Haliburton cottage trip

… or maybe I shouldn’t speak so soon, since we may very well get it. Did I just jinx us?

This photo is from the Christmas cottage trip to the Haliburton region at the end of 2008. This looks more like the weather we get the end of January around here than what we have now, but I’m not complaining! This is just fine. I’ve been wearing rubber boots to walk home more often than not because of the mud. It’s not even winter slushy, it’s just muck. But I’ll take it — I don’t have to shovel it or scrape it off my car.

Today was even warm enough that I could do some car maintenance without freezing my fingers off. I was supposed to volunteer for The Brides’ Project at the National Bridal Show this afternoon but they had enough volunteers, so I took the opportunity of daylight to replace my headlight that had blown out last night when the roads suddenly became icy. (Last night was a MESS — cars sliding everywhere, buses couldn’t make it up hills, and there were some people at the Chinese New Year party who were stuck in traffic because vehicles had skidded and blocked entire lanes.)

I noticed it just north of Bloor: I was a few hundred metres past the intersection when I tried to brake at a crosswalk and my car kept sliding. I was going slow enough that I didn’t rear-end the taxi in front of me, and luckily there was an empty lane beside me, so I just turned the wheel to slide over to the next lane and came to a slow stop. Others weren’t so lucky; there were cars all over the place.

Anyway, I replaced the headlight bulb, the windshield wipers, and put in winter windshield fluid (Rain-X, because we seem to be getting more rain than snow these days). If this were a regular winter, I would’ve had to tackle those things one item at a time and duck into my car in between to get the feeling back in my fingers.

I wonder what February will be like?

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King Street West

I draw some curiosity on the street when I use my camera phone to take pictures. I do this often walking home and people stop and try to figure out what I’m taking photos of, if it’s something picture-worthy. What might not be readily apparent to a stranger is that it takes very little to draw me in for a photo. However, I am always delighted when someone asks me why I’m taking a photo because it gives me the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for the tiny (and free) things in life that give me pleasure, eg. nightlights, the inherent freedom in walking and the freedom to discover while walking.

King Street West

I am a detail-oriented person by nature, but noticing things can be practiced as well. Walking 28kms a week will make you notice things every day, especially if the route and weather changes often, and there’s a picture-taking device in your hand. It really does not matter what that device is — it can be your phone, a point-and-shoot, or a DSLR.

King Street West

Trails of light can provide infinite photographic possibilities if you can hold very still — a real challenge in stiff wind. A light reflected in a puddle suddenly becomes interesting.

King Street West

You experience so much more as a pedestrian than a driver. When you’re driving, distraction can be dangerous. Aside from intersections, pedestrians can be happily distracted and not endanger themselves.

King Street West

I drive recreationally and to photo shoots, but there is no routine. If I had to commute by car every day, I think I would go bonkers. I’ll pay more to live in the city just so I can get to places on foot and not turn into a Point A-to-B-to-A automaton in a car.

King Street West

Public transit is never perfect, but I’m all for improving the transit system as much we spend on improving roads.

King Street West

King Street West

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I walked home in rubber boots again today, waiting for a snowfall that didn’t happen — or hasn’t happened yet, since it’s just a matter of time before we get another one. The weather has been rather wonky the last few days, swinging from frigid on Sunday to practically balmy yesterday (balmy meaning having to ditch the scarf and gloves but not quite the coat). Today was blustery but a rain jacket got me home, not a winter coat. But enough weather talk…

I took King Street home to drop off a roll of film to get developed at Toronto Image Works and prepaid it (ouch, the scanning doubled the price), thinking about the cost of photography in general and how far the cameras in mobile phones have come since their early days. There was once a time when people bought mobile phones and the cameras were merely an afterthought, a negligible value-add. These days, I think many people are buying iPhones for the built-in cameras and the apps made for them.

It sounds ridiculous, but of all the iPhone users you know, how many people actually use it to make phone calls? Now, how many people use it to take photos? I’d say more photos are made than phone calls. But probably the same can be said for Android and Windows phones.

And here I am to prove that point. After I dropped off the film, smarting from the thought that I just prepaid for 24 photos I haven’t even seen yet (pre-digital, this statement would sound absurdly obvious), I took photos in low light with my phone to see how it would perform. The first photo of the CN Tower was pushing the capability of the device, but the two below are quite decent.

The Fake Polaroid effect was applied in Picasa, which I have not used for nearly eight (!) years when I switched from PC to Mac. You may recall that in 2004, Picasa was only available on Windows.

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Ouzeri on the Danforth

A board meeting with flaming saganaki and octopus tentatacles, yum. I was too slow with the video to capture the flaming saganaki, but funnily enough, the last time I had saganaki and tentacles was at this very restaurant (Ouzeri, 500 Danforth) way back in 2006 with friends from Vancouver, one of whom is Greek and familiar with the Greek fare on the Danforth. I’d dig up the link, but I still have no internet, thanks to a DHCP problem with Rogers which is filtering down to us TekSavvy customers reliant on Rogers’ network. Can you say ARGH?? [Troubleshooting and persistence at 1:30am did the trick.]

No time for a lengthy consumer gripe, though, I have three shoots in three days, beginning tomorrow morning at 9am at The Beaches. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are all looking rather busy, but if I don’t have internet I won’t be able to show you much! at least now the web backlog has stopped growing.

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Parade on Church Street, with finger. (Mobile phone makers should really put that camera a little bit further away from the edge.)

I’m sure this has something to do with Remembrance Day, but I still haven’t found anything online about it. The only reason *I* know about it is because this is what I landed in the middle of while trying to park for brunch downtown. This was directly after detouring all around the neighbourhoods east of Chinatown after getting rerouted off Dundas Street West, which was cordoned off by police near Toronto Western Hospital at Bathurst Street. All I could see were ambulances and police cars.

Ah, urban living.

If I didn’t live in a metropolitan area of 6 million people, I would be tempted to think this was some sort of anti-brunch conspiracy. The incidents amounted to a 20 minute delay for coffee and Eggs Benedict, but I didn’t commit any traffic violations and I got a free parking spot so ‘net net’ it all worked out in the end.

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it's a gourd-eat-gourd world

I can’t believe it’s already halfway through October. I still haven’t taken a day off since Labour Day Weekend because apparently Labour Day Weekend meant I would be labouring every weekend to follow.

But don’t cry for me, Argentina, it’s my own doing, I fully admit that. No-one’s holding a Work Gun to my head, and this editing madness is seasonal. I just have to get through it. To help in this regard, I have lined up activities this weekend that aren’t work-related to balance out the work-related activity. Bring it on!

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Dufferin Bridge

What was I thinking, walking home in this mess yesterday without my rain jacket and only a flimsy umbrella that didn’t work against wind? When I arrived home, I had to crank up the radiator and dry my all my clothes, shoes, and the contents of my backpack in the hallway overnight. Today I found a pocket of papers I hadn’t emptied and dried them out on my desk, just in case I need any of them.

Can’t complain, though, I’ve been walking home since June 29 and this is maybe the third time it’s rained on a weekday since then, not counting the occasional light drizzle. It wasn’t cold.

Dufferin Bridge

I chose to take the route by the Terry Fox Memorial along Fort York Boulevard, so I could see if the painted maple leaves on the ground are surrounded by real leaves yet. Yes, they are!

life imitating art imitating life

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The days just keep getting shorter and shorter, and I seem to be too busy this week to walk home every day. I’m going to have kick into another exercise plan sooner than I thought.

Meanwhile, even though I’ve got thousands of high-grade photos to wade through on my hard drive, I’m choosing to post these low-grade ones from my phone because I love sunsets. They never get old.

(Man, is my windshield dirty!)

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After Work Is Guinness Time

Thank God It’s Nearly Friday. Let’s celebrate with an apple pecan tart!

apple pecan tart

I had a wonderful evening, but I can barely string a sentence together, I’m that tired. I’m even too tired to play with my new Samsung Wi-Fi camera that just arrived (as part of the deal with my Samsung Galaxy S phone) — I barely had enough energy to turn it on. In a few hours I’ll be heading back to The Firm for one last early installment, hopefully by then I’ll get my Second Wind, then it’s off to Chicago! HOO-RAY! I even get to sleep in the car while my friend drives. I’m taking advantage of this Labour Day Weekend, that’s for certain. My next free weekend without a wedding is the middle of October!

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on the Bathurst Street Bridge

With all the stuff that I carry back and forth from my house to The Firm in my backpack, I’m bound to forget something — one day it’s shoes, the next week it’s socks, another day it’s headphones, but the one thing that drives me bananas is when I take out the point-and-shoot and there’s no card! Argh!

And is this not the most 21st-century statement? “I forgot my memory card!”

20 years ago if I said I’d left my memory card back in the reader, I’d be met with blank stares. This digital world we live in now has a whole new language. But think of how absurd it is to say one forgot a memory card, anyway — wouldn’t it stand to reason that a card of memory won’t let you forget it in the first place???

I think I need some sleep.

I’m hitting the road again in the early hours (if I can wake up, that is), but I leave you with a poor little raccoon getting blinded by my phone’s lame flash as it climbs a tree in front of my house to escape from me.

alien raccoon!

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