Wednesday, November 29, 2017

16 Years Gone

I'm so freaking tired that I have no intention to write but I wanted to get a few lines done on this specific but not very happy day. 16 years ago a day like this I landed in Canada as an immigrant and now after all those years I was sweeping part of the facility that I've been working in for a little over a month! I was told on Mon. I would have to learn working with a certain machine and to be certified on that if I wanted to stay at the job. Of course I didn't want to but while all of the efforts to get a meaningful and well-paid jobs has gone nowhere so far, what can I do? I have to get that damn certificate to be able to work and then exert more energy and effort to get something better.
My plan for today was to go to a restaurant next to the hotel that I spent my first two days and have something. Instead I stopped by, took a photo and drove to a café to work on my volunteer job as I have to deliver a certain number of items by the end of the month.
Husky House Restaurant at the corner of 32 Ave., NE and Barlow Tr. I remember I visited there at least once the second day I arrived in Calgary and sent a message to a buddy of mine asking him to contact Mom and let her now I was safe! I didn't go in today as I have become a picky eater and careful with money but might check that out later to see what it has become after 16 years and to see if I can recall anything!
It might be embarrassing but my plan also included to visit one of a few adult stores nearby(!) to check to see what they have! The last time I visited an adult store was with K. P. back in 2003 when we used to hand out a lot and that was in 17th Ave., SW. That store closed down many years ago. There was another one just a few steps away and that one was closed as well and now is a restaurant. Although I had no intention to buy anything, as that would probably felt embarrassing as well inside the store, I even didn't go there. After spending probably 2 hours on what I explained above I headed home. Had a little supper and now I'm writing these. Getting ready for bed in about hour and half. Some might celebrate the anniversary of their arrival. I have nothing to celebrate. I just survive! 
(Photo: Super 8 motel at the corner of 32 Ave., NE and Barlow Tr. where I spent the first 2 night of my life in Canada back in 2001. A disgusting Pakistani was the receptionist and when I came back from McDonald's across the street told me that the food was not freaking Halal(!) meaning not prepared and cooked based on Islamic laws. I don't recall what I told him at the time but I certainly remember that I ignored him!)

Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Reader: A Very Strong Story and Performance

The Reader was amongst a few great movies that I found in Value Village few weeks ago. I don't shop in that dump but their books, CDs and movie collection, at times, give you good value. The Chef likes to go there and most of the time he comes out empty handed or discards the garbage that he has purchased. I will have a separate post for nasty, stinking dumps such as Value Village in a country, which is claimed to be DEVELOPED, part of G7 and one of the best to live in!!
The Lady told me about the movie years ago. It was displayed on his way to Canada, the first time he came, on board Lufthansa. She said that there was an old Iranian woman sitting next to her reacting angrily every time sex scenes were seen! I understand how uncomfortable some people could be but that's part of Western culture. If you don't like it, then fuck off. I might feel uncomfortable during a movie like that, depending with whom I'm watching it but these days you have to expect scenes such as that in every Hollywood movie, regardless of genre!
The movie is great, both in terms of story and acting. A number of German actors and actresses perform in it including the guy who portrayed the heartless German officer who killed prisoners from his balcony. Kate Winslet's performance is superb. She plays a Nazi concentration camp guard. I'm not going to spoil the movie for the ones who have not seen it. It's highly recommended but it's very sad at the end. I came into tears. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
(Photo: David Kross and Kate Winslet played as lovers in the movie. Kate's performance in the movie awarded her OSCAR for the best actress in 2009) 

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Stupid Request by Stupid Idiots!

I read, as well as heard that in the news that Native people in a reserve near Calgary have suggestions or requests to change the name of a number of places in the province including Calgary, Canmore and I guess a few mountains and so! Have you heard something as stupid as this?!
This country and more specifically its Native people have so many issues and all these idiots think of is changing the names of cities and towns after 150 years!!
A Native (or as the media like to call them here, Indigenous) woman sleeping on public transportation. Would a normal woman sleep like this during the day on a train car? Fix these kind of stupidity and then think of changing the freaking names!
There's no week passing without seeing an Ape-like, filthy, stinking Native guy with shabby cloths walking around looking for an opportunity to rob people or hurt someone. There's barely any week going by without seeing Native people, men and women hanging out around downtown, at times drunk and barely able to balance themselves. The issue of kidnapped and killed Native women is a big one in this country and all these geniuses came up with is changing the names!!
As its said: The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has it's limits! What could you achieve by changing a name? And after 150 years! Change your disgusting attitudes and culture of laziness and being parasite! 
(Photo: I took this photo form the summit of Grotto Mountain looking down the Town of Canmore in Sep. of 2014. It was an amazing ascend reaching the 2706 m. (8877 ft.) summit although it should be mentioned here that the difficulty of an ascend does not solely depend of the elevation of the mountain. Other factors are involved. Native people would like to change the name of this town!)

Monday, November 20, 2017

Not Impressed by Blade Runner: 2049

I finally watched Blade Runner: 2049 but it was so late that the 3D version was no longer available. Now that I watched it I believe that I didn't miss anything and my $13.50 was wasted. I'm not impressed at all and I don't think it worth the wait, time and the money. 
The sound, either in the theater (Scotiabank Chinook) or the production was in a way that many times I had a hard time understanding the dialogue. The sound of waves, cars and other sounds made it difficult to understand parts of the conversations. Harrison Ford has a short role at the end and I didn't even get much of his character! I guess he had coitus (according to Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory) with the Replica, Rachel who appeared in Blade Runner and the story was to find that child, boy or girl and eliminate that! I still don't know how a human being, Deckard (played by Ford) can have sexual intercourse with an android (or as they call it in Blade Runner movies, Replica) and have a child! Maybe I'm mistaken and I didn't get the story right.
I'm not going to rate the movie (not that anyone cares!) because I didn't get much of the story. I perhaps do that after the DVD comes and watch it again.  
(Photo: Ford has a short role in the movie but I guess many decided to watch based on the fact that he would have a major character in the story. He does but his appearance is very short. Gosling, who is originally from Canada has the lead role)

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Poor Malcolm Young

AC/DC has always been one of my favorite bands and I always follow their news. I guess it was a few year ago that it was announced that one of the Young brothers, Malcolm had been diagnosed with Dementia. From what I have read about the illness, all that I can say is that's it evil. It appears to be a wide range of symptoms that affect brain. It's associated with decline in memory and thinking skills severe enough to reduce the person's ability to perform every day's abilities. 
Malcolm Young, the co-founder of one of the greatest Rock bands of all time, AC/DC during one of numerous performances of the band. Their performance in Moscow, shortly before collapse of  the USSR is an unforgettable one.
I can imagine what must have happened to poor Malcolm in the past 3 years with that kind of disease, if it could be called disease. He eventually died yesterday at the age of 64 in Sydney, Australia
(Photo, top: Young Malcolm Young. This picture for sure, was taken years after his family migrated to Australia from Scotland)

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Canada: Don't Hurt Poor Criminals of ISIS!!

I have stated this several times and I'm saying this here again but unfortunately no one cares: You cannot run a country with laws of 30 and 40 years ago. Canada needs to review a number of laws and brings harsher punishments for crime including bringing Capital Punishment back. 
It is in the news that now ISIS has been driven out of most of Iraq and the defeated insurgents (the term the media likes to use here in North America in addition to terrorist) are going back to their counties of origin!! No one is asking if this group is defeated, how its soldiers are going back home?! Shouldn't they be all either killed, injured or taken prisoners?! That is what being conquered mean!
Captured ISIS Terrorists by Iraqi soldiers in Mosul, Iraq. This is how the killer criminals should be treated
When the Germans were defeated in WWII, the Allies and later Israelis pursued the so-called defeated and run away Germans for decades, found almost all of them, put them in prison or hung them! Here in Canada we accept the terrorist-minded people in the first place (Omar Khader is a good example. He fought against Americans and Canadians in Afghanistan and then was rewarded millions for his patriot acts by the disgusting government of Trudeau!!) and the ones who radicalized later and go to war zones to kill innocent people are accepted with sympathy and love in the country and the Public Safety Minister claims that they would be rehabilitated!! Where were you when they were giving brains to everyone?! Apparently you either were given a rotten one or weren't given at all!
(Photo, top: Many believe and I do too, that Nuremberg trails were not fair because it was not handled by a neutral panel. However many crimes that the Nazis committed were punished reasonably and many were left undetected or unpunished)

Monday, November 13, 2017

An Scary Experience with Freezing Rain

This stupid weather of Calgary is what I hate the most about this city. If it's winter, it should be cold. If it's summer it should be warm. The temperature was changing between -16 ℃ and -12 ℃ last week and now is 2℃! It probably is a Chinook Affect but I don't care. I just don't like it!
Nevertheless I was on my way home last week and I was getting close to Deadfoot Tr. (the official name is Deerfoot Tr. which is named after a Native person who legend says he was a very good runner, such as a Deer!) and a Freezing Rain started. The problem with that type of precipitation is that sticks to the window and hardly can be whipped! I was not able to clearly see through the damn windshield while I was about 200 m. away a turn to Deadfoot Tr. I put the heater to maximum and of course directed that towards the windshield. I then turned the whipper on and turned it on fast! It was still difficult to see through and the problem was there was absolutely no way to pull over and warm up the engine, which I should have probably done before leaving work, so I could get warm air blowing out. 
I had to duck(!) too see from below and I was lucky that I didn't get myself into an accident or something as they are many crazy drivers out there. I guess eventually after 10 minutes or so I was able to get the majority of windshield clean and see easily but that was a bad experience which should be avoided ever again. 
(Photo: An accident on Deadfoot Tr. which resulted in demise of the driver, unfortunately. Despite the fact that who's responsible, I believe many drivers here in Alberta and perhaps generally in the country drive carelessly and avoid all of the posted signs, mostly the speed limit)

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Not Compatible With the Team!

I received a telephone call from the first recruiting company which sent me to the job that I was asked to leave by them after 7 weeks, a few days ago. The guy asked me to go back! I was about to say: Are you f**king kidding me?! Those disgusting motherf**ckers threw me out despite the fact that my performance was always good and now you want me to go back?! Forget it! 
I told the guy those were the lowest moral and unprofessional people that I've worked with and they kicked me out for no valid reason and there would be no chance for me to go back! I also asked him if he knew why I was expelled. He named a disgusting, piece of shit, motehrfuc**ker, redneck, White trash, whom I think I know and said he was the one who basically sent me out citing that I was not compatible with the team!
I don't know how that motherf**cker animal landed at the conclusion that I was not compatible with the freaking team but I know that as a fact that I worked very well with almost everyone, I would say more than 95% of the team members, and respected everyone, always was nice and polite and helped them as much as I was able to. The recruiting guy told me that I would most likely be sent to a different part of that company and would work a different shift. I insisted that I would never work for them! 
I know this would have a very bad impression on him and he would probably never give me a call but I consider the risk. Working with disgusting White Trash animals who look down on me (I mentioned to him) and disgusting cheap East Indians (I didn't mention this one and I should've) would be hell. So I refuse to do so, as long as I can. Now I'm looking for an opportunity to get back to them, particularly that nasty White Trash fat-f**ck, if he's the one who I think he is. I'll get them. I don't know how but I will figure a way out.
(Photo: Spectrum was amongst the very first personal computers in market. I had one and I remember I enjoyed playing game on it very much, years ago. While this little note reveals my age range, I have to say that in many cases when we were trying to load a game to the computer we had this problem with compatibility! I don't know which incompatibility is worse. Being kicked out of a disgusting, nearly-lowest-paid-job which just helps you to stay above the water or not being able to play a video game when being able was a privilege that many didn't have in those old days!)

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

CFLRS Notes (41): Mewing(!)

There was a very nice Sergeant in the first platoon that I was part of, in CFLRS. A man from Quebec, like most of the instructors, he was patient with the recruits but tough when he had to. A number of people will recognize me now that I'm telling this story because there was something unique about this gentleman when it came to time keeping. 
There were several things that we had to do them in a very limited time during our training (or perhaps it'd be better to say during my failed training!). To name showering and dressing in a very limited time after exercise or as it's called in CFLRS, PT. This Sergeant had a mobile phone which he would set it for a certain time and it would mew(!) when the time was reached. So if we were lined up after PT but there still were recruits who had not lined up and we heard mewing, we knew we would be in trouble! The punishment would normally come in the format of Squat! 
This exercise is not too hard to do under normal circumstance but not too easy after PT and a hard week of other physical activities and sleepiness. The thigh muscles would hurt after a few minutes of seconds, depending on the person and recruits start moaning! 
We were mostly very sensitive toward this noise and one day one of the recruits, who happened to be a nice Caucasian man, imitated that sound and I attacked him verbally! I told him if he didn't stop, I would do something that he regrets that! The poor guy didn't say anything back and I later apologized to him. He soon left the platoon because he was a Reservist and I think he had been told that there are parts of the course that he didn't have to do. I saw him one last time with another group and that was it. 
I saw the Sergeant a few more times, including the night that he escorted me to the hospital in the town. We had a nice chat that night. Then I was transferred to TRP and then the second platoon and then TRP again and finally CAC/PAR. I said Hi to him and had always a pleasant encounter with him like almost all of the instructors and recruits in the school until I left. I wish him and all of the nice people of CFLRS a great life for ever. I'm happy that I'm our because that life style is not simply for me.
(Photo: Squat is frequently used as a form of punishment in CFLRS and this is exactly the recruits are required to perform that except for the fact that they are dressed!)

Monday, November 06, 2017

Affects of Extreme Cold

The real Albertan winter is here and people's complaint has started! So have road accidents! What amazes me the most is the amount of nagging and complaining from people, mostly Canadians as well as numerous road crashes, mostly, on the first day! The temperature plummeted to -17 ℃ the other day and it was really cold when wind was blowing. I left my mobile phone in the vehicle when went to work in the morning. It was dead when I reach into it at about 11:30! The telephone was completely frozen in term of service! The message No SIM Card was seen on the screen although I thought that the new telephones don't have SIM Card! I took it inside with me when the temperature was obviously higher, something around 20 ℃! I even restarted it once but didn't make any difference! I guess it came back to life after almost 1 hour or so.
I had another similar experience with my Chromebook! I must have a separate post about how fantastic Chromebook is despite the nonsense idiots say, including a dickhead scum in WestHills BestBuy but the problem would have happened to any computer. The extreme low temperature shuts down the main chip and it needs a certain time to go back to life when it's brought back to normal temperature.
The other object which suffers from cold temperature is wire! The includes GPS connection wire or a mobile phone's charger wire. It becomes so stiff that it cannot be bent to reach the device.
Apparently the sudden and significant change of temperature, mainly in Calgary, due to Chinook Effect, has affects on human body which is subject of a different post but I guess I read once that there are people who suffer from this condition.
(Photo: A very cold night in Calgary. This picture was taken in last Feb. in downtown)

Saturday, November 04, 2017

Quince

There's this store at the corner of 12th St. and 46nd Ave. SE that I've checked it a few times so far. It's ran by an Oriental family I believe and they have mostly good items with reasonable prices. I noticed a big crate full of a type of fruit during one of my visits and when I looked closely I realized it is something that I haven't tried for years and not specifically in Canada: Quince
This is a type of fruit which, as far as I've experienced, is not eaten raw because it's hard, even when it's ripen and a despite its unique taste it's acrid. 
I have tried that as jam and stew in the old country. So here I did the same: I made Quince Stew out of the one I had purchased just to see how it would taste and it was fantastic. I'm sure it is fixed differently in other cultures including China where this family is probably coming from and is a major producer of the fruit but it was a good buy. Many recipes are available on the internet and cooking books which prevents me from writing one here but get one or two or as many as you want while they're open. Their winter closure is imminent and I have not seen this fruit anywhere else in the city or for that matter anywhere else in the country(!) in the past 15 years or so! 
(Photo: A randomly selected photo from Internet which shows good looking quinces!)