“Did you know…I say happy birthday to myself every 23rd of every month.”
– Ariyanna, January 2013
Uhhh okay [Later post from 2013]
Reply
Sugars [Later post from 2008]
An interesting story….
When I was, say, 7 years old, my friend/classmate Jonathan had a Batman costume for Halloween which he wore to school to show off (by the way, I used to looovvvvvvvee Batman). Oh how beautiful that costume was. I wanted one for myself!!
I told my mom and dad about it and, since Halloween was still 2 days away, they instructed me to ask Jonathan where his parents bought his costume. So the next day (October 30th), I asked him where he got the costume. “Sugar” he said. “Huh?” I said. “Sugar!” I was very confused — that’s an odd name for a costume store, I thought to myself.
But anyway, I told my mom and dad that the place to get the best Halloween costume ever was at “Sugar”. Unfortunately, no one (including my parents) had ever heard of a store called “Sugar”.
So what do you do when the internet doesn’t exist yet and so you can’t Google the store you’re looking for….? You drive around looking for it! Which is what we did….for 2 hours.
Alas we never found it. I always assumed 7-year old Jonathan didn’t know what he was talking about.
Why is this important? It’s not. But in 50 years when my memory isn’t that great I’ll be able to come back and read this story and remember something about my childhood.
Oh yeah, and I saw the store on Avenue Road while driving home from work the other day. It really was called Sugars.
True story.
Oh stop it you [Later post from 2012]
Student: Sir, I just wanted to tell you that you are the best TA I’ve ever had.
Sina: Oh what a nice thing to say. Thank you.
Student: What class are you TA-ing next semester? I want to enroll.
Sina: Oh stop it. Now you’re just embarrassing me.
Ms. Alisha Lee
My lovely niece, Alisha, passed away several months ago. She was very loved.
Whenever I think about Alisha, even when she was alive, I get very upset because of how unfair the world was to her. I don’t mean unfair in the sense of the severe physical disability she had to live with her whole life — that sucked, but was a random thing that happened and was no one’s fault. I mean unfair in the ways the world around her treated her that were completely unrelated to her disability — or at least should have been unrelated to her disability.
An example: When Alisha was trying to work a way to attend York University — which is technically in Toronto, right at the Steeles border — she was unable to get wheeltrans service to the university because York Region wheeltrans isn’t allowed to leave York Region borders. Hard as she tried, she was unable to find a reasonable workaround this issue — and why the fuck should she even have to spend her time doing that? Sigh. Alisha didn’t want special treatment or accommodation — she just wanted common sense. All that was needed for this non-problem to go away was for one bureaucrat in the wheeltrans system to recognize the intent of the rule, that this was an exceptional circumstance where the rule did not apply, and to turn their head the other way and stamp approval. Just one person in the long chain of approvals needed to have that little bit of courage, and little bit of empathy. Alas, bureaucrats are incentivized to follow rules — very rigidly — nevermind the intention.
There are countless examples I can give similar to this one, occurring at many points in Alisha’s life, whether in the education system or health system or legal system or transit system or even the tax system, and which I don’t want to discuss here. These obstacles were never related to Alisha’s disability directly, but were the result of misaligned, one-size-fits-all, know-it-all systems. Too many people in the cog resolving: “That’s not my department. Hey, I don’t make the rules.” No empathy, no courage.
Nobody wants special treatment or special accommodation — people just want empathy. And it’s not fair.
I have lived so many lives [Later post from 2013]
Mom: You know, Sina used to work in restaurant kitchens when he was younger. It’s a very hard life for a young person.
Nath: Oh really? So that’s why you cook so well.
Sina: No, that’s not why. And yes, it’s a hard life — not just if you’re young. Most people don’t understand.
The devil’s dictionary
proof n.
- deductive arguments that establish the truth of a proposition.
- Economics. a term used by economists to give the impression of mathematical rigour to what is otherwise out of touch with reality.
Out of Office
Just came across my auto-reply message from when I was away for a year back in 2012-2013. It made me chuckle.
Hello! And thank you for your message!
Unfortunately, I am not in the office until September 3, 2013. That 2013 is not a typo. I may respond to your email once I return, but I cannot make any guarantees. In the meantime, you may want to contact Xxxx Yyyy (xxxx.yyyy@ontario.ca) instead.
Be well,
Sina.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts [Later post from 2012]
An unnamed person told me the I’m strange for the following reasons:
1) I find and make geocaches
2) I spontaneously do big things, like decide to bike from Niagara to Toronto and then do it 4 days later
3) I have a blog
4) I have a blog that no one reads
Here are my rebuttals:
1) geocaching is the sh**
2) okay fine, but that’s not strange — it’s called courage
3) lots of people have blogs!
4) popularity should have nothing to do with it!
Universal Inequality
Freedom > Money
Alisha Nakeeda Lee (1993-2015)
Alisha Lee died at 9:10pm on Friday July 24, 2015 in Toronto, Canada as a result of her lifelong battle with a rare and severe form of congenital muscular dystrophy. She was 22 years old. Alisha was born on January 16, 1993 in Toronto, Canada. She attended Richmond Hill High School and Sunnyview Public School.
Alisha is survived by her mother Tina, her father Al, her sisters Tia and Ariyanna, and countless family and friends.