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Knockbacks Get You Here

Knockbacks In Toronto

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting fellow blogger/Orkutian Ian (The Haligonian). It was a great time.

We met at the Duke of York which is a pub located at the North end of Downtown Toronto, just north of the University. It’s a great place. The atmosphere is warm, and the food is all right (worth mentioning, even though we were only there to drink).

I got there a little late due to some Subway problems. I waited outside, and then wondered if maybe Ian was inside or on the patio. Good thing I checked, because there he was finishing off a pint of Guinness.

I sat down and we had an enjoyable couple of hours chatting about everything and getting to know each other. Funny how it was almost like a catch-up session than a first meeting. The wonders of the internet!

At some point early in our drinkfest, Shellie called us from Boston, to make her presence virtually known. The phone was passed back and forth between Ian and I, and all three of us laughed and had fun.

Of course, the end of the evening came too fast, and we each had to go our separate ways. Ian will be coming over for dinner in a few weeks, and we are putting the hard sell on Shellie to come up to have dinner with us (and bring her hubby-to-be along, too).

I’m glad I’ve made such good friends.



You Get What You Give

Ian and I are a lot alike. We can make fast friends anywhere we go, and we get along with a huge cross-section of people.

One thing that stuck with me after our meeting was how Ian described Toronto as being a very friendly place.

There are quite a number of people who hold the opposite view.

Why is this?

I thought about my own experiences. Usually, I find that wherever I go, people tend to be friendly.

I think that unfriendly people who expect to be treated in an unfriendly manner will not be disappointed. You probably know which type of person I am referring to. The person who is in a rush, and who doesn’t have the patience for people in their way. Or how about the person that walks around with a permanent scowl? Bleah.

I, on the other hand, tend to have either a neutral look or a slight smile on my face most of the time. I also greet complete strangers and I try to be polite. “Excuse me” or “please” and “thank you” are not uncommon for me to say to people.

I think that it would be a worthwhile practice for people who deem a place unfriendly to try and be positive about being there at the outset. They might be pleasantly surprised.



What Brought You Here?

Here is a search that brought someone to my blog…

AOL Search
generous people (3rd on the list – No clue about this)


Weird.

Thanks For Calling!

You have reached Jorge’s Blog. I’m not here right now. So leave your name and your comment at the emoticon and I will get back to you as soon as I return…



You read it correctly. I’m off on a camping trip, and so I will be away from my Blog. Odd how I actually feel obliged to tell everyone this…

Anyhow, keep leaving your comments! Remember, the contest for Hai-Kuul is still on!

Have a great weekend!

I’ll Show You Some Funny Things About Generous People On Mother’s Day

I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours

Lets see how many hits I get with that line from Google and Yahoo.

The Contact opening in the Junction has come and gone, and it was a success!

It was admittedly a lot of work to prep for this exhibition. Not only the printing, framing and setting up, but also the food preparation and such. My wife did a fair bit of running around to get groceries for me (which I thank her for!).

I’ve never really done an opening on my own for an exhibition before, so I wasn’t really prepared for how many people were coming. I figured that I would entice my friends with the promise of my chocolate chip banana bread (which always works). As usual, they didn’t disappoint. Pretty much all of the friends I had invited arrived at some point or another during the evening.

What did surprise me was the number of people I didn’t know. These people were very kind with their compliments and time, and some even offered advice and encouragement. It was a very warming evening for me.

My warmest thanks to everyone that attended. It’s because of you that I am what I am, all of you.

Hopefully that is a good thing, otherwise the world blames you for my craziness.



People Are Generous

I’ve sold two photographs so far, which is very encouraging. Contrary to what some people believe, it’s not always about the money.

However, I think an artist is a liar if they say that they are not happy when they receive money.

Ultimately, it’s about balance. I think it’s nice to be able to break even on cost, which can be deceptive at times.

I applaud people that support artists. It is because of these folks that artistic expression will never stop. Without art, the world becomes a boring place. Imagine television with nothing but plain documentaries. They can be informative and well filmed, but I know that if I had to watch them all the time I would go nuts. Variety is the spice of life.



Funny Things People Said

Here are some things that I heard, or that people said during the show…


Excuse me, do you cater often? (Said to me, as I was setting up the food)

What kind of film did you use to take that? (Asked jokingly by a friend regarding a blockish painting on the wall opposite my photos)

I love the banana bread! Oh, and the photos are pretty good, too!

You certainly know your photos! (Said by a lady who asked what time of the year a photo was taken, and in my frazzled state I responded with the approximate date and time)



Happy Mother’s Day!

A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all of my friends and relatives that are moms. I tend not to post on the weekend, because for some reason my formatting gets all jumbled up.

Hai-Kuul Breaks It Up!

Breaking It Up

I just wanted to apologize for the double Blog Tome posts. I needed to split up the Blog Tome because it is huge, and apparently MSN Spaces has an article size limit. Hence the split.

I’ve also removed my list of links from the side, as it has now been replaced by the Tome.



Hai-Kuul is Cool!

I am wondering if it is worth it to do something for the 100th Hai-Kuul. I’ve already written quite a number of the little buggers, so it just seems fitting to celebrate a milestone. Does anyone have any ideas? Leave me a comment. If you want to donate prizes, that’s good too.

So far all I can promise you is a Hai-Kuul written in your honour.

Trepidation 101

101 Things About Me? No Thanks

First of all, I want to say to the folks who filled this list out that it is great that you have done so. I just don’t personally hold to the idea of doing this kind of thing myself.

I have a very odd sense of duty when it comes to certain quizzes. The ones I tend to fill out usually involve something that I am interested in. The quiz logic itself is also interesting to me, so I will usually log my initial response for the record, and then tinker with various answers to see what I get. Quizzes I am referring to are things like which Lord of the Rings character are you? or which colour are you? and the ever popular you’d better fill this out or we will poison you slowly with arsenic and you’ll never live to see 35. I hate that one.

I will fill out the occasional quiz involving various questions about who I am, what I think, etc.

For example…

  1. What is your favourite colour? Blue
  2. Do you prefer tea or coffee? Tea
  3. Would you rather be a forest or a mountain? A Forest
  4. Chocolate or Vanilla? Mix ’em together!


Some of the questions can get personal, so I tend to use humour to throw people off track. After all, there are some things that I don’t want people to know. That’s for me and my wife, and possibly Dave to know.

However, this state 101 things about yourself quiz doesn’t suit me. Not at all.

Honestly, I like the journey of discovering someone through their writing. Not everyone posts everything about themselves, and this makes it more challenging to get to know them. I find that in the end, after all the effort, it’s worth it. And even if we don’t become friends, it was still good reading.

Similarly, I would like people to form their own opinions about me based on what they can see here. If I were to fill out the 101, I would do it out of spite.

Observe…

  1. My name is Jorge
  2. I live in Canada
  3. I like my name.
  4. I like Canada
  5. I eat cookies.
  6. I like cookies.
  7. I think cookies are awesome


And so on and so forth. I would hit 101 and you’d know maybe a few new things about me, and be really annoyed. Again, I think it’s a great idea for some people, but not for others. Maybe I’m just shy. Or maybe I’m a snob?

I think that people should work to get to know other people, to make it more meaningful.

I used the same rationale when I came up with the Blog Tome. I don’t just want to list people anymore. I want visitors to know why I am linking to them. It’s a more work-intensive list, but at least people will know why these links matter to me.

ATWG, I hope, if you read this, that you don’t misinterpret it. I think that you’ve done a great thing with your list. It’s just not for me.



Trepidation

My photography show is looming. I have to go to the venue tomorrow afternoon and set up my photos for the month of May. This will be the first show in which I will actually have to hang my photographs myself.

It’s odd how I’ve never given much thought to hanging any picture before. In the house, it’s to make the wall look less empty. To give some colour to a room.

This exhibition is not about making the wall look less empty (although that is a side effect of covering it with photographs). It’s about making a statement about myself and what I believe.

I admit to being a bit nervous (as this is really only my second exhibition – and what an exhibition!), but I think enough friends are going to visit me on the reception night to make me feel a bit more comfortable about it all.

General details are on my web page, and the specifics are on the Contact page.

If you are in the Junction neighbourhood (Dundas St W & Keele St) and feel like stopping by, feel free! If I don’t know you personally yet, it would be a great way to meet face to face. Plus I’ll have free munchies available.

Gotta go for the free munchies!