Author: Joey deVilla

If you live in the province on Ontario, don’t forget that there’s both a provincial election as well as a referendum tomorrow.

Here are some tidbits on tomorrow’s goings-on:

• Torontoist has an entry on the election and referendum with answers to common election questions such as: What if I didn’t receive a Notice of Registration card in the mail? What if I show up to the polling place and I’m not on the list? What is the question being asked in the referendum?
• From the National Post: Referendum? Lie back and think of Oscar. The Oscars as an example showing why a proportional representation system is better than the current “first-past-the-post” system.
• Also from the National Post: Lorne Gunter’s incredibly lame-o article on why a proportional representation system would be bad. Among the many things he fails to realise is you’re supposed to sympathize “Dennis” from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in spite of all his silly policy wonkery. To quote the lone comment to Gunter’s post: “Did your editor even read this nonsense?”
• Two sites who couldn’t be more different agree on proportional representation: Z Magazine and Andrew Coyne.
• Here’s the official referendum site.
• Spacing has a collection of links on the referendum.
• And finally, an interview with the MPP candidate with the most interesting and concise name: Zork Hun, Libertarian candidate for my riding.

Wendy’s parents came to town for the dual celebration of her birthday and American thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving over at my mom’s house, where she served exotic-to-them, comfort-food-to-us Filipino food — chicken/pork adobo, pancit (noodles), lumpiang shanghai (egg rolls) — because they don’t get to eat that sort of food every day. Come American Thanksgiving, I’ll go do there and have exotic-to-me comfort-food-to-them stuff like turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, all of which I’m looking forward to.

(If you’d like to know more about adobo, this blog entry by The Wily Filipino is a good introduction and has lots of links.)

Wendy’s mom brought up some of her famous homemade pumpkin bread, and I discovered that it goes quite well with adobo. I’m going to have to remember that combo.

The other combination I enjoyed this weekend is a little more obvious, but alas, available only to people in Accordion City. It’s Dufflet’s chocolate banana cake (three layers — chocolate / banana / chocolate — with a thick whipped chocolate buttercream frosting) and Loblaws’ “President’s Choice” Chocolate Fudge Crackle vanilla ice cream (vanilla ice cream with crackly chocolate sticks).

Still Good After All These Years

On Thursday, which was Wendy’s actual birthday, I took her to one of our favourite spots: the Avenue Bar and Lounge at the Four Seasons at Avenue Road and Bloor. Yes, the drinks may be rather pricey ($18 for the specialty stuff), but they’re quite tasty, their service is excellent and hey, it’s Wendy’s birthday! We had our favourite dish, the steak frites. something their kitchen does very well.

On Saturday night, Wendy’s folks took us out to Marvellous Edibles, a gem of a restaurant that’s hidden in a forest of big-box stores and factories on Laird near Eglinton. The food is great, the selection is pretty wide, the desserts are amazing, the service is friendly, and it’s cheaper than you might expect. I’ve got to thank Peter Deiwick (if you’ve ever seen a live musical in Toronto, you’ve seen him) for introducing me to the place.

Needless to Say…

…I’m going to be at the gym all week.

The second FacebookCamp Toronto — a gathering for local techies interested in developing Facebook applications — takes place next Tuesday, October 9th, at the MaRS Centre (101 College Street, a stone’s throw from Queen’s park subway station). I was at the first FaceBookCamp Toronto, and if you’d like to see my notes, they’re here.

Speakers will include:

• Ami Vora (Corporate Communications, Developer PR) from Facebook Inc., flying in from Palo Alto
• Janice Diner (Creative Director) and Michael Scissons (Director of National Sales) from Segal Communications
• Geoffrey B. Roche (President) from Lowe Roche

The last FacebookCamp was quite tech-heavy — the one, while still aimed at developing applications, will be more focused on the business, marketing, branding and promotional aspects. Here’s the schedule:

• 6:00 – Social/Mingling
• 6:30 – Intro – update from last FBCT (Roy Pereira / Colin Smillie /Andrew Cherwenka)
• 6:35 – High level presentation on platform and best-practices (Ami Vora – Facebook Inc.)
• 6:55 – Building an Application for a Brand (Michael Scissons & Janice Diner – Segal Communications)
• 7:15 – How Many ways can you Market your Application Inside Facebook? (Roy Pereira)
• 7:30 – Top Applications and Why They Work (Jesse Hirsh)
• 7:45 – Monetizing your Facebook Application (Greg Thomson)
• 8:00 – Secrets of PayPal interface used by Gift Cards Facebook Application (Steve Pritchard)
• 8:15 – Demos: 5 minutes each ( 3 Slots )
  • Demo #1 – Dogbook / Catbook (Geoffrey B. Roche)
  • Demo #2 – WishList (Bogdan Arsenie)
  • Demo #3 – DreamBook (Phil Tucker)

For more information, consult the event’s Facebook page or its wiki page. See you there!

It’s the first Friday of October, which means once again, it’s Catmas!

Back in 2003, Ross and I declared that the first Friday of every October should be a day when people indulge in that most “bloggy” of activities, posting a picture of a cat on your blog. Last October, we gave Catmas its own site at Catmas.com, a domain name as an example name in Tucows documentation.

Have a great Catmas, everyone, and if you’ve got a blog and some cat photos handy, you know what to do…

I love the Runnin’ Rhino shirt from Threadless. It perfect for anyone who’s working out, or even just following their dream.

Want to see another cool t-shirt design? There’s one on my tech blog, Global Nerdy.

It seems that only a handful of wingnut blogs (which I find amusing for the same reason I find the TV show COPS amusing; namely that nothing’s funnier than other people under stress) are covering this National Post piece, but since fundies of all stripes annoy me, I thought it would be worthy of mention on a more level-headed blog:

A Toronto mosque is telling Muslims not to say “Happy Thanksgiving” or invite friends into their homes for turkey dinner on the holiday weekend.

The Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque says to “avoid participating” in dinners, parties or greetings on Thanksgiving because it is a kuffaar, or non-Muslim, celebration.

A two-part article on the mosque Web site says Muslims should also “stay completely away” from “Halloween trick-and treat nonsense,” Christmas, New Year’s, anniversaries, birthdays and Earth Day.

(Earth Day? Well, there’s one holiday on which mosque and the more right-wing blogs see eye-to-eye.)

“How can we bring ourselves to congratulate or wish people well for their disobedience to Allah? Thus expressions such as:Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday, Happy New Year, etc, are completely out,” it says.

In 2003, the Khalid mosque, which mainly serves the Toronto Somali-Canadian community, apologized for a newsletter that compared wishing someone a Merry Christmas to congratulating a murderer.

At the time, a junior employee was blamed for the slight, but the mosque’s Web site has since posted similar edicts covering not only Christmas but also virtually every other Western celebration.

I couldn’t find the reference to Thanksgiving in casual search of the mosque’s site, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t find some interesting (and unintentionally funny) reading in its “Questions and Answers” pages:

• Movies are right out. “No Muslim can doubt that the cinema that exists nowadays is a house of sin, which spreads images of that which Allaah has forbidden, pictures of women who are clothed yet naked, walking with an enticing gait. Indeed in many cases it propagates and promotes sinful sexual relationships between men and women. This is in addition to the music and songs, and the films of crimes that corrupt society. It is haraam to spread and propagate each of these things, so how about if they are combined?”
• A little more reasonable on circumcision: “Circumcision is prescribed for both males and females. The correct view is that circumcision is obligatory for males and that it is o­ne of the symbols of Islam, and that circumcision of women is mustahabb but not obligatory.”
• You are not allowed to “send yourself email”, to coin a phrase.
• The sharif don’t like it when you rock the casbah. “If singing is accompanied by musical instruments then it is haraam to do it or to listen to it, whether it is done by a man or a woman…If they are free of musical accompaniment, and are done by a man and contain good and beneficial meanings, then they are permissible, but o­ne should not listen to them too much.”
• Someone had to ask if sex-change operations were allowed? Maybe they wanted to be sure.
• Writing fiction: not allowed. “Firstly, as for writing these novels, which is lying; lying cannot be avoided if o­ne is to write in an attractive and compelling manner about things that do not exist…Secondly, it is a waste of time. People are deceived by the idea of ‘free’ time, for it is o­ne of the things about which they will be questioned o­n the Day of Resurrection.”
• Not just belly piercings, but belly sleeping. “Do not lie like this, for this is how the people of Hell lie.”

Can anybody find the edict on Thanksgiving mentioned in the Post on the site?

Update

Thanks to Chris Taylor for finding the page! It’s page 2 of the article To You Be Your Celebrations, and To Me Mine.

I loved this segment from a recent Colbert Report about the many miniature things that Dennis Kucinich keeps in his pockets:

Can’t see the video? Click here.