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World Cup Runneth Empty

Posted on June 14, 2006 by Jorge

My World Cup Runneth Over

I suppose that a lot of people will have their feathers ruffled at what I have to say. Of course, seeing as this is my opinion and those people can stop reading whenever they like, they have only themselves to blame.

The world is abuzz with team names, stats, and flags from all over the place. It’s an exciting time unless, of course, you are annoyed as all hell with the marketing.

Don’t misunderstand me, though. I have a lot of respect for the athletes of the sport. It’s not the easiest sport to play, taking a lot of endurance and coordination.

And I have entered a pool for the sport, picking mostly underdog teams just for the heck of it*, so it’s not like I live in a hole and have never heard of the world cup.

My problem has more to do with people than the event itself.



The World Cup is Half Empty

I can guarantee that for the next few weeks that someone will stroll up to me at some point during each day and ask me who I think is going to win the World Cup.

I can also guarantee that their faces will contort when I tell them I don’t really care…


Soccer Nut: What do you mean you don’t really care?
Jorge: Exactly what I said.
SN: How can you not like the sport?
J: I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I just don’t care about the World Cup. I’d rather be playing soccer than watching anyway.
SN: You’re weird.


Truth be told, most sporting events in their finals stage highlight how weird a number of sporting fanatics are.

I’m sure more people become excited about these events than they do about elections or political issues. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that there are more people who know the statistics of their favourite sports teams than they do about issues that affect the environment.

I am certainly not perfect. I could be better versed in the news and the goings-on in the world. At the same time, though, I try my best to be a good person, helping where I can.

Sports, as fun as they are, do little to forward our species’ development. I know that they encourage people to go out there and play. But seriously, take a look at your average sports fan and you tell me what you see.

If people** spent a fraction of their sports fan energy on building their knowledge of the world, raising their children to be good citizens and protecting the environment, we would be in far better shape.




* – As you can guess, I am in last place in the pool.
** – This is not intended as a slight to people who like sports. It is really more of a commentary on people who endlessly complain about the country they live in while never doing anything about it. However, these same people have no problem painting their faces and running around causing trouble because some sports team won or lost.

Filed under: Rants | 34 Comments »

Strike Contact

Posted on June 4, 2006 by Jorge

Strike Out

Employees of our city’s transit system held a strike last Monday giving little to no warning to the public at all, practically bringing the city to a halt.

In my opinion, this was probably the worst way to get support. Unless their idea of support is to have their entire ridership pissed off at them, in which case they definitely succeeded. People had to cab it, bike it, or walk to work. Unless they couldn’t, in which case they were forced to stay home and miss a day.

I had no problem in regards to work as I have a great high-speed connection from home, so I spent the day working in very comfortable clothes.

The strike was illegal from what I understand, and ended in the early afternoon.

The funniest* thing about this whole strike happened just a few days ago.

Our transit system has something called a Metropass. You essentially buy a monthly pass on a swipe card that is good for unlimited travel.

The transit system made an announcement that they would refund people money for their troubles during the strike. This sounds like a great thing. Of course, they announced this after that pass ran out. Most people usually ditch their passes at the end of the month, leaving the fate of their cards in the hands of waste disposal.

Nice job, folks.

I used to defend our transit system. Now I am not so sure.

After having been to DC, ours looks pretty shoddy.



The End of Contact

This is the last week of my show at Axis.

Come Friday I will be most likely taking my lunch break to go over there and remove everything from the walls and bring them home.

A good number of people wrote in the guest book, which is very cool.

Not sure when the next show is going to be. As usual, I will keep people updated on that. At this point, though, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be happening anytime soon.





* – By funniest I mean most idiotic.

Filed under: Photography, Rants | 13 Comments »

Notepad Master

Posted on May 12, 2006 by Jorge

Take a Notepad

I was checking my e-mail recently and I noticed a story in the news section about J.K. Rowling and how she was complaining that she had run out of writing paper to write on when she went to town.

So what did people do? They sent her paper.

I understand that people admire her and love her books. Or perhaps they really want her to get cracking on the purported final novel in the series. But this lady is one of the richest people in the freakin’ world. Somehow I think that she could actually afford to buy writing paper from anywhere on the face of the Earth, and have it shipped priority page by page to wherever she wanted.

It’s stories like this that make me shake my head in disgust.

Don’t get me wrong. I quite enjoy the series (although in my opinion the fifth book could have been better written by a monkey jonesing for heroin), but please!

Send your paper to schools in third-world countries that need it!



Chillin’ With the Master

Tomorrow it appears that I will be hanging out with Miss Jay. We’ve been trying to get together ever since her and her hubby moved to the Big Smoke, but something always comes up that prevents us from meeting.

It’s like the universe will explode if we actually ever met while living in the same city. I suppose you should all hide in your bomb shelters tomorrow night, just in case.

I’m very much looking forward to it.

Filed under: Friends, General Dialogue, Rants | 11 Comments »

Sorry Courtesy Remember

Posted on February 20, 2006 by Jorge

Sorry Doesn’t Make a Dead Man Alive

My dad used to say that to me when he didn’t think that I was sincere during an apology*.

It is one of those phrases that has stayed in the back of my mind over the years, resurfacing every once in a while when someone utters an insincere pleas for forgiveness.

This sprang to the front of my mind the other day when I was getting on the subway.

The train had just come to a stop and the doors opened. A young woman barrelled out of the car like a bat out of hell, nearly knocking over an older lady standing next to me.

Without even looking back, she muttered a quick sorry, speeding off to wherever the hell she was going.

Bewildered, the old lady shook her head and made her way into the subway**.

What is is with people these days?

Words like sorry and thank you are becoming trivialized by people who really don’t care about anyone.

I know when I apologize for anything, I make sure that the person knows that I really mean it. Same with everything else.

Far too many people put thank you or have a nice day at the end of their e-mails as part of their signature. As if having it there, pre-recorded, will make it mean something.

I figure if you are going to put those things, you should mean them. Otherwise, they are just empty gestures.



Courtesy

Ever have a really bad day, and then someone says something to set you off, and rather than keeping quiet, you actually let your tongue fly with abandon?

That happened to me a few weeks ago.

I was riding subway home, and the cars were relatively full. An older lady slowly made her way into the car, walking along with her cane.

Not one person offered her a place to sit.

Even worse, the last available seat was taken by a younger guy who actually pushed his way past her to get to it. The old woman looked stunned at this guy’s audacity.

What made this even more annoying is that I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who told me that in her entire pregnancy, only one person offered her a seat***. The issue was fresh in my mind.

Though I normally would speak up in a situation like that, the mood I was in that day made me a little less patient…


Jorge: Hey dude. Maybe you should let the lady sit down.
Punk: [Doesn’t even look up.] Maybe you should just fuck off.
[People stop what they’re doing to listen to us chatting.]
J: It’s common courtesy to give the seat up to someone who might need it more than you.
P: Didn’t you hear what I just said? I got here first, anyway.
J: Yeah, but you’re not elderly, or pregnant. You’re also not disabled.
P: Nope.
J: You know, breaking your knees would probably earn you the right to sit there.
P: [Finally looks up at my not-so-pleased face.] Oh. Uh. Sorry man. Here you go, lady.
[Punk gets up, and the old lady sits down. She looks up and smiles.]
J: That’s a good lad.
[Punk makes his way through the crowd to the other end of the subway. Probably a good idea.]


Stories like that make me sound like I go around picking fights. But I’m not really a violent person. I find that some people just need a bit of a prod to gain a new perspective.

If he had a problem, or was looking really tired, then he probably could have remained there. That would make sense.

But he wasn’t tired or disabled in any way. He was also rude.

I don’t have patience for that.



The Things We Remember

It’s funny what sticks in your head from when you’re a kid.

I’ve been meaning to do a sketch of my friend Shatton as Iron Man, but I’ve been procrastinating. Last night, I printed up some pictured of Shatton and Iron Man so I can get to work on it sooner than later.

Recently, I was chatting with him about this when the conversation took a weird tangent. If you never went to Catholic church you may not understand this…



Click to enlarge…




* – At least, I suspect that was the reason. Maybe he had no reason to say it at all.
** – Of course, no one offered her a seat right away. When someone finally did, she waved them off. Her rejection of the offer was let go too easily for my liking.
*** – And he was visiting from Europe.

Filed under: Friends, General Dialogue, Humour, Rants | 19 Comments »

War Labels WTF Heart

Posted on February 10, 2006 by Jorge

Thank You, War Amps!

I lost my keys a few weeks ago.

I was really upset about it. However, yesterday, I got a notice from a courier that I had a package waiting for me at their depot.

Sure enough, when I got there I found my keys waiting for me inside the envelope.

The War Amps of Canada have a great key tag service. Essentially, if someone finds your keys, and they have a War Amps Key Tag on them, the person who found them can drop them in a mailbox and they will be sent to the War Amps office. Then, they will send them to you, free of charge!

We donate to them once in a while, so it was a really great feeling to get those keys back, as it would have cost a bit of moolah to replace some of them.

Thanks, War Amps!

Everyone visiting me should go pay them a visit.

They run a great service!



Labels

I was chatting with Kris on the phone the other day. We both have a thing with nomenclature. Everyone has to fit into some kind of group, if only to make it easier to remember the context of the relationship we have with them.

Observe…

[The scene opens with a phone conversation already in progress.]
Jorge: I wanted to tell Dave, but he wasn’t around.
Kris: You can’t tell me Dave is not your other soul mate.
J: I never said he wasn’t.
K: He’s your other lover.
J: My man wife.
K: That would be your mife.
J: Mife?
K: Yes, your man wife.
J: So if he’s my mife, what would you be? My State-side wife?
K: No. I would be your blife.
J: What’s a blife?
K: Your blog wife.
J: Wicked.
K: Yes.
J: So I have a wife, a mife, and a blife.
K: That’s right, Boo.
J: It’s a good thing I don’t have a karate wife. The short form of that would suck ass.
K: That’s just dirty.


Creating labels can be fun!



WTF, WWF?

I saw a World Wildlife Fund poster in the subway today.

Essentially, it has a picture of a book entitled 2853 Ways To Stop Using Fossil Fuels or some such title. Underneath the picture, it has a paragraph that essentially says something along the lines of it’s just easier to donate to the WWF to do the things you want to but know you can’t.

I’m not really sure I agree with this message.

I support the WWF, of course. I think they do great work.

But one would think that the WWF would want to encourage people to not only donate, but also to take local action.

Am I smoking crack?

If anyone else has seen this poster, I’d like some responses as to what you think.



I Don’t Really Heart Olympics

The winter Olympics are here. Am I the only one that doesn’t care about this?

First of all, I think the Olympics have lost their meaning. I’m sure a long time ago, it was all about the sport.

Now it seems all about the politics.

I also don’t like this whole Canada kicking ass attitude. I’ve always thought our underdog neutrality was charming. It made the wins more meaningful. Now it just seems like cockiness, rather than confidence.

I don’t want anyone to get me wrong, here. I think that our athletes are nothing short of amazing. They work hard (with barely any support from the government) to lay it all on the line at these events. That takes a great deal of courage.

But how appreciated are they on a world-wide scale?

What happens if they fail?

They get shut out into the cold, off to maintain their skills with rigourous training for the next Olympics.

To me the Olympics have become a pissing contest between nations. The proof of this is the fact that you can have mulitple entrants into the same event. Those with the deepest pockets tend to take home the most medals.

Is this really the spirit of the games?

Maybe I have odd, romantic notions of what the games should be like.

Again, feel free to tell me to go to hell for this, if you like.

I may not change my opinion, but I value yours.

Filed under: Friends, General Dialogue, Rants, Spaces Archive | 10 Comments »

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