If you use the GO Transit system to park your car and get to your train or bus to work, school or play, listen up! Apparently, there have been a number of recent thefts surrounding GO Transit car parks and the customers are very ferrocious about GO transit's actions on patrolling car parks over time.

Things that thieves like to steal are electronics, sporting goods and many other valuables. However, the biggest hot topic that came to GO car parks (parking lots) are Catalytic Converters.  Durham Regional Police has defined the Pickering GO Station as an "auto parts store". Theives stole airbags, doors, hinges and many other things that theives may can fine.

Catalytic Converters are getting very high in value because the metals inside it have reached record high levels. Those valuable metals are Platinum, Rhodium and Palladium.

Many people are very angry about this and they are very very concerned that an instince like this will happen next. In response, they decided to take the bus from home and board the GO train or bus to work.

So far, it hasn't hit my older sister as of yet. She lives in Ajax, but goes to work in Toronto. One blogger and my colleague, Andy (who formerly worked for Durham Region Transit) posted his view about one shocking individual about the incident that involves someone stripping her car of parts. You can read the blog posting here. A letter was published in the local Metroland Newspapers spanning across Durham Region and can be viewed here.

My advice to all of you folks who use GO: Take the bus and leave your car home. That way it'll stop thieves from doing so much damage.

References:

"Outpouring of anger at GO." Hamilton Spectator. 14 July 2008. 14 July 2008. <http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/402406>

"Riders rip GO over car lot thefts." Mississauga News. 14 July 2008. 14 July 2008. <http://www.mississauganews.com/article/16626>

"Outpouring of anger at GO." Toronto Star. 14 July 2008. 14 July 2008. <http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Fixer/article/459534>

Be Inspired…

Be Amazed…

Be Bold...

Scroll down to see some celebrities rocking on their designer handbags.

Paris Hilton on her Fendi Bag

Rihanna Rocks with her beautiful Gucci Bag

Jessica Alba's Balenciaga handbag

Jennifer Lopez on her Gold Fendi Spy Bag

You’ve seen them on the arms of the world’s hottest celebrities in the fashion industry nowadays. Designer handbags such as Fendi, Gucci, Balenciaga, Prada, Louis Vuitton to name a few makes our heart doesn’t stop pulsing with great envy. This is for us to inspire and adore them wearing this one of a kind fashion accessories. It is indeed: "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder"

A Samsonite é uma das mais clássicas marcas de malas. A linha Black Label, responsável pelas malas lindas desenhadas por Alexander McQueen, lançou uma linha especial comemorativa. A coleção Trunk é uma edição limitada que relança os modelos mais importantes da história da marca (anos 20 e 30). O mais bacana é o baú usado pelos irmãos Shwayder, os criadores da Samsonite.

Foto: reprodução

Receiving a letter from a loved one or package in the post always gives me a warm feeling, considering the fact that the majority of the post I receieve are bills, the change is welcoming.

I recently won a Tulip Bag from The Wren Design, which was amazing. Wendren from The Wren Design posted my prize to me on the 27th June 2008, registered mail. After being sent from pillar to post by the South African Postal Service I received my package on Saturday 12 July 2008. I was so excited!

You can purchase a Tulip bag or one of her other designs at The Wren Etsy store, Wrendren is great! She followed up on the postage and provided a professional service, something I can unfortunately not say about our postal service.

The Tulip bag came beautifully wrapped, like a special present.

Here are some photos of my glorious Tulip Bag:

My favourite part of the Tulip Bag is the adorable button, Wendren creates the design on the buttons by hand, check out her process here...

I also love the secret pocket...

I have ordered another bag from The Wren for my sister, as I just love her bags. Although Wendren posted the bag on 1 July 2008, I am yet to receive it. I have a tracking number and customer service is determined that the package is at my local post office, my local post office is determined that they haven't received it yet. I will be back at the post office tomorrow to see if they have located it yet.

Hence, my frustration and Love/Hate relationship with post...

* Thank you Wendren for your wonderful service, it is a rare gem in this day and age.

This is the plan.  Monday morning, I acquire a bike box, disassemble my bike, and load it in.  Into the various interstices surrounding the bike I will stuff my clothes and sleeping bag (protected by garbage bags from bike grease), my bike lock and helmet, and maybe my handlebar bag if I can manage it.  Three more bags, now lightened by lack of clothing to be (hopefully) less than 50 pounds, will go inside a larger duffel bag so that Greyhound will count them together as one item of luggage.  These two will go underneath the bus, while I board with my one allowed piece of carry-on plus an additional bag about which the driver will hopefully not hassle me.

Anyway, I've got a rideshare to Atlanta, where I will board the bus Monday evening.  I will ride for almost 24 hours, including several transfers and layovers, and arrive hungry and sleep-deprived in Toronto around 7PM on Tuesday, where my mother will pick me up for dinner with my family.  After that I'll hang out with friends, sleep, go to the dentist, hang out with friends some more, probably have Ethiopian lunch or dinner, possibly both, on Wednesday with whoever is interested and available.  I'll sleep again (that irritating but necessary gap in activity), perhaps hang out with people again, and then depart at some point on Thursday for god knows where.

For now, I'm sitting in a library next to an elderly man who is browsing a porn site called "Firm Hand Spanking".  So it goes.

Tell me your schedules, O glorious ones, so that I can begin to construct some sort of itinerary of hanging out.  Leave comments or e-mail me and I'll try to assemble it in my head into some grotesquely intricate master plan in which I get to see you all.

Canvas Shopping Bags

I do believe that canvas shopping bags, at least at the middle and high school levels, would be great fundraisers. Any student with the ability to do so could make these, or they could be ordered from somewhere. Oriental Trading Company has some great bags that could be used. Students would first have to find out what size bag would be right for grocery shopping with. Then they should find out how much each bag would cost. They would also have to decide how many fabric paints and/pens they would need, and how many paint brushes. If they wanted to decorate in another way, they would have to decide what other materials they would need. They have to add the cost of these items to their previous total.

Once they had an idea of how much it would cost to make the products, they could decide how much more to charge for each bag. They would want to make a profit, while keeping the bags priced low enough to be affordable.  

Then they could create brochures, fliers and posters to distribute, and decide where to hang the posters. They would have to ask the owners of any businesses that they wanted to post at for permission.

They would also need one or two order forms per group of 4 or 5 students. I do not suggest that students go door-to-door by themselves when getting orders or delivering the final product.

It would take some organizational skills on the students parts to determine what areas each group would take for posting and getting orders, as well as for making deliveries.

The students as a whole would have to count up how many canvas bags they would need. They would also have to decide how many fabric paints and/pens they would need, and how many paint brushes. If they wanted to decorate in another way, they would have to decide what other materials they would need. The items would then be ready to be ordered.

When bags and other materials arrived at the school, the students could decorate them with their choice of motto's or pictures. Here are some examples:

Their school logo.

Maine goes Green

Greening Maine

Go Maine! Go Green!

I like this ideas for a fundraiser, because I am not being forced to order gift wrap that will eventually end up in a landfill, or candy that I do not really need.

I have been collecting canvas shopping bags left and right. They are not all specifically shopping bags, but a lot of them are. It all started when my best friend bought me two Hanaford canvas bags, and it slowly escalated from there.

I purchased more at Hanaford for $1.50 each. The neighbor that I was helping to pack gave me some. I even managed to find a bunch at yard sales for a quarter each. I have accumulated quite a few canvas bags for my grocery shopping.

The thing is, I don't only use them while grocery shopping. I try to take at least one with me everywhere that I go. I use them when shopping at the farmer's market, at any type of sore that I go into, at thrift shops and at yard sales. I use them when I go to the library as well.

My goal is to be only using canvas bags. However, I am not perfect. I do sometimes forget to bring the canvas bags with me. When this happens, if I can easily carry my purchased items I will refuse a bag. Sometimes, in these instances, I do have to accept some plastic bags, which I use as trash bags. I do hope to make the carrying around of canvas bags a habit so that I will no longer be using the plastic bags.

Now, the question is, should the use of plastic shopping bags be banned in Maine? I do believe so.

There are places in other countries that have banned the use of plastic all together. I believe that is is somewhere in Ireland that charges thirty-three cents for each plastic bag that you use. Both good concepts, in my opinion.

The Hanaford in Old Town gives you five cents for each bag that you bring into the store, be they plastic or canvas. If I use ten bags, I can save fifty cents plus the value of any coupons that I may be using.

I have heard rumors that Maine would like to ban the use of plastic shopping bags at some point in the future. I would not, personally, have a problem with this. You can come by re-usable canvas bags easily and cheaply, and stores do not care if we use bags from other stores while checking out.

Another rumor that I heard is that, during the transitional stage between using the plastic bags and using canvas bags, Mainer's would be charged so much for each plastic bag that we had to use.

I would not have a problem refusing plastic bags if I forgot my canvas ones during this transitional period. I would just have them put everything back into the cart for me and I would put each individual item into the truck to bring home.

I see a good many plastic bags floating around outside, pushed by the power of the wind. These bags are not only dangerous to the animals who get their heads caught in them, but there is also the danger of small children suffocating if they come across them.

Banning plastic shopping bags would go along way toward reducing the amount of trash that the state of Maine generates.

Using Gucci Messenger bags are quite stylish and considered as very “in” this season. We can see everyone from high school students to business people using their own functional and stylish messenger bags.

Designers and manufactures of this bag worked incredibly hard to produce bags that are very stylish and durable enough to withstand any incremental elements. Available in variety of styles and colors that are perfectly improve to your business attire.

Messenger bags are stunningly appealing to a diverse group of people including both men and women in any ages and business people in different walks of life.

Some Gucci messenger bags are made from waterproof fabrics in a durable padding that provides spacious cargo for your laptop, cell phone or other important papers with great protection that you deserve to be.

This is much more compact and comfortable compare to a traditional briefcases. You can purchase different varieties to your online store that could fit to your business attire.

If you are looking for a bag that can create you the style with comfort and convenience that a designer bag has to offer then Gucci Messenger Bags are the best value that could bring.

USD288.20

Jul 08

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