59 Donald St. Rammed by Driver of Convertible

Some asshole rammed into the side of my apt. block on Donald St. today. Early reports from residents of the apartment block were that before dying though, she also hit a pedestrian who was crossing Donald St. (Note: but the media is now saying there was never a pedestrian hit).

She hit the building so hard that the inside wall of the lobby is now cracked.

CJOB.com - Pedestrian hit on Donald St.

WinnipegSun.com - Serious Crash on Donald St.


Flickr.com - Photo #1 -59 Donald St. Lobby after car rams apartment block


Flickr.com - Photo #2 -59 Donald St. Lobby after car rams apartment block


Flickr.com - Photo #3 - Convertible car that crashed into the northwest side of 59 Donald St.


Flickr.com - Photo #3a - Same as #3, except larger size, available for zooming.


Flickr.com - Photo #4 - Police tape surrounds 59 Donald St., as Police investigate car crash.


Flickr.com - Photo #5 - Damage to northwest exterior of 59 Donald St. after convertible car crash.

The latest on this story, from CKY says that there was no pedestrian hurt. Yet someone confirmed seeing an ambulance haul away a body bag, others from the building say that the scene was grusome.

What is gonig on here?

The story from CKY as at 4.30 p.m. Friday July 17, 2009:

Car hits building at Broadway and Donald

Updated: Fri Jul. 17 2009 16:32:22

ctvwinnipeg.ca

The Winnipeg Police Service closed the intersection at Broadway Avenue and Donald Street after a serious car crash on Friday afternoon.

Police had originally suggested that a pedestrian had been hit in the crash, but that information turned out to be false.

The vehicle involved collided with a building in the 100 block of Donald Street.

Motorists were asked to avoid the area while police did their initial investigation, and say a female was taken to hospital in unstable condition, but say her condition has since been upgraded to stable.

Police say there is no further information at this time.

Here is CJOB's updated story:

Donald Street Collision
CJOB News Team reporting
7/17/2009

Donald Street and Broadway is now open to all traffic, previously closed due to a serious motor vehicle collision.

It turns out this was a single motor vehicle collision into a building....not a pedestrian hit.

The vehicle involved was travelling southbound on Donald Street after which time the driver lost control and collided with a building.

The 54-year-old female driver was the only person injured. She was conveyed to hospital in unstable condition. She has since been upgraded to stable condition.

And I snapped more photographs, one showing a bracketed area being marked with blue chalk, at one of the curb side parking spaces just north of the apartment block. Other Police markings, again in blue, show the supposed trajectory of the vehicle, and markings indicating "PF" and "PR". What do those mean?

Permission is granted to the news media for these all photographs on this page.

The Iraq Plaque of Jesus - July 1968

I turned two in June of 1968 and about 3 weeks later Iraq was in the news. My Mom would turn on the Noon newscast on channel 7 CJAY and I remember sitting on the sofa but not looking at the tv.

Then I started hearing the words "Iraq". For some odd reason I then focussed on this ceramic plaque of Jesus that my Mom's Mom gave to her shortly before I was born.

Well, I must have heard her mention the word "plaque" because my mind joined those two words up and voila! -- instant toddler daytime nightmare.

My Mom was in the kitchen and as I sat there on the sofa, I started to scream for her to take down the plaque because it was scarring me. But she did not come. She just didn't understand what I was complaining about. I remember even pointing out the plaque to her.

She later removed it I think, but then the next day the same thing would happen. I'd be listening (but not watching) the local newscast, and then I guess they cut to the reporter's story on the latest in Iraq, and I'd freak out, closing my ears and screaming and wanting my Mom to take down the plaque of Jesus.


NOTE: Facebook doesn't go directly to the post on Blogger, so here is a link to the Jesus plaque.

Years later I recalled this and through the power of the Internet found out that Sadam Hussein had been a newsmaker on July 17, 1968. He had staged a coup of the Iraqi government and overthrew it between that date and July 30th.

1968 - On 17 July the Baath Party returns to power in a bloodless coup that Saddam has helped organise. A group of Sunni Iraqis from Tikrit take the top posts in the new Baath government. Bakr is made president. Saddam is appointed as acting deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (the government's most powerful decision-making body).

On 30 July Saddam takes personal charge of a purge to rid the new government of old-guard figures. Two months later, following an unsuccessful coup attempt against it, the Baath government cracks down again, with Saddam and Bakr directing a further series of purges designed to eliminate opposition.

SOURCE: MorOrLess.AU.Com

I guess back then my brain heard the words "plaque" and "Iraq" and somehow thought they were somehow connected to one another. In reality the words just rhymm with one another.

The moral of this story is this. Parents, if your kids are screaming about something, perhaps you should listen to and attend to them, because it could be that they are having some kind of experinece like I had.

Memories of 1968

I remember when I was very young. Perhaps 2 (1968) or early 1969 when we used to go to my relative's home on Cobourg St. in Elmwood (which I really consider to be part of East Kildonan).

I remember part of their house. My cousin's bedroom was on the second floor, and because he lived there it was easy for him to walk up the stairs. But when I was there I found the stairs too steep, and it had this ribbed rubber mat that I found a bit slippery. So I would have to climb up there on my hands and knees.

Then one of the visits I remember that my cousin got one of those wind-up toy clocks with the musical tune. The tune is on the Wii Music disc -- "My Grandfather's Clock". The Wikipedia artcle says the toy clock came out in 1968, so that makes very much sense. Us two boys had the very latest toy.

Here's the lyrics and melody ... link


The one one the far left is the toy clock my cousin and I had. Separately of course.

As it turned out, my cousin's family moved to another house in 1974 when my Aunt and Uncle had a baby girl.

Funny though how I can't really remember the rest of the old house very well, but it was like yesterday I remember my cousin telling me to hurry up (and he was 2 years and a bit), and me telling him that I didn't like how the stairs were.

Playing back audio from Audacity audio editor

Last time I had Fedora (Linux) was version 8 and I had connected a headphone mic to it and was able to record audio into this UNIX workstation.

Cool stuff.

But I lost the program when I upgraded to Fedora 10.

This program Audacity has been around for about 16 years or more and is available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

The problem I have had in getting it working is not in the recording of audio from a mic, but in the playback. The settings is for the Alsa AC'97 output but it really should be set to Alsa:pulse or Alsa:default.

Now it works again and I'm interested in doing some audio commentary for truwinnipeg.org in the next while.

MIDI on Fedora 10 (Linux)

Today was the first time I got MIDI to work in Linux on my computer.

The missing program was libtimidity, the "MIDI to WAV converter library".

The Winnipeg Tribune - WE'RE BACK!

I just posted at TRUWinnipeg about how using your mind's intent to help cause a dream turn into a reality, in particular making the current 66 Grant bus route turn into a modern streetcar route.

I also gave the example of a Canadian infrastructure parts directory that e-mailed me two days after "riding" the Wilson subway between confusion corner and Polo Park, and including all the sounds and sights one would experience when riding such a thing.

Another example of a recurring dream I used to have in the early 1980s was where The Winnipeg Tribune would publish once again.
This dream went like this... It would be a Saturday afternoon in the Summer, and I'd be tagging along with my parents as we shopped at Grant Park. Back in the early 1980s there was a drug store chain called Metro Drugs, and I used to check out the computer and home video magazines there. In this dream I walk past the news stand and spot two or three copies of the Trib. This copy is not mass produced, but is like a limited edition -- much fewer copies than in the days when it published before closing.

The Winnipeg Free Press owns the name of The Winnipeg Tribune since the paper closed on August 27, 1980.

The copy price was $1, compared to the 20 cents back in 1980. But this was because of the lower circulation.

Now add the 'power of intent', and do this several times...See this scenario nowadays at your favourite local corner store or supermarket. And see yourself happy with excitement that the Trib is back again.

Then see the date of the paper. It says August 28, 2010, and the main headline says -- WE'RE BACK!

There is no copies of the Free Press because the Free Press has turned into The Trib.

I've just started a new Facebook group on this:
Bring Back the Winnipeg Tribune!

See also:

TRUWinnipeg.org - A Grant Ave. streetcar
About.com - The Power of Intention