Good bye Jack

City Hall at night

At 4:45am today Canada lost a really great person. Jack Layton, of the NDP died from cancer. At 4:00pm today an impromptu gathering at Nathan Phillips Square (City Hall) was held to pay respects. I didn't make it there until later that evening but there were still people present as well as some TV reporter doing a news segment. The curved wall going up to the second floor was filled with messages by people in chalk.

What follows are just some samples of the wall and ground.


The TV reporter




















"A Vote for Jack is a Vote for Roller Derby"

Jack left this letter that showed up in many of the local newspapers...

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,
Jack Layton

Lamont at the Drake

Lamont James at the Drake

Went to the Drake to take photos of a friend playing there. For a limited time you can hear his music here...

http://www.lamontjames.com/

Captain Hill versus the Air Duct

The entrance to the air duct

I woke up this morning to what sounded like a squirrel trapped between the floors trying to eat it's way out. I've seen squirrels outside trying to get in because at one point they had a nest. Being tired I didn't really think much of it. It was 3:30 after all and I had just plopped into bed about three hours earlier after a long day at work.

The scratching kept going. It seemed loud. So not being able to get back to sleep I went up stairs to feed Captain Hill. I had only fed her part of my pork souvlaki on a bun that I grabbed as part of our second meal last night so thought I should feed her some supplementary hamster food (the dry stuff).

When I got upstairs I noticed that she wasn't in the POD. "Uh oh" I checked to see if she escaped the same way as a few weeks ago but the doors were still taped shut. Upon further inspection, I found that one of the tube caps had fallen off. She probably pushed it off and it had landed right into the air duct. Cheryl had moved the POD over the air duct to make room for the new furniture she acquired. The weird timing and coincidence allowed the hamster to most likely fall right into the duct. ugh.


Drop ins welcome

It's now 5:52. I've opened up some of the vents in the basement hoping the hamster will drop in. I've also placed a peanut at the entry to the air duct in the case that she's alive she'll return to the familiar place and eat it if she's hungry. I've also placed a peanut next to the open duct in the basement to hopefully lure her toward the opening. Below I've put a pile of peanuts in a box with a towel as a cushion.

All I can do is wait. That is unless I can find out how to take apart the furnace. This is logically where I think the hamster would be as it's the lowest place to go. I'm not sure if there's a filter that would grab the hamster before going into the body of the furnace. I'll have to wait for Cheryl to wake up and ask her.

"One ping and one ping only."

In the meantime I'm trying to listen for any sounds that might give the position of the hamster away. It's so quiet right now the ticking clock on the wall seems loud. I'm hoping that Captain Hill has found somewhere comfortable and is sleeping right now. It would be around the time she was sleeping.

UPDATE 6:25

I thought I heard the air duct upstairs make noise so I went to check and the peanut was gone. After lifting up the grill and looking in (I found a quarter) I didn't see any sign of the hamster. Then off to the edge of my eye I caught movement. Captain Hill not only had the peanut jammed in her face but was looking at me at floor level. How did she get out of the duct?


Yay! Captain Hill returns to the POD.

I returned her to the POD with food and fresh water. I taped the cap shut. The Captain ate some, drank a lot, and went to sleep.

That concludes today's air duct adventures.

Sunday the day of rest

The cat in the bookstore

I woke up today at 15:00 translating to sleeping for about twelve to thirteen hours. With work and going to Hamilton yesterday I suppose my body needed catch up on sleep. I was actually looking forward to waking up late as I didn't have anything scheduled to do.

I was thinking noon or even 13:00 would be good. 15:00 though, it seemed like the whole day had passed me by. Normally I make up for this by just staying up late but Monday I'd have to wake up at 05:30 for work so having a normal span of hours awake wasn't going to happen.

I thought about going to get groceries then realized that I hadn't seen a movie in a while. I ended up going over to the Scotia bank theatre to see Captain America: First Avenger. Yes they've renamed the Paramount theatre to Scotia Bank theatre, after a bank. The film industry really is being taken away by creative types and going to accountants.

After the movie I walked back home. According to Google it was a good 6.9 to 7.4 km walk. I took some photos along the way. For some reason seeing a cat in a book store was interesting enough for me to take the camera out of the camera bag, power it on, and shoot.


The Beer ad.

The other thing that seemed interesting to me for some reason was this beer ad. Obvious, to the point, and a good chance it was telling the truth. Kind of like an ad for lawn chairs stating that they don't contain peanuts. In the age of American lawsuits and a sometimes overly sensitive population printing ads like this is a great way to avoid from being sued.


Cheryl with her first home made pie.

I got home around 23:20. Just in time to sample Cheryl's fruit pie. It was her first pie and it was good. (note: the pie shell was premade but the pie overall was still tasty).

This is not a routine, I swear

Blue, the grey cat from next door

So I woke up again this morning... late. It was 15:00 and I would have kept on sleeping if Leanna hadn't called me to see what I was up to. Apparently nothing. The Blueberry lemonade vodka didn't have the same effect as the previous night's vodka lemonade. Thank the stars.

Still, I was tired. So tired that I didn't really get up, or my brain didn't kick in until about 16:00. It was around that time I decided to call back people that had been trying to get a hold of me through email (Bless them for not calling me on a weekend early in the morning).


Dave eating a pizza slice

I called my cousin Dave to see how he was doing and as it turned out he was working in the neighbourhood. He had gotten a job working on someone's backyard garden. Since he was in the area and I was hungry I invited him over to go for pizza at the local King Slice on Bloor.

As time crept by I woke myself up. Looked out the front door and stepped out side (still in bare feet). Cheryl was on the porch lounging or resting from a skate with Natalie Hurlin Wall down by the water front. I was immediately head butted by Blue, the grey cat next door.

My Wobbly Brain, My Ill Stomach and Destroyer

Sometime in the night maybe two hours or so after falling asleep I woke up to run to the bathroom where I would revisit those two filet-o-fish sandwiches I ate on the way home. They were completely digested but I suppose my body didn't like them mixed with the alcoholic booze and needed to reject them as quickly as possible despite what my brain wanted to do.

In my haste while attempting to find the light switch, the light switch that's been in the same place since moving in over six months ago, I missed the centre of the toilet bowl. At that point it wasn't like I had any control of what my stomach was going to do. Five seconds more and I would have made it.

Luckily the majority made it in leaving the rest dripping off the far side of the bowl onto the floor corner for easy clean up.

Still feeling hungry I scooped out three spheres of ice cream (mint chocolate), inhaled them, then fell back asleep.

14:30 woke up exhausted. Logged on to facebook to catch up on my reading.

19:14 while on my way to the Rock pile it started raining. I am liking this weather after being in the desert for a week.

20:39 listening to the opening band. Not sure who they are only that they're from Toronto. Name got garbled when they announced it. Sounded like 'Burning Danny'

There seems to be a birthday party going on over to the left side of the stage.

'Burning Kennedys'. They mentioned their name for a third time. I'll go check a roster layer on tonight to see if I was right.

21:16 Broomfillers. The band I was strong armed to see. They sounded okay. At least the instruments did. The lead vocals levels were pretty low so I couldn't really tell what was being sung. The band members did a lot of moving around on the stage, the lead singer (and also the guy from work) jumped off the stage into the darkness of the under lit bar. I hope he didn't want pictures of that because I couldn't see him let alone focus the camera on him.

22:30 One night stand did a cover billy idol's 'rebel yell'. The lead did a great job with the vocals. The band sounded great. From a photographer's point of view they didn't do much other than stand behind their mics.


Destroyer, KISS tribute band

23:30 Destroyer (Kiss cover band)

Wow, these guys were incredible! They even had the moves down. Anyone who has seen the way Gene Simmons stands while holding his axe knows what I'm talking about. They even had the platform boots!

This alone was worth the $10 admission. Up until this point I didn't really have much hope the night would be that interesting.


The Demon


The Catman


The Starchild


The Spaceman


KISS moves!!

Total cost of going out to photograph Broomfillers

Ticket (in advance) 10.00
TTC (return) 5.00
Ginger ale 4.50
Burger and fries 9.50
Mike's hard lemonade 8.50

total $37.50

Leanna and the Tattoo club

01:00 woke up early. That's what I get for sleeping since Wednesday. Yes, my time table of sleep is messed up. Since I couldn't get back to sleep I stayed up for another five hours then went to work.

I got to work an hour early, call time was 08:00. So I spent the hour talking to Paul the hair guy about Still Seas, a movie coming to Toronto and used a bit of time to optimize the computer set up.

Luckily work was pretty simple today. Some inserts were canceled at the last minute and big decisions on wire rearrangement and set set up could be put off until next week. I found out today that my computer work space would be replaced by elevators so I'd have to rewire everything in the next day or so once I got back to work.

by the end of the day 20:45, I was ready to pass out. I was on the subway when I got a call from Leanna. She wanted to go see some band one of her friends was in but didn't want to go alone.

21:55 dropped off computer gear at home.

22:30 met Leanna at Bathurst station

We ended up at some Tattoo bar. $10 later, inside the dark venue lit mainly by purple and blue lights we saw the band on stage. I took about three photos but only one turned out and not that well I'm afraid.

We talked to some people Leanna knew, went downstairs to hear 80s music (I think it was the Cult) danced a bit, returned to the main floor where more 80s music was playing (Billy Idol "Rebel Yell", Ramones "Blitzkreig Bop"), danced a bit more, then sat down and talked to more people.


Leanna outside the Tattoo bar in front of a parked Hot Rod.

While all this was going on I had finished a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and while normally I'd probably be okay I think the combination of loud music, lack of sleep, and the booze did me in. I had a buzz the rest of the night. Did I say I hadn't eaten anything since lunch?

I got into a cab with Leanna, got out at Spadina station and took the TTC the rest of the way home. I picked up two filet-o-fish sandwiches from the Dundas West subway station and inhaled them. As soon as I got home I fell into bed and conked out.

Delta Airlines

Irmena and fam.

The first stop was Irmena's. I needed to borrow their scale to weigh my suitcase. If you go over 50 pounds there's a extra fee that gets added on to your air fare. If my suitcase was too stuffed I'd have to leave stuff at home. I had heard that the venue lighting was pretty poor and since there were no outdoor skating events this year chances of getting any good photos would be pretty limited. I decided to pack my flash gear. The SB-800s with the cheap light stands I had. It was this or more clothing.

After packing all the light gear I weighed the suitcase and it came to 46 pounds. Woo woo!


YYZ - Toronto's Pearson airport.

Flight 5374
My first time travelling with Delta. Generally I would go with Westjet but was booked on Delta through the travel agent. The cost difference was almost $400.00 between the two airlines, Delta being the less expensive of the two.

I was dinged with a luggage fee of $25 and another $25 to bring the luggage back. Plus it's not a direct flight. There's a stop over in Detroit. The seats felt a bit narrow. I was squashed between two guys that had iPad/iPhone technology and were catching up on what looked to be news in Chinese.

Despite this he stewardess, Louryne, was quite a nice distraction. We talked a bit about the city (Toronto). She had flown there many times but never stayed there overnight. It got me to thinking about working in an industry where you're moving around all the time. While it's kind of neat to see the world you really don't have a lot of time to have a base of operations or a decent relationship. Louryne said she was pretty old for a flight attendant, I would have guessed she was in her40s, she could have been a grandmother perhaps. She had a great intercom speaker voice. It sounded like something you would hear in a movie narration.



Looking out the window


The barf /"air sickness" bag.

The air sickness bags had "I'll be back" printed on them. I thought this funny as I could imagine if a bad egg salad sandwich sitting on a radiator over night could speak, would say something like this... with the Arnold accent of course. Maybe the bag should have said "I have returned".


Looking out the smudged window

16:50

Detroit has an amazing airport, who knew? It's gigantic. It even has a monorail in it! Wow. There's also food places all over the place (including Popeye's chicken). Unfortunately my incoming flight was stuck on the Tarmac leaving Toronto so the time to be had in Detroit eating and taking in the environment was cut short. I managed to grab a cheese steak sandwich at Charley's, inhaling it before getting on the next flight.


The underground tunnel in the Detroit airport


Impressive water fountain


The monorail


Charley's


my sub.


Flight 1217

17:30 hey Allie gator is on this flight!


Allie Gator

With Montreal playing in Texas and only a handful of skaters from Hamilton or Toronto going to Rollercon this year I figured chances of bumping into any skaters that I knew on the way down to Las Vegas would be non-existent. With the added connection on my non-direct flight I suppose the odds improved. Sure enough a skater from Madison.


Airplane food

19:00 pacific standard time

We arrived at the McCarran airport. Like other trips I have going to Vegas I remember that it's hot (but a dry heat) but I forget how hot it actually is. I believe my brain is blocking out these uncomfortable experiences and just remembering the general overall sun of experiences. Las Vegas fun? Definitely! Hot? sure... maybe.

Being to Las Vegas now for the fifth time (three previous RollerCons, one NAB conference) I am still surprised at the amount of heat that blasts at you as you first walk out the airport doors to the bus stop. While not humid (like New Orleans), it's like opening an oven and sticking your whole body in. The automated doors open to the outside and Bawhooosh you're sweating like a pig.

Eventually your body gets acclimatized to a certain degree but five out of five times I have felt the weather change a shock to the system. So what if it's dry heat, it's still hot.


Waiting at the airport bus stop for our shuttle bus

There's this great service in Las Vegas called the airport shuttle bus. Not only does the shuttle bus take you to your hotel front doorstep but you can buy a two way pass so it can bring you back to the airport. I'm not sure if it's cheaper but it's a nice option to have while you have money, at least you'll be able to make it back to your plane if by the end of your trip you're broke (just don't lose your ticket stub).


Now in the lobby of the Riviera, Wendy checks her messages.

The line for registration was about 12 people long. While this doesn't sound that long we still ended up being in line for over 40 minutes. The people at the front desk were pretty understaffed or slow to get us all in. Being RollerCon and all though the 40 minutes didn't seem so long if you knew people in the derby world. I stopped some girls to take their photo on the account that one of them was wearing the Neon Skates T-shirt.


A Neon Skates T-shirt worn by a Guelph skater.

Neon Skates is the Montreal skate apparel shop owned by Marc and Tush. So seeing the familiar logo was a nice reminder of home I suppose. The girls as it turned out were from Guelph, Ontario (Canada). Hammer City just played them (How did I miss that game?) recently.


B-Train!!!!

"Bagelhot!" I looked toward the front of the line and it was B-Train from Wicked Skatewear. Yay! My first West Coastie of Rollercon. Like most people you like it's always good to see the person in real life and not just on the internet.


The hotel room


Skaters from Houston.

After checking in I decide that it's time for food and wander back downstairs to scout out nearby food places. On the main floor next to the Queen Victoria Pub I bump into some people from Houston. One guy thinks he remembers me from the previous year. After a bit of talking I figure out he actually remembers Marcus. Asian looking guy with camera, wearing shorts, and camera bag.


Kim Supersonik (on right)

Wondering around the lobby, especially the registration line, I kept bumping into people I knew or people from Canada. It was like attending a family reunion of sorts. Even with out Montreal, Hamilton or Toronto there, it was nice to see familiar faces.


Skaters from west Canada!


Our hotel signage



The hotel had a few things around it that would be useful. There was a Wallgreen's (drug store) just down the street, some food places (including a Denny's), a McDonalds and Subway sandwich shop across the street and a food court inside the hotel itself.


In the hotel food court

I ended up getting dinner at the Wok Express. It didn't really matter what type of food I ate, at this point I just needed to eat something. The Wok Express food was nothing out of the ordinary but it was just what I needed to keep my stomach from rumbling.


My first dinner of the night


A skater from San Diego left watching luggage

While heading back to my room (and trying to find it through the maze of slot machines) I found myself back in front of the registration line. This is where I saw this girl surrounded by luggage sitting on the floor. She was from San Diego. Her team mates had left her holding the bag, sitting next to a few of them actually. It was at this point I hear "Hey!". It was Marcus.


Marcus Metropolis!

That same guy that the guy from Houston mixed me up with. Marcus had just gotten in from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He hadn't had dinner yet so we ventured out to find food.


A San Diego girl looking for other San Diego girls

On our way through the hotel we saw this skater looking for her peeps. As it turned out she was from San Diego. I told her about the lonely skater sitting next to all the luggage downstairs.


Marcus at Denny's

Marcus and I ended up at Denny's where I ordered a round two order of food. Mostly light desserty stuff. Some Hawaiian tropical pancake puppies chased down by a rootbeer float.


Dinner two. Hawaiian tropical pancake puppies.

It should be noted that while the Hawaiian pancake puppies sould good having pineapple in them, if there was pineapple it was in powder form. The pancake puppies were pretty dry and hard, equivalent of eating a timbit that sat outside for a couple of days. The rootbeer float was good though.


The bronze Crazy Girls statue at the entrance of the Riviera