One year ago today I quit smoking. I am still nicotine-free.
I was going to write more about it but I’ve written enough before. If you want quit and would like to know what worked for me, click here for a previous post.
Oh ya… congrats to me! :)
One year ago today I quit smoking. I am still nicotine-free.
I was going to write more about it but I’ve written enough before. If you want quit and would like to know what worked for me, click here for a previous post.
Oh ya… congrats to me! :)
Tough choice this week. I had a few photos to choose from an decided on this one.
Another shot taken with my 50mm. I really like this lens and I so like B&W photos.
This is my daughter playing Lego Star Wars on my XBox earlier this week. She was so into the game, she hardly noticed me snapping away with my camera.
At some point this afternoon, Facebook statuses started appearing with a single word. That word was a colour. Any colour.
I was puzzled. What’s with all the status colours?
I did a little searching and found the reason.
Women on Facebook were changing their status to the colour of bra they were wearing to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.
Cute. Fun. Many status comments were hilarious. Some guys had fun with it, posting the colour of their underwear. Or the fictitious bra they were wearing to hold their “moobs”.
Some other guys, like me, were puzzled. And some, when they found out what it was for, thought it was “useless”, or “retarded”. They said that it did nothing. It was no different than a chain letter.
I questioned this.
How could this be useless?
They asked what it was for. I knew, and I told them. By asking what it was for, they proved that it worked. It raised awareness.
The debate began.
I argued that it’s comparable to… wearing a pink ribbon. Or, wearing a poppy. Neither of those is a waste of time. They both serve a purpose. They raise awareness.
It was said that those two are different because they raise money for charities.
True, they do, but by us wearing them they also RAISE AWARENESS for those charities. What other purpose do they serve? A thank you? Sure. If you want to say that their sole purpose is to raise money, then wouldn’t it be a better idea to take the money spent on those little ribbons and use the money for the charity?
Perhaps. In fact, I could argue that a Facebook status is better than a ribbon, or a poppy because it costs nothing.
It is impossible for a charity to raise money without raising awareness first. If you know how, speak up. I’m sure they’d love to hear it.
By giving you something in return for your donation, and you wearing it, you are helping to raise awareness so more donations come in.
It’s silly to think that nobody has ever heard of breast cancer. But awareness isn’t just about telling you something you’ve never heard of. It’s about making you think about it, regardless of whether you’ve heard about it before.
I really makes me sad to think that some people think it was a dumb idea. A waste of time. That it served no purpose.
If one person made a donation as a result of those “useless” and “retarded” bra colour status, then wasn’t it worth the effort? Did it not raise awareness?
I proved that it worked. I made donation this evening to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
I now challenge you to do the same. Doing nothing is useless.
Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
American Breast Cancer Foundation
About a year or two ago, the Esso station at the corner of Montreal Rd and Ogilvie Rd was torn down and rebuilt. In addition to the new pump islands and convenience store building, they got rid of the car wash and added a Tim Horton’s drive-thru that runs around back of the building.
It wasn’t long before someone realized that this was a problem, especially in the morning, when cars try to leave the property, turn left onto Ogilvie Rd toward Montreal Rd and block the traffic heading north on Ogilvie as they wait to merge into the southbound traffic lanes.
Signs went up indicating NO LEFT TURNS between 7am and 9am. It’s not allowed in the evening either, but I can’t remember the times for that… 4 and 6pm perhaps? Anyway, you can see the signs as you leave the drive-thru and the sign that sits on the median between the north and southbound lanes. If you can’t see them, you’re blind.
If you park at the Esso in the morning you’ll notice that at least 9/10 cars completely ignore the signs and turn left. I see it every morning. Even City of Ottawa trucks ignore the signs, and they’re the ones who put up signs! This has become a huge pet peeve of mine. Granted, they don’t always block traffic, but the signs is there for.
It takes about a minute to turn RIGHT from the Esso and make a quick U-turn at the first corner, and you’re where you want to be. I do that every morning. It’s no big deal.
This morning the Ottawa Police made my day.
As I pulled up to the traffic light after making my U-turn, I saw flashing lights on an unmarked cop car stopped behind a Honda sedan in the middle lane.
My first thought was, “Oh please tell me they got busted for making a left turn…”
I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the officer bent over talking to the driver, and pointing back at the sign on the median.
Finally, someone got nailed and hopefully they got fined as well. I’m tired of seeing lazy-ass drivers ignoring the signs.
To the officer who busted that lazy ass this morning: thank you. :)
To the Ottawa Police: if you want to make a killing on fines, park at the Petro Canada cross the street every morning from 7am to 9am.
I can’t remember the last time I made a New Years resolution. I tend not to follow through with them. (I think that’s the case for many people)
This time, I have decided I should make a few really easy ones, maybe a couple of slightly challenging ones, and one tough one.
It feels great to not put down “Quit Smoking” as a resolution for the first time in forever, because I kicked that bitch out of my life almost a year ago. :)