Sunday, October 20, 2013

Mad trippin'/ charity/ Xie's story



Oct. 9 Mad trippin’: I found this Globe and Mail article on Dec. 29, 2012.  It’s called “2012 Hall of Infamy Awards” by Doug McArthur.  It’s pretty funny.  I found the full article here:


Here are my favorites: 

The Writing is on the Wall Award
… goes to Mathew Davis, a British Airways steward who hoped to win a promotion by performing calmly in a crisis. During a flight to Tokyo from London, he scribbled a bomb threat on the back of a toilet door, then alerted fellow crew members. After the plane had landed safely, the captain asked Davis to submit a written report on the incident. His handwriting matched that on the door. He was fired, arrested and sent to jail.

The Go Fly a Kite Award
… goes to British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways. On a trip to Vancouver to launch new flights to London, he met with B.C. Premier Christy Clark and invited her to go kite surfing with him. On a blog posted later, he added that she would have to be naked. The Premier called his remarks disrespectful. “Someone said to me as a joke,” she quipped, “that if that’s his best pickup line, then maybe there’s a reason he called his company Virgin.”

Good news: In the Globe and Mail on Sept. 19, 2013, there is a article called “Best-before Buffet” by Andrew Ryan.  Broadcaster French 24 says there is a restaurant in Copenhagen that specializes in making dishes that are made from food that is about to be thrown away in supermarkets.  The restaurant is called Rub og Stub and translates to “lock, stock and barrel.”  It’s run by volunteers and the proceeds go to charity.

On the menu, it says they serve meat patties with red cabbage.

Oct. 16 Robin Thicke: Today is my day off and after doing my productive work, I can treat myself to a little fun.  Robin Thicke was on Oprah’s Next Chapter and I don’t have OWN.  I follow RT on Twitter and I got this link to his interview.  I was listening to 91.7 The Bounce radio and they played a clip of it.

Twerking: RT was performing with Miley Cyrus on MTV Music Video Awards.  I haven’t seen the entire performance.  I just watched a few clips here and there when it was on TV, with pictures.  RT talks about how he was recording the song “Blurred Lines” in the studio and Miley was in another studio.  She came over and listened to the song and was dancing and twerking to it.  That is how she dances.  When RT was performing on stage, he says he wasn’t thinking about sex and more about fun in performing.

http://www.oprah.com/own-oprahs-next-chapter/Robin-Thicke-on-the-Miley-Cyrus-Twerking-Controversy-Video

Blurred Lines: He discusses how his wife actress Paula Patton thought about the controversial music video.  There is an interview where she says the video is fun and campy.  RT says she was a little jealous, but it’s healthy just like how he got jealous when he saw the Two Guns love scene that Patton was in.

http://www.oprah.com/own-oprahs-next-chapter/Robin-Thickes-Wife-Paula-Patton-on-Blurred-Lines-Video

Marriage: RT talks about how 20 years with his wife Paula.  They known each other since they were teens.  He says they are like any other regular couple.  They have in common that they are big huggers and kissers, and have an energy.

http://www.oprah.com/own-oprahs-next-chapter/Robin-Thicke-on-His-20-Years-With-Paula-Patton-Video_1

His son: He talks about his 3 yr old son Julian Fuego who wants to be a singer.  Julian says things like: “This song is for the radio and this song is for the album.”  In the 1:18 sec part, Julian is singing with a microphone and he is walking around in circles on the stage.  The band is playing.  Lol.

RT says: “He says ‘I wuv you daddy.”  Aww…

http://www.oprah.com/own-oprahs-next-chapter/Robin-Thicke-on-His-Musically-Inclined-Son-Julian-Fuego-Video

Charity: I read that Taylor Swift opened her $4 million Taylor Swift Education Centre at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  There’s a classroom, hands-on instrument room and ongoing education opportunities.  That’s good.

This is more of a fighting crime one: I was reading in the Metro on Oct. 15, 2013, that “Rihanna’s tweets lead to arrest of bar owner.”  Rihanna was in Thailand and tweeted an Instagram photo with her and a protected primate.  She mentioned about this place that had naked dancers and the bar owner was arrested for obscenity and operating and entertainment venue without a license.

Oprah on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: It must be the law of attraction, because I was watching Robin Thicke on Oprah today.  Then in the afternoon I was checking to see what’s on The Simpsons on MuchMusic, and I see that Oprah is on the old sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  The ep was about the Banks’s family going on Oprah because the dad is planning on being a judge.  Will is upset because he’s not able to get on the show and has to sit in the audience.  However, he does ask questions on the microphone.  It was kind of funny.  

Oct. 18: More charity news:

Miley Cyrus: I read in the Metro on Oct. 15, 2013, that Miley Cyrus’s broken engagement with Liam Hemsworth.  She found some of his clothes in her house and donated it to a local charity store that benefits people with AIDS and HIV.

Stephen Chalmers: Also in the same newspaper: “B.C. man thankful for help getting trailer.”  Stephen Chalmers was suffering from depression and his leaky 1989 trailer is too old and broken down to be accepted by other trailer parks.  His sister Marilyn Chase and Metro created a fundraising campaign for $5000 to buy a used and newer trailer.  They got to $4,660.  Now he has to find a trailer that doesn’t leak for the amount of money.  Chalmers thanked everybody and also wants to say there are 8 other tenants in the park who need help too.

Geena Davis: She played Thelma in Thelma and Louise.  She was at Canadian Women’s foundation annual fundraising breakfast in Calgary.  She discusses how there are males to females on TV, that’s still 3:1.  She wants more women and girls on TV and not just stereotypes, sexualized, and in the background.
$620,000 was raised for the Canadian Women’s foundation, and 25% of it went to the long-term flood relief in Calgary.

War Horse: In Sept., the play about a young Albert and his horse Joey set in pre-first World War England.  One of the actors James Retter Duncan is one of the actors playing the horse at the Jubilee auditorium.  I saw a promo for it on TV and I thought the horses looked so real.  They really moved and snorted, and carried the riders.

Coca-cola apology: This was in the Metro on Sept. 19, 2013 “Coca-Cola apologizes to family for ‘you retard’ on bottle cap.  An Alberta woman Blake Loates opened her Vitamin Water bottle and the bottle cap said ‘you retard.’  The company was to put one random English word and one random French word.  “Retard” means late or delayed in French.  The Coca-Cola Refreshment Canada director of brand communications Shannon Denny says: “We did not mean to offend at all.”

They said they will draft a formal apology letter to the Loates family.  Blake’s younger sister Fiona has cerebral palsy and autism.

My opinion: I think it was really an accident and that sounded like a genuine apology.

Oct. 20 Xie’s story: I came home from work and my grandma was watching a Chinese newsmagazine show called Guangdong Today.  There were English subtitles so I read along.  They profiled this man who looks like he’s in his 60s or 70s.  He has adopted 8 kids.  3 of them died young.  2 of his daughters got married.  Another got married.  He has one daughter that he spoon feeds all her meals.  He is poor, but he adopted those kids because life is important to him.  He pays for their education and food by begging for money.

In 2008, there was an earthquake in China and he found out about the Red Cross.  He needed relief efforts, but he went there to donate all his money to it.  The secretary- general who works there told him to keep his money because he’s poor.  They decided to take some of the money like 200 yuan.  Later the roads opened and he donated 4 quilts and 4 big boxes of ramen noodles.

My opinion: I think it’s great that he’s adopting and helping his kids.  However, I’m also about helping yourself first before you help others.  Like in 2005-2007, I donated like $600 in total though I made less than $10,000 each year.  You guys maybe thinking: “That’s a lot.  You’re generous, but you should save money for yourself.”

My parents told me that too, like my tax receipt isn’t going to make that much of a difference since I don’t make a lot of money.  However, I can still redeem this in another tax year because it doesn’t expire.  So I don’t really donate to charity.  I just go on www.thehungersite.com and it’s affiliates to donate for free.

No comments: