Monday, October 31, 2011
Wagon Wheels DOWNSIZED!
So WHY are people lined up at 222-2222 Pizza?
Driving by 222-2222 pizza on St. Anne's Rd. I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would be line up like lemmings for pizza! I mean their pizza isn't even that great. Are they putting Tim Hortons coffee into the sauce?
Karen is ready for Halloween
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Stacey is moving out...
Well Stacey is moving out today. Karen and I will now be empty-nesters. Lynndon and Stacey bought a beautiful home in Transcona.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Pex & Thrills - 2 of my favourite things!
I was at Walmart tonight and I saw a "PEZ" rack and I had to buy some. I loved Pez when I was a little kid my favourite candy by far... Pez and "Thrills" my favourite gum that tastes like soap!
Largest Yacht in The World - Owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
I bet my little 16 footer - 70HP gets better gas mileage!
M/Y Eclipse is a luxury motor yacht constructed by Blohm + Voss in Hamburg, Germany. Its exterior and interior were designed by Terence Disdale Design and its naval architect was Francis Design.[4] The yacht was delivered to Russian businessman Roman Abramovich on 9 December 2010. At 163.5 metres (536 ft) long,[5] Eclipse is the world's largest private yacht, 0.5 metres (1 ft 8 in) longer than the Dubai, which belongs to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai.[2] The yacht's initial cost to buy was estimated at €340 million (approx. US$475M as of September 2011),[2] but a September 2009 report indicated that final costs could approach €800 million (US$1.12B).[6] Eclipse has two helicopter pads, 24 guest cabins, two swimming pools, several hot tubs and a disco hall.[7] It is also equipped with three launch boats, and a mini-submarine that is capable of submerging to 50 metres. Approximately 70 crew members are needed to operate the yacht. For security, Eclipse is fitted with intruder detection systems and a German-built missile defence system.[2][8] Abramovich's master suite and the yacht's bridge are fitted with armour plating and bullet-proof windows.[8] The yacht is reportedly equipped with an anti-paparazzi shield in the form of lasers that sweep the surroundings, and when they detect a CCD, they shine a light right at the camera to prevent the photograph. According to The Times, these do not run all the time, so friends and guests should still be able to take pictures. Instead, they will be activated when guards spot likely professional photographers nearby.[6] Eclipse was launched on 12 June 2009.[9] It arrived in Frederikshavn, Denmark on September 18, 2009 for tests, and was delivered to Abramovich on December 9, 2010.[3] First pictures of the completed yacht were taken at Kristiansand, Norway during its refuelling.[10] In February 2011 Eclipse was made available for charter through SuperYachtsMonaco,[11] a yacht brokerage company based in Monaco. Abramovich's private fleet consists of five motor yachts: Eclipse, Sussurro, Titan, Umbra, and Luna. He gave Le Grand Bleu to his associate and friend Eugene Shvidler in June 2006. He sold Ecstasea in June 2009 to an unknown Egyptian. He handed over Pelorusto his ex-wife Irina in 2009 as part of their divorce settlement, which she then sold to David Geffen for $300 million in 2011.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
This TV show used to scare me so much I had nightmares...
Today, you watch it, and it's pretty funny. Movies like "Saw" would never have been allowed back then. Sometimes I wonder how nice it would be to go back to those "innocent" days.
Today, nothing is shocking, we're all to used to it... Too accepting of it... Well that's my musing for this morning...
Friday, October 21, 2011
Human Rights Museum glass windows look strange...
But I guess I'll wait until it's finished and maybe it will make sense once everything is put together.
Calgary shows how a safer downtown can be created.
You know, why do we have to wait to see success at another city before we figure it out. I mean it's not rocket science! Please read this great article...
By Stefano Grande
Exec Director
Downtown Biz
It might sound radical and idealistic for a city to commit to a plan to "end homelessness." But that's exactly what Calgary has done. While there will always be those individuals who experience homelessness, Calgary has a plan to move people through -- and out -- of the system, ending chronic homelessness and the cycle of homelessness. And so far, it's working. If Calgary can help those less fortunate people who are struggling with social and mental-health issues off their downtown streets, through a housing-first model, so can Winnipeg. There is no doubt that from a physical perspective, the downtown is on a roll, good things are happening and there are more and more people working, living in and visiting our downtown. But it's time the social issues are tackled in the same aggressive manner, and in doing so, safety issues will improve for everyone. Two weeks ago, more than 40 CEOs and community leaders got together to raise awareness for homelessness issues in our city. More than $100,000 was raised for the Downtown BIZ's Change for the Better program, which employs those less fortunate who are willing to change their lives through a steady job. The highlight of the event was speaker Tim Richter, from the Calgary Homeless Foundation. He noted social and mental-health issues are at times seen among those less fortunate in our downtown who panhandle and are intoxicated. Creating housing for this community -- with supports to maintain this housing -- helps these people off the street, permanently. It can make downtown safer for everyone and bring about an end to homelessness. Consider some of Richter's key points from Calgary's experience. -- A housing-first approach has almost eliminated panhandling and public intoxication in a safer downtown. -- The model has saved governments substantial money -- $134,000 per person per year for chronically homeless people versus a housing and support cost of $10,000 to $25,000 per person per year. -- It was determined in 2007 that more than $320 million was being spent every year in Calgary on homelessness. If nothing was done, the cumulative cost of homelessness could have been more than $9 billion in the next decade. -- About 3,000 supportive housing units have been created in the last six years, with an 85 per cent average housing retention rate. Homelessness across Alberta is dropping. Edmonton saw a 21 per cent decrease from 2008 to 2010; Fort McMurray, 42 per cent; and Lethbridge, 53 per cent. Winnipeg can learn from this approach. Government leadership, however, is needed to put a comprehensive plan together and then attract long-term funding from all levels of government and potentially from the corporate community. It's clear our development agency, CentreVenture, which recently created downtown's first supportive housing project, is willing to move quickly to partner with others to create more supportive housing projects in the short term. In the long-term, the recently formed Poverty Reduction Council, a community entity like the Calgary Homeless Foundation, can play a critical role in sustaining this approach. All that is needed is a nod from the city or province, or preferably both, with the complete support and involvement of our aboriginal and Métis communities and service providers. We have all witnessed the costs, economically and to our pride, associated with Winnipeg not moving forward in addressing its social issues as aggressively as it should. Stefano Grande is the executive director of the Downtown Biz. Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
A group of people that have the most stressful job in the world...
This morning, I had the honour of being the opening keynote speaker at this conference of child and youth care workers. Prior to me speaking was a drum group led by my dear friend Jenna Liiciious. Hearing the amazing sounds of this group really gave me the ability to speak, as the songs are very heartwarming.
Here is a few seconds of the drum group:
I told TJ's story to the group, but told it in a different way this morning, much shorter, and encouraged all the workers that their jobs are the the most difficult jobs in the world for the least amount of pay. These fine people help take care of kids that need parental care where it isn't available. They truly are an inspirational group..
Where do these people come from?
Some woman (Melody Sanford) tells her friends and relatives that her new husband is abusive to her, so they lay in wait, with baseball bats, and tire irons and beat the shit out of him, killing him...
They now say they had no intention of killing the guy. Oh I wonder what else would a baseball bat and tire iron on the head do?
Let's just hope that these killers all get convicted of the 1st degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, that they are charged with.
Very similar to our case where my son TJ was murdered, four accused of 1st degree murder and conspiracy, but ultimately, not one of the four was convicted as charged. You can read about our case OVER HERE.
With quotes from the Winnipeg Sun...
"Melody Sanford duped her husband’s accused killers into believing he was a violent, dangerous man who wouldn’t leave her alone, one of the men claimed in a police interview video played for jurors Wednesday."
Ivan (John) Radocaj, 43, a former wrestler once known as the Croatian Giant, was found beaten to death in his Interlake area home on Sept. 14, 2007.
“Everybody’s thinking this guy is a big bad guy,” Donald Richard said. “We were all trying to be helpful, sympathetic.”
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
I didn't even know I owned a store in Vermont!!!
My friends are travelling through Vermont and came across Floyd's General Store... What a hoot!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Young killers 'are poor lost kids,' not sociopaths
This article is one of the best written columns I've seen about young killers. I've written quite a bit about this subject, and this article certainly fits with my understandings. In case you missed it, here is a recent featured editorial that I wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press on October 1, 2011, CLICK HERE
Winnipeg Free Press
It was shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday and I was driving on Sherbrook Street just north of Ellice Avenue when I spotted the three teenage boys and pulled over. I had a question. "Are you afraid of being stabbed when you're on the street?" One of the boys, a 16-year-old with a cluster of love-bite bruises on his neck, answered in an indirect but telling way. "My cousin was stabbed to death on College and Aikins." His cousin was Clark "Clarky" Stevenson. The street stabbing happened early on the morning of Sept. 10 and two teenagers have since been charged with killing the 15-year-old because they believed he was affiliated with a gang. One of the accused is 18, the other only 14. I could tell the kid who is living with the death of his cousin wanted to talk more, but the leader of the group pulled him away. But he called back that we would meet later at the Tim Hortons across Portage Avenue. "Five o'clock," he said. -- -- -- The next day, I had another appointment, this time with Dr. Keith Hildahl, the head of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's child adolescent mental health program. I had a related question for him, too. How does a kid get to the point in his life where he can look some other kid in the eye and stab him in the heart? Actually, I'd been thinking about that long before Friday's Free Press story about teenagers being the victim or the accused in nine of the city's 32 murders so far this year. My initial curiosity came from constant police reports of people, mostly young people from the inner city, being stabbed but not necessarily dying. Subsequently, I read about kids in what amounts to inner-city American war zones who witness and live with the threat of violence in their homes and neighbourhoods and how so many of them suffer the emotion-numbing after-effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. I wondered if that could be part of the reason kids in inner-city Winnipeg can kill other kids with such little feeling. The way soldiers are trained to, and street gang members are supposed to. Hildahl agreed that was part of it. "We've got lots of kids who come through youth justice who have had early physical abuse and early sexual abuse and massive amounts of early neglect." Which creates what psychiatrists call a lack of "attachment," the emotional connections that come from being loved and nurtured as a child that help us empathize with others later in life. But Hildahl also said this: "There are as many stories as there are murderers." He suggested there's a natural tendency to want to lump the reasons into those large clusters. "Gangs, which is a big factor. Inner city. Obviously a big deal. Poverty." I suggested another reason. It comes from something published years ago in a letter to the New York Times. "Why do young black men kill other young black men?" the letter writer asked. "Because they're shooting into a mirror." But Hildahl suggested that what he sees most when he looks into the souls of these mostly First Nations kids isn't self-loathing. "I see more emptiness. I see lots of emptiness. Kids who have nothing and understand they have nothing." Kids who don't see a future. Who lack hope. "If you have no hope," Hildahl said, "what is the consequence of taking someone's life?" Yet, after they kill, Hildahl said, some kids have deep remorse. Others express remorse as much as their limited emotional development allows. "And once in a while we see kids with no remorse." Surprisingly perhaps, few in Hildahl's experience are classic sociopaths. Instead, when they're alone in a room without the bravado of the gang to live up to, Hildahl sees them for what they really are. "These are poor lost kids." But these are the grandchildren of the kids Hildahl saw when he was working as a youth justice counsellor back in the early 1970s. "You're seeing a generational transfer," he said. "And it's growing." If you're wondering about the kid who was supposed to meet me at Tim Hortons, he didn't show up. But then I didn't really think he would. What concerns me far more is, other than talking tough on crime, most of our political leaders have failed to show up on the issue during the provincial election. But then I really didn't think they would, either. gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 1, 2011 B1
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