Amayah thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes and constant love sent her way.

The Therapeutic Clown Program has helped put a smile on my baby girls face (and continues to do so till today!) and I ask you to please vote for them on the Aviva Community Fund competition!

The Therapeutic Clown Program
http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2928

I believe the The Therapeutic Clown Program is like sucrose (sugar water) that has shown to make the pain go away! Thank you for all your great work. A spoonful of sugar makes the ‘pain go away’

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About the competition

Aviva wants to support what’s important to you by helping you make a positive change in your community. If you’re interested in changing Canada for the better, you’re in the right place.

How the Competition Works

Create an idea that will have a positive impact in your community. Enter it in the Aviva Community Fund competition and get your friends, family and everyone you know to vote for it. The most popular ideas will have a chance to be funded with the $500,000 Aviva Community Fund.

Scored two platinum lounge tickets to the Leaf pre-season game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Check out the pictures below plus our “reach out and touch” them pictures! Talking about racism (this was not as bad as the Eden Trattoria incident!) but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. The ticket usher in the pictures below decided to come check on our tickets even though she saw us say hi to the folks sitting at the side of us who were from my company. She came over to Warren (my brother) and asked to see his ticket, when I simultaneously asked her if she really wanted to see our tickets she stopped and said something and left. Just because we looked excited to be sitting in such cool seats does not mean we were poaching them plus why pick on us when there were a ton of other folk there who looked even more excited than us and were shouting as well. I did not see her check anyone else tickets through out the game.

Three South Asian Canadian guys (all brown!) decided to visit Eden Trattoria on St. Clair for Sunday dinner and were refused service. Outlined below are the details from one of the guys who I work with:

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• Eden Trattoria on St. Clair, sunday dinner (a few weekends ago)
• The restaurant was full of of italian families, with grandmas and babies and stuff…very traditional feeling.  Not that it matters, but that was the context.
• We were refused service!  3 brown guys apparently weren’t allowed to eat there
• They accused us of being drunk.  can you believe that?
• They looked at Friend1 <name changed> and said that his eyes were bloodshot.  He drove there!  Didn’t drink of course.  Said the same thing to me, and then accused my friend Friend2 <name changed> of wobbling when he walked!  We thought they were kidding, but man, they weren’t.
• Friend2 <name changed> ordered a beer and they said that they have the right to refuse service.  He said this is “f*ing bullsh*t” and walked out.

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It’s always nice and refreshing to see that racism is alive and well in Toronto. Please left spread the word and get others involved in taking action against the restaurant in a way they see most appropriate. It blows my mind that people think they can get away with shit like this in one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world!

Gavin

P.S. This story may get picked by Global News as well. Expect to hear more about this in the weeks ahead.

For the past 22 days, single mom Maria Bunda has protested outside the front doors of the provincial Legislature with a sign fixed atop her backpack that reads: “6 years old, severely autistic boy, denied therapy, denied a chance.

http://www.tooautistic.com/2009/08/at-queens-park-day18-tanny.html

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/article/682431

If you are ever in the market for some cool surface graphics (decals) you have to consider http://www.whatisblik.com/ – Blik has really cool designs and art work that rock the senses! They also have some great re-stick graphic designs for a baby room. The idea is not new but the creativity behind the graphics is wild. I think I need the Nintendo Mario decal for our bedroom. It’s on to the business case development process for me.

I have finally decided to move my blog to a new platform (WordPress) and start blogging from www.gavinlobo.com. WordPress gives me a ton of cool Social, SEO and Blog technology that Google Blogger just did not allow for. I can also manage my posts more effectively moving forward. I love the new Tag Cloud on the right of the blog posts and have been working on optimizing the cloud over the last day or so.

I plan to posting a few tests blogs in the next few days just to get a hang of things. I love the clean MAC look of the blog and request that you comment on any issues that you find while browsing the site. I also have my own domain name which is supremely cool! I finally managed to snag www.gavinlobo.com after a long wait.

With so much time on my hands I have decided to try vBlogging and Youtube video marketing to further my understanding with regards to building online traffic, SEO and natural search. Watch out for more video from me in the weeks ahead.

Build Your LinkedIn Network | Insights by Gavin Lobo

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/11/man.html

News article about Zhya’s passing and an associated Comments section

http://thepointandshootist.com/photos/zhya-jacobs

A site set-up with Zhya’s pictures

http://zhyaonline.com/

Zhya’s personal website

http://www.linkedin.com/in/zhyarch

Zhya’s LinkedIn profile

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Funeral Service:
The service will be held on 2:30pm Sunday afternoon at Missio Dei, with reception following immediately thereafter.

The location of the church building is:
Brixen Ivy Community Center
1242 W. Addison
Chicago, IL 60613

Please note:
- parking is limited (please look for street parking on Addison or use public transportation. Red line – addison, Brown line – southport)
- child care will not be available

Condolences:
- flowers can be sent to Missio Dei at the address above
- in lieu of flowers please send condolences or contributions to Missio Dei. (we will be collecting them for the family)

Share your Story with the Jacobs:
For those of you who were present for the Community Share yesterday, it was a healing time for all. Whether through tears, laughter, prayers, and words of comfort, it was so wonderful to hear people’s stories of Zhya. I only wish we could have recorded that time for the parents.

To that end, we are asking you to write out a story that you have of Zhya.

It could be how you met, or how he impacted you, a funny little quirk… whatever you remember about him. The idea is that we should share with his parents and family a view into the life of their son through our eyes.

1-2 paragraphs is fine, handwritten notes are greatly preferred if brought to the Funeral Service, though email will be accepted if that is not a possibility for you. All these notes will be bound into a book for the parents.

Sincerely,
Phil Black
phil@philblack.com