Earth Hour 2008

Justin and I celebrated Earth Hour 2008 by sitting in the dark for an hour and bitching about how the people across the street were not turning out their lights. Granted, I live away from downtown, where the effect was more spectacular, as you can see by the photo, courtesy of the Toronto Star.

I hope next year that Earth Hour is embraced even more greatly, mostly because it is fun. We had a free acoustic concern with Nelly Furtado down in Nathan Phillips Square, though I did not attend, and many restaurants offered candlelit dining. Me, I like doing things that millions of people around the world are also doing. That is why I wake up at 1 am to watch the World Cup in Japan. I'm not a lemming. Really, I'm not.

Snow Rage

Violence is breaking out in Montreal and in other parts of Quebec due to the snow. Now, this is something I did not know before I moved to Canada, but you do not, under any circumstances, put the snow that fell on your property on another person's property, nor can you put it in the street. You just have to move it around on your own land. I found this out the first year I was here when I helped a little old lady who lived up my street shovel her drive after a particularly heavy snow. I was just moving the snow and I tossed some into the neighbor's yard. She totally freaked out and said that I just can't do that. I thought it was strange at the time, but it seems I was lucky the homeowner didn't come out with a gun:

Guns and fists as snow rage erupts

Happy shoveling!

Always winter, never Christmas

Where is a giant lion when you need one? We have had nothing but snow in the TO for eternity. No, scratch that, we had a really unpleasant ice storm thrown in there at one point. Right now, we are on the brink of the largest storm yet, set to rival the one I missed while in England in December. Forecast models are putting us at around a foot of snow.

Saturday is supposed to be really fun with 70 km/h winds ripping down out of the north creating whiteout conditions. It is okay though, because I stocked up on Velveeta Shells and Cheese for us and Friskies for the Woolies (so we are not consumed by the evil creatures). Hopefully, the city will dig itself out on Sunday so I can get down to class Monday morning. However, I know our superintendent will not shovel the walk until next week sometime.