Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Decrepit Detroit






















In the year 476, a crazed German warlord named Odoacer lead an army of equally insane German warriors into battle against a skilled and highly trained Roman outfit. Odoacer brutally dispatched the Romans before reportedly castrating and expelling Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
The spiritual and cultural epicenter of humanity, which had spent the better part of the last century imploding with hedonistic rituals and mass violence, had fallen.

As the calendar clicks through 2010 Detroit faces its own financial crisis, social upheavals and environmental meltdown. It has being suggested that (that like the great Roman Empire) Detroit has past its prime.
Once known as the “Paris of the West” the city had a golden age during the late 1800s and early 1900. Due to its strategic location on the Great Lakes the city became a major transport hub. In 1904 Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company. Ford's manufacturing (and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, Packard, and Walter Chrysler) reinforced Detroit's status as the world's automotive capital.
“D-Town” or “The D” was also an important source of popular music. Originating in Detroit, Motown and its soul-based subsidiaries were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as The Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence.
However, a lethal cocktail of union strife, social and racial tensions, corruption, drugs and recession have since castrated the city and expelled its wealth.

Detroit now has numerous neighborhoods suffering urban decay. Vacant properties rotting to the ground. Remnants of the once proud empire of Detroit.

It is almost as bad as Flint, Michigan.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Cricket

For everyone who is wondering, this is how to play cricket.


There are two sides, one out in the field the other one in bat.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.


Simple.

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Canadian Army

To answer the question everyone is asking, yes, Canada has an Army, and no, Canadians don’t even know about it. Canadians are known for their peacefulness and politeness in distressing situations, such as during a war or hockey playoffs. The TV ads for the Armed Forces shows them doing search and rescue, fixing engines and marching, but never anything violent.

The world looks to Canada for international peace-keepers, since they possess no weapons other than snow shovels, and their accent and flannel clothing.

Skiing at Holiday Valley NY








Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the first and only perfect game in a World Series in October 1956. A sportswriter described the rest of his career as "unbroken mediocrity punctuated with flashes of competence." I feel this also applies to my skiing - mediocre with flashes of competence.

By the time I could actually stand up and ski, it was because I was to sore to sit down or fall over again.




Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cirque du Soleil


On Friday evening we watched 'Alegría' a production by Cirque du Soleil in Detroit at the Joe Lewis Arena. It was amazing.

Sunset in Windsor


Monday, February 8, 2010

Super Bowl Sunday

The NFL's final game of the season, 'the super bowl' was played this Sunday. The Vince Lombardi trophy was won by the New Orleans Saints over the Colts.

If the Melbourne Cup in Australia is 'the race that stops a nation' then this is 'the game that stops America'. Almost everyone you speak to has an opinion on the game or has bet money on it.

Getting in to watch the game can be expensive. Tickets range in price from $1300 to $226,000. The hype and interest in the game is amazing. 9 out of the 10 top rating TV shows in America have all been Super Bowls. It is estimated that about 95 million people watched the game.
The TV ads during the Super Bowl are also a national obsession. The average 30 second addspot sells from 2.5 to 3 million dollars. More than $200 million will be spent on Super Bowl ads. The ads are famous for being really funny.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Americans ate more than 30 million slices of pizza, roughly 350 slices per second of the game. I ate 5 pieces and regretted it.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Newfie joke

A Newfoundlander goes into a Tom Horton's and notices there's a "Roll Up The Rim To Win" Contest going on.
So, he rolls it up and starts screaming, "I've won a motor home! I've won a motor home!"
The girl at the counter says, "That's impossible. The biggest prize is a car."
But the person keeps on screaming, "I've won a motor home! I've won a motor home!"
Finally, the manager comes over and says, "I'm sorry, but you're mistaken. You couldn't have possibly won a motor home because we didn't have that as a prize!"
The person says, "No, it's not a mistake. I've won a motor home!" And they hand the Cup to the manager and he reads:

"W I N A B A G E L"

Some Fun Facts About Canada

Known as the USA's quite upstairs neighbour, Canada perhaps is the only country in the world that is rarely in the news for any controversial issues. It is known to be a peace loving and hockey loving place.
  • An unusual fact about Canada is its name origin, it comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word, kanata, which means village or settlement.
  • An interesting fact about Canada is that it's the world's second largest country areawise (including its waters), and fourth largest in land area.
  • It also has the longest coastline in the world, about 243,000 kms in length.
  • Canada is widely believed to be the home of Santa Claus.
  • It features in the list of top five world's producers of gold, copper, zinc, nickel, aluminum, and natural gas.
  • A funny fact about Canada's city of Montreal, sometimes called The City of Churches, is that it has more churches than houses!
  • Toronto dwellers hold more university degrees than any other big city in the world.
  • Despite being a really big country, it has the fourth lowest population density in the world, with only three people living per square kilometer!
  • Almost half of the population in Canada were born in other countries.
  • It produces so much energy, that it provides it to the US too!
  • Canada has just one desert in British Columbia, towards the southernmost corner of the Okanagan Valley in Osoyoos.The desert is only 15 miles long, with over 100 rare plants, and over 300 rare animals. It is also the only desert in the world that has a long boardwalk, for people to walk on!
  • In 1883, the baseball glove was invented in Canada.

Canadian Clothing


To fit in with the locals you have to dress like the locals. This is what the fashionable kids in Canada are rocking out in and wearing this winter.
They also like to accessorise their garments with a toque (or touque, pronounced /ˈtuːk/). A toque is the common name for a knit winter hat, and is the pinnacle of fashion anywhere.

Ice Hockey

Canadians love ice hockey more than fat kids love donuts. To them ice hockey is a matter of life and death, but more important. So I tried this cultural experience known as ice hockey, but it is not for me. So I will leave it to the Canadians. (Actually I couldn't stay on my feet and Jen beat me up)


This is a true story that I just read in the newspaper about how much Canadians love hockey.

It's Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, and a man makes his way to his seat right at center ice. He sits down, noticing that the seat next to him is empty. He leans over and asks his neighbor if someone will be sitting there. "No," says the neighbor. "The seat is empty." "This is incredible", said the man. "Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs and not use it?" The neighbor says "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Stanley Cup we haven't been to together since we got married in 1967." "Oh ... I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. But couldn't you find someone else, a friend or relative, or even a neighbor to take the seat?" The man shakes his head "No, they're all at the funeral."

The snow angel


Making snow angels


Attempting to ice skate


Sunset and Snow