Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
I'm going to spend the weekend with Anne's mom, Barbara. I'll meet her down in Buffalo, and we'll do the Canadian side of Niagara Falls on Saturday. Saturday night we'll drive up to Toronto and I'll show her around town. Sunday we'll return to Niagara-on-the-Lake and then I'll return her to her car that evening so she can drive home.
Looking forward to seeing the wilder side of Niagara Falls, as well as the more spectacular vistas from the Canadian side.
That and being able to shop at the Duty Free three or four times!
Check out this editorial in The Globe and Mail today. It's hilarious. Someone in San Antonio, TX accidentally cooked a revolver with Jiffy-pop results. Film at 11.
I'm missing Texas already. What's the emoticon for sarcasm?
I'm entering this on a pay-as-you go Internet terminal at D/FW airport, so it's painful and expensive.
AA won't let you check in electronically so I had to wait in a long line. Security made me take my shoes off. And AA changed the gate from A26 to A18 as I am entering this, so I gotta boggie to the other side of Terminal A.
Modern airtravel is so ... antiquanted.
I'll follow up when I get back to the RI.
No, I didn't wreck the car. But when a full sized Yukon pulls out in front of you when you're going 45 and your brakes aren't fabulous ... you get a spike in adrenline. The drive from Allen to home this evening after visiting my friendly make-you-wait-an-hour doctor was an ugly reminder of why I really, really like my Residence Inn commute.
No cars.
No traffic.
No gridlock.
To quote Bob Marly, "No SUV, no crime."
I'm back in Dallas (well, McKinney) for the long weekend. YEEEEE HA!
Many profuse thanks to Melanie (and Andrew Dillingham) for getting me home via Fry's Electronics and Segal's fine wine and spirits. When we left D/FW, Melanie and I should have put on shades and said (to each other):
It's 50 miles to McKinney. We've got to get past Fry's, booze and Benihana's to get there. We're on a mission to Anne ... let's go!"
Essentially all I brought home was myself and lots of gifts:
For Leo
The main thing I noticed over my absence is how much my wife misses me. You know ... misses me. Ahem. I'm so glad we booked a doctor's visit for Friday afternoon ... I'll need it! (I hear the nanotech violin symphony orchestra tuning up as I type this).
I'm not looking forward to travelling home sick, but it is starting to look like there's no getting over what appears to a bought of bronchitis before I fly tomorrow. If only I had gone home last weekend (sigh) when I was not sick. Anne even booked a doctor's appointment for me on this coming Friday. TANJ!
Anyone remember this gem?
Props to Bill C (Bosney) for preserving my rendering of Opus from 1984 when I was in Geneva with an original Mac. Here is the Macintosh I used at Petroconsultants:
Ironically, Opus is back in the papers, and I'm in a foreign country again. This time, however, I don't have to use Telex, snail mail or dreadfully expensive overseas long distance to communicate -- I have the weblog, AIM and five cents/minute phone cards. Likewise, my current computer is 150 times faster and has 675,000 times more disc storage and 4,000 times more core memory which runs 8,333 times faster than the Macintosh 128K. And yet it still takes five minutes to boot to a graphic screen with a mouse. Ah ... progress.
No, the contract is not over! I'm just making my first visit home on Thursday.
I have an American Airlines flight (1203) arriving at 6:10p at D/FW on Thursday (3-28). I'll hitch a ride home and will be in town until Sunday evening, when I take the 7:30p flight back to Toronto.
I won't have a car, so I won't get around all the much. If you want to see me, you'll have to come to McKinney (for once ;-} ).
Anne has asked me what I'll blog while in Dallas. The easy answer is "nothing" since this blog is about Toronto. The harder answer (pun intended) is ... this is a PG blog so anything that happens in Dallas (repeat with me) Stays in Dallas!
But yeah, ducks will be pressed. It'll get squelchy. Hope I can avoid the "sock gap"! You get the picture.
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Wacky Packages are coming back! Anyone in my generation will remember the stickers featuring gross and disgusting parodies of popular household products from the late '60s and early '70s. These were the treasured collectables of many a boy in that era. Ironically, the sample given on the Topps page is all too apropriate for me! |
I stopped at the Texas Lone Star Grill tonite on a seemingly endless search for a floor fan for my cubicle (a long story for another weblog entry). When I was approached by the host, I showed him my Texas drivers license (like I did at the TLSG downtown) and to my surprise, he immediately pulled the PA mic to his face and told everyone in the restaurant there was a "real Texan" here tonite. I was grinning ear-to-ear.
The food wasn't bad ... the salsa was a bit weak as it was mostly tomato, but given my tummy troubles, that's not a bad thing. I had the 1/4 lb. chicken fajitas. Verdict: not bad. Not bad at all.
They have one of those huge floppy Texas hats which they put on birthday party victims. I asked my waiter why they didn't make me wear it during my entire meal :-).
Apparently this chain was started in the mid 80's by a displaced Texan named Val Belcher from Houston, so it's got more than a passing glance of authenticity. The waitstaff said that Val was still a Texan with a thick drawl even after living in Canada for nearly thirty years. Somehow this doesn't surprise me at all. Val is famous for ... wait for it ... the "Belcher Burger". Say no more. Say no more.
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I just read the historical website for Rye Brook, NY (where LunaCon was held) and discovered that nestled in the heart of some of the wealthest and oldest settled land in the United States (Westchester County), Rye Brook was founded in 1982. That's after I showed up in New York and started attending RPI! I'm dumbfounded. Go read the history and see for yourself. |
One of the coolest things at LunaCon 2004 was Thomas Farrell's Moog Etherwave Theremin.
Left to right: LunaCon Writer GOH Storm Constantine and Thomas Farrell.
Thomas is a theremin aficionado who brought his instrument to the Rye Brook Hilton and set it up in the entrance lobby of the main ballroom. He let anyone who was interested "play" the instrument. Some folks were quite adept at producing interesting sounds, but many (myself included) were not very artistic in what we got out of it. Still, it's the first time I've seen one live and certainly the first one I've tried to play.
For those who don't know, the Theremin is an early analog electronic instrument used by Hollywood in the 50's to create the eerie sounds (with lots of vibrato) in early science-fiction and horror films (the best example being The Day the Earth Stood Still) and the Beach Boy's Good Vibrations.
One of the panels I sat in was titled The Year In Computing. Obstensibly it was about milestones in computers this year, but with Eric Raymond on the panel, it turned into The Year in Linux. The last time I saw Raymond was at The Millennium PhilCon at a room party. He was blotto at the time, surly and looked awful. At this panel, he was relatively cleaned up and quite lucid.
Eric is on the left, and Seth Breidbart is on the right.
Towards the end of the Linux pep rally, I asked Eric if he had anything to say about "those three dirty letters: S - C and O." I expected a rant, at the very least. He surprised me by speaking calmly and at length about the latest revelations behind Microsoft's efforts to fund SCO's lawsuit (the Halloween 10 memo, he called it). It was a great panel.
On the way back from LunaCon 2004 I drove over the Tappan Zee bridge and back in time -- I mean -- back into Nyack.
I pulled off I-87 at the first exit, which is for Nyack but also for Rt. 9. In fact, you pass through this Klein bottle of an exit ramp and can even reenter I-87 heading north (the same direction you were going when you exited) if you choose. I chose Nyack instead. As soon as I was heading down Franklin St., I saw something I knew I had to share with Anne:
This elephant sculpture was easily 1:2 scale and just sitting on the sidewalk, daring anyone to cart it off. Maybe if I had the RocketBox ... nah.
Of course, no trip through Nyack is complete without a look at "where it all began" for Anne and I.
But for this place, there'd be no Alanna or Leo. Scary!
I took a photo of the "Reliable Meats" butcher, but it's hard to read the sign and since that's the entire joke, I'll skip it!
After leaving LunaCon I stopped at the home of Stephen and Sue Gerard (Anne's younger brother and his wife), and saw my nephew Ben (their youngest son) for the first time. He's two years old ( and change), and is a spitfire. He follows the lead of his older brother Adam (their first child), which can lead to some interesting moments when it turns out that there's only one copy of Mom or Dad and they have to share.
Stephen's car was totalled earlier in the week (a week that will live in infamy in their household due to a rather large collection of SNAFU) and he was picking my brain about a replacement car. I offered my Golf TDI for a test drive, and he found it peppy and he liked the very good driver ergonomics. The iPod on the dashboard didn't hurt, either. I hope he and Sue can get his replacement wheels soon and with minimal extra cost.
I had a good time hanging out for a while and seeing the boys in their native environment. They've really taken over the house ;-) and have some rather fun toys ... no I didn't palm any Legos! That's a damned lie! :-)
My insane weekend jaunt to New York (and by proxy, the United States of America) ended this evening (successfully) when I returned to the RI in Markham, ON at 10:47pm, a few minutes off from my eMap's (amazing little GPS) estimated time of arrival.
I drove 1,000 miles in 15 h, averaging just under 70 MPH. Coming back I hit some snow storms (north of Whitney Point on I-81) all the way to just west of Rochester on the NY State Thruway. I broke the drive up into four parts (two symmetrical halves): Toronto to Whitney Point (320 miles) and Whitney Point to Rye Brook (180 miles). I did the first quad on Friday night, hitting the worst of the Toronto traffic and wishing I had taken the ETR 407 all the way to Hamilton, ON (at a cost of around $7US) instead of the 401/403/QEW. The second quad was Saturday morning. The third and fourth quads were on Sunday, starting at around 10am and pausing in Whitney Point until 4:50p. The worst part of the drive wasn't actually the snow, it was my eyes drying up in the cold winter air.
I had dinner with Barbara Decker at Aiello's in Whitney Point. This is the family Italian restaurant with a diner and banquet room sections. I had the gnocci with meat sauce. The gnocci didn't look like gnocci so much as it looked like pasta caterpillars. It was good food, but I was hoping for real gnocci.
One highlight of the drive is seeing Toronto from St. Catherines and along the QEW on the southern side of Lake Ontario. The CN Tower is clearly visible across the lake starting near Niagara Falls! Amazing.
Crossing took under two minutes. I was asked for my citizenship ("United States") and what I was doing ("Returning to work in Toronto" while waving work visa in front of me). All the immigration person said was, "Have a nice stay in Canada." and I was off. Now that I've gone both ways (on the Peace and the St. Catherines-Niagara Falls bridges -- I've not done the "Rainbow Bridge" although we saw it in 2002) I feel a lot less concerned about the ins-and-outs. Flying will be the last different border crossing experience and it happens this Thursday.
It's intensely cold tonite in Toronto, which made upacking the car that much more exilirating. No thanks!
Just a quick entry ... I'm in Rye Brook, NY at the LunaCon 2004 SciFi convention. Paul and Jenny Kraus suggested I come down and attend, and I've had a good time. Alas, I cannot stay for the whole convention as I have to drive 16h this weekend just to get here and back to Toronto. But I've packed a lot into this time.
I found out how bad Toronto's rush hour traffic is ... the QEW was backed up all the way to the western edge of Lake Ontario. That's some 50 miles of traffic jam. Blimey!
As I approached Buffalo, my cell phone went back on Sprint's network. I spent two hours on the phone talking to Anne and other folks with my oodles of unused minutes.
Crossing at the Peace Bridge is good in that there's no traffic, but the Duty Free is pretty weak on inventory. I had a bumpy visit there, but found some Canada hats for the kids and a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka for Anne's mom. Funny thing ... all the booze at the Duty Free comes in the oddball 1 litre size ... funny that. (it happens to be the non-taxed limit.)
It was great to put the radar detector back on the windshield, until I realized how often it goes off. Not having it in Toronto does make driving somewhat less jarring.
I stayed Friday night at Anne's mom's house in Whitney Point. There was 10" of snow on the ground, and I got some nice shots of it on slide film that will take a week to get developed. Look forward to those images later in the week.
LunaCon has been a good time. The first thing I did after I hooked up with the Kraus' family was bump into an old Matrix Instruments co-worker named Michael Feldman. He didn't recognize me, and I had to jog his memory for quite some time. Apparently he works for Marty Cohen, my first boss and one of the guys at MAGI responsible for the Light Cycles in TRON.
I bought a copy of Michael Whelan's The Ultimate Sandbox to go along with my copy of Friday ... with luck I'll get it signed. I missed the Sluggy Freelance signing (sorry, Mel!).
I sat through a session about computing breakthroughs this year, but since it featured Eric Raymond, it turned into a Linux pep rally of sorts. I asked Eric to talk about the SCO case, and he spoke (relatively calmly) about the "Halloween 10" memo that implicates Microsoft behind this SCO lawsuits. It was interesting seeing him sober at a convention (I ran into him at MilPhilCon drunk as a skunk -- not pretty).
One session on "hard science in SciFi" had so many basket-case geeks in the audience, the panelists could barely get in a word edgewise. Somewhat dissappointing, but not too unexpected at an über-geek session.
The Masquerade was brief but amusing. There were more entries by kids than adults, which surprised me. One child was dressed as Samurai Jack ... his costume was amazing.
I met some of the Noreascon 4 people and made some contacts in advance of this year's WorldCon. Paul's been really helpful in meeting key N4 folks.
I even found a passport neck wallet I've been looking for ...
Tomorrow I'll drive back to Whitney Point and spend some more time with Barbara before driving the rest of the way back to Toronto.
Melanie just e-mailed me saying that her husband, Lyndon, is taking a contract in a distant city. This time, it's Atlanta. I gotta say, I sympathize, and for once, I really do appreciate the pain of separation. Best wishes to Lyn and Mel -- at least he'll be making the same kind of bucks I am in exchange for leaving his family behind (in his case, a boatload of cats and Mel).
Everyone in Dallas who knows Melanie ... call her and visit more often (Mike, you especially!) while Lyn's away.
The Bush Economy -- splitting families across America.
This Friday, I'm driving down to Whitney Point, NY to spend the night with Anne's mom.
In the morning, I'll drive down to Rye, NY to attend LunaCon 2004. I'll be hanging with the Kraus family for the day and evening, attending pre-WorldCon (NoreasCon 4) meetings, and trying to see and do all I can in the 24 hr. I have to attend. I'll be packing my digital and film cameras, too.
Sunday I'll try to visit NYC area family and friends, and then drive back to Whitney Point for dinner with Barbara. I hope to be back in Toronto before midnight.
Other good news -- I expect my passport will be in today, so crossing the border should be a nit.
Here are some more CN Tower photos:
Here's a better view of the glass floor and the distant ground beneath it. Remember, it's 1,122 feet to the cement in this shot. I'll never forget that number. The blemish in the picture is not an American tourist splashed on the ground, but rather something slowly eating away at the structural integrity of the window I'm standing on ...
The interior of the Tower is gorgeous -- a kind of high-tech wood panel look that is very classy.
Last Saturday I ran an errand for Melanie, stopping in East Toronto to order some wool for her at SEW'n KNIT'n SERGE outlet.
I don't know much about these kinds of shops, but this place was something else out of another era. "Little old ladies™" were lurking in all corners, and the Asian owner was a Hollywood stereotype of the small shop owner. I expected Monty Python pepperpots to spring on me at any instant.
Alas, they didn't have the wool Melanie needed in stock, so I ordered it for her and now I get to go back and brave the needles and scratchy stuff again in two weeks (after I get back from Dallas).
One more fellow to introduce from work: Andre.
Andre develops QA code and scripts, and is the more reserved guy in the group. He's thoughtful and witty, and chooses his words carefully. Not as playful or zany as Albin but still a funny guy.
In the cluster of corporate styled restaurants across Hwy 7 from the Residence Inn is a chain steak house that opened in Irving when I worked there called The Keg Steakhouse. I never went to the one in Irving, but I did try out the one in Markham, ON.
The Keg is "yet another wood paneled" steakhouse. Reservations are suggested, but arriving by myself on a Sunday for dinner, I was seated in the bar which had nice two person booths. Suits me. The decor is, typically, dark wood walls and darker tile floors. While I was there, they turned on the dark lights, which lit up dark. You get the idea.
The food is standard fare steaks and some seafood options. I went with the safe sirloin cut 8 oz., and wasn't too dissappointed. They charred the outside a bit, which is odd for a "medium" steak, but the steak was juicy and mostly tender. Their garlic mashed potatoes were quite nice, and had bits of the potato skin in them for garnish. Veggies were string beans, kind of bland string beans.
Their "mudslide" wasn't anything to write home about and they're a Pepsi shop (no one, but no one has Dr. Pepper up here -- I should have brought a flat) so the drinks were unremarkable.
One the whole, I found it a bit dreary, and wished they had a better cut of meat for the money (around 20$US for the meal).
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The one big box retailer missing in Canada is Target. It turns out that the Hudson Bay Company's Zellers is the plug replacement for "Tar-jay". I'm tickled by the name because a member of the Ilk is named Zellers, which I had figured was pretty rare as names go. His monniker is plastered wherever HBC has a store. |
Canada has a kagillion square miles of territory, numerous Provences, and one tollway. Naturally, I live right next to it, and it's the fastest route to the airport, among other things. Called the Express Toll Road, it stretches for 100 km from just east of me to the west side of Toronto, and is actually highway 407 on the map.
It's also the only privatized, for profit road in Canada. This certainly explains the high cost of driving on it. You can drive it without the equivalent of a tolltag, but they charge an extra 3.35$CDN for the "video" identification of your car. The nominal rate is around seventeen cents a mile to drive -- the toll is based solely on distance travelled which is really quite fair.
 | The ETR uses active transponders, which has the benefit of you knowing you just got dinged for a toll. When you drive off the ETR, the tag beeps loudly four times. Just what my car needs, some more "machine that goes BEEP" on the windshield. |
Ok, every native Canadian I have asked has said, "no, I haven't been up the CN Tower, now that you mention it..."
Now, I can relate. I've never been to "J.R.'s Ranch" in Lucas, TX. I mean, I know where it is and all, but I'd never go there. That's for tourists (a.k.a. suckers)!
It was then that I realized I had one and only one opportunity to go up the tower, and that's the first time I went downtown to the real Toronto. Once I got a taste of being in Toronto, I'd be "too cool" to go up the tower (hey, that's for tourists). So I went.
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Let's just cut to the chase: at 553 meters tall, the CN Tower is the tallest object humans have ever raised from the ground to the sky, period. This is the Big Enchilada. The Tall Cool One. You can see the tower from almost anywhere in Toronto, if you know where to look (hint: south). It looks like an enourmous rocket, ready to launch.
I parked at the SkyDome and walked up to the CN Tower ticket line, which ran outside the building and into the windy, freezing, cold. After about forty minutes in line, I dropped 20$CDN for an adult ticket to the observation deck, which gets you to the main section where there are three floors and two restaurants. The elevator glides up the side of the tower, climbing the 1,122 feet to the observation deck in 58 seconds (around 22 MPH). The ride is smooth, and you can crowd in the back of the elevator car if you don't want to see Mother Earth slowly dwindling underneath you. For the rest of us, there are some midsized windows to peer through at the spectacular view. This excerpt from the CN Tower website describes the main observation decks:
Click here for an huge panoramic photo of the Tower. |
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That's my foot pressing down on the glass floor, poised 1,122 ft. above the FREAKING GROUND. All the adults were glaring at the glass floor like we had all lost some idiotic bet and were only here long enough to get past this terrifying mistake in our (hopefully) short lived gambling lives.
After some long, painfully introspective moments ("I believe in engineering! I believe!") I stepped, gingerly, onto the glass. And then stepped back. Man, that will really fry your brain. Eventually I took a walk across the glass, but I couldn't look down. You can have your photo taken whilst lying on the glass, and many people were doing variations on that theme with hand held cameras. It's not so hard if you don't face down. |
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 | Children, on the other hand, were stomping and jumping on the "Glass Floor From Hell", to their parents' utter horror. The kids were giggling and laughing -- proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that kids have no sense of self-preservation what-so-ever. It was amusing seeing parents tearing their kids away from a floor that is probably stronger than the concrete they are standing on, as if some low flying SUV was about to run them over. |
| Lake Ontario, looking south towards the United States. Toronto Islands are in the foreground, as is part of the Horizons Cafe decor. | 
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The good news is that the tower doesn't sway at all. In fact, it was rather solid when compared with my recollection of being at the top of the World Trade Center in 1983. I look forward to bringing my wife and kids up this monster when they visit this summer. Anne, in particular, is no doubt reading this and calling divorce lawyers. But remember, I got you on the Millennium Force in Sandusky, OH. This is only four times higher! It's a nit!
Some of you can well imagine my delight at discovering that the European diner chain Mövenpick is here in Toronto. During my trips to Geneva, Switzerland, Mövenpick was an oasis, thanks to it's non-smoking section, in a sea of smokers' restaurants. And the coupe Denmark, ah how I remember it well. The best hot fudge sundae ever. At last! The coupe Denmark in my grasp! Hurrah for Toronto!
After pausing long enough to take the this photo ...
I rushed into the restaurant, only to discover that there are no ice cream desserts on the menu, and certainly no coupe Denmark.
None. Non. Nada. FEH.
Woe is ME!
Dinner was at The Lone Star Texas Grill. Modelled roughly after a honky tonk, it is a chain around town (the other Lone Star Texas restaurant is part of that chain -- see below) that goes for the beer swilling, rough hewn Texan of legend. IOW, a sports bar. While the menu contained largely "authentic" Texan grub, there were the occasional Canadian items like french fry's with vinegar. Can't shut the locals out of the process entirely.
I had the "Texas Sized Fajitas (1/2 lbs.)" -- chicken, of course. The fixin's were close enough to the real deal, and while they put a kind of pepper salt on the tortilla chips, the salsa was actually pretty good.
When I approached the hostess for a seat, I pulled out my Texas driver's license and said, "I'm a native Texan. Impress me." They got a chuckle out of it, and I found a place that servers decent fajitas. Deal.
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Left to right: Albin and Wilson
Albin, the kid on the left, is the goofy yet indespensible member of the QA Team. He's the "go to" guy for a lot of the testing. He's young, hyper and good natured. He was "demonstrating" a signal technique when I caught him in an awkward pose. Everyone wants a copy of the unretouched image.
Wilson is from Ottawa, via China (Shanghi). He's also a contractor, who drives in from Ottawa to work here in Toronto during the week. He's been getting an earful from me about American politics (we get to watch CNN during our testing) and I'm learning about Canada and China from him. He was stunned at the quantity of gadgets in my car when I drove him to the National Health registry office in Toronto on Thursday ... he really wants a GPS now.
Posted by Steven at 10:52 AM
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I had no idea the fledgling science-fiction writer Cory Doctorow lives in Toronto. SlashDot has a story about what he carries in his travel bag (geek chic) that you can read here if you aren't squemish about utterly cool and expensive gadgets. I actually have at least one item he lists: the iPod.
In fact, I can match him pretty closely for gadgets:
I was watching the CBC tonite and I stumbled across one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. It's called Royal Canadian Air Farce, and it puts Saturday Night Live to shame. It's a sketch comedy show with excellent production values (the sets and the makeup are top notch). I saw a lot of parody of Canadian politics (they hammered the current PM over the visit by Kofi Anna this week) but also a good amount of ribbing of U.S. politicians, Dubya being foremost on their minds. They have released a DVD of four episodes from last year -- I plan on tracking it down and adding it to my collection of comedy classics.
Joe Bob sez "check out their website".
I discovered today, to my surprise, that Moxy Früvous is from the suburb of Toronto I find myself in these days. The group formed in 1990, and were "discovered" by the CBC. At the time, they only performed live, and it was central to their appeal. Once they began recording, they struggled to keep the sponteneity that made them so appealing.
In 1991 they wrote My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors for a Canadian Writer's Convention in Toronto that featured the likes of Margaret Atwood and William Cansella. It's my favorite Moxy Früvous song (here's an excerpt that mentions the Toronto Sun).
An article in The Globe and Mail states that Candian intelligence agencies were skeptical about the U.S. claims of Iraq weapons of mass destruction and other threats to the U.S. last year. They asked the U.S. intelligence community to provide the raw intelligence to back the claims, and the Bush Administration refused. Instead, they offered to send what amounted to a "PowerPoint presentation". The article points out that traditionally, the U.S. and Canada's intelligence communities freely shared high level intelligence information and this break with the tradition hinted that the U.S. simply didn't have anything to back up it's claims. Of course, we now know that the Canadians were correct and that the Bush Administration was cooking the intelligence to fit their political goals.
I finally took some photos of the guys I work with at ATI Technologies. On Fridays, the testing group goes to lunch somewhere as a group. I took my camera along to photograph some of the guys, because I don't know what ATI's policy is on cameras in the office (but I suspect it's pretty harsh). The lunch testing group consists of the lead testing engineer (Tong Qiu), three guys who work for him (Andre, Albin and "Wilson") and a chap from the testing lab named Steve Levine. The fellow in the following photo is Tong.
I don't know for a fact that Tong is Chinese, but I am fairly confident he is. His accent is pronounced, and I occasionally have a hard time following him when speaking. He's friendly and good natured, and I enjoy working with him. And no, he doesn't know about this weblog so the previous sentence is not sucking up :-).
Tooling around Richmond Hill tonite, I passed this joint and just had to stop and take a picture. Mind you, this place is 1400 miles from Texas. There sure as hell weren't any Texas license plates on the vee-hick-eels parked out front (except for mine). Before you ask, I did not doctor this photo.
There are number of scandals rocking Canada this week, and this political cartoon from the The Globe and Mail sums up the current lot.
Copps is a local Liberal candidate who lost in a bitter, close election in a Toronto suburb to another Liberal candidate. She's contesting the election, which was Bush vs. Gore close, and its claiming all kinds of nasty tricks were in play in her election. It's refreshing to see that Liberals can be as nasty as Conservatives.
I don't fully understand the Sponsorship Scandal, but it also involves the Liberal government and is (literally) riding the back of the current administration.
Stronach is Canada's female Ross Perot. She's the wealthy daughter of a magnate who is running for the Conservative party's ticket. She's beating more established Conservative candidates in very, very close elections. As a result, the other Conservatives are screaming mad. Stronach herself apparently is no more adept at leading than GWB was when he started running for Gov. of Texas. She resembles Ann Coulter in both apperance and demeanor.
I think the little "Free Martha" dog barking is a cute way of showing how Canadians perceive the whole stupid affair.
Winter, of course, always sits at the table up here. No need to elaborate.
Missing from this circle of misery is the whole Bertuzzi scandal (the Vancouver hockey player who nearly killed a Colorado Avalanche player two days ago). Canada is really roiled up over this. It's been the headline on the normally staid The Globe and Mail for the last three days.
Finally, the hapless Canadian looks wistfully to little Spring, perched on the branch. Man, I relate!
While shopping at the local grocery chain in the "bachelor chow" section, I noticed a product category that genuinely puzzles me: the frozen hamburger.
Why does this product exist? Who buys it?
Why buy a frozen hamburger, which must take ten to fifteen minutes to reheat in an oven (after defrosting) and which must taste ... well ... awful, when you can go to any intersection in North America and buy one freshly cooked while sitting in your car! I can only imagine how bad it must taste to reheat one of these burgers in the microwave (let me take a guess -- like a Whataburger). Could someone explain the reason why there's a frozen hamburger selection in the frozen food (opps, I mean, bachelor chow) isle?
At the hotel tonite, the cuisine was "Sloppy Joes". In case you were wondering what they looked like, I couldn't resist "sharing":
I know. TMI.
I've decided to stay in Toronto this weekend, instead of going to the Capital District as I was planning. I'd like to visit the Capital District when RPI is in session, and with enough advance notice that anyone who lives in Boston who might want to hook up can plan to drive out to Albany for the weekend. When I do go, I'll get a room at (where else?) the Latham Residence Inn. I might be able to swing a good rate, who knows? And out-of-town Ilk can crash there as well.
I've been here for over a week and while I visited downtown, I really haven't been to Toronto yet. I'll load up the cameras and go on an expedition, this time on foot. The weather this weekend is supposed to be good here -- that is -- sunny and above freezing. Trust me, that's an improvement.
I'm hoping to visit Anne's mother the coming weekend in Whitney Point, north of Binghamton (the closest friend or family member in NY at only 325 miles).
If the original post showing my commute wasn't clear enough, then this photo ought to make it "crystal". I took this shot from the front door of the ATI building I work in:
Crossing Commerce Valley Road is the most hazardous part of the journey. It goes without saying that Andrew Dillingham is going to B-slap me even more for rubbing this in with Epson salts, but after driving to work at D/FW airport for 25 months, this really is a nice break. When I return to Dallas, I hope I find a job north of the Plano Dixon Line (aka SH 190).
The real reason I had to come to Toronto:
Building the line from Dallas to Toronto was expensive! Empire Builder fans will get this immediately. The rest of you will have to puzzle it out for yourselves.
I bought round-trip airline tickets from American Airlines today. I'm flying home on the 25th of March, arriving at D/FW at 6:09pm. I don't expect to be toting any serious luggage, so I should be able to meet my ride and head home (into the maw that is Dallas traffic) immediately after deplaning. I'll be in town until the evening of the 28th (my flight out leaves at 7:28p).
Before I took this contract, I signed up to be an election clerk in my district in Collin County, for the Democratic Primary. The last Presidential election cycle, I walked into my local polling place (Glen Oaks Elementary), signed in, and went to vote in the primary. The Republican primary. It didn't occur to me that I couldn't vote in the Democratic because there was no Democratic polling place for my district, and that worse yet, I had inadvertantly registered myself a Republican. So this year, while I didn't get to volunteer directly, I did at least vote in the Democratic primary (and hopefully, I'll stop getting GOP literature and my close personal friends will stop teasing me about being a "closet Republican").
Tom White informed me (this evening) that thanks to Tom DeLay's ugly power grab in Texas, he had to vote in a residential garage down the street from his own home. Thanks to redistricting, he had no school or church polling place. It even made the local news in Austin. Tom says it was a nice, clean garage, but the idea that a Democrat had to convert their garage to a polling place thanks to this insidious coup is a sad moment in the U.S. and for democracy everywhere.
Today in the New York Times one finds an article titled Lingering Job Insecurity of Silicon Valley [free registration required]. This article dissects the theories as to why high tech employment is so depressed, and I agree with most of the analysis. But the bottom line remains: people (such as myself) are having to look far and wide to find jobs in the software industry, often far, far away from where we live and where we were nearly fully employed in 2000.
Three things are contributing to the malaise: offshoring, overtime and automation.
Offshoring is very, very political right now. It's becoming the third-rail of my industry -- politicians touch it only reluctantly. Economists argue (probably correctly) that offshoring is inevitable and even good for our economy. It contributes to the reduction in price of goods and services that software firms (and really any service firm of a certain size and up) offer.
But that's "macro economics" talk. On the street in dense software developer markets like Silicon Valley, Rt. 128 in Boston, and the Telecom Corridor in Richardson, TX, the beneficial effects are washed over by the large drop in jobs, and the softening (hell, the melting) of wages for software engineers. I took a 35% cut in pay from 2001 to 2003. This contract job is the first time in four years I'm earning a six figure income again (but look at the price I'm paying).
Offshoring has happened to many, many industries in the U.S., it just comes as a hell of a shock to people (who spend the bucks to go to four year university and earn a hard-as-hell-to-achieve degree in engineering) that their efforts won't pay handsomely for the rest of their careers. That you'll almost certainly have to migrate to a new field at least once in your career, and I don't mean from Cobol to Java. More like from software ... to biotechnology. Inevitably (and possibly good for the economy as a whole) offshoring -- right now -- is softening wages in my field dramatically, and is the most obvious source of the "jobs gone for good" malaise if only because there's a human face associated with the trend. Nevermind that the choice is made by a CEO you never see.
Overtime is another problem that isn't talked about much by the still-employeed. Companies, since 9-11, have all but ceased hiring because they have been able to squeeze more and more hours out of American workers thanks in part to the recession, and also because of the softening wages that offshoring creates. Employees know they have to work that weekend their boss wants them to, or they'll get kicked out of the club. Many of you know the sacrifices Anne and I made during my "sentence" at DG Systems where my masters did this very thing to me. Working 60 hour weeks, however, did not save my job and several people there cautioned me so. They were right. Don't play this game!
There seems to be some traction on this issue with workers, who are starting to sense this abuse by employers will be coming to an end if hiring picks up (unless outsourcing eats up the hiring surge). Overtime is the dirty secret that the "still working" know and that the out of work lament. It allows firms to hold off hiring until things get desperate (there are signs of this, but I'm skeptical).
Finally we come to automation, the real job killer in the services sector. This is the major culprit in the NY Times article, and essentially the "other" overtime multiplier (someone doing the work of more than just one employee) limiting job growth. Since the Internet boom, software companies, big and small, have built better and better automation into core services like web servers. What this means is that companies that run their own IT don't have to have "the Computer Guy" on board (or, for that matter, put up with his 'tude). They can rely on more and more automation, just like we all do when we check ourselves out of the Kroger at the U-Serve line or draw cash at the ATM.
Frankly, I'd be surprised if this wasn't a greater contributor to low employment than offshoring and overtime combined. We all know what a staggering multiplier the computer is -- imagine automating oil changes in the auto industry. It's literally at that scale ... and tens of thousands of people in IT that do little more (figuratively speaking) than the kid under your car at the Jiffy Lube (and that includes, for example, database operators) are soon going to be out of work. If you aren't literally "The Professor" from Gilligan's Island (that is, a frigging genius who can make radios out of coconuts) you're not going to be of much value to service companies.
In the end, HAL will take your job, not Punjab, or Bob (the guy with no life who works eighty-hour weeks) the bachelor.
Scary stuff.
Saturday I took a drive into the hinterlands, literally due north of Markham (thanks to those cartesian roads) into farm land. At the end of the 404, I found myself lost ... that is until I found the ...
Price Chopper. Oh ... my ... God. It followed me here from Troy, NY.
What in the hell it was doing out in the middle of no where, along with other Big Box Retail like Costco, Michaels, Home Depot, and (of course) WalMart, I'll never know. The Canadians are losing the war against NAFTA!
I've been rather quiet about my job at ATI Technologies since I started. Part of the reason is simply that I have just started there, and don't know much about what's going on. Another reason is that I'm not entirely clear how "secret" the stuff I work on is. I'm developing QA Software for a group at ATI that produces the Xilleon MPEG decoder chipset. I think that's about all I should say right now, but as a tid bit, here are ATI's two main buildings:
The left building is #1, the original and the real galactic headquarters. The right building is #33, where I work on the 2nd floor in a maze of cubes and lab rooms. Every room and door has a fancy, shiny label on it.
Look closely at the title of this blog and you'll see a little icon. Click on it to hear the "theme" of this blog. As I pulled out of my driveway in McKinney at the start of this trip, I programmed my iPod to play "Take Off to the Great White North!" (sung by Geddy Lee (of Rush) and "Bob and Doug Mackenzie"). It just seemed appropriate at the time. I still do.
My dance card is filling up, as hard as that is to believe. The following friends and family members have mentioned visiting:
I just added a new category I should have thought of last night: Family.
This first entry is for Alanna who made Honor Roll at Dowell Middle School. I was able to photograph her receiving her certificate from the Principal Gavin Goodrich. I'm very proud of her accomplishments in school, band and Tae Kwan Do. Anne and I push her to work hard on school, band and TKD. Like most kids, she resents it but the pay off is earning this kind of recognition. This last month, she also earned a spot on her TKD Demo Team. She's just fabulous!
In accepting the award, she performed the traditional bow that she does in TKD when accepting a new belt. I thought that was both classy and a clever way to do something more than wave at the audience or act up like some of the other kids. I'm sure Mr. Goodrich was baffled with the action ;-).
Some of you have asked whether it has snowed here. The easy answer is "duh!" but the truth is that it has snowed a little (by Canadian standards) over the weekend, but nothing to get excited about. I walked to work in less than an inch of accumulation ... it was pretty yet harmless. Toronto (allegedly) doesn't get as much snow as New York cities on the south side of Lake Ontario (e.g. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse). That doesn't mean it doesn't snow here! But the big drifts are over for the season, according to natives I've asked.
If you need to reach me, try these numbers (all have voice mail):
1. Work - 905-882-2600 x3128 (desk) or x2715 (lab)
2. Residence Inn - 905-707-7933 Rm. 416
if those don't work, my cellphone is online but costs 30 cents/min. and I don't have CallerID:
3. 214-207-7812
so only use it on an emergency!
I still read my e-mail at steve@deltos.com, but my ATI mailbox is sstaton@ati.com. Only use it if steve@deltos.com bounces.
Here are some snapshots of my motel room:
The view of my room from the door. I'm on the fourth floor in the back, where I have a spectacular view of a warehouse building and the 404 highway. Yuck.
My computer desk and work area (right at the door). Notice the QuickCAM camera that doesn't #$^$# work on video chat sitting on top of a photo of my wife Anne. This is a subtle reminder that she's always watching me ... ;-) just kidding -- Fericito.
And of course, the room Anne thinks I will never set foot in -- the kitchen. I actually made myself a Slim Fast meal tonite for dinner, and the coffee machine is always on.
This is the first entry in my Ain't in Texas No More category. This category is for commentary about the contrasts between America and Canada, and especially Texas and Canada. Be warned, I'm going to be more political here than elsewhere in the blog. Some of you may be surprised by what I say ... others will just roll their eyes and say "oh that Steve!" ... again.
The TV show Sliders (for those of you who never saw it) was about a group of people from our time who "slide" across timelines into alternative versions of reality. They always ended up on an Earth of some kind. But it was different. Maybe the Cold War never happened. Or the Moon landing.
Well, I put it to you that Canada is like America where Ronald Reagan never got elected President and as a result, banished the liberals and the Metric System. The newspapers here are (except for The Sun) written by adults for adults. The TV news is cogent and not about the "if it bleeds, it leads" angle. And the scandals are about real scandals and not who is sleeping with whom. And all the road signs are Metric. It's too cool!
 | Before I even crossed into Canada, my friend Mike Jones told me about his family's trip to the Prince Edward Islands (PEI), the eastern-most province of Canada. He noted several unique things about being in Canada, but one he raved about is "Tim Hortons". |
What is Tim Hortons? Imagine Starbucks and Krispy Kreme merged into one round-the-clock coffee shop. Got the image in your mind? Good. Now stop imagining and just go to Tim Hortons. They're the same place.
And, like Starbucks, they're everywhere in Canada. Even the PEI, which (before Mike told me about Tim Hortons) I used to think was just full of sheep and rocks. Soon, Tim Hortons will be opening Tim Hortons in the bathrooms of Tim Hortons.
OK, I stole that joke from The Onion but I'll be damned if it isn't true.
This is a fun entry. Many of you know the long and tortured history of my "drive to work". My first job was in Orangeburg, NY, so I (naturally) chose to live 60 miles away in Danbury, CT. A recent job (DG Systems) was a mere 45 miles to work. And so on. In Dallas, my shortest commute ever was always at least twenty miles each way.
This is my new commute. I walk past the CAA (Canadian Automobile Association) building, cross the street, and I'm at ATI. It would actually take longer to drive. This nano-commute really makes the cost of the Residence Inn seem worth it. I've seen Toronto's traffic and it's not any lighter than Dallas/Ft. Worth's.
You're a weary, American traveller who's lost and cold and frankly, kinda scared of hearing "eh" at the end of every sentence, so where do you go for comfort? The Comfort Inn? No! The Residence Inn.
Those of you in the Ilk may recall that Tom White and I hosted the first IlkCon at the Albany Residence Inn, so I have an established history with this kind of oddball motel. For you see, it's an apartment and a motel. A floor wax and a topping. And while trying to be both, it ends up being ... well still mostly a motel.
So I'm staying in this five-story motel with an indoor pool, workout room, breakfast bar, and laundromat.
One of the odd things I noted about Canada when looking at maps of the road system (this entry should be in the That's a Canadian Fact! section, too) is how regular and gridlike they are. I couldn't believe it, I mean it's not like Canada is utterly flat like the rest of the Earth's surface just south of it, right?
Wrong. It is flat, at least the land between Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario (aka Southern Ontario), and the roads are nearly Cartesian in their regularity. So a typical moment on the 402 on the way to Toronto might look like, say, this:
Three hours of this will get you
a) Lots of chances to stop at Tim Hortons for coffee, and
b) to Toronto.
Around 3:30pm on March 7th, I reached the Canadian border. Actually, I reached Port Huron, MI, where one finds the following scene:
Across the Blue Water bridge into Canada I drove, wondering if I would be able to get a work visa and gain entry into the Great White North.
It turns out I had little to fear. Entering Canada is easy. Their biggest concern, assuming you aren't up to something illegal, is whether or not the United States will let you back in. Apparently, the U.S. Customs are a bunch of hardasses compared to their Canadian counterparts.
I had to apply for a work visa at the border. The consultant who works for my firm and who came over in December said he got "worked over" and it took over an hour to clear the border. He had to produce all kinds of documents he hadn't brought with him.
I had no problems whatsoever. I had to bring a photocopy of my RPI diploma, a letter of employment, and some other (it turns out) outdated cover letters. The Visa people were friendly but officious. It was a strange combination.
 | My 2003 VW Golf TDI averaged 47 MPG on the 1470 mile drive from McKinney, Texas to Markham, Ontario. Better yet, I did it with the cruise set to 75 MPH most of the way (I averaged a hair under 70 MPH for the entire drive). I had to fill up when I left, once in Nashville, TN, and again north of Dayton, and that's it. Three tanks got me here. |
 | Winslow sez "Hi!" from Canada. |
Kudos to Mike Jones (of Albany) for helping me get over my conceptual blocks and get this ^@$%^@ weblog up and running.
Family, friends and strangers alike, welcome.
This is my first blog, coming on the heels of many friends who've pioneered the trails already. For once, I'm not a bleeding-edger, but that's ok as I want to spend more time writing (well, pontificating) rather than coding.
I'm in Toronto for three to nine months working on contract at ATI Technologies, Inc. (the video card people) on a new TV chipset. I probably cannot say more than that per the NDA; suffice it to say I'm experiencing Canada for the first time. Read on, laugh and cry, and wonder why I'm not in the hoosgow already.
