You’ve been warned

I know I haven’t posted for like a week but it hasn’t been because nothing exciting hasn’t happened or my PC doesn’t work but rather I am so addicted to this online tennis game. If you like tennis and video games then you will love this little online game. You can find it by googling ‘free online tennis game’ and it will be the first one there.

You Fake!

The inspection and testing department hired a new technician this month and it turns out he is a Muslim Arab from Iraq.  I saw him around the office and the next thing I know this guy is hanging around in my office while I am trying to get my work done.  I am very ambitious and as such I never turn down therefore making me busy all day.

So this guy comes in and starts up the chatter.  At first I was OK with it, I mean I am not an ass.  We introduced ourselves to each other and so on, but then he ended up sitting in my office.  I was like dude kinda busy here, but nothing.  He is new to Hamilton and was wondering what there was to do here.  I was like sorry man, right now I have a one track mind and that’s work, wrong guy to ask.  I usually spend most of my nights at home doing whatever there.  So he answers with oh, uh, ya me too.  He played off this really wholesome image.  Using religious terms and quotes and such.  The next question was about clubbing and where are the hot spots around here.  Hmm.  This was then followed by him asking me how many girls, or broads as he put it, have I slept with, were they white, Arabs, Spanish, etc.  He then went on to tell about his encounters.  It bears noting here that I never asked him about his sleeping habits and, FYI, for those who read my posts,  I don’t care who you sleep with.  That’s shit you can keep to yourself.

Since my treatments were over I feel like I am on second wind here and have decided to change a few things in my life and take some more chances.  I don’t have many Arab friends.  There is no real reason why, I just don’t.  So as a new thing I thought I would make an effort to make new Arab friends and thought well, here’s a good start.  We already work together, different department, but still.  I was told by the few Arabs friends that I have that I should be careful when meeting Arabs as they are, umm, I believe the term was “soooo FUCKING FAKE!!”.  After spending like 10 minutes with this guy.  Ya, I’d say so. 

The thing that kills me more than anything is not the fact that he was fake.  It’s the fact that my friends were right.  That Arabs are fake.  In addition to this tool, we have one client whose name is Muhammad.  The most popular name in the world.  You know what he goes by.  Terry.  Terry!!  What the Fuck!  That’s not even close!!  Not Mo or Moe or whatever.  TERRY!!  I take pride in being an Arab.  I mean I don’t have the Palestinian flag tattooed all over me or anything, but I don’t hide it either and unless its a really close friend, they use my full name.  I learned your stupid white people names, you can learn mine. 

Arabs.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat Hamilton!!

Last Saturday I given free tickets to a Ti-Cat game here in Hamilton as a reward for finishing up my treatments. For those of you who don’t know, the Tiger Cats are Hamilton’s football team in the CFL (Canadian Football League). I usually don’t go to any games, it’s not that I don’t like football, but the stadium is in a really sketch part of the city so I kinda avoid it if I can. Plus Canadian football drives me nuts, the coaches do not take enough risks in my view and a potentially awesome game can be boring.

Anyways, I was born in Hamilton, raised in Hamilton, educated in Hamilton, the whole nine yards so I always defend it against others who put it down (you hear me Burlington!! Fuck You!!). But after going to the game on Saturday, I understand why people put it down. I was surrounded by the most disgusting people I have seen ever in my life. Gross. Just gross. Thank God it rained that day because that was the closest thing these people got to a shower. Had I known I going to be surrounded by such filth, I wouldn’t have watched to the game but I would have used my ticket to get to the upper deck and spray soap onto them when it was raining so these people could be introduced the concept of showering.

The only thing more disturbing than their appearance and odour was the filth that was coming out of their mouths and I’m not just talking about the teenagers and adults, I mean little kids too. And the mascot. I swear this guy is a rapist. He is all over any female between the ages of 13 and 18. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Groping them and everything. People just laughing and taking pictures with this guy.

The game was an afternoon game so it ended in the early evening and on drive away from the stadium we saw 4 hookers, hooking, like in the middle of a pick-up. One guy had his child with him.

In one freakin’ night my faith in Hamilton was shattered and it looks like I am going to be another one of ‘those people’ that goes to Burlington and says, “Look at me I made it out of Hamilton!!” (even though its like a 10 minute drive out of the city on the QEW)

Zero!!!

It’s finally over!! Twelve grueling months of chemotherapy. I was told by my doctor that 12 months is second longest stint he has ever prescribed. One other guy needed 16 months, but my dosage was much higher than his, so the way I see it, I win.

Throughout the course of my treatment I had mixed reactions. Some people thought I was brave for carrying on as normal as I could given the condition I was in, while others took the extreme opposite and shunt me away like I was some kind of plague, like if they shook my hand, they would somehow get a brain tumour too. Idiots. I did learn a lot however throughout this whole ordeal. One of the most important things I learned was who my real friends were. I didn’t have many friends to begin with, I mean if you include those from my graduating class it would only be a total of 10 people. I used to be on Facebook and my total friends list was maxed out at one point at 22 people. I’m 29 years old and I only had 22 people on my Facebook. The reason for that is another discussion for another day, but I realized that out of the small group that I called friends, even fewer true friends that I can really count on to be there for me no matter what.

Throughout my treatment they wanted me to talk to a councilor or therapist. You see when went in for my monthly check-ups they would look at me and be puzzled as to how lightly I was taking the situation. But the truth of it is I was very fortunate. The tumour was in a good part of my brain, relatively easy operation and the treatment afterward was a week of pills at the start of each month. Not to mention that my family was extremely supportive and the few true friends that I have were unreal, my one friend picked me up every morning and drove me to work and then drove me home after work. I work with this friend, but she doesn’t exactly live around the corner.

The pills I was taking were brutal from time to time, I’m not going to lie, but I didn’t suffer like most cancer patients do. Not even close. When I was in the cancer clinic I would feel so guilty that I was so lucky and others weren’t. Sometimes I would see a little kid that was balding from his chemo and that memory, it just sticks with you.

I never did go see a councilor, I didn’t feel the need for it and still don’t really. I was actually kind of surprised when the doctors told me that I was too ‘relaxed’ with the situation. Well, I just figured panicking and worrying about it is not going to get me anywhere and whatever happens, happens.

To be 100% honest with everyone, the most difficult aspects of the illness was the burden I placed on my family on friends. When I was I first diagnosed, my dad was in the room. I usually look at the ground when I’m talking to a doctor but this time my eyes were locked on him and when he heard those words. That hurt. Mama wasn’t even in the country when I was diagnosed. She was visiting my grandmother (who still doesn’t know, we figured it would be better) in DC. You want to talk about a hard phone call. That one hurt. She tried to come home right away but I was diagnosed in February/March 2007 and for those that remember we had a nasty snow storm on the east side here and everything was shut down, planes, trains even buses. It took a week for her to come home. She ended up staying at some strangers house in New York City. Her trip home is also another story for another day. But when she finally came, I know for a fact she was destroyed on in the inside, you see I’m the first born, therefore the favorite. But she put on the bravest front ever. Being even more of a burden, my tumour presented itself via a seizure. Some medical talk there for ya And everyone knows, once you have a seizure, no more driving. So now, I am not only worrying them due to the BRAIN CANCER, but they have to drive me everywhere. And you know you’re the shiznit when your 29 and your moms drops you off at the mall!

Anyways, I don’t know how to end this post except to say I am glad that it is over and I would not change a thing. I know I put my family through a lot and I was burden and the chemo did suck at times, but I think my family, everyone I value around me and I are better off for this experience.

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Hamilton

I live in Hamilton, Ontario and recently an issue came up that the municipality felt it had to deal with immediately. For those of you who are not familiar with Hamilton, we have an expressway that travels east-west then north-south that is basically around the southern and eastern perimeter of the city. Anyways, the expressway has 2 lanes traveling in each direction that are separated by a sodded section.

The grass in this section grows a few feet high each year and no one really thinks anything of it. Well this year, after increasing property taxes for the umpteenth time, and voting on it in council, they decided that they have extra money to throw around and decided to cut said grass and make it an additional maintenance issue for the city. Last winter we went over our snow moving budget and used up some of this years budget just so we had clean roads to drive on. It’s funny how when the sun comes out, people forget how bad our winters can get here. In all fairness I will stick up for our Mayor Fred Eisenberger has he thought this was a stupid idea as well.

I don’t know why I am surprised by this, this City is one of the worst cities to deal with. Their logic is so screwed up. I have my run ins with their logic in trying to get a building permit and helping them budget capital repairs. I have dealt with other cities on similar issues and do get half the headaches I do with Hamilton. I may not agree with them, but I at least understand the logic.

The only thing worse than trying to get a permit is maybe the City Planning Division. These guys are such morons. They will re-build a road from gravel base on up to the top coat of asphalt one year, and then the following year they will cut up the brand new road with service cuts or with main sewer line upgrades. If you had half a brain, you would think that you would do all that work at once. First of all you are ruining brand new road way, and second, you are not pissing off the same people that use the road for back to back summers.

Don’t get me wrong here, I love Hamilton and I always defend it to those who put it down, but sometimes, they really do make it difficult.