Magda started a blog on her website
Her first post, “Goodwill in surprising places,” is about the recent agreement between the Jesuit college and WalMart.
At the festival on Sunday we saw James Gordon sing his song that he introduced referring to the monstrosity that’s being erected at Woodlawn and the highway.
“The Jesuit college is expanding?!” I joked to my neighbour. Sadly that was not the thing to which he was referring.
This weekend, I am volunteering at Hillside Music Festival held at Guelph Lake.
The about page says the festival is “very unique” and “We present an eclectic variety of entertainment once a year at Guelph Lake on the last weekend in July.”
John and Robert’s campaign website for the TransRockies race is up. It is called ChallengingIDEAS.org.
John explains the reason for the name of the site:
A little about this site. We brainstormed on a name that was descriptive of what we are trying to accomplish; which is two things: first, we want to raise awareness of the IDEAS society and its mission, through this challenging race; second, we want to challenge the perceptions of people, with or without intestinal disease/ostomies, of what they can achieve. Rob and I are taking it to the extreme, to inspire, motivate and encourage EVERYONE to get active and healthy. We came up with challengingIDEAS.org, which we think is a pretty good representation of our goals.
Waterloo is unique in Canada for its student housing situation. Having two universities makes the student population a big proportion of the city’s population. Because of the large population of co-op students likely cause more subletting and greater turnover in leases.
Also with low interest rates and growth in enrolment a lot more landlords have entered the market and a lot more rental properties have been built. The university built townhouses to make the Columbia Lake Villages north community, student housing has built several apartment blocks near laurier and on the old iglesia property on Hickory Street as well as several other construction projects around the city, mainly on the corridors where zoning restrictions were loosened.
The transport board had the first day of the hearing over licensing Fed Bus. The pro licence lawyer called witnesses to testify that Fed Bus was better than Greyhound giving reasons like convenience, price, and that commission goes to Feds. The other lawyer cross-examined witnesses to try to minimise the differences saying that the bus company was going to offer the same routes to Toronto and saying “so price is the only difference?”
There were some funny exchanges during testimony.
Lawyer 2: Has the bus ever had to brake suddenly?
witness J: You mean … at a red light?
[...]
Lawyer 2: How long does it take for you to take the bus to York Mills?
witness J: One hour and forty-five minutes.
Lawyer 2: How much faster would the other bus be to York Mills?
witness J: That bus company doesn’t get me to York Mills?
Lawyer 2: I’m not too good at reading schedules. It [the proposed schedule] says it leaved at 14:30 and arrives at 15:45. How long is that?
witness J: That’s one hour and forty-five minutes.
Lawyer 2: That’s actually one hour and fifteen minutes.
witness J: I don’t think that’s possible because of traffic.
Lawyer 2: Is the applicant’s proposed service immune from traffic.
[...]
witness M: I took the bus home at Thanksgiving. there were 60 buses. If the other bus company can guarantee that number of buses, I have no problem taking them.
[...]
Lawyer 2: If you buy your ticket and you can’t go, do you get your money back?
witness M: You buy your ticket on Wednesday. It’s only two days, but I understand your point.
[...]
Board member: If the two services were identical, which one would you choose?
witness M: They would be the same, it wouldn’t make a difference.
Board member: If the two services were the same except for the comfort.
[...]
witness M: It is exam time. If this was a month earlier this place would be packed. It would be the greatest disservice not to licence the bus. Everyone uses this service, all 22,000 students.
[...]
witness C: I was told that my student card was not valid ID.
[...]
Lawyer 1: What is your financial situation?
witness C: Bleak.
[...]
Lawyer 2: How much would a ticket to your destination cost?
witness C: I checked the the other bus company website this morning it is $77.85 return.
Lawyer 2: It is $25.80
witness C: That is to Toronto.
Lawyer 2: This is the direct service from Waterloo. How much do you expect it would be?
witness C: I’m hoping it will be less than $77. I hope it will be less than $30. That information hasn’t been made available to the public yet.Lawyer 2: Do you know what the student fare is to your preferred destination?
witness C: There is no student fare from Waterloo to Mississauga.
Lawyer 2: Have you ever used the washroom on the other company bus?
witness C: I don’t want to use a bus washroom.
[...]
witness Y: The bus is a big part of the culture at the school.
[...]
witness Y: The bus company has gone out of its way to develop a relationship with students.
[...]
witness Y: I was supposed to get back at 4, but didn’t get back until late that night. I did use the washroom, but only to cry and throw up.
[...]
Board chair: You’re only supposed to answer questions.
Lawyer 1: Do you have anything else to say?
(witness Y expessed disappointment in the other bus company and wondered why they didn’t consult with students)
(Lawyer 2 said that the indignation was a little out of place and that the company had approached the student organization long ago)
Lawyer 1: If I told you it was a few weeks ago, would that be long ago?
Lawyer 2: How about a year and a half ago?
So that was part of day one. I missed the rest of the day.
John of ostomyathlete.com and Rob of IDEAS (Intestinal Disease Education and Awareness Society) are competing in the TransRockies Challenge V as part of an awareness campaign for IDEAS. They are both ostomates, which means because of disease they have had surgery to make an artificial hole for waste.
Both Rob and John compete in triathlons and do other athletic feats that would be great achievements for anyone.
Rob and John will demonstrate to society that illness is only an obstacle to overcome, and that focus on ability rather than disability leads to better quality of life.
This describes the purpose fo the team, the campaign and their plans:
Team CanadaHomeHealth.com/IDEAS’ main goal in racing the TransRockies is to raise awareness of the Intestinal Disease Education and Awareness Society. The organization was founded by Rob Hill of Vancouver, BC to help remove the stigma associated with intestinal diseases and people living with ostomies. The society conducts a wide range of activities including school talks, presentations to professional organizations and awareness campaigns throughout BC, Canada and North America. This summer, the society will also support a day camp program for children living with IBD in Vancouver, BC.
CanadaHomeHealth.com is sponsoring John and Rob’s team. It will be called “Team CanadaHomeHealth.com/IDEAS”.
A few weeks ago I discovered that my formerly-new currently-favourite rum was discontinued by the provincial liquor control. Now I don’t drink much or often, but when I do do things, I prefer the highest quality. It seemed strange to me that a great product like Matusalem would be taken from shelves when so much space is taken up by moderate products like Bacardi and Captain Morgan. That could be the tyranny of the masses and their ignorance.
Matusalem rum originally distilled its fine rums in pre-revolution Cuba, but they moved to Dominican during the revolution.
I wanted to find out what happened and where I could find some. They still had the darker rum “Clasico,” but not the white, “Platino.”
So, I contacted the company at one end and the retailer at the other.
Feds will go to Kitchener City Hall tomorrow to fight for Fed Bus. They are not talking to the city, the Ontario highway Transport Board is just using city council chamber for the licence hearing.
Feds delay budget for Fed bus hearing and call for student support
Students’ Council isn’t hearing the budget this month because of uncertainty about whether Feds will get revenue from Fed Bus. Feds didn’t include Fed Bus profit in its budget until after I wrote about the issue (Feds financial malfeasance 25 July 2002). Prior to that they were hiding it and using it as budget padding.
Feds likely won’t hear the result this week though. The last ruling said that the board tries to respond in two weeks.
Is Renjie on a junket? Waterloo undergraduates’ soon-to-be health insurer flew those kids out to VanCity to check out how the health plan looks at The UBC.
In Monday, July 17, 2006 Vancouver, BC he writes:
For those of you wondering what Im doing all the way out here, Im actually here on business which is pretty sweet considering that both my flight and hotel accomodation are being paid for! Michelle and I are in town on a fact-finding mission to UBC to check out their dental & health plan model offered through studentcare.net/works which we are planning on implementing at Waterloo, also through the same provider. Long story short, studentcare.net/works offered to fly us out here to check out their operations at UBC and to see what we could bring back to Waterloo… this job really couldnt get any better… really… haha…
On Sunday I drove the parents to the airport. Not my parents, the parents of the cat that I am watching while they are gone. Well I didn’t actually drive them there, I drove the car back.
Yesterday the cat brought me a mouse. That’s right; I am the new master.