send in your crumbs

Hiroaki Ohno/Yomiuri Shimbun, via Associated Press

average price (in yyz, recent as possible, in canadian dollars)

pint of decent beer: 7 

a bottle of crap beer: 4

a 'good' burger: 7.5

'good' fries: 3

a fast food meal combo: 7

ttc one-way ride: 2.5-3

weed: 10 per gram

movie at big theater: 13

movie at crap theater: 5-10

condom big-pack (12): 10-15

cell phone plan (month): 60

functional meal (nothing fancy): 7

itunes song: 1-1.2

bottle of wine: 12

pack of fags: 9

money spent on 1st date: 25-50

a bottled water: 1.5

cup of coffee: 2

burrito: 9

1 canadian dollar : 80 japanese yen

it is pain to carry a sandwich or go without a cup of coffee in the afternoon. yes.  it's nice to be able to afford that second pint at your local fav brewery.  what's a burger without fries?  no one said you should go without shelter or even starve a meal.  most likely, a univ student or a full time worker is likely to skip a meal because of lack of time.  home packed lunches dont strike your fancy? well what if you get your thermos out just for the week? or just one day a week for the month?  share an order of onion rings with your friend instead of ordering two.  but do go on your condom purchase and have a great time.  drinking tap water for the week wont kill you either.  that's too cruel? well, instead of a meet at a pub, what if you substitute a coffee house meet up? i know, it aint the same.  but there's always the option of making pantry-pizza (some sort of brad base loaded with everything you can find in your refridg, then baked with smidgen of cheese) and hockey night in canada.  and you wont even have to drive or take the ttc. make your friends come to you, in name of 'good deed,' sound much better than 'i donno- dont wanna get outta house.'

it is difficult to take a simple action to share, especially when it's inconvenient.  it involves much work: click below hyperlink, put in your cred card info, press 'send.' yeah, i know, boring and pain on the ass.  and yes, everyone needs some luxury to carry off the pain of the day.  can you imagine the days when people actually sent cheques in stamped envelops! what an ancient horror!

but let's take this option of mighty inconvenience.  it took huge courage to donate a day's worth of income to japanese red cross.  i have no dependents nor have huge expenses. but still, it took quite a bit of efforts.  i will be eating in all meals this week. as if that's going to kill me eh? i may even lose a pound or two, i suspect. as many were telling back to me that canadian red cross has not been asked to help out officially. okay. well, let's use this 'internet' thing and give it to them directly.  let's be slightly inconvenienced, just for a bit.  

and what would a ten dollars do to help a crisis? i have no idea. but not having one burrito and grabbing that crusty leftover kraft mac/cheese for one night snack wont kill any of us, that i know.  let's share our crumbs.  it is easy to give some when you arent going to lose too much.  what's a bigmac?  i am sure we can all do without just one.

ive been scratching my brains out to think of the things i can do.  then i realized that i do write this blog thingy and people do read it- well my friends do, i suppose.  so why not a shout out.  when one person does it, quite weirdly, it becomes easier for the next to 'try,' then the chain continues. so here's my shout out. to my people, who i dearly respect and love.

http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

please. 

the dead people are lost. but there are people who still have to brave weeks, months, years of suffering.  suffering that we will soon forget about, perhaps by next year, as a bystanders.  but it will live on in their lives. just like my brother who left a void that is larger than the sum of his life for all his people.  

send in that ten.

then go on and brag, or do whatever you want to do with that info! 'sell' it to your gf/bf.  announce it loudly to your family.  you deserve to feel good about yourself even without sharing. but when you do share, i know that there'll be something else that you will get to enjoy.  only when you have done 'it,' you will know.