Toronto Zombie Walk 2010

IMG_1890_zw
Originally uploaded by shutternewbie 

A year has passed and the annual compendium of brain hungry corpses is here. I went with a friend who, unfortunately, succumbed to the infection of the undead. So I was left alone to finish the job. Once again, I captured the onslaught of the zombies...











For more pictures of the carnage CLICK HERE

I was lucky to get outta there alive. Until next year...

GTGL8RZ!

Toronto Fringe Candidates?

shutternewbie 

Was flipping channels and got lured to what seemed like free airtime of unedited and one-take video clips of people running for the city's top post. It was a little odd but amusing. I had to check the Toronto Candidates List to see if what I was watching was just a sequence from "Air Farce Live." I was wrong. These people are absolutely running for city mayor.

Four of the so called, "fringe candidates," in my opinion, have more edge than the 4 more popular ones, in terms of "interestingness." I am in no way condoning them but their ideas might just be less crazy and less far-fetched than the frontrunners' platforms:

RATAN WADHWA

I found this 2006 article about this fedora-loving guy from Wapedia...

Ratan Wadhwa lived in Mumbai before moving to Canada. He is an actor and Charlie Chaplin impersonator, and the owner of Charlie's Flower Co. in Toronto. He first campaigned for Mayor of Toronto in 2003 at age 48, calling for legalized prostitution and cannabis, free condoms and viagra, and the creation of a red light district. He said that he was trying to develop political contacts rather than win the election, and speculated that he could manage a decent showing if enough people in the sex industry voted for him. He received 121 votes to place 43rd out of 44 candidates. He promoted much the same platform in 2006, and also called for increased helicopter surveillance and bullet-proof vests for police.

This year, he is advocating the construction of casinos and the creation of a red light district.

CLICK HERE for a short Q&A with him courtesy of CP24


(pic from CP24)

DAVID VALLANCE

I guess this guy has one of the most ambitious plans for the City of Toronto. Follow this LINK and judge for yourself.



To be fair, David's proposal is in Wikipedia.

Here is his Q&A courtesy of CP24.

CARMEN MACKLIN

Not sure why she is running but on the candidates list her address is at the Waverly Hotel in Spadina and she has Yahoo for email. In her video clip, she mentioned that when she becomes the mayor, she will be available to Torontonians almost all the time except when she has to take care of her mom.

JOSEPH PAMPENA

I am most intrigued by this candidate's look rather than his platform. He appears to have a visual impairment, if not blind, and just kept on yapping about "running the city like a PR office."

CLICK HERE for an article about him on The Star.

(pic from Insidetorontovotes)

Here is the Q&A by CP24.

It's good to know that there are other choices in the Toronto Mayoralty race aside from the four, supposedly, frontrunners. The other, not so loud, candidates might not be better choices to run the city but at least they are doing "something" for it...or they are trying to.

GTGL8RZ!

My Charice Experience

Crazy Fans
Originally uploaded by shutternewbie 

I knew I was gonna be late but I headed to the Eaton Centre anyway. The mini-concert was set at 6 pm and I got there 2 minutes before that. I wasn’t expecting anything and even prepared myself not to see her. I thought maybe I can just do video interviews with the fans that showed up.

Although it was hard to wade through all the people in the mall, my years of experience in flea markets and Boxing Day shopping prepared me for it. Fortunately, there were some technical difficulties on the stage so I had time to be as close to the stage as I could. I am a little vertically-challenged so I had to extend my arms above my head to record her performance in my SLR. I couldn’t really check the viewfinder and the display screen of the cam so I had to rely on my instincts.

Here is a video of what I got. I made it into snippets as most of what I recorded were bald spots and sweaty arms holding cameras:



I am happy I got to experience her live although I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t get there earlier. Hopefully she comes back for a concert and hopefully I can get time off from work when that happens.

GTGL8RZ!

Read the Fine Print...Always

Day 125: May 05/2010
Originally uploaded by shutternewbie 

To those who received this free $100 AdWords card, please read the "terms and conditions" at the back of the letter that came with the brochure.

Part of it says: ...advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount...

Enjoy and happy blogging!

GTGL8RZ!

Don't Let Your PayPal Get Phished

In a span of a week I received about 5 emails urging me to check my PayPal account for a certain security breach. I'm just so lucky that it's become a routine to check the "from" section of every email that I get...even the spam ones. I did some screen shots of one of the emails, which I hope can help others be less gullible and stop them from clicking away. Of course, if you don't have a PayPal account, you don't have to worry about anything.




If you look closely, the FROM section has a dubious sounding email address, which PayPal would never ever use...


DON'T click on any links in that email. But, if ever you click on the link that was provided, you will be redirected to this page, which looks almost exactly like the real thing:


DON'T ever log in! You will notice that the URL in the address bar does not start with (www.paypal.com). Also, the tabs and links on the page are unclickable. The phishers have only one goal, which is to get you to log in.

It's a cruel world and one way to survive is not to be overly trustful.

GTGL8RZ!

Homeless But Not Forgotten

Day 30: Jan 30/2010
Originally uploaded by shutternewbie 

Did some window shopping earlier and had the urge to light up outside the mall. I rediscovered this memorial, which has probably been there for years, but I never really stopped and actually checked the list.

The memorial had this text posted:

This list includes more than 600 names of men, women, and children who have lived and died on the streets of Toronto as a diect result of homelessness. Stop, pause, and remember all of these people and the many more who continue to struggle as they live on our streets. Then call your local city councillor, the Mayor, your MPP and your MP. Help solve the homelessness disaster.


GTGL8RZ!