* rant alert *
I have opined time and time again that U.S. border guards (at both airport and land points of entry) are ill-informed, inconsistent, and have far too much discretionary power.
Here’s another example of what I’m talking about:
U.S. border guards bar skilled Canadian from his job - CBC, March 31, 2008
Technician says increased [...]

(Disclaimer: at first this might seem like a tech industry post that might put you to sleep, but it’s not really about technology.)
I’m a little slow sometimes. I attended the Flickr Turns 4 birthday party in San Francisco one week ago, and I just realised something out about it today.
Last Saturday Kevin and I had [...]

One thing that can drive me crazy about the internet is how people tend to lambaste, more than they probably would in person. It hasn’t been a major problem on this website — I am proud to say I have deleted only one comment since I began writing online five years ago in July 2002 [...]

Someone asked me recently why I don’t watch TV. I have all sorts of answers to that question, but my first answer is usually that I would have to do a lot more digging to find something worthwhile compared to, say, the internet*.
Take journalism, for example.

I was reading an update on the trial of Elizabeth [...]

July 4, 2005 — seen while driving with David on the QEW
Last month I made a rather cryptic reference to December 12 as the day after which I could tell the sorry tale of what happened on my drive back to Toronto in early October. Basically, I received two moving violations in New York State [...]

I booked an appointment with an optometrist last Wednesday for my annual full-on eye exam, complete with retina photos, glaucoma testing, and dilated pupils. From checking in to checking out, the whole procedure took over an hour, to the tune of about $100.
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 9 (?), and contact lenses since [...]

As seen on a Mustang Ferrari on University Ave.
Gah, I’m so frustrated. I wasted an entire evening on car maintenance that mostly didn’t happen. Just getting spark plugs from the Ford dealership reminded me of when I went to them to complete the car importation back in the spring and they were complete jerks. I’m [...]

Inconvenient: Canadian banks will hold a U.S. dollar cheque issued by a U.S. bank for up to 30 days before clearing it.
Ludicrous: American banks won’t accept a U.S. dollar cheque/check issued by a Canadian bank, fullstop. Or any bank in the world outside the U.S., for that matter.
I have a U.S. dollar bank account. I [...]

Seeing as I haven’t written out the moving saga of last weekend, it seems a little premature to post a postscript. But I wanted to erase this phone message off my voicemail system, and it was irking me beyond all belief that I should delete it without making it public.
This message was sent at — [...]

I’m sitting in a wi-fi coffee shop, utterly convinced I have inadvertently hired the worst movers ever in the GTA. I’ve been offline as I’ve been packing up the apartment (AGAIN), and in the wee hours moved Hugh and some things to tide me over while my stuff is stored held captive in the back [...]