What's wrong with this world?

Those that do not take the GO train would have to use some imagination, those that do, will know exactly what I mean.

A commuter taking the GO train to downtown Toronto every morning was standing on the platform waiting for the train. He was dressed up in a suit as usual. Today the suit was gray. Underneath, freshly pressed white shirt and neatly added tie. Hair freshly cut, appearing as he just left a barber shop, clean and without any tiny hair out of place. With him a black briefcase probably holding a laptop, stacked in between his legs.

His day most likely started with the usual routine since everything that he appears to be doing is part of his routine. Breakfast probably boiled eggs, maybe bowl of cereal with milk, but for sure not McDonald's breakfast. He probably did not grab a coffee yet. He would be at Union Station way before his work starts and he would grab coffee nearby.

Just as he does every day, on the way in he stopped to pick his newspaper from the stand. If you look closer you notice it is Globe and Mail, and not Toronto Sun, Star, the free Metro, or Burlington Post. He is now reading with interest the paper he grabbed . Probably checking his stock so make sure his retirement investment is growing.

When looking around you could realize that he did not really differ from hundreds of other morning commuters. All seem to be dressed up, freshly cleaned and groomed. There was something however about this individual, something that caught the eye. It was the place where he was standing.

On the other side of the tracks a notice "Please stand well back of the yellow line" was hanging. After reading the sign, eyes by itself could move to the standing man and his feet. A thick yellow line was painted a foot or two from the edge of the platform and less than an inch from this line appeared tips of his shoes.

At this very moment you could hear a warning bell of a coming train. You knew this train, because this train was here every morning at the exact time. This train never slows down. This VIA train just passes the station rushing to get the out of GTA commuters to Union. On the sound of the bell, just like yesterday, the gentleman without any rush folded his newspaper in 4.

The bells appeared to be closer with every millisecond.

He bent down and picked his briefcase from between his legs.

You could hear already the sound of rushing air from underneath the wheels of the coming train.

He straighten himself and made a step backwards.

At this very moment the air pushed dirt and tiny grains of sand across everyone’s face, and forced the eyes to close and the heads to turn.

After the air returned to normal everyone was able to relax and continue what they were doing before, together with our stranger. Taking again the position at the yellow line today, tomorrow, ….

When looking at the world around us, the question gets bigger.  Why do people need violence for entertainment?  What makes people having fun when looking at violence?  Ok, yes games are virtual. Yes, movies are not really true, cos it is all staged.  But why violence is part of our life?  What makes it entertaining to read, watch and play violence?

At the end maybe we should go back to ancient Rome. Visit Colliseum and watch Gladiators fight for their life.  These were the games poeple were amused about back then.  Did anything change?  I'm saying it is all the same... for 1000s of years we did not change at all.  We all savaged beasts looking for blood.  Since real blood is forbidden by law, and it is forbidden by most of the society, we turn to the virtual/artificial blood of games.

Stupid was a prison they never let you out of, no time off for good behavior, you were in for life.

Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) "Blaze" 

I was waiting for a bus the other day at the school campus and I've seen a couple walking by.  They looked like a pair of undergrads dating.  They were passing a garbage bin on the way, and I've noticed the guy throwing a ball of paper into the bin from a few feet.  He tried to impress with his throw, but he missed it and did not freaking care... he moved on, with getting to his destination.  The girl however took a step back, went around the bin, picked the garbage the guy thrown, and she placed it inside the garbage bin.  

Meantime the guy stopped and patiently waited for her to do her citizen's deligence.  When she catched up with him, they did not exchange any word about what just happend.  They guy did not say that he is sorry, or did not make a joke out of it.  They just walked off like nothing happened.

I think a lot happened there.

Lots of people can't understand why I do not have TV at home.  There are few reasons for this.  First, there is nothing interesting to watch if you just take the basic cable. Second, at the same time there is a same movie showing on three or four channels.

The main reason for not having TV at home is commercials.  Every 10-15 min of a show, there is 10 min of commercials. The most annoying however is that those are the same commercials showing every 15 min. I guess TV is not about creativity.

We are getting hammered with commercials all the time. Commercials are on billboards, TV, Internet and even waiting at the car shop won’t spare you. Did anybody ever think how effective those commercials are?  How many of you actually go and buy the product or use the service right after you see the commercial? What do you do when you see a pop up Ad on internet?  Do you really click on Ad that says you WON!!!.

What really get me annoyed are the new commercial TVs on each distributor at Esso stations. Whenever you come to fill up gas and you pickup the nozzle the TV starts of and until you put the nozzle back it feeds you with all those stupid commercials.  I don't know about others, but for me it is invasion into my personal space, into my rights to listen to what I want to listen to, to choose if I want to hear the commercials or not.That's why whenever possible I try not to take gas at Esso, as I choose not to listen to the commercials.

I don't think commercials are that effective these days anyway.

Tomorrow is the elections day.

In the last week I've seen lots of people standing on the corners of the major intersections and waving at me.
And what was the purpose of that?

I guess I wont be voting. None of the candidates cought my attention.

I was driving down Lakeshore in Oakvile when I saw this:

First I've seen row of townhomes already set for halloween and trick'o'treaters. Ghosts, paper skeletons, thumbs and whiches all over the place.  The townhouses ended and there was a fenced park with more halloween decorations..........(here goes a 10 sec pause).  The fenced park was a cemetary.

Isn't living by a cemetary not spooky enough?

Plus, out of respect for the people that passed away or for those that come to visit their relatives, shouldn't you go a little bit easier on the decorations? Put a pampkin lantern, a hay man or something more along these lines.

Next year you might be tempted to put some real decorations.....

This might become a seperate cathegory on it's own.  Road stupidity. 

Here is what happend this morning:

Imagine a 3 lane road.  The rightmost line goes onto the ramp to highway, where the other 2 are going straight over the bridge. 
Rush hour, so the right lane is full of cars very slowly moving forward.  The middle lane is occupied by 2 slow moving trucks that are just trying to make over the bridge.

And there it is the DRIVER.  The DRIVER is strying to get onto the highway, but who would stay in line with the other cars on the rightmost lane? The DRIVER swirls onto the middle lane, and finds itself right behind the two trucks.  Only the stupid will crawl behind those trucks....so the DRIVER swirls again to the left lane.  The DRIVER very quickly passes the last truck and position itself on the middle lane, cutting off the truck and breaking hard to a full stop.  The DRIVER then turns on the signal that he would like the merge with the traffic on the right and enter the highway.

Guess the reaction!  The truck has to break hard to avoid the accident with the DRIVER. Starts to honk on the DRIVER (and you know how the truck honk...laudly in it's deep voice). The DRIVER does not move from it's position.  The truck honks again, but the DRIVER is not giving up. It was the truck that gave up and had to go around the DRIVER.

Putting coins over the bills (into one hand) when giving out change is the best way to force the customers to leave some extra money in your store.

On the floor

I just added a link (see left bottom corner) with the E-xxx food additictives. 

The E-xxx addictive is a chemical added to food in order to preserve freshness and consistency, as well as to make your food "more enjoyable".
This is very common to see the E-xxx numbers on the European food packages, and I see none on products made in North America.

Wanna know why the food you eat makes you feel unwell?
It's all in the tiny and long list of ingridients!

Why do I have to show my Access card and ID when I try to deposit money into an account?

This Novemeber there are Municipal elections in Canada.  I'm getting swamped with flyers from candidates. 
The problem is that all the flyers look the same.  I don't mean the faces or number of colours (If that makes them any better candidates), but what's written in the flyers.
They want better schools - ok, I do not go to school in my area and I don't have kids.
They want better roads - I have 10min to work and to school I take GO transit.
Better police force - Today on my way to work there was a police speed checking on the raod.
Lower taxes - HA HA HA.  If like this will ever happen.

The fliers do not give any information that would help me to choose a candidate.  At the end they are just the extra weight I have to carry when taking out garbage.