KeriBlog

Cars, Security & a Peek into my Life

Why I Don't Like Christmas, and a Moving Update

Short answer: Christmas makes a lot of people feel bad.

Brooks, Alberta has 120+ different nationalities living there!  I know come ON.

The Calgary airport (YYC FYI) is quite nice, there’s even an F-18 simulator.

Nope, not travelling with any hunting bounty, antlers, ha.

By pure luck and I was upgraded to First Class on the way home, look how excited I am, thank you T ;)

You’re offered a choice of 3 meals, eaten with real silverware, finished off with warm cookies baked fresh in the sky, and look how I had my feet up. That’s luxery.

Good Twitter profile pic eh, looks like I’m yelling my tweets at you.

Just changed it though, no more holiday stuff. Click here to see the new one.

Here’s my trunk containing everything I own (plus my backpack of computer/camera gear).

You bet I did a dry run… imagine if my trunk didn’t fit in my car?

What’s the solution to that?

I don’t know either. Fainting.

And please tweet / email / comment / anything me if you have a suggestion about how I can keep my cel number while paying as little as possible.  I’ll be back when the snow melts.

Kay gotta run, work to do, TTYT

xo

Keri

 

A Christmas Lawsuit Story

In 1981 the Eaton Centre tied red bows on the geese while decorating.

The artist freaked out, said they were ruining the design, take them off.

The Eaton Centre said, “we paid you, now we own them, no”.

They argued and fought and took it to a judge, who sided with the artist.

And forever more the Canadian Copyright Law was changed: you can’t fuss with the art even after you buy it.  

This case is widely used today as an example: Snow VS The Eaton Centre.  Here’s the Wikipedia page.

Note the Canadian spelling of ‘centre’.

 

 

 

Spent Labour Day in Kingston, Where It’s Awesome

Spent the long weekend in Kingston, Ontario, visiting friends, a photoshoot with Suzy (I’m not allowed to show you anything yet) and celebrating a 60th birthday.

If you would like to get away for a weekend, come here.  There’s 1000 Islands, 1000 things to do, and Kingstonians are known as party-ers.

Let’s start with these four places:

1 – Go there for a beer – The Toucan

2 – Buy your books there – Wayfarer Books (smells so good)

3 – Pan Chancho – get a coffee and chocolate croissant

4 – I never go here, it’s for hippies, but green arrow: she’s _still_ there :O

Or, you could go see me on the walls of here.

My favourite ever army suprlus store is here – Smith Army Surplus.  If you’re lucky Kyle will be working, say hi.

I cruise through, sift through the patches, talk shop and swap lies.

You can shoot in Kingston, too.  Well I can, you might have a bit harder time.

This was S&R – Canada’s oldest (50+) independently owned department store.

It closed two summers ago, which I went around for weeks proclaiming sad and wrong.

I wish I had video of inside here; places like this don’t exist anymore.  I heard some mid-level-restaurant-franchise is going in.  Golf claps.

70% of all Kingstonians own something from here, maybe one of those glass balls, likely received as a gift.

I’m being dramatic, but not really.

Where you should be buying gifts from is Dwell Boutique, which I should have taken a photo of.

It’s a great place for Morning Drive.

YA BUDDY!  THE STUDIO LIVES!

Thanks Claus! <3

He also gave me silver dollar.  I put it on my fridge.

I left it there though, my car.  It’s no longer fit for the highway, not even I’m that wacked.  So kinda cool eh….

Me – “Pardon me?  Oh yes yes, I do keep a car in Kingston” :|

Ha.

This place below is my personal real estate brokering deal dream… it’s the old Psyc Ward down on the water.

Executed correctly, it could be one of the premiere mini-areas in Southern Ontario.

Kingston is a good-sized city that you’ll be leaning on a wall texting, someone strolls by you know, now you’re on a patio making jokes.

The streetlights are an inside joke.

Kingston is filled with buildings like this, Canada’s very first bank.

The arrow is pointing to my old apartment. I was the last person to live in it before the City took it over.

There was a restaurant on the main floor, who’d pass me ahi tuna on my way up the stairs, which I’d eat on the fire-escape (they removed it), from which I may have once thrown handfuls of mini-bouncy-balls from, to see what would happen (fun happens).

Go to Kingston, you’ll love it!

 

 

 

Last Chance to go to the CNE

Look how much fun you can have.

CNE Website

Weather

It’s the oldest fair in North America come ON.

And if THAT video about a fair doesn’t get you pumped, this one surely will…

Canadian Explorer Episode #4 – Exploring a Fair

This was the first episode I genuienly liked, because, this was at the 3 month mark, and by then I’d learned enough about Final Cut to make it how it looked in my head.

Editing aside – this thing was all in .mov and every time I moved even one pixel, I had to render o.m.g.

A Girl in a Masonic Lodge VERY RARE

Freemasonry is the oldest and largest world-wide fraternity, founded in the 1500s.  It relies heavily on symbolism derived from classical architecture. The 3 Main Tenents of Freemasonry are: Brotherly Love, Relief (help), and Truth.  You’re encouraged to keep your own religion, doesn’t matter.  There’s more than 6 million all-male members world wide (Grand Lodge of Ontario, Wiki)

That’s why this post is titled like that.

There’s over 600 Lodges in Ontario alone.  This is the East Toronto Masonic Temple, where they meet.

I’ve blogged about the Masons before, this is not a new fascination.

– their Canadian headquarters in Hamilton

– the Toronto Stock Exchange was founded in 1850 by 24 Masons

– one of the most detailed Masonic buildings in the world is the Manitoba Legislative Building

See the lightbulb top right?  It was the most asked about item in the room, and that was disappointing to hear.  Because the photos below, it’s rare to get to see this stuff.

Click here for a list of famous Freemasons, you’re going to be surprised at how many you know.

Discussing politics and religion is forbidden inside all Lodges, cool eh.

You know the Shriners?  That’s them, too.  Their hospitals treat any kid, regardless of  any relation to a Freemason, race, ethnicity, even if they can’t pay.

See the arrows?  Symbolism.  You start as a rough stone, and through study, giving and hard work, you elevate yourself to be like the smooth stone.

There are 33 levels to ascend, the 33rd is done at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

Everything detail you see, colour, every single thing has a reason behind it, symboloism, a purpose.

I love it.

The Mason origins also come from one of my personal favourites, the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar were the most skilled fighting force for 200 years during the Crusades and Middle Ages, and they did it all for charity.  They were officially endorsed by the Catholic Church, guarded roads, the public, and fortified things.

The Knights Templar also:

– innovated and established banking methods that are in use today

–  in 1307 the majority of all Knights were captured and burned at the stake on… Friday the 13th.  Some say that’s why it’s unlucky.

– built Rosslyn Chapel, one of my favourite places on Earth.  Look how beautiful.

Hope I’ve got this all right Masons, if not, please correct me in the comments. Last thing I want to do is spread mis-information, aiming for the opposite here.

 

KeriBlog