Toronto: Amazing interactive map from 1998 to 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/before-after/toronto-condos/iframed.html

10 years ago today

This is a bit of a historic day for me! 10 years ago today I quit my job and went into full-time inner-city ministry!! Can you believe it!! For 10 years God has been faithfully providing for our family!

Here's a picture of what our family looked like way back then. Lukas was only 1.5 years old and Hayley was 5 months pregnant with Sylas. haha! We couldn't have imagined all the amazing ways God would lead us and the paths He would take us down, but we're very thankful for how it's all turned out.

Thank God with us for all the things he's done in the past 10 years! What are some things he's done in YOUR life that you couldn't have imagined if someone had told you? Take a minute to think about that and leave a comment with your biggest surprise.

Here's a current picture of our family to compare. I've covered my gray hairs!!

I figured this 10 year milestone would be a great time to reboot this blog and start posting again. We're past the baby stage so I've got a bit more free time. I also want to stay ahead of my kids who are rapidly passing me when it comes to technology! I'll be making a bunch of changes and upgrades to www.shawncuthill.com over the next few months but seeing as today is special I wanted to blog about it and say thank you to God and each of you who have supported us, prayed for us and donated to help us reach out in the city! Let's keep going together for another 10 years!

Keep an eye out for at www.shawncuthill.com for updates and if you've never been on here before cruise through the archives.

Happy 10th anniversary!
Shawn

Amazing Race Good news/bad news

The good news is the teams have been picked for Amazing Race Canada!!! The bad news is that we are not one of them.   

As you can imagine we're dissapointed but we'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each and every one of you who liked, shared, tweeted, viewed our video and cheered us on this journey! It's been very encouraging to see all the support we have and the best way to console ourselves is to think of each of you and what you mean to us.

While we all wish it could have turned out differently, like the Leafs always say around this time of year - there's always next season! Seeing all the responses (70,000 applicants) CTV may have a season 2 in the near future.

As for our page, twitter & youtube channels, someone suggested we turn "The Pastor & The Policeman" into it's own show!  That probably won't happen but stay tuned for future development from this dynamic duo! Also stay tuned to CTV as The Amazing Race Canada kicks off on July 15th!

Thank you once again - The Pastor (Shawn) and The Policeman (Jesse)

Amazing Race Canada!

I'm applying to get on the Amazing Race Canada! Here's the audition video:



And here's a few easy steps to help get us on the race:
1. Like us at www.facebook.com/pastorpolice
2. Follow us on twitter at: www.twitter.com/pastorpolice and retweet us
3. Post our youtube videos on your facebook or twitter: http://www.youtube.com/user/PastorPolice
4. Visit the Amazing Race facebook page here: Amazing Race Canada and leave a comment saying you want the Pastor & the Policeman on the race:
5. Visit the CTV facebook page here: CTV Television and leave a comment saying you want the Pastor & the Policeman
6. Say a prayer :)

Thanks everyone!
Shawn

Lukas graduation speech at Thorncliffe Park

Lukas graduated from Grade 5 today. He was also asked to give a speech about life in a Thorncliffe portable:

The Sayings of Sylas - his first short story

Well we all know Sylas is the creative genius in the Cuthill family. While I usually post interesting sayings of his or one-liners, yesterday he discovered that typing out a story on the computer is much faster than writing by hand. He wrote out his very first short story that I'd like to share with all of you. Ejoy:

once there were 3 mice that lived in a shoe. one day a cat came to the shoe. 3 more came, the mice have backup. 8 more came, cats were outnumbered. 4 more cats came 11 for the mice and 7 for the cats. cats still were outnumbered by 4 so 4 more came 11 to 11. cats werent winning the mice werent winning either. no one knew who was going to win. then an ape came, the fight stopped.
the end.

Thorncliffe Public School Council notice to parents

As my faithful athensBLOG readers know (if there are any of you still left!), we love our neighbourhood - Thorncliffe Park. It's a fascinating neighbourhood that is full of people from so many backgrounds. 35 apartment buildings, 30,000 people, the largest elementary school in North America. There is never a dull moment.

As you may also know, according to Monday's National Post "Toronto (is) the city with the highest concentration of Muslims in North America". And Thorncliffe has the highest concentration of Muslims in Toronto - making Thorncliffe quite an Islamic zone.

Yesterday our kids came home from Thorncliffe Park Public School with a notice about a parenting seminar put on by the school council. This is a great step as many have challenges adjusting to the parenting styles of Canada. You may have seen Russell Peter's youtube video about this :)

What was unfortunate about this parenting seminar is that there was a component titled "Islamic Perspective of Parenting in a Muslim family". Now this is where I start to wonder. I didn't think they were allowed to promote a religious view in a public school?

Below you will see the poster that was handed out to every child in the school:

Thorncliffe Park is a public school. As such I'd like to outline my problems with this seminar. I'd be interested to hear from others in the public school system to see if I'm off base:

1. For me this is a school issue. Not a Muslim or Christian issue. We could be discussing the Baha'i faith or Druze.

2. The school board has to chose to have a "no religions" or "all religions" stance

3. My understanding is that their current stance is "no religions" as they cannot even mention "Christmas" or Easter. There are some variations of this when it comes to holidays like Ramadan.

4. The issue then with this particular incident is that the flyer was sent home *by the school* inviting *all* parents to something that favours one religion.

5. The issue is not even the school hosting the event, but for me sanctioning it and promoting an event which favours and promotes one religion.

This, to me, is unacceptable.

I'd be quite open for comments and will attend this seminar and report back on what it was all about

Blogging from my blackberry!

Well well athensBLOG readers. I have been away for quite some time but not even a new blackberry and twitter account can suppress my need for blogging!

I'm not sure how this will work but wanted to ask the community for tips about blogging from your phones? Or are the days of blogging over? Is there an app I can download? How do YOU blog from your phone?
___________________
ShawnCuthill.com

*Sent from my BlackBerry

The sayings of Olivia v5 - Michael Jackson

At breakfast this morning we were talking about Lions. Out of the blue Olivia looked at me and said:

'When Michael Jackson comes back to life he can teach us how to train Lions? Can we go to his house mommy?'

I think its time for a little talk with that girl

The Sayings of Olivia v4 - boys

Olivia was looking pensive after prayer time. She looked at mom and wondered:

"If God made me, does that mean Satan made the boys???"

I'm sure many sisters have wondered that about their brothers Olivia

The sayings of Sylas v28 - midgets

Sylas came to me the other day with a revelation!

Dad! I know how people became midgets! They drank too much coffee when they were kids!

The sayings of Sylas v27 - Meat shop

The other day we were walking past the local butcher shop and Sylas let me in on a secret:

Sylas: Dad! I know how the meat stores kill the animals!
Dad: How?
Sylas: They have pet alligators in the store!

YouTube comment of the day - volume 1

Well I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! The dear old athensBLOG has been idling here on the web for the past few years. I haven't spent much time on her but today I came across something I have to post. The old blog now has a new feature "YouTube comment of the day"!

For the past 5 years I've had a YouTube channel www.youtube.com/shawncuthilldotcom. Most videos I post are of my kids or trips I've taken. None of the videos has gained much traction except one. The video below has over 500,000 views and is quite a touching story (originally emailed to me by Uncle Russ). The story is about an autistic basketball player who sinks 6 three pointers at the end of a game. There are hundreds of comments on this video but recently someone posted this beauty:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zENySdFr7M4

I spent quite some time going thru the comments to see if anybody else noticed what I noticed. 6 three-point shots IS NOT 20 points. 6 times 3 is 21. Basic multiplication. So I wonder, how does a video have over 500,000 views and nobody notices this? at least i didnt see any other comments correcting this math. This is a special video, and the ignorant ones make it less enjoyable.

CLASSIC! To read the comment yourself check out the video on my YouTube channel here

The sayings of Lukas v47 - hovercraft

Last night we were dragging the kids inside after they had fallen asleep in the car. Parents, you know the drill. For us with 3 kids it means usually Lukas has to walk since he's the oldest/biggest.

Last night he was quite upset about this and said in his whiniest voice:

"Why hasn't anyone invented a hovercraft chair yet!"

Thorncliffe library to finally re-open

The ground breaking for this project was back in 2005! I wonder if the process would have gone any faster in other neighbourhoods where people know how to hound politicians. We have the largest population of children in Toronto and the largest school in North America and the most people who need ESL and our library is closed for 2.5 years!? I'm thankful it's back open, but to me it is obvious that the project was not high on any of our local politicians priority list

"After nearly two and a half years, the Thorncliffe Park community is finally getting its library branch back...The library closed in December 2007"

http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/local/article/660755

The sayings of Olivia v 3 - laughing cows!

Sitting at the table this morning for breakfast when Olivia had a revelation...

Olivia: When cows laugh, milk comes out their nose!!

Blackberry or iphone?? That is the question

It's a sad day in Cuthill land. I've finally decided to move into the 21st century and ditch my palm treo. :( I just can't handle the incessant reboots, amateur graphics and limited web browsing.

Loyalty is one of my highest values however I cannot be loyal anymore to the treo nation. Ever since I worked at BMO i have been using palm pilots but with the advent of the Palm Pre it seems that my beloved Palm OS has breathed it's last and i just have to move on.

So my question for all my friends out there in cell-phone land:

Blackberry or iphone??

The sayings of Sylas v26 - Let's go!

The other day we were walking in the rain and Sylas was falling behind jumping in puddles as usual. I looked back:

Daddy: "Come on Sy! Let's go!!

Sylas: "Ok!! I'm let's going!!

The sayings of Lukas v46 - mice

Tonight I was tucking the kids in to bed when out of the blue Lukas had a thought:

Daddy, if mice believed in God they would give back all the cheese they stole

Crowded, stressed in Canada's most populated immigrant neighbourhood: Thorncliffe

Amazing article appearing in Toronto Star today:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/748969--thorncliffe-park-community-crowded-stressed#article

Severe overcrowding and poverty is heightening stress and ethnic tensions in Canada’s most populated immigrant neighbourhood, says a study of the Thorncliffe Park community released today.

The U of T study of changes in the Toronto neighbourhood between 2001 and 2006 found more than 30,000 residents — mostly newcomers — are crowded into 34 highrise and lowrise apartments in a 2.2-square-kilometre concrete jungle behind Don Mills Road and Don Valley Parkway. Front-line workers are worried the population is outpacing programs and services, hindering their ability to quickly integrate.

“Thorncliffe Park will continue to attract high volumes of newcomers, relative to most neighbourhoods across Greater Toronto. Settlement services, therefore, should remain a high priority,” says the report. “If population and household numbers continue to climb at the same rates, overcrowding and other issues will present increasingly greater challenges.”

The study found each household has an average 1.4 bedrooms compared to 2.7 across the city, but twice as many sleeping in a bedroom as in an average Toronto home. Half of residents live below Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off, three times the rate for Toronto.