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I recently answered a question about the length of my previous commute (3 kms, 25 min), and I remembered this photo set I did on my commute home. It was done for our short-lived Nurun Toronto pho.to.club around the time I knew I was leaving Toronto.
It was bitter-sweet – over the years I made variations of this walk through the Trinity Spadina area of Toronto. Normally I’d cut through Trinity Bellwoods Park, but on this day I stuck to the streets.
I love the internet!
Dear internet:
My mom is tired of your s#!t.
She can’t understand your website and it isn’t her fault.
It’s time we talked.
The User is My Mom, apparently the sequel to The User is Drunk.
Astonishing…
I shot and directed this short film which was created as part of the Ghost Peloton live event. The filming took place around the Dales in Yorkshire in the lead up to the TDF. The work created for the film was used as part of the live event and also in it’s own right. I’m not quite sure how I would describe the film – have a look and make up your own mind. It was also a staff pick at Vimeo.
A monumental public artwork created in response to the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2014, Ghost Peloton fused performance cycling with athletic choreography within the varied landscapes of the race route through Yorkshire, in the UK. Each rider, bike and performer was illuminated using bespoke LED light suits, which can be controlled remotely to instantaneously change colour, flash-rate and luminosity. –
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention I was fortunate to have an interview today. Normally before an interview, I’d be nervously checking myself in an elevator mirror; instead, I found myself nervously picking lint off of my office chair. A different kind of interview by a different kind of company!
Carolyn and I went for lunch at On The Docks Pub before she headed back to the city for another week of work. Next Saturday night we’ll meet in Toronto for a going away party – my former workmate, Michael, and his wife, Eu, are moving back to Seoul. They’ll be there for at least a year, so I’m really hoping we can visit them. We’ll see how things play out.
Yesterday, another former Nurun workmate, Anna, and her partner, Michal, came by for a visit on their way back from Algonquin Park. I was really happy they stopped by and the weather was perfect. It means a lot to me to have friends and colleagues see where I’m living and what I’m up to.
Tomorrow, Elaine and I start a new project which I’m looking forward to. Now I have to get outside again – it’s sunny and 28C! Did I mention the bugs are just starting to bite?
I’m not sure why, but today is the first day I feel regret for a decision I made over 20 years ago. Actually, I do know why. It’s because of a song I heard on the radio yesterday. It just took a day to kick in.
Back then a Scottish friend, who was also living in Toronto, called one evening to tell me that he was with Joe Elliott, the lead singer of Def Leppard. Joe wanted to go see Ian Hunter in concert in Oshawa, a small city about 60 kms east of Toronto. My friend knew I had a car (I use that term loosely) and wondered if I’d drive.
I’d never been a fan of Def Leppard, and felt it would be kind of awkward meeting a rockstar whose music I really didn’t like. On the other hand, I was a fan of Ian Hunter, but felt his best musicical years were behind him.
I was pretty sure someone of Joe Elliott’s stature would be invited backstage after the show. But in my mind, those guys would be partying it up to all hours of the morning, and I would be stone cold sober, keys in hand, waiting to chauffeur them back home. Just imagine how much more interesting this story would be had I said, “Hell, yes!”. Or better yet, suggested that we all grab a cab!
Without further adieu, here is the song that brought it home for me yesterday, “The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Mott the Hoople, with, of course, Ian Hunter on lead vocals.
Joe Elliott may arguably have been a bigger star than Ian Hunter. I still don’t like Def Leppard’s music, but hey, if he’s a nice guy, it would have been cool to meet him too.
Spring has arrived in full force. I first noticed the Spring Peepers’ chorus about a week ago, and the forest is just beginning to exchange its dull brown for green.
We’re fortunate to be surrounded by forest, so I did some exploring to document the first signs of plant life on the forest floor. This is my unscientific attempt at identifying them with Andy’s Northern Ontario Wildflowers. If you recognize any or have any corrections, please let me know.
Here’s a really interesting (and funny) comic by Julia Wertz: Vintage Trash and Horse Bones at The New Yorker. There’s a great line that I’ll have to borrow, but I’ll let you find it yourself. And be sure to check out her photos of Bottle Beach — the link is at the bottom.
I used to live too close to a rendering plant in Toronto’s East End. That plant had a lease since the turn of the last century. On weekends, fully loaded trucks often sat in the hot sun, rendering Sunday morning coffee on our back deck intolerable. As their lease neared its end, the company pledged that it would manage the stench, but thankfully no dice — the lease wasn’t renewed. The East End is now a much better area because of that decision. (I still much prefer the West End though, especially the Little Italy/Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood that we called home.)
Yikes, time to dust off the (not-so-) old blog. It’s been a month. I haven’t felt like I’ve had a lot to write about, so this will be more of a diary-style catch up.
So I’ll start with my last trip down to Toronto for a WordPress meetup. It didn’t happen. I came down with a nasty cold a day a half before the meetup – not the best state in which to meet new people. As it turned out, their speaker had to cancel as well. I had hoped to attend the April meetup last weekend but it was the same day as our local hospital gala, and Carolyn was the volunteer in charge of decorating, so attendance was mandatory. (She did an amazing job, btw.)
On the business side of things, I’ve been fortunate to forge some new alliances. I’ve also been busy creating quotes/proposals and doing research for potential projects. Right now, I have ten out there plus my job application. It certainly seems more promising than last year at this time, but promising doesn’t pay the bills!
One project sent me on a bit of a tangent away from WordPress – a potential project for a big national brand. Like pretty much all national brands in Canada, the site is bilingual, and unfortunately I’m not convinced that WordPress can handle that in an elegant manner. From the research I’ve seen, WPML is probably the best option, but there’s not even a way to try it before buying. To me, that doesn’t bode well, and I’d really prefer a core solution.
So that brought me back to Craft, a CMS that I toyed with about a year ago. Their multilingual solution is baked in and seems very elegant. There’s a lot to learn, and I’ve spent most of my tech learning time with Craft. I think both tools have their place, and I think it’s beneficial to have both in my toolkit. 
I also did a bit of volunteer work: I was able to fix Singing Out‘s out of memory issues by moving it to a new server. They were already with GoDaddy, so we decided to move to GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting. So far so good – they haven’t reported any problems since.
And finally on the work front, I potentially have a top-secret project that could provide a bit of passive income. I’ll keep chipping away at it when I have time.
My crowning glory this past month was Hellboys (me) winning my fantasy hockey pool. (It’s the little things in life that make me happy!) For most of the year I was in 9th place out of 10, but I managed to claw up into 6th to nab the final playoff spot. With a few good trades and a whole lot of luck, I managed to clinch the top spot this year.
Last week the weather turned the corner – Spring has sprung! This week has been colder by comparison, but we’re definitely heading in the right direction.
Today on CBC Radio, I heard a woman mention that she teaches the Iroquois’ seven something-or-other to school children, so I googled it. It’s hard to find good information, but according to Wikipedia, the concept is this:
“In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation…”
Sage advice, especially in an age when most politicians look no further than the next election.
Escape from Hogtown 