Psychiatry

"P$YCHIATRY is a Fraud" says her sweater... Oh please, ignorant hippy... Do you get out of your incense-stick-smoke infested voodoo world and read books that talk about chemical imbalances in the human body?? Not to say a lot of psychiatrists might not be qualified/patient enough to prescribe proper treatment for such problems, but to sport a sweater that discourages psychiatric help and treatment, is not only ignorant, but also dangerous... We have come a long way from the times of the likes of 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' of psychological problems only being in the head of the beholder, and I for one would like to keep moving forward, and not backward!

This reminds me of my first roommate in Vancouver; yep, the voodoo one. He actually once suggested that I should actually not wear glasses, that 'near-sightedness' is only in my head and optometrists are running this scam to make a living!!!!

Occupy Vancouver

maybe a lot of people with a sense of entitlement... but I like this idea of people mobilizing to keep the powers be in check...

Steve Jobs

this is the Apple store at the Pacific Center - Vancouverites - never too happy, never too sad, always business as usual and always, of course, driving me nuts (for this emotionlessness), but this time I welcomed the taking-a-step-back-from-profound-sadness.

Don't get me wrong - Steve Jobs is a personality that I admire a lot. There is something in me that really likes self-made people, maybe because I am one myself. And, while I don't want to join any cult, even an Apple cult, I am also in general against the new-age hippy mentality of 'I want blood - of all successful people', that most of the time is connected to an illogical sense of entitlement...

There were a few of Jobs's saying that were made in to touching eulogies, but none that really stood out for me... except for maybe iSad.

RIP Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) what a birthday eve present - iSad that the world lost such an innovative personality. But if there's one way I would like to go, it is this way, while I am still at the helm of my life.

Don't let 'em keep taking it away from me. Don't let me lie here 'till I can't hear those people chanting (my name) no more.
- Maggie Fitzgerald, in Million Dollar Baby

typhoon in Japan

stranded in Narita with the typhoon - the plane was so late that the last bus that goes to the tiny town of Mito in Ibaraki was gone. After like $50 worth of phone calls, I decided to stay in Narita. Tried to get in to a hotel, all of which were booked as a result of all the stranded passengers - even volunteered to share a hotel room with a stranger (yes, you got it, a good looking guy), but at the last moment, called it off... Tiny airport officials ever so guiltily distributed food water and sleeping bags. You could tell they thought the typhoon was their fault... So since I got a sleeping bag, I decided to stay in the airport... And now I don't mind sleeping in airports, but I hate to do so when I am travelling for work. Was I ever so glad I had a smartphone and that I could use Google Translate to communicate with a police officer - when I also learned, Japanese people, like Sri Lankans, don't like to say 'no, I don't know how to help you', so they will just 'ummmm' and 'hmmmm' until you go away by yourself. But since I wasn't leaving his side until I got answers, he ended up taking me to where the sleeping bags etc were distributed.

By the next morning, I was truly in tears. Maybe more also because I learned that the my colleagues who got stranded in the typhoon had their plane diverted to Osaka and they all decided to stay in a hotel there.

So this picture I took, of the view through blurry eyes, sitting near an airport coffee shop.

BC license plates

and she, well we can call her Betty, has a new name... a new last name... like she was married again... for the third time now... What a whore! Awww... my Betty ain't no whore...

East Hastings, again...

Today, there was a protest in East Hastings, by the people who use (and canvas for) affordable housing, mostly protesting a new housing development my a luxury condo maker. East Hastings, as I also wrote about in an earlier post, is the most interesting hood in Vancouver, the hood in which most Vancouver novels are set.

I also loved the nice Londoner who described the whole protest to me and actually didn't mind taking the time to do so. He had a central library employee card and fingers cracked from cold and excessive washing - the feature in all of him, that I noticed most... I wish I could find the time to do more things like what he does...

multi-culturalism

Vancouver is truly the most multi-cultural city I have ever lived in - and it is what I like most about Vancouver and it is what I will miss most about Vancouver, should I chose to leave. This, in a grocery store close to Kingsway...