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new site, new beginnings

new beginningsHello and welcome to the all new jonchant.com! So I finally got around to buying my own domain and webspace in January And now, a month later, I have finally tweaked wordpress around enough to my liking and present to you my all new and improved blog! Hope you all like it!

Now I finally have someplace to share all my photos! Alas, the free photo services just didn’t cut it for me. Either having limited disk quotas or limited resolutions, none of the free services on the web were up to my liking. With the freedom I have now with no space or bandwidth limitations, I’m free to share as many and as large of photos as I want! Only thing is, I need find a good photo management system or make one myself first (which is highly unlikely). So, hopefully in the coming weeks and months, I’ll slowly get my photo collection online to share with the world.

Feel free to comment and suggest anything for my website!

delta (part II)

A few posts ago, I commented on the current state of the Canadian government. There was (and still could be) change coming to Canada’s political world. The same is definitely true for our friends south of the border. After many grueling campaigns, over $1.5 billion, and 131,237,603 votes, change was elected to the United States presidency on November 4.

It was a very interesting campaign and election to watch. First seeing who would receive the democratic nomination (the first female or African-American presidential nominee) and then the actual historical presidential campaigns and election. Many things were said, dug up, promised, revealed, and shown. All in all, a spectacular ride.

hopeWhat struck me the most were the speeches made, especially those from Barack Obama. Before last year’s presidential elections, I always thought it was unfortunate how disproportionately the speeches and debates helped guide who the voters would vote for, whether it’s to elect a country’s leader or a high school’s student council. I use to think, “Public speaking isn’t really a good indicator of someone’s leadership skills. What does public speaking have to do with leadership?” But after watching some of Obama’s inspiring speeches, I realized just how important a leader’s speaking skills are, especially for those who are heads of state.

What does a leader do? Lead people, right? What if nobody follows the leader? Is he/she really a leader then? That’s why I now believe it’s essential for great leaders to have outstanding public speaking skills. One of their responsibilities is to inspire those they are leading. It isn’t only the leaders of a country or organization that make an impact, it’s everyone that’s a part of that group. If the leader cannot inspire or motivate their group to greater and better things, then he/she isn’t really much a leader.

So that brings me back to Barack Obama. He was able to inspire and motivate not only Americans, but people from all of the world (myself included) like no presidential candidate has done in a very long time. His campaign was based on change and millions of people bought into it, believed change is needed & is coming, and that Obama is the man to lead it.

Now on the eve of his inauguration, people all of the world are waiting to see if this inspirational family man from Chicago will make good on all his words and lead this awe-inspiring change. Expectations are high and hope is in the air. I for one cannot wait to see what’s in store for America and consequently the rest of the world in the next 4-8 years. Exciting times!

“Change we can belive in”

move over taco bell!

sometimes, size does matter...I have just discovered the most delicious Mexican fast food ever: Chipotle! They’ve got a really simple menu, fast & efficient assembly line style service, huge servings at reasonable prices (not cheap, but not expensive either), simple modern decor, and the most important part: scrumptious food.

I kind of just stumbled upon it this evening as I was looking for someplace at Yonge & Dundas to eat after window-shopping a bit at the Eaton Centre. I happened to notice this new place I never saw before called Chipotle. Probably wouldn’t have gone in if the name hadn’t sounded so familiar for some reason. Took a second, but figured out that I heard about them from one of Wong Fu Production‘s video blogs. Noticed that inside wasn’t anything too special, just that it looked fairly new by the look of the furniture and decor, some tables and chairs and the counter where the food magic happens. Looks like it’s a decent chain in the States and this new Toronto location is the first one in Canada.

stuffing bursting out!Menu is simple enough: pick your meat (chicken, steak, barbacoa, carnitas), pick your style (burrito, taco, fajita burrito, burrito bowl, salad), and finally pick your toppings (pinto or black beans, varying spicy levels of salsa, sour cream, chili-corn salsa, cheese, guacamole, & lettuce). Add a drink if you’d like, and that’s it! What you end up is an absolutely GINORMOUS serving of tasty Mexican food. Just take a look at the burrito I ordered! Ingredients were fresh and the servings were plentiful. I think this is the first burrito I’ve had where I couldn’t fit my mouth around the whole thing.

Small detail that I found nice is their pricing. It seems like they’ve priced everything so it comes out to an even dollar amount after taxes. My carnitas (pork cooked in some special way, I forget how) burrito & bottle of Corona came out to an even sixteen dollars. Another fun little detail was the instructions on how to eat the burritos on the back of the napkins.

So if you’re ever close by the Yonge & Dundas area and are looking for a fast & delicious meal, I highly recommend Chipotle!

a moving reminder from an unlikely source

unconditional

Figuring out what I’m doing next has left me a lot free time on my hands right now and to pass some of the time, I’ve been watching some Gossip Girl. Not particularly proud of admitting that, I don’t even like the show, but it has this weird way of drawing me in. But in spite of my dislike of it, I must say that its Thanksgiving episode was alright and was the surprising source of an invaluable reminder of what real love is.

Jenny is a teenage character on the show and leading up to this episode, she has been on the rise in the fashion scene as a new designer but has alienated all those who care about her in the process, including her dad, Rufus. She even moved out of her home, away from her family. In this particular episode, she is trying to start the process of emancipating herself from her dad so she can start her own fashion line. Rufus eventually finds out and is initially furious again with his daughter. But after a calming talk with his son, he approaches Jenny in an unexpected way.

Jenny: …and you’d be really mad.
Rufus: No, I’m out of angry. I miss you too much.
Jenny: Dad, please don’t try to guilt trip me right now, ok?
Rufus: Your brother helped me realize that I haven’t told you something, something important.
Jenny: What?
Rufus: I love you Jenny. I love you so much, I’m willing to let you go if that’s what it’s going to take to get you back. When the time comes for a court hearing, I won’t stand in your way. But there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.

Reminded me of a post I read in a friend’s blog last year. Another illustration of real love from TV.

delta

Can you feel it in the air? The time is upon us again. It’s coming. It’s inevitable.

No, I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m talking about change. Change in the government.

For the first time in a while (or possibly ever), Canadian politics is more interesting than American politics. A coalition government may form in the the next couple of months and the current prime minister could become the next opposition leader. All of this in the midst of a global economic crisis.

site of current inaction

Now, what do I think about this? Do I want a coalition government? I’m not sure yet. One thing I know for sure, is we need change and a coalition government would definitely be a change. Is it the right change though? I don’t know. I’m still divided on the issue. One thing I do know for sure is that we need action, immediate action. So what in the world is Steven Harper doing proroguing parliament for 7 weeks? At a time when we need to act, the government is shutting down. I must say I am deeply disappointed that governor-general Michaëlle Jean’s decision to grant Harper’s request. Some government officials have stated that they disagree with her decision to grant the prorogue but respect her decision. I’m a little confused with those statements. How can you disagree with a decision but still respect it? Aren’t those two things the opposite of each other? Yes, disagree with the decision and still respect Michaëlle Jean, but how can you respect the decision if you disagree with it? But I digress. One reason I’ve heard (this is purely speculation, so I don’t know for sure) on why she granted Harper’s request is that he would resign if she didn’t grant his request. I really hope this isn’t true, because that is a very selfish attitude, one that you shouldn’t have when you have the most servant-leadership job in the country as prime minister. The prime minister’s job first and foremost is serving the country, not his/her own self interests.

So what we’re left with now is a country without a government and a country deeply divided. Polls are showing that Canadians are split on the issue and the recent election shows that our support is divided among 4 parties, with no real strong backing of one party. This is exactly what we can’t have right now. To be able to confront this economic challenge, we need a united front in our government. I was glad to see that 3 of the parties were able to drop partisan politics to unite together to combat this challenge, but I think this is only a good first step. It would have been much better if all 4 parties could come together to solve this problem together. For it does not only affect the politicians, or even Canadians, but this affects the entire world. Unity and action is desperately needed in this country. I can only hope in the coming 7 weeks, before parliament resumes, time and resources will be spent more on facing the issues Canada is facing rather than campaigning for or against the coalition.

United we stand, divided we fall.

P.S. for those of you who don’t know why I picked “delta” for this post’s title, “delta” is the Greek letter than represents change.