Here We Go...

Ok, everyone keep your fingers crossed.


The apartment hunting begins in earnest tonight.


Bear in mind I make very little and had to invest in an expensive car for the job...I don't want to live in a hole...but I'm prepared to the fate of a a bachelor if necessary.


If I move into a bachelor I will move to change the name...Bachelor is stupid.

My Most Favourite Show. Ever.

Ok, so one of my most favourite television shows is 'Dead Like Me'.

If you haven't caught it, it's for good reason.

It was on Showtime for only two awkward seasons. They are running the reruns on Bravo, so catch it if you can.

'Dead Like Me' is a dark comedy...just the way I like them. Because I'm uncomfortable with drama.

DLM follows the story of grim reapers, our protagonist being George, an 18 year old who was killed by a toilet seat falling from a Russian space station.

I recently got the entire series on DVD and I'm loving it.

I couldn't decide what clip to share, so here's a trailer of the first season, I'll put more up if I think they're worthy.

P.S. The next television show that gets to stand along side DLM for being way before it's time is 'Firefly'. More on that later.

Enjoy!

Rated

Ok, so some of you who scroll down to the end of this page may have noticed an addition.

I have been rated.

Yes, there is a website where you can submit your blog and they will scan it and rate it.

Apparently, this blog is rated: R. For restricted.

The reason? Because I wrote vagina like, 10 times or something.

And gay, don't forget that.

So apparently, vagina and gay are bad, bad words.

That's such crap. Oops, crap was on their list...That's such fecal matter.

So, take a look at the rating, because in defiance I am taking it down in a bit.

Vagina is not dirty. Get over it. And last time I checked 'gay' wasn't a bad word.

I'm tempted to type in some really nasty stuff to justify my point, but my grandparents frequent this site, so I won't.

Happy Canada Day!

Hope everyone had a great Canada Day!

I went to the fireworks at Byron this year.

For those of you who don't know about geography of London, Byron is one of the more affluent neighbourhoods in town.

There are fireworks at Byron, downtown and in the East end (there might be some in the North end, but I really don't care). I usually end up at Harris Park downtown with friends to watch fireworks...sitting on the banks of the Thames where there's either an excess of water or it's dried up (dried up this year) with thousands of others getting ready to watch the explosions.

But this year I found myself one neighbourhood over in Byron. This was interesting. Firstly, I don't know what it is about the suburbanites...but when shit happens in our neighbourhoods we think we own the whole freaking place.

As I was driving my car down the road with my peeps (yes, I have peeps) we saw the excess of people driving, parking and walking to Byron Optimist Park for the event. Armed with Ice Caps and Timbits, we were ready.

I remember working at Timmy's in university and absolutely HATING working on July 1st.

Because inevitably at around 7:45pm the rush of families (most often in the drive thru) who would pick up their firework snacks. I have no problem with this. This is what Tim Hortons does. They take orders, fill them and sends people on their way with re-heated carbohydrates and "nicotine laced" caffeine.

My problem always laid in the pure and simple fact that people started acting like mentally delayed monkeys while ordering.

Here are my tips for ordering on July 1st at Tim Hortons:

1. Know your order.

Tim's doesn't change. Yes, they may start making flavoured Ice Caps, or a seasonal doughnut, but it's basically the same shit. Cruellers, fritters, dips, Timbits, coffee, hot chocolate, apple juice.

2. If you don't know your order...DON'T GO THROUGH DRIVE THRU

This should always be followed, not just on our nation's birthday. If you go into the store you can spend all the time you want staring like an idiot at the board. When you're outside at the speaker and you don't know what you want and are hemming and hawing you can bet the staff inside are going crazy. Don't be the ass who makes a bottleneck happen. You are hated.

3. Don't have your children order in the drive thru

It's difficult enough hearing you let alone a tiny little voice in the back seat. Besides that, it's annoying.

4. Use smaller bills and coins

With all the traffic on July 1st...if you're going to buy $4.27 worth of product don't pay with a freaking $20 bill. That's annoying.

5. If you're buying bulk product (Timbits, doughnuts, etc.) don't start requesting flavours unless you come into the store

When someone requests a 20 pack of Timbits in the drive thru you are basically giving the staff the ability to choose what flavour goes into the box. Taking your Timbit flavour order is damn near impossible. You may say you don't want one flavour (old fashion plain for instance)...but don't be annoying. And definitely do not say that you want all chocolate. Don't be an ass. They can't make pounds and pounds of extra chocolate. You're annoying as well.

6. Tip.

Self explanatory.

7. Ice Caps take time to make, go inside.

Ice Caps are time consuming to make, go inside if you are ordering more than 3, you'll take too much time.

If you follow those rules, you won't have your coffee spit in.

Cheers!

Sunday's Post Secret

www.postsecret.com

I AM THE LAW

Alright, so you remember Pearl?

The landlord with the drinking problem?

Well, Will Ferrell has made another short film with Pearl...this time she's the law...

Enjoy!

Doggy Style Love

Um, yeah. The title of this entry is pretty self explanatory.

She Had The Moves

Ok, so the final act was this woman.

Miss Heaven Lee Hights.

Yes, you read that right.

And she OWNED that stage.

And I'm not just saying that because she had a number that was a medley of Pussycat Doll songs.

Although when I saw her perform "I Don't Need A Man" I really did believe she didn't need one.

That, and she had a rocking ass.

A Bit More Experience

Ok, so Miss Nicolette Brown took to the stage after Honey.

She definitely had great banter with the audience and chose some older tunes, ending with the crowd pleasing "Last Dance" by gay icon Donna Summer.

And her outfit made her look like a mermaid.

Miss Toronto Pride 2007

Ok, so one thing that I do love is the drag shows.

No matter if they are kings or queens, they're always a good show.

On the surface it's fun to watch them lip sync to songs you love.

On the other hand it's a beautiful commentary on gender-bending. Virtually poking fun and taking over this idea of gender. What is feminine? What is masculine? If you're a man can you be feminine? If you're a woman can you be masculine? Shouldn't we feel like we can explore both sides, given that everything within ourselves relies of perfect harmony?

Miss Toronto Pride 2007 kicked it off with a performance that showed her relative newness to the medium of drag. Still, she killed a performance of Beyoncé's "Ring the Alarm". A song that I hate Beyoncé singing, but liked Miss Brown doing. Very nice!

It's A Bird, It's A Plane!

No-

It's SUPER PRIDE!

Pascal donned his peace Pride flag, bandanna and "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" T-Shirt.

In his off days he enjoys keeping Toronto subway stations safe, for all.

Promo At Toronto Pride 2007

As we were walking down Church St. we saw this advertisment for Botox Cosmetics.

That's right. At Pride.

Hey! Let's perpetuate the stereotype that all gay men are obessed with youthful looks, including washboard abs and wrinkle free faces. Ugh.

While we're at it let's also keep up the façade of lesbians who are more concerned with softball and sport bras.

Double ugh.

I'm really quite sick of the stereotypes tha we put the GLBTTQ2 community into constantly. It seems that we (collective society) are more comfortable with our gay men effeminate and weak and our gay women butch and straight forward. Anything in between and we don't know what to think. And let's not even get into what we expect people who are bisexual are "supposed" to be like.

Live and let live, people.

TORONTO PRIDE 2007!

WOOHOO!

This past weekend I went to Toronto Pride 2007 with Andrea and Pascal (two very good buddies!).

We had a blast!

We caught the last end of the Pride Parade...same stuff as last year, half naked people, rainbows galore, and beads, glorious beads!

We then hopped a barricade and walked the rest of the parade route and found ourselves at Church Street. We walked down Church Street and as we walked farther and farther...it got more and more crowded. Suffocatingly so. Shoulder to shoulder.

Now, for those of you who know me, I don't like being touched. So this was pretty bad.

Add in:

It was about 100 degrees

My strawberry smoothy was dripping on my fingers

The loop of Village People music coming from Sailor

The nakedness

I was uncomfortable.

But, we had a blast! And we caught some drag queen and king shows. An incredible energy the whole time, sandwiched in with great people and cold, cold drinks.

If you've never been to Pride (anywhere, really) you must, must, MUST go. Gay, straight or questioning Pride is one of the most wonderful environments ever!

London Pride is having its 25th Anniversary at the end of July! W00T!

This Is The Crap I'm Talking About...

Men on pimp rap as teen flees
By JONATHAN JENKINS -- Sun Media


TORONTO (Sun Media) - A teenage girl held against her will and forced to have sex with men at strip clubs and private parties sneaked away from her captors and flagged down a passing police officer for help.

"It was fortunate for her that she was able to find him, he was virtually right across the street," Toronto Police Det.-Const. Eduardo Dizon said.

The victim, 17, escaped on May 30 after three weeks of forced prostitution, Dizon said.
Three men have been arrested in the case in the past two weeks and all face a variety of prostitution-related offences, including living off the avails of an underage prostitute, forcible confinement and sexual exploitation.

Dizon said the young woman met the main culprit through a friend and he quickly lured her into turning tricks.

PAID FOR SEX

Any illusion she may have had of having a say in the matter quickly faded, Dizon said, and she was not allowed to keep any of the money she was paid for sex.

"She was physically restrained from leaving," he said. "At times when she tried to leave or questioned whether she could leave she was assaulted and choked."

At one point, the man who first lured her left town, leaving two other suspects to watch over her.

That's when she was able to slip away from the men holding her and find the passing police officer.

Christopher Lewis, 22, is to appear in College Park court today. Garnett Grant, 25, also known as G and G-Money, is to appear in Old City Hall court today.

Released on bail June 22, Donovan Lewars, 25, will be back in court July 19.

Introducing Gizmo

This is Gizmo.

Gizmo's gender is a bit of a mystery to me.

I think Gizmo is trans, which is awesome.

Gizmo weighs about 5 pounds, but is frequently trying to dominate Toby.

Mostly dominating by mounting Toby. A male.

I love 'em.

Introducing Toby

This is Toby.

He is Rachel's dog and I've been hanging out with him for the past couple of weeks.

Awesome dog.

Even if he's a little yappy.

But he's a good cuddler. And, as you can see, a bit of a licker.

An Open Letter To The London Free Press

Re: Billboards pimping beer dumb, not offensive

Being able to connect cause and effect is vital to solving our community’s problems. It seems as though Ian Gillespie’s column “Billboards pimping beer dumb, not offensive” missed this valuable opportunity to draw connections. For those of you who are unaware London does have pimps.

Those of us working with our eyes open are very aware of this fact. What is a pimp? The short definition is that a pimp is a coward, a liar who sexually exploits others. In London’s case many are sexually exploiting children and youth.

Most people constantly ask the question “How is it that child after child is being recruited into the sex trade and is being sexually abused in London?” Campaigns such as this beer ad and Mr. Gillespie’s response don’t help by using the word in a humourous and playful manner. The word pimp is not playful.

I think reclaiming words is an interesting way some social groups go about gaining some of their power back; however in this case the persecuted people are not the ones trying to re-instate the word pimp. And since we have pimps in London and rarely in our community do the adult sex trade workers have pimps, it can only be deduced that we are trying to glorify people who take part in the sexual abuse of our children youth. That is simply disgusting.

Just because we have television shows like “Pimp My Ride” (MTV) and contests like “Pimp My Garden” (Toronto Star) and “Pimp My Library Cart” (Wisconsin Library) doesn’t mean we’ve taken back a word.

You can’t identify a pimp by what they wear. Far from popular opinion pimps do not wear grillz, bling, fur coats, feathers in their hats, carry canes or challis’ filled with alcohol. Nor do they drive Cadillacs’ with hydraulics. They look like every other person on the street. They can be young or old, male or female, affluent or poor. In fact 30% of the sexual predators (pimps included) make more than $50,000 a year from a legitimate job. 10% make more than $80,000 a year. These folks are “upstanding” citizens.

Pimp is not a word we can reclaim until we recognize the fear and violence (sexual, physical, and emotional) they disseminate throughout the young people they hurt on a continual basis in London.

As well, I take offence to Gillespie’s implication that this issue shouldn’t be talked about. Using the word pimp in our vocabulary is disgusting, hateful and offensive. Talking about this is the only way to ensure London’s youth stay safe.

This attempt to stifle conversation about this topic is reminiscent of pimps threatening kids if they talk about what’s going on, they’ll kill them or the people they love.

I guess it’s reminiscent because I see and hear it on a daily basis.


Jessie Rodger

Did You Pride It Up?

Hey!!! Hope you all had a kick ass Pride!

Update anyone?

My pictures will have to wait, but a lot happened this past week or so...

- The 3rd Regional Social Forum has come and gone (a great time for all!)

- Andrea and Pascal returned to Canada from Brazil!

- I went to Toronto Pride with Andrea and Super Pride

Lots of fun.

Stay tuned.

:)

Warning, Some Might Be Offended...

But this was too darn funny not to put up.

I found this at PostSecret.com, a great website that posts secrets people mail in on postcards.

Some are poignant, some are touching, some are depressing and some are just damn funny.

There basically secrets people tell anonymously via postcards sent to a guy in Flordia (www.postsecret.com).

I like the funny ones. Because I'm not comfortable with unhappy feelings.

This one made me chuckle because sometimes I think it's true...however we'll have to tackle it's validity on another post.

Warning: If you believe the Bible is all true, skip this post. But for those who roll around on the floor when they read Leviticus, enjoy (seriously, that part of the book outlaws EVERYTHING...)

Pretty Good 4: Rise of the Shiny Surfer

Ok, so Dad and I went to see the latest comic book sequel, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Despite some pretty bad acting, it was an Ok way of spending 2 hours.

It was kind of long.

And, as far as plots go, it was a bit far fetched. Even for a comic book movie.

And the end is annoying. Let's just say that it seems the producers of the film don't know the difference between China and Japan.

And Jessica Alba is such a bad actress ("Why are you trying to destroy our planet?").

Anyway, check out this spoof of the film, it's almost as enjoyable as the movie.

And you get to see Chris Evans' without his shirt on.