Well I’ve proved myself right. I just saw lightning and heard thunder. It must be spring. Let the Age of Mud begin!
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CBC Toronto – No strike Friday for TTC drivers
Hooray! Now if we can guarantee (I can spell it too Phil!) that they won’t go on strike for the longer term that will be a great accomplishment. I guess I won’t be working from home tomorrow.
An accident just happened outside the office on Eglinton and the DVP. Some tractor trailer was turning left (west) onto Eglinton and it seems like another car tried to turn alongside it and was wedged underneath the truck. Traffic going west was backed up for miles (as far as I could see). The buses just left everyone off and had them walk ahead past the blockage because they weren’t going anywhere for a while. The DVP exit was backed up to the highway lanes but it reached a certain point where everybody would just head east instead of just waiting for the accident to clear.
It seems the police have got things under control again – they moved the two vehicles involved to the side of the road so at least we have traffic moving again. The DVP northbound has been slow all morning. Usually it’s the southbound lanes that give problems.
As I was leaving the car this morning at the Leslie subway station I considered taking the umbrella with me. I knew that it was supposed to rain today (100% chance apparently) but I decided against it. I have a feeling that that is something I may regret this afternoon when I walk to the bus stop.
Well the potential TTC strike could be effective 12:01 AM on Friday morning. So will there be one? I heard today that the talks between the two sides is “progressing” but that could also mean “progressing towards failure” as well as “progressing towards a deal”. It’s hard to say. I noticed on the bus last Wednesday (maybe?) that the transit union has its own website now called We Move Toronto. They have some interesting facts on there:
Four out of five people in Toronto use the TTC at least once a year. Two out of three use it once a month. Hundred of thousands rely on it every day. Our public transit system holds Toronto together.
Four out of five is pretty significant. They also have a contest where they’re giving away a Metropass (which is priced too high for me) each day until April. I signed up – you’re encouraged to send a letter to the premier asking for more transit funding. I think the transit system is underfunded so I’m ok with that.
I really do hope that they get this labour contract resolved before Friday. I think I’ll be working from home if they do go on strike because with only one car between Marcy and me we are very dependent on the TTC to make the commute work for both of us (as best as it could be done).
There’s nothing like a nice run (ok sprint) in the morning to catch your subway. It gets the blood moving! On the Sheppard line though since the subways only come every 5-6 minutes it can mean a big difference in the time you actually get to work (well the time I get to work).
This brings me to another point and I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. I think the most stressful part of my day is when we get into the Don Mills subway station. It’s a major transfer point for the east end of the city and there are a lot of people getting on and getting off the subway and buses there. You can just feel the stress levels of the people around them as they try valiantly to get to wherever they’re going. It’s the quintessential definition of “rat race”. We’re herded up stairs, down a corridor and up more stairs until we reach the cheese.
Living in Toronto is so much more hectic than living in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Today is the last day I can expect the buses to be quiet. Last week and today was the time allotted for March Break at the Toronto District School Board. The buses/subway cars have been rather nice without all of the students. I’ve been able to sit comfortably and the crush of people trying to get on and off at certain stops has been virtually nonexistant. That’s not to say that the TTC has been empty; it’s far from it. But it makes think what the summer will be like in the morning at least.
Well winter has once again reminded us that it controls March. We had some more snow last night and this morning and it’s definitely below zero. Checking the forecast shows that we have flurries coming our way over the next few days.
I guess we can’t all be in Cuba where I’m sure it feels and is spring-like.
Does it still count as soup when it’s thick enough to eat with a fork? No, I’m not talking about Chunky soup. I’m talking about my own soup that I made on Sunday (red lentil coconut curry soup). It seems to be rather thick and I don’t mean dim-witted.
CBC News: 10 dead in U.S. school shooting
I don’t understand where the press is on this story. Apparently they’re MIA. Ten people dead, are you kidding me? This is a big story. I surely hope that the reason the press isn’t covering this story as thoroughly as say, Columbine or Terri Schiavo, is that it’s a remote Amerindian reservation in Minnesota. It would truly be a sad day if we don’t hear about something because it’s not a group of white kids shooting up their school. Perhaps we’ve already come to that state.
I feel like a big clove (or cloves) of garlic today. I don’t know why but for some reason all I can smell is garlic. I know that when I eat a lot of garlic it tends to seep out through my pores but I don’t recall eating a lot of garlic recently. I hope it’s not unbearable.
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today I’m wearing my contact lenses.
It may seem like an odd homage but I see it as fairly appropriate because you see, St. Patrick “switched” Ireland from “wearing glasses” to “wearing contact lenses” and that’s what we celebrate today. Isn’t that right?
Actually I was inspired by Lissa to wear them today. It does feel nice not to wear glasses. We’ll see how my eyes feel by the end of the day though.
CBC Toronto – TTC looks at bike racks for buses
I’ve seen this in the news this week. I guess it’s a good idea and it makes sense to give cyclists that flexibility but I wonder how it effects regular passengers? Will the time for each stop increase if you have to wait for a cyclist to put/take off their bike from the rack? If the bus hits another vehicle is the TTC liable for the damage to the bikes? I don’t use any of the routes in the pilot program but assuming that it’s a successful pilot (and it probably will be) I’ll be seeing bike racks on my buses soon enough. I think that’s enough TTC stories for the morning.
CBC Toronto – Run more transit on Don Mills: report
I like this report though I admit I’ve only read the summary in this article. I will have to read the rest at a later date. When Marcy goes to school in the morning I take the bus down Don Mills and even with the special commuter lane it’s still pretty slow getting form Sheppard down to Eglinton. Having a GO station makes sense as well because there isn’t one between Oriole (Leslie/401) and Union on that particular branch. The north and eastern sections of the city are becoming more and more dense – that is obvious to anyone who takes the bus or subway to those parts and they need to start acting on these plans or else the system will become so overburdened that it’s not practical to use anymore.
CBC Toronto – Transit workers set strike date
So the strike date is set for March 31st. That could be very bad news for commuters in general and me in particular. If they do end up striking then it will make for an awful drive for either Marcy or me. They seem confident that they’ll reach an agreement though so that’s a good sign and the TTC workers can’t stay off the job for too long without the city falling apart. There are just too many people that depend on the TTC to get around.
When you take the bus there’s something you have to learn to accept. That one thing is that your shoulders will be uncomfortable and cramped. Some people treat the “shoulder war” as a matter of personal pride – can I sit comfortably? If yes then I win and you lose.
If you’re sitting at the back of the bus, one person sitting in an expanded way can ruin the bus ride for the rest of the people sitting beside them (even up to several seats away). And believe me, sitting straddling two seats isn’t that comfortable. I have a feeling that these seats weren’t even that comfortable or sized appropriately when they were designed back in the day. (60’s? 70’s? I don’t know.) I can assure you though that today with packed buses consistently it doesn’t always make for an enjoyable ride.
Thank goodness that the fares are low. Oh wait they’re not. Thank goodness that the service reaches all corners of the city. Oh wait it doesn’t.
I like being facetious sometimes.
CBC News: Ontario bill takes aim at ‘gender-based pricing’
The provincial government is all about removing disparities these days. First the same-sex bill passed through the parliament and now this and then in a couple of weeks we’ll likely have mandatory retirement removed. These could be all significant changes though I wonder how they could enforce a price-equality scheme for these kinds of things. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
My heels are pretty sore today and it’s because I wanted to look nice at work. I wore nice® pants and a nice shirt on Friday and Monday but after I got home last night I looked at my heels and they were all banged up from my dress shoes. They were digging into my heels and causing some discomfort. I guess that’s the price you pay when you want to look nice – you’re not always comfortable doing it. Today I’m giving my heels a rest and wearing my “walking-on-clouds” shoes. I think part of the problem is that I have to walk to and from the bus stop/subway stop/whatever and I like to walk quickly and perhaps that wasn’t the smartest thing to do in dress shoes.
Nestle’s Coffeemate
My rating: 0 out of 5
One of the oddest commercials on television these days (as far as I’m concerned) is one for Nestle’s Coffeemate. It features Josee Chouinard, former figure skater (and frequent tumbler in competition), interviewing these two guys about this product. I’m sure people have seen this product before – it’s a nondairy creamer for coffee. I’ve never tried it. But the way these guys carry on they make it seem like it’s a lifesaver. And who are they? They show their names each time but I’ve never remembered them for long enough to actually see if they’re people I should know. My impression is that they’re advertising/marketing guys for Nestle’s and if that’s the case why should I believe you? Are you going to say that the product is not worth using?
They have one shot of the two guys drinking their coffee (including some Coffeemate I’m sure) and they’re laughing it up. We have coffee here at the office and I’ve never seen anyone act that way. It’s all too contrived but the worst part is that at the end they have a disclaimer “this is an unscripted commercial”. It seems ridiculous because the whole thing seems staged/contrived if not scripted and what’s the difference in the end?
I think this is a really terrible set of commercials and I’m hoping (but not believing) that this will be the end of them.
CBC News: Jetsgo shuts down, strands travellers
From the article:
Travellers in the airport said Jetsgo computers and planes were removed in the middle of the night.
I asked Marcy this morning if this was literally a “fly by night” operation. Ha ha ha. Also, where did they remove the planes to? It’s probably just their hangars but the sentence sounds bizarre. It makes it seem like removing the planes is as easy as removing the computers.
It’s a good thing we didn’t end up going to Las Vegas this March Break because I was looking at using JetsGo for our flight there (and back). They have all kinds of frustrated travellers being asked questions by reporters this morning. I would be angry with the company especially considering how they have nobody at the ticket counters but then again would you want to be manning that counter today? I think they should have the executives at the counters. They’re the ones who made the decision and they should be the ones to feel the effects of that decision this morning.
Some people won’t have as good a March Break as they had hoped.
Just now we had one of our VP’s laptops stolen. Some guy walked through the office looking into each suboffice and he stole whatever he could find. It’s a pretty bold move but effective so long as no one pays attention to you and challenges what you’re doing there. I’m going to make sure the expensive devices around my desk have been put away. Who knows the value of the data lost.
In my inbox this morning:
Hey Matt, Don’t want to be a pain but we really need u to clean up your desk. Thanks.
We have some important people coming in tomorrow and my desk is one of the most visible. I’ve cleaned it up since receiving this.
I’m constantly baffled by the recycling adherence in this office. That is to say that it’s really terrible. People throw out cans and recyclable materials all of the time. Recently we moved the recycling bin (it’s a big one and emptied every day so it’s not like it’s overflowing) into the kitchen area right in front of the garbage to encourage people to use it. Today I went in there and found a pop can in the garbage. This means that someone had to open the garbage can and throw it in there right over the recycling bin. We may be many things but apparently some people aren’t friends of the earth.
I think we’ll have to get some more Tylenol Cold (& Flu) tonight because my nose has been running and I haven’t been able to catch it all day. Perhaps some nice hot tea with lemon is in order. If the weather were to warm up it would be much appreciated – spring is good for my colds. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s being too cooperative (it == Mother Nature here) because we’re supposed to get even more snow tonight and tomorrow. Thanks for helping out!
Aside (sort of): I really enjoyed taking the Tylenol Cold with Cool Burst when I was sick last. Perhaps “enjoy” is a strong word here but I enjoyed it as much as you could enjoy taking medicine for a sickness. The daytime/nighttime formula worked well and I think I’ll get the same kind again (we’re basically out).
Operation Petticoat (1959)
My rating: 4 out of 5
I’m trying out the Structured Blogging plugin so forgive the fanboyishness…
On Tuesday Marcy and I watched “Operation Petticoat”. Well actually we finished watching it since we started it on Monday night. Anyway, I’ll consider it Tuesday that we actually “watched” the movie. It was the latest offering from Zip which I’ve been meaning to review.
The movie starts Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. Grant plays the straight-man to Curtis’ joker personality. It was quite the change from the last Cary Grant movie we watched a couple of weeks back – Father Goose (an enjoyable film!). He’s a submarine captain who likes to play by the rules and Tony Curtis likes to break all of the rules he can get away with. I really liked this film and if you like watching the adventures of a pink submarine, a male submarine crew and some stranded nurses then this is the film for you!
From today’s UW bulletin:
CPH reopening after lab fire It’s partway back to normal in most of Carl Pollock Hall, as cleanup continues after a fire early Monday morning that pretty much destroyed the high-voltage lab in the electrical and computer engineering department. The fire marshal’s office has brought in an expert to look at the technical equipment where the fire is presumed to have started. It broke out about 4 a.m. yesterday, and damage was largely confined to the lab, a two-storey area in the main section of CPH. About 25 faculty members, graduate students and postdocs work in the high-voltage lab on studies of power transmission and insulation. “There’s no structural damage,” Tom Galloway of the plant operations department said yesterday afternoon, but added that there’s odour and some smoke damage all through CPH, which includes the multimedia lab, other labs and classrooms, faculty offices, the Engineering Society’s Orifice and coffee-and-doughnut shop, and the dean of engineering complex. Computing services based in CPH, including the engineering network and the popular ‘mywaterloo’ mail service, were not affected. A company specializing in fire cleanup was at the site by midday yesterday, Galloway said, pumping out smoky air and getting ready for extensive work — everything from washing walls to checking inside computers for soot. “Fortunately there’s not a heavy layer of residue throughout the building,” he said, but he expects it to take “a number of days” for cleanup to be complete and the odour to be gone. Insurance adjusters were also at the site yesterday, said Galloway, whose week had started with a phone call from UW police at 4:30 Monday morning. Yesterday 21 classes were scheduled to meet in CPH, and new locations were found for at least 13 of them, said assistant registrar Charlene Schumm. She said she was booking rooms for today as well, on the assumption that CPH wouldn’t be usable just yet. However, most parts of the building are expected to be open. Sue Gooding of the dean of engineering office said top priority was given to cleaning up classrooms “where teaching relies on the equipment there and cannot be facilitated anywhere else on campus”. She predicted that cleanup will continue all week, and warned that a few “areas of high risk” will take longer before they’re both clean and safe. Staff based in CPH — which would include those in the management sciences department and engineering computing — have been told they can come back to work today. They’re being advised to wear “casual” clothes, since the place will be dirty, and not to lean against walls until everything has been washed.
This lab scared me. It’s probably the most powerful lab they have for the electrical and computer engineering students.
I’m not sure who he’s insulting more – Paul Martin or Martin Luther King.
Oh wait there’s more.
Personally I never realized that spending tax dollars responsibily (or irresponsibly) was a fundamental human right. I learn new things every day!
Bonus Conservative link: here’s a list of the party consitution points up for voting at their conference coming up later this month.
It’s a strange feeling knowing that you’re the connection between two other people. I never thought of myself as a connector before but I suppose I am in some kind of micro way. The whole world is connected and it’s where and when these connections make themselves apparent that will surprise you not the fact that we are connected.
You have to love Lloyd Axworthy’s frankness in this open letter to Condoleeza Rice. This is the kind of diplomacy we need sometimes.
The tractors are back. They’re going north on the DVP now. I still wish I had a camera though I’m not sure how good of a picture I could get from the window. I wonder if they have enough gas.
CBC Toronto – Farmers’ protest to hit Queen’s Park
I wish I had my camera right now because there are about 200 tractors going down the DVP on their way to Queen’s Park. It’s an odd sight. The police have blocked off the onramps. I’m sure people are pretty frustrated. My coworker was the last one to get on the DVP before they shut it down. Lucky him!
A few minutes later now the cars have returned. I was wondering what the traffic sign said during the protest: “DVP moving very slow – farmer protest” maybe?
Last night we went to see Hitch. It looked like something that I would like and I was right. I really enjoyed this movie. You may too.
Hopefully this will be the last update on The Catch (I really need a category for this). The ads on the bus today had changed from yesterday. Now they have a “pill” bottle that says “Virgin Mobile” and underneath it says “No Catch”. In smaller font at the top it says “maximize your mobility”. To the left side of the bottle it says “Great rates / No hidden fees / No contracts”. Hooray that The Cure is here I suppose.
The thing that puzzles me is that Virgin Mobile’s entry into the cellphone market here in Canada is really a joint venture between Virgin and Bell Canada. I guess they can’t say too many negative things against Bell in their advertising. It seems counterintuitive to me but maybe that’s why I don’t have a business or marketing degree.
The Catch is done and fried.
That’s a difference of thirty years or more between our life expectancy and theirs.
I just overheard the following conversation in the elevator going down:
Girl 1 – “I’m going to tell you a story that’s so funny you’re going to pee your pants.” Girl 2 – “OK.” Girl 1 – “So I met this guy on Saturday night. And we were talking and talking and talking. Then he tells me that he has two kids – one’s 5 and the other’s 7. And his wife died of cancer four years ago. But I’m still going to talk to him again.”
Can you find the funny?
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Googlebot has returned to visiting my humble site. Welcome! Considering how much more traffic I’ve received via Yahoo! and MSN (their bots are constantly hitting this site) I was wondering if Googlebot was just being shy but lo and behold it has returned. Hopefully it’s more of an extended stay.
CBC News: Virgin Group to push for cellphone number portability
I like this idea. They passed a law in the U.S. that says that customers can take their phone number with them. I haven’t changed cellphone providers since I started in 2000 but if I were to change it would be nice if I could take my number with me. I still don’t like The Catch.
Well Virgin Mobile Canada launches today (it’s a joint venture between Virgin and Bell Canada) and if you wanted proof that “The Catch” ads on the TTC were ads for Virgin Mobile just go to their site. Front page – “The Cure for The Catch is here!” Finally – maybe now we can see those dumb ads on the subway and bus disappear or be replaced with better ones for Virgin Mobile. I can’t imagine they’ll stop advertising their new service so soon but I do hope that they change the tone of the ads.
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