Toronto


  • Ninety-Eight Days but I’m Not Counting

    Ninety-Eight Days but I’m Not Counting

    It is really cold today. It has been less than a month now since I booked my next trip.

    On my last trip my old reliable large suitcase met it’s last days from the cobble-stone sidewalks of Rome. That’s right I have to move on with life and break in a virgin suitcase on this trip.

    My new suitcase is slightly larger and a harder case. I bought it at the Zellers liquidation sale. It’s biggest problem is there is only one outside pocket. I’m undecided still on whether or not to by a new dangly thing. My last one was given to me buy my old friend when I had forgotten my previous on prior to my first WordCamp trip.

    On an interesting note to me anyways, I was cleaning off my dresser and under the pile of junk was my dangly thing. I tried guessing what was in it as it felt unusually bulky. I thought it might have been the baggage tag for my last Toronto trip. I was wrong. (Even though some people think I would never really say that.)

    The tag in my dangly thing was the luggage tag from YSJ to FCO via YUL. (Saint John to Fiumicino (near Rome) via Montreal).

    Personally I find Rome to be one of the worlds worst historic cities. From all the thieves to the difficult sidewalks to the crazy drivers to the very long lines almost every city in Europe is better than Rome. Though perhaps my views would be different if I ever found true love in Rome. We will have to see May 6-8th.


  • 2011 in 12 Sentences

    As the year comes to an end I usually come up with a long post about the year that has been. Plinky suggested only on sentence per month so here goes.

    I went to BC. I learned about caregivers. Learned how to program Macros in Microsoft Excel. Lots of sports and trips to Fredericton. I went to Toronto. Started walking a lot more than ever. Went to Montreal and New York City. I got really, really bored and booked a trip. Went on a last-minute camping trip to 10 European Countries. Got better from travel illness. Started taking it easier and planning more. Started doing new things, like translating WordPress to Canadian English and Operation Red Nose.


  • It all starts here

    On the Contilki website it lists the travel from Canada day as day 1. As such I will start my travel log with today.

    So this morning I started packing and then when fitting stuff in the suitcase I realized 2 things. 1. I have never packed myself for a 3 week trip before. 2. There is no way this is all going to fit. (possible 3. I should not have procrastinated it to 1 hour before having to call a taxi to the airport.)

    Well then next, I called a taxi to the airport. As the taxi arrived I realized I was missing my shirt and belt and did not have everything 100% packed. It was a quick ride to the airport except we hit a piece of firewood on Loch Lomond Rd. near Lakewood. (I wonder if it is still there?)

    Then I flew to Toronto, I love the seseme seed dessert things that Air Canada Jazz serves. Then I headed downtown for a bit. I ran into 2 types of crowds the September 11th “educators” and movie fans. (I love movies)

    Then after hanging around 10 Dundas East and the Eaton Center , I headed back on the TTC to Pearson where I am typing this now waiting for the boarding call that is now 17 minutes late. TTYL.


  • The Romantic Comedy (err Tragedy)

    First off, a detailed post about my trip to Toronto is coming soon. Including the stuff I learned and would like to add about WordCamp Toronto. In addition, I am sorting through the 400 pictures I took over the weekend for a SnapShots album.

    I wanted to talk about movies. I have seen several lately although I am way behind this time last year. I have seen a lot of romantic movies and romantic comedies lately. However, it seems that the romantic movie industry seems to be making traditional tragedies lately. They are not happily ever after anymore. Even the Miley Cyrus hit “Last Song” falls into this category, a funeral, seriously. The little weak happy tag ending does not make it better it starts badly in Act One, gets better in act two, then ends badly. That sir is definitely a tragedy in the dramatic sense.

    But this a huge trend this year. Valentines Day, When in Rome, Dear John, Chloë, and many others are the same. Is there no hope anymore?


  • WordCamp Toronto 2010

    WordCamp Toronto 2010


  • Tethering on McGuinty TTC Cuts NB Power Deal Dead

    Since I am in Toronto for WordCamp Toronto 2010 this weekend, I thought I would take this time to update my posts more often. I’m still deciding on my plans for what I’m going to do, but I started the day with some news. First, let’s start with some amazing news from my cell phone provider Rogers Wireless. They are announcing something totally new for a phone company, that they actually listen to their customers.

    This must be only the second time that they did something like this. Remember back in July 2008 a revolutionary (changes the way people think of phones) device came to Canada and Rogers after public protest created the $30 6GB data plan. While today’s news is better according to the Rogers Blog all (non-roaming, non-shared, 1GB or greater or non-bundled with voice) smartphone data plans will include tethering in their usage as a permanent feature and not a promotion until May.

    The second thing I wanted to talk about was not so much about that when the budget was released yesterday that the new TransitCity project to increase the LRT routes, and station renovations. But that it was hidden in the budget and not even mentioned. Come on people, with Toronto being the centre of the Canadian media universe, did they not know that it escalates the fact that you’re a sleazeball for not helping progress Toronto like a modern city, but that you a bigger sleazeball for not having the backbone to stand up in Ontario parliament and tell the people why. Also, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is the biggest sleazeball for taking publicity in all the public funding announcements that you are going to do this TransitCity project.

    In the end, McGuinty is not as bad as New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham that mismanaged the proposed sale of NB Power. The original deal was one that was of a huge mutual benefit to both New Brunswick and Quebec, then made changes to make the deal one that took away the benefits from both parties. Now the only thing left is the benefit of popularity gains to the Progressive Conservatives for going against a bad revised deal. However, they should not be forgiven for their opposition to the original deal.


  • Travels and planning

    As we progress into the year 2010, the only New Year’s resolution that I haven’t broken yet is my vow to only see 100 movies in the theatre this year (yet) I’m currently at number 10 as we speak, and I have my annual Toronto trip ahead of me next month, and the beautiful AMC Theatre on Dundas Square.

    While on the topic of travels, my first ever passport arrived by courier two weeks ago. I can now leave the country again and am so excited about the upcoming plans. Before I announce where I must point out that despite my love for History in university non-Canadian History seemed somewhat less interesting. The more I reflect on the topic, it may be just that it seems so distant, therefore why not going to see it in person. This is where I announce that in September I am travelling to Europe. I’ve decided to go on a guided tour with Contiki Tours. Now I just have to decide on the exact date and trip. Currently, I am leaning to the European Whirl from September 11th – 30th, but that may change after discussing with a Travel agent.

    If you notice this is the first post in the new Travel category, this will become my Travelogue however you don’t have to wait until September, next up next month is Toronto.


  • What a year this has been!

    I started writing this on December 29th but researching the links has taken some time, in fact much longer than I thought to find all the links. I have defiantly accomplished a lot this year, looking back this has been the best year in a while. Of the things that stand out as my holy crap moment of the year was standing at the window in the Vancouver airport with the setting sun breaking a bit through the clouds. That was the moment it rang true to me that mountains were more than just really big hills.

    One of the biggest events that kicked off the year was the 2009 Atlantic Major Midget Regionals at the LBR. This one event not only was my first time writing for sports, but I also learned what makes up a shot on goal in a hockey game was. In addition, actually pulling off the live feed was amazing. That and meeting Don Mabee for the first time.

    The next moment of this year, happened when I attended to Faces of Fusion dinner in May. That is where I ran into Ian Finley from East Coast Connected. It was from that meeting that I ran into him again on my annual birthday trip to Toronto, that I learned about the monthly East Coast Army nights at Gracie’s.

    During that trip, I had the privilege of attending my very first WordCamp in Toronto. It was amazing to see all the interest of all the web community in a town so driven by media. It was there that I met some very interesting people who I hope to never forget such as Jeremy Clarke, Brendan Sera-Shriar, Accordion Guy, Alexa Clark, Erin Blaskie and George O’Neill. But even better from there it leads me on the path to attending WordCamp Montreal where it was there in that little town (humour people!) of Montreal. The place was amazing when during the very early dawn morning that I got to walk through the Montreal Jazz festival that made me realize I was so wrong about Montreal and its many misconceptions. Then meeting folks like Kim Valee, Matt Mullenweg, Jane Wells, Eva Blue and many others.

    And then there was Victoria, where at WordCamp Victoria I ran into many more amazing people. I kind of really like BC, despite only seeing it for 2 days. Perhaps I can find a way to go back sometime this or next year.


  • WordCamp Montreal and Other Things Montréal

    WordCamp Montreal and Other Things Montréal

    Subway Graffiti
    Subway Graffiti

    Getting here to Montreal, I had decided to get the bus. (Orleans Express/Acadian Lines) Thus it presents this opportunity to write this long detailed encounter as I have the remainder of the 13 hour bus trip to finish.

    After arriving here in Montreal I took a nice stroll down Ste-Catherine to the train station. It was on this trip through the eerily quite streets of the jazz festival site that I ran across the first image. Although to is common to think of those in the financial services industry as “wanks” someone thought it would be a great idea to draw one on the two sided of the corner of the building.

    After the fist day of sessions at word camp there was this crazy man that started yelling at me in french, I think he though I took a picture or something. The funny part that is so not like me is the fact that I started yelling back at him in English and he did not seem to understand me at all. That make id kind of funny then he ran off and I went off to catch the subway to the hotel.

    The subway in Montreal seemed to be quite different than Toronto. Especially the automated stalls after paying the guy handed me a little card, and I did not get originally how the doors opened, then he started yelling the what I think are the instruction in French. After looking further at the stalls I give the yelling guy the “I have no clue what you are saying look. Then he explains the put the card in the slot in English. I then proceeded to the hotel.

    On the way in one of the Subway stations there was a sign in French only that part of the platform was closed for constriction bit it was graffitied with “Montreal is supposed to be Bilingual” to which some one wrote; “We wish!”

    Me at the after party. Eva Blue Photo.
    Me at the after party. Eva Blue Photo.

    I thought it was amusing. One can tell mush about a society by the appearance of the graffiti. Especially, considering the prior instance of “art.”

    One great thing about my iPhone is the fact that it really saved me from the being lost. Well kind of. The Google walking and transit directions are really good for Montreal. It was still a difficult city to find things in. I missed the first subway stop without realizing, thankfully my GPS on the iPhone found me the next one just in time.

    The last tale before I finish is the tale of the pigeon. After the final sessions of WordCamp, we went to an outdoor patio bar that had some of the most amazing natural and architectural design of any patio bar. While standing outside talking to some interesting people like Kim Valee this word pigeon was doing a bizarre dance on the windowsill across the street and everyone mentioned the crazy pidgin was about to top itself as the guy pass is the bird flies into the bar right behind them and everyone starts chasing after the bird. Classic comedy movie scene.


  • WordCamp Toronto

    WordCamp Toronto

    I just arrived at Wordcamp Toronto. So far the trip here to Toronto has been very eventful. Starting with Air Canada cancelling my flight from Saint John to Halifax and I will post more later.


  • Back again 🙁

    I just returned from Toronto. This time i went up with Tony, and it was a good trip. The best part of it was playing with my new camera. If you haven’t seen it yet the link is http://pics.cefm.ca/v/toronto2008/ to my gallery. I was having interesting situations where I had not read the manual enough in low light areas and cage situations where the shutter speeds, ISO settings and focusing on the cage rather than the animals. A lot of the pictures are at a full 12x zoom without a tripod. In some cases it took 5-6 pictures to get a good one.


  • My Post-Birthday Post

    My Post-Birthday Post

    Boston Pizza Vanilla Bean Cake

    Yesterday was a very interesting day for my birthday. For a change people seemed nicer. It seems like it was no time ago, let alone four years ago today that (in 2004) today (May 11th) I was working at Client Logic, done after a hectic month and a half of campaigning and just waiting for election day to be over, wait a minute, that didn’t happen as a recall at that time I was ditching Sunday shifts to go to Empire Theatres probably to see Mean Girls, New York Minute, or 13 Going On 30 (I seen all of them in the theatre and cant remember which.) Then off to go do Too Close to Call, back in the days when it was only a half hour long show. Then off the day after the election to the great city of Toronto, ON for the first time ever, and my first time on a train too. It is too bad that a lot of my blog here didn’t survive from that time.

    So yesterday… after doing some overtime and fighting with the Royal Bank, I went to Boston Pizza and had an appetizer of Thai chicken bites, Caesar Salad, Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti, glass of Keith’s, and Vanilla Bean Cake. Then I went to the theatre and seen “Maid of Honor.” I have to say it was a very good meal and very good movie (4 stars.)


  • And the holidays are done! or are they!

    So I haven’t had the opportunity to update this page in a while. It has been really busy lately.

    I spent many hours this past month working on the 12 Daytimes of Christmas on Rogers Television. The final two episodes are going to re-air on January 1-4th (11am, 4pm, and 10pm.)

    Also another note of something to watch was the locally shot “Sticks and Stones” 8pm AT Jan 1st on CTV.

    Now getting onto some of my movies, the pilot episode of the “Badger Hunter” is almost edited for it’s February release date. We are working on it’s website this weekend.

    On Boxing Day, I learned that the Toronto Film School is closing which now is gonna change my plans for a October move to Toronto. Tony and I have been looking now at the Toronto Film College but have not heard much about it, also Toronto apartment hunting seems like a daunting monster, even harder than the actual move.


  • The pics are up, the question of Life, and other stuff.

    Okay, to start off with I have posted the pics that were taken during my Toronto trip on my camera phone in my gallery https://cefm.ca/category/snapshots/ if you are reading this via RSS or Facebook) I still have some more that were taken with my Digital Camera.

    Remember the Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42.

    Crushed Beautifully 2 has now been storyboarded and my other video project, working title is “Remember…” has been rewitten and just needs some more casting. And than filming. I am hoping to get it submitted to a film festival by this fall.

    As for movies I have seen recently I have to make a three really good recomentations, in order of greatness is Oceans 13 (CEFM Rating: 4.5/5), Knocked Up (CEFM Rating: 5/5), and Pirates of the Carribean 3 (CEFM Rating: 5/5).

    I cannot wait until the Simpsons movie (CEFM Rating: 5/5) comes out and Licence to Wed (CEFM Rating: 3.5/5) with Robin Williams.


  • Toronto, Cabaret, and 25 other warm fuzzys.

    While it has been such a long time since an update so this one might be a little longer than normal. And the full blame of this goes to www.facebook.com and www.youtube.com I have spent most of my Internet time on those two sites. Some of you might be even reading this from the notes section on Facebook.

    Okay so let us start with Toronto, I took lots of pictures that I will add to my gallery soon, and some very interesting ones at that. The greatest story was the one where I was sitting in the Glenn Gould Studio in the CBC Broadcast Centre as the marble tile fell off of the 60th story of First Canadian Place it shook the ground and nobody really noticed that is Toronto for you. And I went to see the show at Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament  www.medievaltimes.comit was defiantly one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life something that I would for sure go see again, and the food was amazing. I’m not sure what the soup was but my mouth is watering just thinking of it.

    I also took a trip up the CN Tower again it was kinda boring I was not the same as my first time the highlight though was watching from the Sky-Pod a truck trying to make an imposable backup turn 142 stories below. But later that day I saw lightning hit it and it was cool wish I could of had a picture of that.

    Oh, and I stayed at the Days Hotel on Carlton again, I was really lucky since I had reservations in another hotel and they were sold out. I was very fortunate to be on the very first WestJet flight out of Saint John, even though I had to suffer the ear piercing horrors of a Bag-Pipe farewell WestJet is soooooo much better experience than I have has in the past with either VIA Rail or Air Canada.

    Cabaret

    This is one of the most culturally uplifting shows I have ever seen. The performers were amazing beyond belief. This was definitely the type of show that you could go back and see many many times. There are not many words that can describe the greatness and hard work put forward by the performances of all the actors, and musicians.

    25 other warm fuzzies

    25- May 9th was my 25th birthday, and by tradition, I spend most of it including dinner alone.
    24-My next movie is in the filming stage right now, some of it was even shot in Toronto.
    23-I’m still addicted to FaceBook.com
    22-Hi to the Goonz @ hiredgoonz.ca
    21-I went to Elwoods a few weeks ago and it was good.
    20-I went to O’Leary’s after Elwoods and at was still good.
    19-Gulping half a bottle of Jagermeister before Elwoods and having it come back up and re-swallowing it was “not” a good thing.
    18-Hitting the town with Tony was a good time.
    17-I need to meet-up soon with Tony to revise my script for another project.
    16-Walking against the crowd at Union Station at rush hour was not a good thing.
    15-Sunset at Nathan Phillips Square was breathtaking.
    14-Curry Chicken from the Bay will burn off all your taste-buds.
    13-Daytime is one of the Best TV Shows Ever.
    12-I’m tired so I guess you can use the comments to give me the rest of the fuzzies.
    11-I will write more I swear.


  • Toronto 2007
    ,

    Toronto 2007


  • Updates

    While the summer has been very busy for me. After finnishing up at Johnny’s Coupons I am looking for my next big endevour. My friend Tony and I decided that we are going to Toronto in a cuple of weeks which will be very cool.
    I’m going to spend some time over the next week or so updating alot of the design on this site. I’m adding a lot of new feature such as DHTML menus. And other new stuff, I am goind to also be redrafting alot of the content on the pages and adding some new writings that I have came across from my High School days. Also I may upload some of my University Papers.

    My design portfolio is going to be getting new stuff and I am fixing my photo gallery and uploading 200 Megs of pictures.
    L8R


  • Final 2 Days in TO

    OK, well the past two days have been quite interesting. On Friday I went to see the Casa Loma, Baldwin Steps, CBC Building, CHUM City and the Bata Shoe Museum. I never thought I would make it to the top of the Baldwin steps I have never seen so many steps in my LIFE!
    The CHUM Building was a pinnacle moment of the day. The CHUM City Store had more stuff than you can believe! It is 10 times the size of the CBC one. The coolest thing about the CHUM City building is the CityPulse24 Truck coming out the side of the building about 15 metres above the ground with the wheels spinning.

    Speaking of the CHUM building, Friday was one of the saddest days I had in Toronto since it was the Last day of Star Trek: Enterprise I was quite impressed with how the series ended it was quite upholding for Star Trek.

    Yesterday I went to see the Hockey Hall of Fame, It was quite impressive and much larger than I had expected. It was quite erie to see to see Bay Street on a Saturday last time I was there on Thursday at about noon I almost go run over by a wild stamped of people. On a Saturday at noon… Dead!

    After the Hockey Hall of Fame I was headed down Younge Street to Front Street to Union Station. Then as a crossed the street to Union Station there was several gentlemen standing on the corner yelling “Need a Ticket?” I walked by and after 15 seconds I turned around and asked him “Tickets for what?” and he was nice and explained that it was tickets for the Toronto Rock game at the Air Canada Centre (ACC). Knowing how much I love Lacrosse I started to run to the ACC. I bought tickets to the nose-bleed section for $25.75 and a Jersey for $199 + Tax and really enjoyed the game. I think a pro-Lacrosse team would do well in Saint John, much better then a Junior Hockey team.
    Following the lacrosse game I went to the Eaton Centre and bought a clip for my Cell Phone and had my hair cut and hi-lighted red. Then I took a walk down Younge St. for some window shopping.


  • Toronto

    Toronto


  • Toronto Zoo

    Toronto Zoo