An add-on for your morning coffee...?!

Morning Coffee

I have discovered this add-on for Mozilla Firefox a while ago and it is great. I have recently switched from viewing my gmail on Internet Explorer browser to Firefox as the former was not displaying images in the email body on gmail and I was not able to figure out the problem.

I have come upon this add-on, as every morning while I am having my coffee I have a list of websites; news and email accounts that I go through once for the day. So I have arranged all of those websites into folders on Internet Explorer and it was working well, until the recent problem. When I made the switch to Firefox for viewing my gmail, I had to open both browsers to go through everything and that was annoying and slow. I figured that there has to be something similar on Firefox and I came across the "morning coffee" how coincidental?! it basically is the same idea as having the websites saved and organized, but technically much easier and faster. You add all the websites you view into the morning coffee and arrange them out with how often you want to view them, i.e. every day, once a week, twice a week etc. and then when you are having your morning coffee, all you gotta do is click on your morning coffee icon and it will load all the pages for you in different tabs.

I have been using it for 2 weeks now and had no problems with it, at all. If you do use Firefox or any other browser and have certain websites you check every morning or anytime of the day, then you might want to consider using this feature. :)

Here is the link if you want to add it or check it out:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2677/

A Meme Is Born: 'Dude, You Have No Koran'

(Click on the title above and it will take you to the article)

I am sure that you all know about the "Quran Burning" comments that the Pastor in Florida was making. Well this caught my attention on the NY Times and the edited audio clip is quite funny. I went back to look at it again and thought that some of you might like reading the article and watching the clip.

As frustrating as the Pastor's comments are, they are basically providing a lens onto the ignorance that many Americans have, regardless, I am glad that no Quran burning has happened. However, when they go asking why there are terrorists attacks, maybe this incident could be a reminder?! Not that a response to this with a terrorist attack is justified, in my opinion no terrorist attack is justified and especially not under the name of religion. Religion never advocated for the killing of humanity, and in particular, committing suicide is forbidden, as you are taking your own life, when it is something that is supposed to be left to God. Secondly, is the killing of innocent people, suicide bombers just like taking texts out of context and interpreting it their own way to justify their actions. I am extremely ashamed that terrorists attacks are being purported through religion.

However, I think too many people in the Middle-East, think/expect that given how much the U.S. is involved in the Middle East, that Americans would know what is going on; at least knowing a simple thing such as not every Arab is a Muslim or every Muslim is an Arab. To me, this is still frustrating, and not until you go there, do you realize that they actually do not know THAT. Can you blame them? there isn't an answer, the average American's life is shaped around work, kids and own leisure time, what they do see/read on the news, (probably CNN/Fox news) is biased. That is not to say that all Americans are like that.

And contrary to what I thought, it is not only in the Middle East that Americans aren't viewed with such a positive light. This sentiment is felt everywhere, talking with Latin Americans about 9/11, I was hearing similar reactions to those felt back home. Yes 9/11 is a tragedy, the loss of human life, anywhere in the globe is, but what about the thousand of Palestinians and Iraqis dying everyday. It certainly isn't all over the news, this is something we get used to hearing about day after day. South Americans also feel the same way, with how much interference the U.S. has had and continues to have in their countries. A recent opinion or perspective I have heard was about what was going on in Haiti. That the U.S. has sent Military there to "apparently" provide humanitarian aid, and was not allowing other organizations or supply ships to land in Haiti. For many it was a chance for the U.S. to put another military foot hold in yet another country.

Whether this true or not, I am not sure, and we have to acknowledge the help that they have provided to Haiti. However, these are sentiments and perspectives that many Americans are not aware of.

Closer than Skype could ever get :)

Mum, dad and Bibo came for a quick visit last Sunday and it was great. I've been wanting to show them my place and campus, forever and as sudden as their visit was, it worked out perfectly. I actually got to hang out with them for a couple of hours, they would have stayed longer, but Bibo had school the next day and so did I :p

and no matter how old you get, it is still so sweet when your mum loves caring for you. I was overwhelmed with how many things I got :D Of course I was supplied with winter clothing, which I will show you later AND food. The middle-eastern food that I have been craving. I am stocked up, it is such a nice feeling.

They liked my apartment and like old times, when we were all living together, the first thing my mum and dad suggested was to sit outside, talk and have some coffee. The neighbors across the street do that everyday, and looking at them just makes me nostalgic yet puts a smile on my face. I do miss living with my mum, sister and brother. Even if we're all busy, there is still someone close to talk/hang out with and be there for.

Hopefully my mum will be coming next time to visit me :)

The new interactive gaming technology

So...what do you guys think?

A taste of the 90's musicals

I finally had the time to watch a movie last night; kind of made the time because I did not want to return yet another movie to the library that I haven't watched. So, this week's movie was West Side Story which is a musical.

It is a brilliant movie, put together by creative and ingenious minds. For those of you who do not know West Side Story, it is a classical American musical based on the plot of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. However, it is set to be in the 1950's in Manhattan, New York and instead of having the Montagues and Capulets, the feud is between two street gangs, the Sharks who are Puerto Rican and the Jets who are American. Below are 2 of my favorite numbers from the musical I thought of sharing :)

The first song is of the Sharks and their Puerto Rican girls, they have just come back from the dance and Maria (Juliet) a Puerto Rican has danced with Tony (Romeo) an American. The main male character here, Bernando is Maria's brother and gets furious about that. Anita, his girlfriend is arguing with him here about giving Maria some freedom.



This one here is about Officer Krupke, who keeps an eye on the two street gangs as they make trouble. In that scene the Jets are waiting for the Sharks to have a war council, i.e. meeting so after the officer leaves they sing about what they would say shall the officer show up again.

Summer in the City of Toronto

Remember my ranting on how AMAZING summer is in Canada…and how beautiful and fun and green and sunny and rainy and, and…I can go on. Well here are snippets of some of the things I have been doing this summer. (Titles without pictures are click-able so you can see the pictures on a different page)

Planting Trees Across Toronto

The City of Toronto is great about sponsoring/organizing events, of all sorts during the whole year and the best part is most of it is for free. So I have been looking out for things on their website and found this early in May. Volunteers come out to plant trees across Toronto in areas that need more trees. I planted 2 trees :D


Visiting the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and having some Pho soup

Tuesdays are free for students at the ROM. It is so big, we spent 4-5 hours and only made it through the Natural History Gallery and a quarter of the World Culture Gallery. I really want to go again soon.

There is a cheap Vietnamese restaurant right across the street, and since I've never had Pho soup, we headed there. Turned out to be a wise decision, especially since I was cold.

Going to a 1920’s themed party

Felipe, a friend from French class invited me for his and other 2 people’s birthday party. It was great fun, full of ESL students, since his roommate is an ESL tutor. With Felipe being Chilean, it was Salsa music for the night.

waiting for the bus :)

Watching fireworks on Victoria Day

I started off the day by going to High Park, one of the big parks in Toronto, to play Frisbee and then headed to Woodbine beach to watch the fireworks. Being a national holiday it was packed, people playing volleyball, lighting fireworks, eating, etc. Also, just to point out, the beach is Lake Ontario, and it is FREEZING in the summer. I went later that summer, on a hot day, with Crystal and Julia and the water was freeeezing. The scene over there looks like one of a typical summer day; plenty of people doing regular beach activities; volleyball, tanning, listening to music etc but not swimming in the “beach” I was SOO disappointed. I did miss back home…I miss getting in the water. However, since I promised myself to get in the water when we got there, I ended up taking a VERY quick dive in and ran out…I checked later and the water temperature was around 15C that day!!

Having Ice cream and Open Doors TO

Toronto was hitting records for high temperatures during those two weeks of 31 and 32 C :p so I decided it was warm enough for me to treat myself to some ice cream. Looking at the Best Ice cream shops at blogto we decided to go to the Big chill. We did not realize how much we needed it until we spent 4 hours playing tennis and getting sun burnt. That ice cream was a real treat. That same weekend Toronto had the greatest event of all, called Open Doors Toronto where all the buildings that define Toronto open their doors to the public for free and give guided tours or hold activities. There were 150 buildings opening their doors for the event that I had a hard time choosing which ones to go to. However, I made it to the sailing club, which was awesome; we went on a sail boat for 10 min, I loved it :D. My next stop was the Redpath sugar factory, but by the time I got there, they stopped receiving people for tours.

Don't feel too bad for me because on the way to the factory, we passed by the carving that marks the start of Yonge street and I've always wanted to get a picture of it. It used to be listed in the Guinness Book of World records as the longest street in the world. It starts at Lake Ontario and end by Lake Simcoe at 1,896 km.

Celebrating Canada Day and seeing the Tall ships

Ice cream and Open doorsTO

Believe it or not, it was a candid shot! but it shows how genuinely happy I was :)

Before getting on the sail boats.

ROM and Pho Soup

These Galleries are part of the Natural History Gallery.

-Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth's Treasures

-Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals and Age of Dinosaurs

-Gallery of Birds

World Culture Gallery

-Writh Gallery of the Middle East (with a guide)