Sexy Beasts

Look at this sexy bunch strutting their stuff as they protect our fair city. A police wall 3 men deep was formed around the Yonge and College area earlier today to stop protesters from moving their march southward. Looks like they've been trained pretty well. Although most of the protest was peaceful, they was at least one arrest and at one point, when the cops felt their safety was threatened they donned their protective gear and shields and even gas masks... scary.

The protesters were forced to backtrack their march and return to their point of origin to set up the tent city they seemingly had planned to set up closer to the security fence encircling the summit's hub.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

Where IS everyone?

Hmm G20 is approaching quickly, in fact, the delegates have landed in Toronto today. But Toronto has never been so quiet. It's creepy. In fact it kind of feels like a war zone because there actually are a lot of physical people in the core, but they are all marching with authority in uniform. The population of Toronto has turned into clustered of cocky and sometimes a little too jovial cops. No wonder everyone is running the other way!

"How the Ground was Shaking"

By now, you encountered the curious looks of people on the street, cell phones stuck to there ears (later found out they were likely trying to get through to their loved ones since many phone lines were down after the incident.

All of this began when at about 1:45PM in Toronto, I felt the building start to shake a bit. Is it weird that I was... ahem... in the bathroom at the time... Yes ok it's really weird. But I also kind of froze. First thought in my mind was not earthquake. I'm very close to all the increased protection of the G20 fence and initially thought it might be Obama's helicopters. I had seen these massive steel walled fortresses of the sky get dropped off in Toronto the day before. I imagined they'd create a lot of noise and maybe even strong winds.

Next I thought... strong wind. But I was frozen in place. And then I literally felt like my building was swaying with increased intensity back and forth. My 3rd thought was that if the building feel down or broke apart or something weird and crazy like that... it would be less than funny in the position I was in(meanwhile this is all happening in what 15 seconds... I think FAST!)

I thought for a second about it being an Earthquake but figured we didn't have those in Toronto! I wanted to get up rush to a window and see if anyone else was feeling this and also see if it was a helicopter or something. But naturally, as soon as I was decent, it was all over. Most buildings had been evacuated, and as I got downstairs I found most people there seemed panicked and many had initially thought it was some kind of a bomb (likely because of our precarious location).

Unfortunately, due to my location at the time, I did not have my phone or access to Twitter. But those who did quickly updated the masses about it having been an Earthquake that was being reported by ppl on Twitter down to Buffalo and up to Ottawa and Montreal with the epicentre closer to the Ottawa/Quebec border!

I am more and more in love with Twitter as this amazing tool grows and reaches more people. Before any kind of news outlet gives a report, people do. And they give the first hand account. News outlets will also use twitter to confirm where they are hearing ppl felt the quake, and when the full report actually comes out online (usually 5 minutes later or so) it is not uncommon for it to include various Tweets that broke the news.

YouTube has also been amazing. Minutes after the quake videos surfaces of people filming their homes quake or the buildings around them wiggle. Some videos showed the entire quake and initial reactions to it, because the user was taping something else when the quake hit.

Social media has been the wave of the future for a while now, but it's in times like these that we truly see the power of the people and how our interactions with these networks will change the way we live our lives.

Maybe this even means checking Twitter to make sure it's in fact an earthquake, before seeking shelter. But if those social media glasses ever come out/catch on (HA!) checking first might not actually delay you much!

"Fencing TO"

I live right outside the security barrier for the G20 but I was surprised to see them build this fence this Sunday at 9PM and continue until 3AM on Wellington alone... wow. This G20 security seems to be doing everything it can to be loud and annoying! Let's hope they don't get trigger happy with that sound cannon they've been talking about.

Funny Hockey fans!!!

Ok well whoever took this picture and to the ppl in it who made it all come together, I thank you! This picture made my day!

I love the creativity of hockey fans!!! Say what you really mean!

Cougar Town Revisited

Ok so remember how I talked about the title "Cougar Town" no longer being appropriate for the Coutney Cox comedy (which I love BTW!) Well it seems as though the Cougar Town producers read my blog (or they saw the truth as I did on their own... of course it seems more likely they read and agreed with my comments ;P) It seems the show feels that when they come back next season they should have a new name!!! They give 2 reasons, one being the one I mentioned--not many cougar references or activities were shown after the first few episodes (in fact they stuck with stories of older men with younger girls-YAWN-for much longer than women with younger men). Another reason they give is that ppl said they would never watch a show called "cougar town" but when forced to watch, they said they liked the show. Here's where I disagree. I think cougar town is an intriguing title... might just be me but i don't think it's a bother for people of my generation. So unless they are trying to appeal to the 40+ category... the boring 40+ category (because my mom... well above 40, gets a giggle from the title and is curious about the show's content and WOULD watch this show so... not sure what kind of old squares they were talking to/want to attract). I just hope the next title is equally intriguing, and they don't switch the content too much to suit these boring 40+ they seem to be consulting. Could be the wrong move!

For more: http://www.imdb.com/news/ni2429232/

"multigrain chips"

Oh wow... I have to say i was not expecting this! I chip... but its okay because it's multigrain. So pringles has come out with a new can (bigger with 100 chips in each can [why does that not sound that much for such a tall can and such skinny chips...?]) but to counter the more fatty/saltiness due to the bulk... they've also come out with a line of multgrain chips. Obviously I had to buy it because ... that's what I do with new things. I got the original ones because I felt I had to be true to the new line so I could make a clear review before venturing into new flavours. I had to experience the multigrain chip in its true form... the way it was intended.

My thoughts?

Well it's very good. But it doesn't really taste like a chip. It's more like a corn chip to me. But this could be due to the fact that lately I've only been buying the multigrain/flax seed corn chips from Shoppers Drug Mart. They even looks like the new pringles. But if you're used to regualr yellow corn chips.... disregard the above and try multigrain chips for yourself! It's an experience! Though not quite as chip-y as you'd expect.