30 Dec 2009 Poll: Who Should Pay On The First Date?
 |  Category: Memes, Polls, Quizzes, Music, Singleton Life, Videoclips  | Tags: ,  | 14 Comments

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Last night I got into a rather heated debate with a friend about who pays for dinner on the first date. I will hold off on stating our opinions so as not to influence this poll in any way (until later!), but I think my close(r) friends would easily be able to guess what I said…

Anyway, my friend are I were completely divided over who should pay for the first date, so I put forth the question to people at work today… the selection zone was anyone who walked near the printer closest to me, haha! The dating question started another debate but I don’t think I’ll be polling THAT one… besides, most of the people I work with have been married or in a relationship so long they’ve totally forgotten who paid what and when.

Since this is a hypothetical situation, let’s assume a few things so it’s easier to answer (or not, we’ll see):

  1. It’s a date between a man and a woman (it was a gender debate, sorry to exclude anyone) who are romantic interests
  2. The date was arranged mutually, there was no official “date asker” or discussion about the tab/bill
  3. This is a FIRST date, with no discussion of a second date
  4. This is a blind date, i.e., first meeting for both people
  5. Both people are currently employed
  6. It’s a dinner date, but not fancier than business casual

I’ve answered similar polls, and there are a bunch I could link to, but I want to hear your answers first. I’ve randomized the possible choices to avoid bias, and I’m leaving this poll open for 30 days. I’m really curious about this one! Feel free to write a comment — the poll is anonymous, anyway. Most people just vote.

(By the way, the photo wasn’t from a date, it was just a random sushi meal with a friend. Mobile phone pic from 2006.)

Video for today: ABBA’s “Money Money Money”. This first video makes me laugh, but then I saw the official one from 1976 and I had to paste that one in, too!

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29 Dec 2009 Nifty Fifty Bokeh
 |  Category: Music, Photography, Videoclips  | Leave a Comment

Brookfield Place bokeh

OK, so not all of these photos have bokeh, but many of them do…

Brookfield Place bokeh

These first shots were taken this evening at Brookfield Place, where I had dinner with a friend at Richtree, interrupting possibly the longest stretch (in recent memory) of cooking at home. In fact, I just checked, and the last time I had a restaurant meal was November 28, so it’s been an entire month. Wow. I’m feeling quite proud of myself for lasting that long! And I spent less than $20! But I also broke my no-retail-except-grocery vow, which isn’t entirely the case since Richtree is also a market, not just a restaurant…

Anyway, back to the photos. I’ve decided to take my camera to work with me every day this week, which means tomorrow and Thursday, to see what I come up with. Here’s the rest of today’s, shot late in the evening:

Brookfield Place

This one is probably my favourite, I like the symmetry of the bokeh circles on one side and the circle tiles on the other:

Union Station

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28 Dec 2009 Edwin Avenue
 |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Urban Life, Videoclips  | 2 Comments

it had to be done...

I’ve been living in Toronto’s west end for two and a half years, and I pass by this sign from time to time. Finally, FINALLY, today I took a photo of it from the beginning of the street, which is short — just like me.

I had a couple of errands to run at midday, the last of my five days off, and I brought my camera along with the low-profile lens, the thrifty fifty (also known as the “nifty fifty”). I took some shots around the Queen Street East area before heading north to the vet on Eglinton Street to stock up on the expensive low-protein cat chow that keeps the beasties healthy. The bits of white in the photos is snow, but there isn’t much of it and nothing is sticking, which makes Toronto snowless this winter as of December 28. Such a far cry from last year, and even the year before. No complaints from the House of Fielding!

No photo viewer this time, I’m going to paste in all the photos one by one…

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27 Dec 2009 Red+Green Food This Week
 |  Category: Food + Drink, Videoclips, Working Life  | Tags: ,  | Leave a Comment

Everything I've eaten this week has been red and green. Coincidence?

Coincidence?

edamame

sushi pizza

It pays to be a sushi restaurant’s webmaster. I was only there this afternoon to collect the hosting fees, and they said they would make whatever I wanted… so I went home with sushi pizza, miso soup, and edamame. Yum! Technically, walking into a sushi place was breaking my vow of no retail except grocery until 2010, and it was hard not to order anything because it all smelled and looked so good and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. But I restrained myself, and after they paid me they asked the magic question — “What would you like to have?” — and handed me the menu. Patience wins again!

Video for today: The Muppet’s Swedish Chef and a chicken

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26 Dec 2009 Boxing Day

fancy footwear deserves a fancy box

Hey hey, it’s Boxing Day and I have kept to my word and have yet to step foot in a shop. It probably helps that most shops are closed the past day or two, but Boxing Day is Sale Day in Canada, much the same way Black Friday works in the USA: consumer chaos. I don’t think I’ve bought anything on Boxing Day, ever, and I plan to keep it that way.

In other news, I’ve been busy creating things and wrangling code. As always, it’s a work in progress but I’ve set up another photography site using a photo application for the web called Pixelpost. One reason why I wanted to try this is because it’s specifically for showing photos — the code is light, and the templates are created with photos in mind rather than text. Anyhow, take a look:

ImageNation : imagination with images

I didn’t come up with the name “ImageNation” until after I created the first incarnation of the gallery page. I didn’t know what to call it, and I didn’t want to use my name since it’s already the domain. Somehow I came up with this, not with the idea of registering it or anything, but just to give it a name. I like the word imagination and I wanted to base it on image. Tonight I put the name in Google to see what was out there and I see there are lots of sites using the name already, so it’s a good thing I didn’t bother to see if the domain was free. I kept the folder name as “gallery” with the idea of changing the site name if I can up with a better moniker. Kind of like calling a baby-in-utero Junior until it’s born

I’m still populating the photo gallery, but at least it’s up and running. I’ve also made changes to my other sites, but not major ones just yet.

I’ve also created a home page for gailedwinfielding.com that acts as a portal/listing for the other sites I have: http://gailedwinfielding.com

I used iWeb to build that page, which was my second time to use it, the first time was to build the Santa Comes To Bay Street pages. iWeb comes bundled with iLife which came with my iMac, and my first impression was that it was too basic to be more useful than the other software I’m using for building webpages. I thought I would only use it for the occasional event, but after building three pages I must admit that being able to drag-and-drop and push page elements around rather than mess with CSS files is very useful, indeed. After all, I do that enough with my other sites, so this is a welcome break.

I’ve had a Very Geeky Christmas. Three days at home and I had to have something to show for it!

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25 Dec 2009 Snowball Fight!
 |  Category: Videoclips  | One Comment
Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!
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24 Dec 2009 The House Of Fielding, Holiday-Style 2009

That’s right, fuzzy slippers and snowflake pyjamas.

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Xena

For the first time in a very long time, with the exception of 2005 (David’s memorial was Dec 28), I made the decision to not be ‘at large’ over the Christmas holidays and work through it instead. Yesterday I made a list of work-related projects I intend to finish with a total of eight days to complete them. I used up all my vacation days at The Firm by mid-September, but I was given today off and I have three days in the office next week, then a three-day weekend before returning on January 4.

Looking at my project list, eight days off doesn’t seem like a whole lot. There are some rather BIG items on that list. I’m still sticking to my goal of avoiding retail — the only place I’ve spent money is at the grocery store. With staying put this year and no travel, I have also avoided the stress of travelling in storms and bad weather which have hit the eastern U.S. Helma and I had plans to eat a lot and visit The Alpine restaurant again for sausages and bad wurst jokes, but alas, we’ll have to save it for after the Big Thaw. For those who have entry to the “Speechless” post, Christmas Plan A got the kibosh, and so did Plan B and C for a host of other reasons.

As a result, the House of Fielding has decided to work through a daunting Project List and kick back with slippers and purring cats. I may get out for a photo or two or three as well. I’m trying not to think about all the travel I’m not doing, and work towards funding the travel I plan to do in 2010. It will be far less than previous years but the one trip I’m not giving up is my annual birthday trip. Although travel will always be my #1 interest and photography is my 2nd, I’m committed to the years it will take me to get the photography business to where I’d like it to be. I’m far from being a workaholic, but the reality of small business and being a one-person show is that you have to invest time and money before you can reap the rewards. For someone who loves to travel as much as I do this is a big sacrifice, but I believe it will pay off in the end.

I finished work early yesterday and watched “Finding Neverland” before falling fast asleep in the middle of the movie. Last night was all strange dreams with Johnny Depp! Which got me thinking, if I watch a Gerard Butler movie, will I dream of Gerard Butler???

Beano begging again

The House of Fielding wishes you a safe and merry season of merry-making and holiday-style eating with your loved ones!

Video for today: Merry Christmas Mr. Bean (pt 1 of 3)

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22 Dec 2009 Santa Mob
 |  Category: Linkage, Music, Other Photogs, Videoclips  | 3 Comments

Santa Mob
Santa Mob by NV6V

The Anti-Santa, as it were. The monochrome Santa isn’t a Photoshop trick, she’s actually dressed like this with face paint. If you look closely at her neck, you can see where some rubbed off.

Heard of Santarchy? Or Santacon? There have been scores of Santa Mobs around the Christmas-loving world, even here in Toronto. This was shot in San Francisco, where people love getting dressed up in costumes or running naked, whether there’s an event or not.

Music for today: 1984′s Band-Aid singing “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” — can you believe it’s been 25 years since this song was made?!? Between the USA (USA For Africa/”We Are The World”), Canada (Northern Lights/”Tears Are Not Enough”), and the UK’s efforts in the category of cheesy-and-awkward celebrity musicians video to benefit victims of the Ethiopia famine, my favourite was Band Aid due to my longstanding British New Wave junkie phase. I must’ve watched that video at least a hundred times just to fawn over the members of Duran Duran.

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21 Dec 2009 Sweets Get Sweeter The Further They Travel

sweets from Germany

Marzipan and other goodies arrived from Germany today! Yay!

sweets from Germany

And for the hardcore chocoholic: Smarties inside chocolate.

sweets from Germany

The Santa didn’t quite make it intact, but no Smarties got away…

caffeine molecule

And from Vancouver, a very geeky — and thus fitting — item which will get a lot of use at the House of Fielding, where cats knock over mugs which is hazardous to expensive electronics.

Music for today: another oldie but goodie, Crowded House’s “Chocolate Cake”

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20 Dec 2009 Sunday Brunch + Games
 |  Category: Friends, Music, Out + About, Videoclips  | Leave a Comment

GEF_1454

My agenda for this weekend was to make it work-free and shopping-free, both of which I can say I accomplished now that Sunday is nearly over. I’ve been working and volunteering every weekend for what seems like FOREVER, though it was actually only November when I went to New York City and Ottawa, and I was working while I was in Ottawa. I needed a break very, very badly. The shopping-free part is a two-fold objective: to not spend money, and AVOID STORES the weekend before Christmas. My major goal for the holidays is not to set foot in a store for the rest of the year unless it’s a grocer. I have 11 days left, let’s see how that goes…

As for this weekend, I just wanted to sleep in and stay in my pyjamas all day as a respite from the weeks of sleep deprivation. That was Saturday, I woke up at 1:30 in the afternoon. Today I wanted to sleep in even more but I committed myself to a holiday brunch at Natalia’s. On Saturday I had no idea what I could bring for brunch that didn’t involve a store (I’m not even that keen on grocery stores these days, everyone’s cooking and baking up a storm), but I found some falafel mix and fried it up. Doesn’t sound very brunch-like, does it? But really, brunch can be anything, in my book. And I came home with an empty container so it’s all good.

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We also played a modified version of a game called Outburst that involves a list of categories, a die with the alphabet on it (I think it excludes X and maybe some other tough letters), and letting everyone yell out a word/s that belong in those categories once the letter die is rolled. English isn’t the first language for many people in the room, which you might think is a disadvantage, but Farhad smoked everyone at this game, and he’s an expat. It’s as if he has a high-speed index engine in his head for all the English words he knows. For the rest of us, Sunday is meant to be a lazy day — a mentally lazy day!

Photos can be viewed as [thumbnails] or a [slideshow] or in the Pictobrowser below:

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