked hard on that one and followed it the whole way through. When I got home, I went for a really good jog (my usual route along Warden, Steeles, Birchmount and Finch. I just measured it on MS Streets and Tips and it's 6.7 km. I did it today in 33 minutes so that I pretty good. I wanna get it under 30 minutes so let's see how long that takes.

Blogs are a way for the blogger to express themselves and provide the bloggee with enjoyment, inspiration (well, not mine) and ideas. That is the main point of all this. I hope that all you that actually read my blog continue to do it and I promise that the literary styles on it will improve.

I feel so dry cause it has been so long since I last wrote (almost 6 days in fact). so much has happened but I don't have time to give you a proper sinopsis so I am going to give you the abbreviated version (man I suck cause I did this in my last blog too).

here goes:
- last week from tuesday the 2nd until friday the 5th, I was back in Milwaukee for that Pyramid Power Selling course that I was going to take. It turned out to be a really good and quite benefcial class so I'm actually quite excited to see what outcomes come from it. In other news - life in Milwaukee really hadn't changed. I had a great chance to meet up with a lot of my old buddies so that was awesome. I saw Dave, Veronica and Maggie the first night for dinner and the Meena, Deepika and Sylvia on Wednesday night and finally, most of the rest on Thursday night at a series of clubs, including my old stomping ground - Mantra.
- last week before leaving for Milwaukee (as part of the pre-work for my Sales training class) I test drove a Mini Cooper and a Volvo s40. The Mini was WICKED. i absolutely love that car...it's not the most practical car out there but in terms of style, it is primo.
- all weekend, I was dragonboating at GWN 911 at Ontario Place. Our team came together for a fantastic final race where we were about a MILIsecond out of first place. We were just barely a hair behind them. It was our last race of the season and competition was quite fierce. It'll be interesting to see how the team comes together next year.
- Went to a Marathi community funcation last nght after racing where I did an old skool Indian dance (that I used to do when I was 10. It's called Legim and involves these sticks and bells. And then after racing today, I went to a baby shower for a close family friend.

Man I gotta relax more!
I also gotta sleep cause I am so damn tired and my muscles are aching...

the long weekend is over. it's back to work tomorrow. man, i really love long weekends. it's so nice to have more time to just chill out. and that is exactly what this weekend was about. i hung out with family and friends and had a lot of time to just rest. i am off to milwaukee for work tomorrow night. will be there till the end of the week for some training. it'll be nice to head there after a while and re-connect with my buddies down there. it'll be nice to see everyone after so long. also, the training course i am taking called "Pyramid Power Selling Skills" should be interesting. one of the pre-work assignments is to go to 3 car dealerships and pretend to buy a car and observe the sales people at work to see what they do effectively and what they don't do so well. i'm almost done that assignment...but unfortunately the dealerships were closed today cause of the holiday.

i gotta write more about this weekend some time but here is the brief sinopsis:
- j.p.'s party on saturday night in brampton was wicked!!! over 120 people. crazy big industrial sized beer/pop fridge in the garage, 5 grills cooking all night
- amisha's graduation party was a lot of fun too - amazing food and fun times hanging with the peeps
- cristine's "white-out" party was great except i was the moron and wasn't careful so when there was a big group in the kitchen, i accidentally spilled red wine on my shirt and pants. i washed them all today and it all seems to have gotten out which is good
- today, my niece and her family came so it was great to chill with them. she was so excited because tomorrow is her first day of Grade 1. wow - that seems like such a long time ago. it would be so cool to be going to Grade 1 tomorrow... she was also excited because her first tooth is loose. it's one of the small ones in the front on the bottom row...
- tonight i had dinner with kb - we went to lin garden (indian chinese food) in scarborough - mmmmm, so yummy!!!

Gotta get to bed now. Have a good week