Telus guessed wrong

I’ve had Telus Mobility since I moved to Toronto in 2006 and this is the first time they’ve got my birthday wrong. The funny thing is I can never take advantage of my free day of local calling because I’m never here on my birthday, I’m in another country.

Maybe I shouldn’t correct them, after all.

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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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BIXI in Montreal

I took this photo below right after I finished my first BIXI ride, having activated my key less than an hour earlier. I actually bought the Groupon a month ago for a year of BIXI membership ($47!), but didn’t activate the membership until last week to get the key, which arrived on Friday. I’ve been dragging my feet on purpose in order to start the membership as late as I could, when the weather turned foul. Well, today was another fine day outdoors, but what prompted me to ride home was because I left late, and it’s dark at 5 o’clock! Not just darker, but looks like 11pm!

Canadian National Exhibition

Since the bicycle is meant to be a form of taxi and the meter is running (you get half an hour free usage before it starts adding extra charges for time), I spent as little time as possible checking out the bike itself. This was a mistake, because BIXI bikes are a little different than regular bikes. For one thing, they’re heavy! You’ll want to know how to adjust the seat, change gears, (I still haven’t figure out how to ring the bell), and I ended up doing this in darkness downtown after I took off.

I don’t think jumping on a bike and taking off is advisable if you can’t actually remember the last time you rode a bike. I had a bike in Vancouver and sold it when I moved to the U.S. I’ve owned two bikes in Toronto but both were stolen before I could ride them for the first time. It sounds ridiculous but I rode the BIXI for a while in the wrong gear before I could figure out how to change it, and these bikes only have three gears. (If BIXI ever gets installed in Vancouver, they will need to add some gears!)

Not 10 seconds after I took off from the station before turning into the street, a guy at The Firm spotted me wobbling down the sidewalk and started laughing was politely amused at the sight. Note to self: pick a starting station further away from the office.

In the first five minutes of riding, I concluded that whoever designed the bike was smart enough to make the most uncomfortable bike seat known to mankind, because this will:

1. discourage anyone from stealing it
2. make the rider pedal faster to reach the destination
3. make any trip over half an hour highly undesirable

So there you have it. For every short BIXI trip, that is one less trip on the TTC.

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I got a free six-month subscription to Rdio.com when I bought my mobile phone a couple of months ago, and it’s been put to very good use on my long walks home. I’m thinking about actually buying a subscription when the free trial ends because I don’t feel a need to own music, I only want to listen to it. But how to get music on demand without having to dig around for it? I make playlists on YouTube, but that takes time and it would suck the battery life (not to mention the data usage) out of my phone far too quickly.

There’s a $5/month web version of the Rdio service that lets you listen from your computer and a $10/month computer+mobile version that lets you sync your playlists to your phone, and that’s what I use the most — the mobile sync. I’ve been using Rdio to listen to full albums since I got the phone on August 15, and what’s surprised me is how quick it is: I press play and there’s no waiting for the sync, it plays everything immediately. I choose to sync mostly with wi-fi if I need to, but even at the times I’m off wi-fi and on the network it’s synched very quickly.

Last week I was poking around other people’s playlists and got all nostalgic listening to someone else’s ’90s playlist and decided to make my own. Here it is, and you can subscribe to it if you’re already using Rdio (you can demo the service without a credit card, according to the website). Some of these songs I haven’t heard SINCE the ’90s (The Pharcyde! Faith No More! Snow?), but I have a story for every song in this list, including the one Queensryche track!

I came up with 38 so far, but I can add more — there’s a big catalogue to choose from. Have you got any suggestions for me?

1. Tennessee / Arrested Development – 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of…
2. Love Spreads / The Stone Roses – Second Coming
3. Gangsta’s Paradise /Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise
4. Low / Cracker – Kerosene Hat
5. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover / Sophie B. Hawkins – The Best Of Sophie B. Hawkins
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart / Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha
7. Groove Is In The Heart /Deee-Lite – The Very Best Of Deee-Lite
8. Laid / James – Laid
9. Your Woman / White Town – Women In Technology
10. Pony (Extended Mix) / Ginuwine – Greatest Hits
11. Informer / Snow – 12 Inches Of Snow
12. Say It Ain’t So / Weezer – Weezer
13. Sabotage / Beastie Boys – Ill Communication (Remastered Edition)
14. Get Ur Freak On / Missy Elliott – Miss E….So Addictive
15. Life In Mono / Möno – Great Expectations
16. One / Aimee Mann – Magnolia Soundtrack
17. Virtual Insanity / Jamiroquai – Travelling Without Moving
18. Hey / Pixies – Doolittle
19. Freedom! ’90 / George Michael – Listen Without Prejudice
20. Bitter Sweet Symphony / The Verve – Urban Hymns
21. Ice Ice Baby / Vanilla Ice – To The Extreme
22. Silent Lucidity / Queensryche – Power Ballads Gold
23. I Touch Myself / Divinyls – Divinyls
24. Hook / Blues Traveler – Four
25. Epic / Faith No More – The Real Thing
26. Insane In The Brain / Cypress Hill – Greatest Hits From The Bong
27. Passin’ Me By / The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II
28. No Diggity / Blackstreet – Another Level
29. Always On The Run / Lenny Kravitz – Greatest Hits
30. Are You Gonna Go My Way / Lenny Kravitz – Greatest Hits
31. Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon / Urge Overkill – Pulp Fiction
32. Song 2 / Blur – The Best Of
33. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) / Aerosmith – Big Ones
34. Cryin’ / Aerosmith – Big Ones
35. Breathe / The Prodigy – Fat Of The Land
36. Paranoid Android / Radiohead – The Best Of
37. Just / Radiohead – The Best Of
38. Connected / Stereo MC’s – Best Of Old Skool Hip Hop

The video is one of my favourite songs from the ’90s — “Hook” by Blues Traveler. There’s something about the harmonica and the guitars in this song that make me want to bounce around with a bunch of friends.

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hat not included (I got it in Portugal)

My new Moo cards arrived yesterday. Yes, I already have fancy Moo business cards, but I do like the QR code and I got these for free after setting up a profile at about.me — I only paid for shipping because I left the Moo branding intact. But people always ask where I got the cards, anyway, so I don’t mind. Also, as you can see, the branding is small. I plan to use these cards for casual purposes, since I meet new people all the time and they’re reluctant to deplete my stock of business cards. These cards have all the same information, but the QR code leads to my about.me profile and is more personal than professional.

The photo is from one of my Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome biplane rides over the Hudson River in upstate New York:

flying over the Hudson River in a 1925 New Standard biplane

In other news, if you saw a pink hunchback walking in a westerly direction from downtown in the rain this evening, that was me.

hunchback in pink plastic

“Pink?” you say? Yes, I decided to be more prepared than last week when I walked home wearing my rain jacket, which couldn’t cover both me AND my backpack so I was half-drenched. Today I was sporting one of these pink Breast Cancer Foundation tent-like things (I’m only tolerating the colour because it’s for charity!), which turned me into an oddly-shaped pink plastic blob with feet, but at least I had complete coverage, backpack and all, and drivers noticed me at the intersections!

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http://www.amazingpartystore.com

I was searching for a place to buy a Carnival of Venice mask for a dinner on Saturday, the very first one-of-a-kind-dinner I’ve been able to attend since the Avatar-themed dinner over a year and a half ago!

In my search for something I thought might be a little obscure, I discovered a whole SUPERSTORE full of all things Halloween and costumes:

http://www.amazingpartystore.com/

This place is a trip! It’s a warehouse crammed to the rafters with everything you can imagine for transforming yourself into pretty much anything else — zombie makeup, chain-mail suits, Dame Edna glasses, oversized clown boots, the Grim Reaper, you name it. I was only there for a mask, but I did a quick go-round the store to see what else they carried and it made my eyes pop.

As you can imagine practically everything is made in China, which makes me wonder if rubber masks will give people rashes and painted things contain lead. Caveat emptor, I guess — there’s a reason why this stuff is cheap!

The mask I did end up buying was pretty cheap, too ($15). I was going to show it here, but decided to hold off so it’s a surprise at the dinner, where I’ll take DSLR photos. If I had more time, I would’ve tried to make it myself and win the contest for best mask, but I’m forever short on time these days and I can live with buying a $15 mask. I’m more interested in tasting what Clint will come up with to go along with the Carnival of Venice theme!

http://www.amazingpartystore.com

More photos from the party store:

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I upgraded my mobile hardware to Samsung’s Galaxy S Fascinate today, switching OS to Android from Blackberry. (I also got a free Samsung Wi-Fi enabled digital camera with the phone, which will ship in the mail after I’ve had the phone for two weeks.)

In the short time I’ve been using the phone, I have to say I’m quite impressed — it’s lighter and faster than I’d expected, with lots of features. Surprisingly, one of my favourite things about it is the SWYPE keyboard input, which is quite accurate and faster than regular typing input.

I shot a little video, too, to check out its HD video capability and to see how it handles variable exposure.

A proper review to come, after more usage. Some sample images below, taken on the way home (witnessing a startling police arrest in the middle!).

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Long weekends are never long enough. Mine was too short, how was yours?

I’m working a LOT these days (my only constant is my afternoons at The Firm, everything else is at all hours), but I need to shift gears to prepare for two upcoming trips — this weekend in the U.S. for David’s birthday on May 30, when I aim to be up in the sky in small aircraft, and the trip to Portugal which is only a couple of short weeks away.

The photo above was taken in April 2004, in London, UK. Technology’s changed quite a lot in the past 7 years, but I still have that Canon photo printer, the first-generation CP-200. It still works! I packed that thing around France, Spain and printed off self-portraits taken with my Canon A80 point-and-shoot with the swivel screen. I loved that Canon A80, but I accidentally drowned it in 2007 with a leaky water bottle in my bag and it wouldn’t turn on anymore. The CP-200 has been all over Europe since I bought it in the autumn of 2003 to use for my bosses’ retirement party. Takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.

I now have two more Canon printers, the CP-800, for weddings and events. Between the CP-200 and CP-800, printing speed has been cut in half, to 85 seconds. Thankfully Canon’s still making the paper and sublimination-dye cartridges for it. Eight years after I first started using Canon’s portable printers, they’re still a hit at events. Like Polaroids, but better since there are digital files.

Then there’s the “bear claw” iPod, a gift in 2004 from my boss. (The iPod above is borrowed, I got mine two months after this photo.) I still have it, and it still works, although I lost the car adapter for it so it doesn’t live in the car anymore. The same boss gifted me with the first-generation iPod Touch just before the trip to Morocco in 2007 (although he wasn’t my boss anymore), and I still use it all the time, four years later. It’s a pretty handy travel companion. Like with anything aging, it’s slower than the newest model and battery life isn’t as good but it still gets the job done.

When I took this photo I was five months away from buying my first Mac, the 17″ PowerBook G4, which is very well travelled now. I replaced the hard drive and it has more RAM, but — you guessed it — it still works. It’s large and heavy, but I still travel with it on most trips and I use it at weddings to back up my memory cards and preview the day’s shots. My workhorse at home is the 20″ iMac from 2009, hooked up to four external drives.

Excluding the laptop, the major update to the photo above isn’t so much newer devices but the addition of camera equipment, which is more weight than everything else combined! And can someone please invent a universal device that powers up everything and doesn’t require propriety chargers? I have different chargers for the laptop, camera battery, flash batteries, and mobile phone, and I have to pack them all.

When I travel the tech devices get pretty heavy after a while and I’d love to go lighter, but I can’t justify running out to replace them with newer models simply because I want faster and lighter. I know plenty of gadget collectors (unsurprisingly, all guys), but I wouldn’t really put myself in that group. I use all my technology devices to the fullest capacity and let them retire when they’re no longer of any use. Until then, I’ll still pack as light as I can to make space for the equipment and remain the Geeky Traveller.

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… and goodbye $157. According to my records — i.e., the car manual binder which has all my maintenance receipts — I bought the unrevivable battery on December 23, 2008, from the place where I used to get my oil changed in midtown. I doubt there was a 3-year replacement warranty on it, but if there were, I’d still have to get the car up to midtown to replace it. I tried calling and there was no answer, so in the end I decided to replace it with a battery from CAA, which has a 6-year warranty and a 3-year free replacement warranty. These are the people I would have to call for roadside assistance, anyway, and it was cheaper than the previous battery.

Hopefully it will be more than four months before my next call to CAA. *rushes off to find some wood to knock*

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For someone who doesn’t own many pairs of shoes, I sure do like to photograph them. I just happened to notice these bunched together in my Flickr photostream, uploaded from the past two weddings. Actually, one of my most actively-read posts is about Beth’s red wedding shoes. There are people clicking back to this post for over a year, waiting for a tip on where to buy them!

My friend Eliza has a shoe collection that rivals the cost of an average Canadian wedding (five figures), and if that doesn’t sound crazy enough, I chose the colours for my own wedding based on one pair of her shoes. It sounds like complete madness to elevate the status of shoes to eye level (or at least pocketbook level), but if there is just one thing I’ve learned from Eliza it is to appreciate the art form that is a fine pair of shoes.

For some people it goes beyond art. I remember when I was living in Banff, a woman I worked with at the ski resort used it as a measuring tool. (And no, I’m not talking about using the size of his feet to gauge his privates, if your mind wandered there. Ahem!) She always paid close attention to a man’s shoes, explaining that a man who doesn’t care about his shoes doesn’t care about his feet, and he probably wouldn’t care about hygiene or his dating partner, either. And inversely, the better the shoes = the better the man.

Personally, I remember thinking that this sounded like a big stretch, but I was 18 years old and didn’t have enough life experience to challenge her hypothesis. We would watch men walk by and she would give me her shoe/character/personality assessment but there was no way to test it at the time that was remotely discreet or without embarrassment. It was an interesting idea, but when I try and think back on the last 20 years of dating/marriage to see if she was right or not, I completely draw a blank on their shoes…

Not to mention, if the tables were turned and they looked at MY shoes, according to this theory nobody would ever ask me out!

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