Sylvia Gravel Theatre

I have been having trouble uploading to youtube, it sucks so very much. But finally I was able to upload this video from a VHS I captured with my elgato eyetv, a brilliant device I picked up at MacWorld.

The sound is fucked up, but that is youtubes fault, its not a problem with the original capture. I will try to re-upload it at some point.

This is from my VHS copy of the O'Gorman High School performance of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" back in 1999. This video is of the dedication ceremony for the Sylvia Gravel Theatre, at the time the best "technical teaching theatre" in Ontario, thanks to the best drama teacher ever, JoAnne Donnelly. We performed "Coffee Break"(Thats me being shaken like a ragdoll, and singing at the end!)

I do plan on uploading the other segments on the tape, and maybe even a number from the show.

I love Pizza

I'm trying to score some aeroplan points, so I figured I would take advantage of the latest promotion at Pizza Pizza

"To obtain a Game Piece without purchase, mail a self-addressed stamped envelope including a handwritten essay of 50 words or less as to why you love Pizza Pizza and Pepsi® soft drinks to: Pepsi® 6XTREME™ Contest, c/o Corvision Marketing, 70 Esna Park Drive, Unit 9&10, Markham, Ontario, L3R 6E7."

So I wrote 10 copies of this "essay", and I will mail one a day for the next two weeks. I could win a ton of aeroplan points or maybe a slice of pizza (the smallest prize is a can of Pepsi, lame!). Fingers crossed.

I have to get a job, or something.

On being Blind

I am blind, seriously, legally blind. I don't have a white cane or wear sunglasses, I'm lucky. I can see everything (as long as it is close enough and straight in front of me).
I was born with bilateral Retinoblastoma, a type of cancer in both my eyes. My right eye was removed when I was five years old. My left eye has scaring on the retina from cryotherapy which further impairs my peripheral vision as well as making it very difficult to read, as I must read into my blind spot.
I believe the radiation used to treat the cancer caused me to become deaf in my right ear. Whenever I walk with someone, I take the right side so I can hear them talk and not walk into them. Sometimes the person I am walking with doesn't know this and will end up on my right side causing me to stop and walk around them, accompanied by an explanation of my impairment.
When I am walking on a busy sidewalk I have to be very careful to look all around me to avoid walking into people. I still walk into people all the time, and every once in a while I hit a bike rack, street sign or anything else that might be on the sidewalk. One time I was walking in Kensignton Market and I had a collision with a guy in a wheelchair. I apologized right away "I'm so sorry," I said. "Are you fucking blind?" he yelled. "As a matter of fact I am" I replied. Then he had to apologize to me.
I have no depth perception, so I have always sucked at baseball. I trip over curbs sometimes and pigeons always freak me out cause it looks like they are going to fly right into my face.
Street signs are sometimes too small or too out of the way to read. I can't read the numbers off of houses from the street, so I have trouble finding places I have never been before, especially at night. I am often late only because I had to walk around trying to find a street sign or an address I could see. I have to ask a friend to help read the menu and the bill in a dark restaurant, and I cant find the bathroom if you just point and say "it's over there", I need actual directions.
I can't read TTC maps or schedules so all that planning must be done before I leave the house. I have trouble in subway stations reading signs. Some bus drivers still do not call out the stops on surface routes.
I have trouble at work when I have to read small print. Every job I have had has at some point asked me to read something I couldn't possibly see. Some employers would replace the task with busy work while others have accused me of being lazy and able to see "just fine". I have often had difficulties with employers unwilling to make simple accommodations such as photocopied enlargements. I am often forced to re-explain my situation to managers who either don't believe me or don't care. I have become very frustrated at work because of this. I feel my employers don't want to help me.
My cancer has never been a secret, if anyone has ever asked me about it I have been open and honest. I have not been so forthcoming with my disability and how it affects my daily life.

Getting Started

It's almost the end of February. This is the time of year I like to get started on my New Years resolutions. I wanted to blog more, get in shape, and clean my room.

I have wasted this blog, using it to post a few pictures back in 2006. I never took advantage of the blogging craze and now it's left me in the dust. I have been doing so many cool, blogworthy things and now I could only write about them in retrospect.

Why do I need to get in shape? Cause I'm starting to become a bit of a fat dude. I eat with no regard for portion size or calorie content, which worked fine for that spry youth I once was. I've gained some weight, and people tell me I look "healthy"(beefy). I don't want to get out of control. I need to eat right and exercise. I am reminded of the late Wesley Willis, who said "I'm sorry I got Fat, I will slim down". I once watched him drink homogenized milk by the liter, he never did slim down(rest in peace, Wes).

My room is something else all together.

Super Sunny J

i look good

Bud

Edgefest, Molson Park, Barrie Ontario 07/01/01

This was the first time I saw Tool. Jagger and I left South Porcupine on a bus at 4 am. I should have brought a hoodie but i didn't so i froze.

Tool, Air Canada Centre, Toronto Ontario 9/18/01

On September 1th, 2001, some assholes almost ruined my chances of seeing Tool for a second time. Thankfully, a week later everything was back to normal and touring resumed. There was this really loud fat faced homeless kid on Queen Street and he said he could hook me up with some ham, to smoke at the show. We walked up University to St. Patrick to supposedly meet his guy. On the way we passed the US consulate. There were people leaving flowers and saying prayers, and this CRAZY FUCKING HOBO starts YELLING at everyone, "They Deserved it!". It was so uncomfortable and I wanted to not be with him but I was bound to him by a need to get scooby snacks. This crazy bastard didn't even hook me up. His guy wouldn't show, and I had to go meet Jagz at Union. Jagger lent Colin some bucks and he scored a ticket from a filthy fucking scalper. When we got into the Air Canada Centre I bought a 12$ beer, that I had to drink in the hall, so I missed most of Meshugga. Colin had a closer view of the stage, Jagger and I rocked out to some wicked jams. The set went something like this:

grudge
ions (the zappy part)
stinkfist (extended bridge)
46 & 2
pushit (salival)
schism
disposition
reflection
-intermission-
parabol
parabola
eon blue apocalypse
the patient
aenima
lateralus

They had the weird contortionists from the Laturalus video come out and bob their heads. And Jagger was SHOCKED when they played the salival version of pushit(One of the best Tool songs). I was really happy to hear Aenima, cause its my favorite Tool song, and they din't play it at Edgefest.

Somebody had some bowlaroos, cause Colin came over to where we were sitting and we all partook, under the watchful eye of Air Canada Centre Security.

 

Colin Gibson loves to rock out 

VHS SUX, I watched it die.

 

My brother Marc and I