Daou unicycle or bicycle, Chengdu Bicycle Parts Factory #3
Living in North East Toronto, Canada is a very large community of Mainland Chinese, many who are recent immigrants. When they ship their lives half way across the world to Canada they bring with them some surprising gems. I picked up this Daou unicycle at a garage sale. It has a 12.5″ rear coaster wheel with back brake, and a skateboard truck up front. The seat is unicycle style, with a black steel handle in the front. Apart from the “Daou” label, under the seat there are two quality stickers from the Chengdu Zixingche Lingjian San Chang, or the Chengdu Bicycle Parts Factory #3. After a couple of key changes this contraption rides much like a unicycle (no left-right stability), but has anterior-posterior stability, allowing the rider to coast. You can pedal backwards to brake, which is good enough to skid the tire. This unicycle rides quite well, can travel at faster than walking speed and allows the rider to coast. Due to the small skateboard wheels up front it can endo if you hit a large sidewalk crack.
Mary Ward's front door archway, a nice piece of steel and glass.
Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School is a high school located in North Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school is part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, or TCDSB. These tips are primarily from a parent’s viewpoint and will cover uniform, student attitude, working with teacher adviser (TA) and a little on courses. I hope this helps new grade 9 students.
What a pain in the buttocks. Flash is annoying me with upgrade notices, all without a way of opting out. I find that Adobe flash and Reader upgrades have a nasty habit of malfunctioning, requiring me to uninstall and reinstall the whole product. Newer versions have more bloatware than utility. I have opted to simply not upgrade, but the upgrade notices continue to come. Here’s how to end your pain.
Rola Bola made of 27 inch long 2x8 pine, varnished
Life can be simple yet fun. Take the example of a Rola Bola, aka rolla bolla, rolo bolo, roly boly, balance board, rocker-roller board or bongo board. Whatever you call it, there is a board that allows you to stand shoulder width apart, a wooden stop board on the underside each end, and a rolling cylinder. You put the board on the cylinder and get on. Simple.
This is my Toronto in one of its darkest moments. In this event the Canadian Charter of Rights was wantonly trounced by Toronto Police. Over 1,000 citizens were illegally detained, some for over 24 hrs, and then set free with no explanation. Yes, the fight will continue in the courts but the damage has already been done. Healing, if it occurs, will only start once a proper public inquiry has been completed. Who was responsible for this suspension of our right to protest? Frankly I doubt we will ever know.
Afghan Kite Flying in Afghanistan. Here in Canada do not use glass covered or metal kite line. They are illegal and dangerous.
Kite flying is a favourite pastime of our family. It is so unfortunate that kite flying at Milliken Park, Toronto, Canada, a very large park near our house, has recently been banned. Kite flying is very kid and family friendly, but has been spoiled by people that come from different cultures. South East Asian (India, Pakistan) and Afghanistan kite flyers in their country use metal wire and glass coated flying line to cut the lines of competitors. They are importing and illegally using this type of line here in Toronto, Canada. They then leave the lines as garbage. Kids and adults using the park get cut up from these types of lines. It is certainly a safety hazard.
Cooler than leather better than mesh: perforated leather
Leather gear is very protective, offering the rider both impact, with armour, and abrasion resistance. Use by professional sportbike riders is a pretty good endorsement for its utility. Unfortunately leather, like anything else, has its disadvantages, two of which is weight and that it is hot to wear. While we cannot do much about the weight issue, adding small perforations to the leather will allow increased air flow and cooling without compromising protectiveness. While perforated motorcycle gear is popular with the summer rider, it is expensive, even more expensive than non-perforated gear. I’ll cover a possible method to perforate your own leather gear.
Someone jumped into the viewfinder without looking. Oh well. There's further learning required.
He goes to summer camp without a care in the world, smiling to the world. There’s no grumbling about the heat, that the mosquitoes are out, that there’s sand in his shoes. Eager to leave the house, he repeatedly asks me to get to camp early. I do not complain that it’s simply too early and the camp will not be open. His happiness is the fruits of our parenting skills, and we are glad it is working out for him. We would not have it any other way.
Chinese People's Liberation Army revolutionary movie lipsynchs Waving Flag by K'naan
This is very disrespectful to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or Jiefang Jun, and will probably get censored within China very soon, but is very funny. Since I am in Toronto, Canada, getting Toudou video is difficult. The original source is from Chinasmack. Thankfully others have uploaded Tudou video to Youtube. These are old videos of PLA plays, video mixed to modern songs. Though the lipsynching is not great, the whole video does pull it together.
Lest we forget, China is a communist country in Asia, very different in history and culture from North America. One would think that such a statement would be blatantly obvious to all and therefore unnecessary, but it needs repeated highlighting. Here in North America I meet many who are taken by the Chinese propaganda machine into thinking that China is almost as advanced as North America, that we share the same ideals and we are all humans, so we must be very similar. An article in the Toronto Star outlining the persecution of unregistered religions brings this contrast to the fore. China is very different and should be treated as such.
