Meandering the Canadian Urban Wilderness

smart car anyone?

2008-06-23T22:51:00.001-04:00

view_2
Originally uploaded by bender folksinger

ok, so in the past post it was a lamp post, not a tree that the scantily clad teen was about to walk into.

in this pic we see a couple of interesting things about the new development - the first is the fact that people are parking as far as possible from the stores. i think this is because they are trying to stay as far as possible from the smells emanating from boston pizza...

the second is that there are two smart cars parked about ten car lengths apart. in both cases the driver backed into the spot... don't really think that's interesting but it allowed the graphic designer to use a different cgi car.

risque view of king's crossing

2008-06-23T22:46:00.001-04:00

view_8
Originally uploaded by bender folksinger

the new power centre that's starting to take shape up by the 401 is called king's crossing and the k-cap website has a few pics of what the whole mess of shopping paradise it's supposed to be. the pics are the regular computer generated type with the same people walking about rather aimlessly and cars evenly distributed throughout mile wide parking lots... but there are a few interesting elements of the pics that are interesting.

first up is this innocuous looking pic.. until your eye takes in the jail bait at the right side. not only is this miss wearing a very short skirt but there seems to be an opportune breeze passing through that's upping the pedophile quotient of the pic 10 fold. she also might just walk into a tree that's been placed in the middle of the sidewalk.

drowing rabbits

2008-06-04T13:01:00.002-04:00

so i'm at the pool last night - an insane venture at the best of times because it would seem than no one in this neighbourhood has anything better to do than hang out at the pool and stand around in the shallow end and adjust their goggles. each lane had like 6 swimmers and another 4 or so bystanders sort of hanging out and trying to decide whether they would try and actually complete a lap or not. not that i'm a huge swimmer but come on. there's a whole lane dedicated to 'leisure' and usually full of people doing impressions of kelp or other stationary aquatic creatures. yet, these other manotee (sp?) refuse to take advantage of the leisure lane - they mock the leisure lane. i hate these people.

so anyway, as i mentioned there is one lane marked leisure. the other two are 'fast' and 'slow'. i'm assuming this refers to the speed at which you are expected to swim in these lanes and does not refer to the mental competency of those doing the swimming. the pictures, however, on the sandwich boards referring to the lane speed are a bit more puzzling. on the slow lane there is a turtle, which, i admit, makes some sense. turtles are slow. however, in the water they can be pretty quick. not fin shark quick but fairly speedy. but i get the point.

the fast lane though makes little to no sense. there is a picture of a rabbit under the word fast. rabbits are fast, but can they swim? ok, so some right-wing psycho rabbits have been known to go on homicidal sprees but normally fluffy white mammals do not come to mind when i think of speedy watercraft. in fact, i think a turtle would rightly kick a rabbit's ass in a swimming race (unless the rabbit happened to be the rabbit of caerbannog in which case it would have gone psycho medieval on the turtle)

microwaveable find

2007-11-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

i was nuking some lunch and came to the realization that our microwave sucks. despite 5 minutes on high (while spinning) my meal emerged in a tepid paste-like consistency that was anything but appetizing. so... i went to kijiji to see if there were any microwaves about that might fit my price range (cheap). i found a bunch but i must say that i know little to nothing about microwaves and quality so i thought i'd google a couple makes and models to see what i could find.

well, one make - the goldstar intellowave - led me to a video review by bunyon, an expotv member who positively cracks me up. the guy looks like he just woke up and was handed a package of something to blather on about and he does! the review is nothing more than a reading of the buttons and size of the microwave (a plus, it comes with a timer, in case your oven doesn't have a timer, you can use the one on your microwave).

some of his videos look like they were taken in a war bunker where stuffed animals are used in interrogation exercises.

he also has a dog and 'reviews' a wide assortment of dog biscuits and treats. for most of those he reads directly from the package with no hint of irony in his voice (kudos for that!).

some he's just phoning it in...

ok... i looked at the site a bit and these people get paid if i watch the videos so that's why they even bother. and given that the only real qualification is that they have to speak for a minute they're really just killing time (most videos last between one and a half and two minutes). funny for a couple of minutes but annoying afterwards...

wind power redefined

2007-11-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

shawn frayne is one smart cookie (although his way of saying 'turbine' is offputting...). he's rejiggered the concept of wind energy to make it a heck of a lot more efficient and cheap. his idea - think of when you pick up a broad leaved piece of grass and blow across it - it warbles and makes a high pitched sound. well, if you could use this warbling to create energy you'd be in the energy business and will have barely broken a sweat. add a couple of magnets and some coiled wire and you are there. it's so simple you really do wonder why you didn't think of it before. and it's ideas like this that provoke others to dredge their minds for that one great thought that never really gained traction.

from haha.nu

short post, short shrift

2007-11-07T11:18:00.000-05:00

i came across the term short shrift in a document i was editing and became curious with the etymology of the term. it turns out that it's a pretty interesting phrase with much more meaning than we usually afford it.

http://www.answers.com/topic/short-shrift

a more interesting take is discussed here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sho2.htm

top 100 canadian albums, oui

2007-11-02T14:14:00.000-04:00

so a while back this guy, Bob Mersereau, put together a book on the top 100 canadian albums of all time. no real surprise that neil young's harvest took the top spot although i'm more partial to joni mitchell's blue or a number of more modern classics (including the weakerthan's left and leaving and bran van 3000's discosis - which didn't even make the top 100!). in fact, just one album was included in the top ten which was released in the past ten years - the arcade fire's funeral. this is a shame and omits a broad swath of great can-con, especially as we're starting to get recognized around the world (feist, anyone?). sarah harmer ranked high, deservedly so, but no new pornographers or malajube (which i'll get to in a second) or sam roberts among others.

anyway, i was reading an article in la presse today about how french canadian (read: quebecois) artists were snubbed. this is too true - there was a gaping hole of french stuff that the list didn't even feign to fill. however, i can understand that, historically, french artists have been pigeonholed, by either the recording industry or otherwise, geographically. you're more likely to find a manu chao song on the radio than anything by les trois accords. so... one of the comments afterward seemed to put the blame on english canada's lack of interest in french artists. this might be true to an extent, but really... i don't think that stands up to truth. there have been a number of spanish artists who have found success and there is an entire world music scene that runs the gamut from xhosa to russian that finds its niche. even sigur ros has a following and they make words up! i think that if people had a chance to hear the music they'd like it, buy the albums and so on.

the problem, more often that not, is that english canada doesn't get the opportunity to hear these artists.

for instance, right now there's a band in quebec called kain that is hotter than black vinyl car seats and yet they're invisible in english canada. a check of their tour dates reveals that they have few plans to cross into upper canada anytime soon. while i can find their album here in ottawa (in the french section) you wouldn't know it was there unless you were looking for it.

a side note - i picked up the new bran van today and when i went looking for it in a music world i eventually found it (after asking for assistance from the stunned staff) in the adult contemporary section. i thought that was hilarious.

malajube was somewhat able to break into english canada but it was a short-lived honeymoon and they've cooled considerably. however, if these bands got airplay i do think they would be supported - i went out and bought a copy of kain's last disc (and downloaded some ariane moffat - another great find) after hearing them on musique plus (which you can get in kingston! of course we don't get cable anymore...).

death to fruit flies

2007-10-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

i've found a fun way of getting rid of fruit flies - and we have had lots of practice...

the window screens in our place aren't all that great - the frames are not level and so there are gaps to either side of the screen. this means that we're constantly battling flies and other critters that wander in. well, with the indoor compost and the cats wrecking havoc fruit flies have been promulgating to no end. it doesn't help that we've set a number of traps up that have, i believe, proved tempting to other fruit flies that are idly flying by our windows and decide to set up shop. so, yes, we've been catching hundreds of the suckers in little dishes of vinegar (apple cider) with saran wrap on top (with holes to let them in) and wine bottles with traces of wine left in them.

i even tried to bake the suckers one time - i left a pie place in the over with a bit of wine in it overnight and when i woke up shut the oven door and turned the heat way up. well, i probably toasted a bunch but was not cruel enough to turn on the oven light and watch them burn.

however, i am cruel enough for my latest killing method - the hand-vac. this thing is great. you aim it where they are and fire away! most are sucked in instantly but a few try to outrun it and that's where the fun begins. as with the gravity of small planets there is a point of no return and many flies seem to hang in mid-air as they slide over the precipice, picking up speed as they enter the machine.

it would be way cool to add sound effects to the process - alas fruit flies are too small to make much of a thud or 'smuck' noise as they die...

cleanup

2007-10-15T22:21:00.000-04:00

just wanted to post a few things while they're fresh on my mind...

pc mag just released their best of 2007 blogs (and gave props to boing boing and neatorama, two of my biggest addictions...) and included within was kudos for the site adfreak which, as the title suggests, focuses on ads and their ilk... well, it would appear that nyc has a new ad campaign... very cartoony... but that's not the interesting thing. they referenced lousiville, kentucky's recent foray into advertising that must be seen to be believed...

here's a listing of the 6 that they've released...

absolutely hilarious - come to louisville to find a girl with a tattoo on her butt. classic.

more stuff to follow...
also - ingrid michaelson sings the sweater song from the old navy commercial... whew...

snl the funny???

2007-09-30T20:45:00.000-04:00

a post on fark today - actually two posts - consecutive ones to boot, directing others to a very funny clip from last night's saturday night live. this is news as snl has not produced anything remotely close to funny since the days of happy fun ball and toonces...

andy samberg's 'iran so far'
check out the cameos - also, the nbc feed of the clip has better resolution but the sound is a tad muted and it's hard to tell the lyrics...

also saw the second simpsons of the season - it reminded me of a repeat i saw the other day of one of my favs - when bart is given a restraining order from lisa and gary busey explains what will happen within the household. just thinking of the clip makes me giggle like mahmood...

gary busey's restraining order clip

surplus anyone?

2007-09-27T12:58:00.000-04:00

so canada's surplus for the past year was a tidy 13.8 billion... a bit higher than what was estimated (by, um, 4.6 billion... chump change really...). ctv's report fails to mention the previous estimates (surprise, surprise...) and is almost gushing it its praise for harper and his gang. however, an interesting bit is that ctv allows comments on articles and the peanut gallery appears almost evenly split amongst those who say, 'kudos, hooray!' and those who say, 'damn hypocrites, when martin/chretien brought in massive surpluses they were thieves' or 'the surpluses are all thanks to martin's prudence, blah, blah, blah...'.

cell issues

2007-09-27T12:28:00.000-04:00

so for the past bit, ever since i changed my cell number to a local ottawa number, i've been receiving text messages for someone named sarah. now, i'm not well-versed in how texting works so i didn't (and still, largely don't) know how to contact the person and let them know that i'm not the person they're trying to contact.

i've tried replying to the texts i've received but they're coming from windows live messenger and therefore i'm not sending them directly to the person but to their email account. the people i have been able to contact, as well, have not responded so i'm not really sure what's going on.

what i've been able to gleam, without really digging too much (cause i could just forward all the messages to my email account...) is that the person's name is sarah and that she used to date a guy but they recently split up (his last email to her had the subject line: don't be a child). the ex has some sort of relationship now with lyndsey who just happens to be sarah's best friend. sarah told lyndsey to have relations with the ex while at the airport (i think she went to africa - many of the text messages are titled re: africa) - btw, relations is my word... the ex uses a less sensitive word...

the ex uses the word 'whack' in sentences like the following... "i most likey wont even see her anyway, but if she or i want see each other we should not have to ask your permission or some whack thing like that..."

another text message (that i didn't read) was titled 'your wife...' which adds to the mystery.

i'll post more about this person when i can (i don't have my cell on my at the moment...).

btw... the ex (who doesn't list his name in the email...) signs off on with 'laters'

other mottos

2007-09-26T07:02:00.001-04:00

ok so i looked up the national (and some provincial) mottos (there's a wiki page!) and cobbled together a list of some of my favs...

Aruba - One Happy Island
Azerbaijan: Bir kere yukselen bayraq, bir daha enmez! (The flag once raised will never fall!)
Belize: Sub umbra floreo (Latin, Under the shade I flourish)
Grenada: Ever Conscious of God We Aspire, and Advance as One People
Kenya: Harambee (Swahili, Let's work together)
Luxembourg: Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn (Luxembourgish, We wish to remain what we are)
Scotland: Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin, No one provokes me with impunity)

british motto

2007-09-26T06:53:00.000-04:00

apparently britain is jonesing for a motto as they're jealous of those of other countries in the world. i think i'll look some of those up in a second... but first i'd like to present a few that were suggested on the bbc magazine site as they are brilliant (or stupid, but mostly brilliant).

'Britain - all it needs is a coat of paint'.
"With honour, with justice, with chips"
"Togetherness though diversity; Unity through variety"
Is it still raining?
Musn't grumble
Britain: Good old-fashioned newness
Briefly Creative.
"Queue Properly"

hate on for bell

2007-09-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

ok, so another bell episode today...

my mail had not been forwarded from birch st. (surprise, surprise) so my last few bills were not reaching me. not a big deal as i'm set up for direct withdrawal but it meant that i didn't know that i was being fleeced from the get go with my 'plan'.

a couple of weeks ago i called to change my number over to an ottawa local number and talked to some guy who asked me who i worked for. for the third time i told him that it was queen's (i didn't want to get into the whole mess about who i did and didn't work for and for how long etc). he said that on the computer i work for canadian tire - to which i said, 'yeah, that's what it says but i've never worked for crappy tire - i don't know why they put this on my account'. well, he says that it doesn't matter cause it's a good deal and i should stick with it. i said 'ok'.

this was the umpteenth time i've called bell over the past year - the first was useless. i talked to a cheery east-coaster about my plan and she was totally lost... wanted to know why i hadn't signed up for a bundle plan (i had - canadian tire) and didn't seem to know why my payments at the time weren't being received.

other calls were also pointless - the most recent boondoggle being that they didn't show up when they said they would to install the phone line, but showed up 2 hours later and then complained that we weren't there and told primus that we didn't have a phone connection with them (during which time we received calls for the service store around the corner - two houses away!).

today was also funny. going over my contract i notice that my long distance for the past month was $12. i'm supposed to have a 7 cent/minute plan so this means that i've been screwed over as they were charging me 40cents/minute... and... they've been doing this since day one! despite my calls to bell about my account they hadn't changed anything...

so i phone them up - they're experiencing a higher volume of calls than normal (when are they experiencing normal volume?). then i talk to this guy - richard, who says 'is it your husband's account?'

yeah... so i'm like seething but think, well, the guy's heard three words out of my mouth so far so perhaps he'll clue in... so i say 'no... it's my account' to which he says, under his breath, 'there's only a man's name on this account'.

um, hello? perhaps richard, who barely managed to spit out three words in a row in thick french accent (which does mean he's not indian at least...).

once i told him my name he didn't apologize or anything - didn't change his tone at all and right away acknowledged that my account had been set up wrong (for starters), shouldn't have been made out to canadian tire (you think?) and that, yes, i shouldn't have been charged for the long distance charges. so, he changes the last 90 days of my account (a policy - they can't do more) and tells me that i must change my plan. this might be a good thing though... christine is looking at getting a cell and we could get a family plan (of course we had thought of ditching bell altogether...).

so richard is emailing me some potential alternative plans. he did look up queen's corporate plans but got confused cause there were two (and, coincidentally, if you sign up for a multi-year plan and change jobs, or they ask you who you work for and it's not the one on the contract, you have to change your plan... um... i'll have to look into the contract to see how that works...).

btw - a quick peek at the bell plans leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth...

p4w now in queen's' hands...

2007-09-12T10:15:00.000-04:00

queen's and the whig are both reporting on the final sale of the entire p4w grounds (8 acres) to queen's for a tidy sum of somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 million.

btw - the whig has a new site design that ranks up there with some of the oddest reconfigurations i can remember... it's pretty ugly. it would appear that they are trying to do away with most of the images on the site and work in javascript and css in its stead. the good thing is that the number of articles available has jumped considerably. i would nix the sky blue colour scheme (ugh!) and perhaps try out some more imaginative fonts... you also need a map and gps system to find the whig logo (about two inches down, on the left).

anyway... in other news the city finally released the newest newsletter on the lvec (a full month late i might add). the 'monthly newsletter' skipped august it would seem although it sure makes up for lost time by providing such riveting info as the fact that the noise from concerts in the surrounding area would be 5 decibels less than expected as "This reduction was achieved as a result of including the lower roof wall, which was not fully designed when the original concert modelling was completed."

so... that means that the lower roof wall has been redesigned... interesting. i guess we'll have to wait until it's finished to see what that means. as of yet we're still operating on the 90% plans that were tabled over a year ago - no new plans have been released.

the webcam of the site does show that the bubble wrap top is now in place and much of the sides are quickly resembling, well, sides.

i will hopefully be getting internet soon (primus contacted bell on the day that we were supposed to be hooked up and bell said that we weren't hooked up (they showed up 2 hours late anyway - but we were hooked up, only to a phone line around the corner) and so they canceled our connection... no, they didn't phone and ask us anything). oh, and primus phoned last night to tell us that they were connecting things next week... but the message was only in french. gah! i phoned the number and asked the woman who answered (and was ticked that I wanted english on the french line) to hear the message in english and she said no... she couldn't do that, and besides, i wasn't on the account anyway. i hung up on her.

wiki scanner

2007-08-20T15:27:00.000-04:00

there's a fun new tool that has been getting a lot of buzz and ruffling a few feathers as it lists all the organizations (by ip address) that have edited wikipedia pages, along with their edits. i've had some fun checking out a few that i thought might be illuminating - molson... labatt... stuff like that. but i found a pretty good one today... benny hinn ministries.

benny is a crook and liar and easily one of the sleaziest people around. he hosts a show wherein he claims to heal people - then he jet sets away on his luxury jet and lives it up in $10,000 a night hotels and the like. his suits cost more than i make in a year. the cbc did a little expose on him recently that was fun but only scratched the surface.

the wikiscanner page on benny hinn is a veritable feast of funny, albeit in a geeky cyber way.

and... it would appear that someone within the ministries is not a big fan of benny and his work... adding the following to a rather innocuous post about how he gives sermons in cities 'in which he take a lot of money from the lame and doesn't do anything which heals them but pretends that they can be healed. Hell awaits him.'

and to drive that home the next line was added...

"This man will surely spend eternity with his father the Devil."

a more puzzling edit was for the page for Don Garlits, the 'father of drag racing' where a criticism that he has professed anti-homophobic opinion was cleansed...

tribulations of apartment searches

2007-08-10T23:07:00.000-04:00

ok, we've been meaning to mention a bit of the funny and frustrating that has occurred during our recent (ongoing) search for an apartment for september. i will write a bit about some of the more interesting places and people we've met but just had to include one response to an email about an ad i received this evening...

to begin, here's the ad that i responded to...

Available Now FREE HEAT, HYDRO, PKNG 1 bdrm apt + den & balcony

Available Immediately

One bedroom apt + den/office & balcony on very quiet street in Centertown.
$1100 per month (FREE HEAT, HYDRO and PARKING)

Suitable for single professional.
Second level, private entrance.
Free Parking available at the door, bus routes close by and very close to all amenities.
20 minute walk (Less than 2 km) to Parliament Hill
Please email

Motorpart02@yahoo.com

Thanks.

sounds pretty normal eh? that's what i thought too... so my email to 'Motorpart' was the following...

Hi there,

We saw the ad on kijiji and had a couple questions about the apartment.

Where exactly is the apartment located?
Is laundry on site?

Perhaps you could also let us know when you would be available to show
the apartment.

Thanks,

Christine and Dave.

then comes the funny... here's what awaited me when i checked my mail tonight. yes it's addressed to holly...

Dear Holly,
Thanks for the email and also Pastor James owned the house and also it is situated at the Simcoe Street , in the Ottawa and also want you to know that it was due to me i am transfer that makes me to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a resposible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.So for now,Am here in the United Kingdom our new house and also with the keys of the house,we try to look for an agent that we can give this document before we left but could not see and we are as well as dont want our house to be used any how in our present that is why we took it along to us here and as you know that, i am here in United Kingdom for a mission of God,so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the house.So get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in rention home.Hope you are okay with the price of $1100ysd with the utilities.

i look forward to hearing from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent,also are you ready to rent it now or when?
Thanks,

Await your reply.
Pastor James.

litter lady

2007-08-09T17:09:00.000-04:00

ok so i bought a new bike the other day... not really a new one but a new one to me. it's probably 15 years old... the woman i bought it from had had it for 12 years and treated it quite well... the pic gives a good idea of what it looks like...

anyway, we pimped it out a bit (the bike cost $50 and i put an extra $63 in toe clips, grips and handles as well as a lock) and then took it out for a ride today to break it in. after checking the maps out we decided to head out for mooney's bay for a day at the beach. once we arrived i got a bit antsy and wanted something to read so ventured out on foot to see what i could find in the way of a newspaper vendor. after a couple blocks i found a mini-mall and freshmart where i picked up a globe. anyway, on the way out of the parking lot i heard a car nearby idling... not a huge deal but annoying, especially as today was far from the stifling level of hot that's it's been lately in the capital. so i look over to see the car where the noise is coming from and see an older woman piloting a stocky blue chevy (or such). she's got the window rolled down about two inches and looks like she's set to go so i don't really think much of it. then, just as i notice that she's got a handicapped sticker on her car her hand sticks out the open window and drops the plastic wrap from a pack of cigarettes.

um, hello?

so i had many options in that split second and didn't really know what to do. i wanted to say/do something - call her out, throw the plastic through the window, something along those lines. but, i didn't. what i did do was walk up to the car, stop, pick up the plastic and walk off hitting the back bumper of her car with the folded newspaper as i left. she looked a little startled as i approached and i assume that she was a tad bewildered when i stopped beside the car but i didn't bother looking over at her.

as i walked back to the beach i thought of all the things i wish i had said at the time. the one that kept creeping back into my head was something along the lines of 'hey - skinbag - it's bad enough that you smoke and pollute my air but you don't have to litter and compute the problem. i'm glad smoking shortens lives and here's hoping that it does away with you before you can do more damage to the planet.'

too harsh? not harsh enough?

i thought of that guy on youtube that stuffed the ashtray remnants on the lap of the motorist in montreal who had dumped them on the ground. while it turns out the incident was faked it got me wishing i had had a camera with me.

colorado twin strikes for the third time

2007-08-07T19:14:00.001-04:00

i received a missive today, a missive... it looks to be a back and forth between my namesake and this other student/colorado person of interest, one tiffany wiley. nothing on interest on her part i think... a website says she's part of the colorado leadership but the link that's posted is an ad site. another person involved is alex aronson, a smarty-pants who has a free ride at the university just cause she chose to stay in colorado... she also may have some lesbian leanings as she loves tiff and means it.

here's the latest transcript... (i've removed the email addresses...)

Subject: AG WEEKEND

Quick question: Am I still supposed to contact Lauren Evans, or are you guys going to do that? I’m happy to do it but don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

Have we decided to change Ag to Sat/Sun?

Dave

On 8/7/07 9:39 AM, "Dave Dorey" wrote:

Sure thing Tiff. Here is the contact info for their office executive assistance, Jenifer Gurr.

"Gurr, Jenifer"

Let me know if you need anything else. I’m out of the office on a road trip for work today to Trinidad (wahoo), but you can call my cell.

Dave

On 8/7/07 9:10 AM, "Tiffany A Wiley" wrote:

Alex:

Great! Let's talk today about the weekend we feel would be easiest to reschedule. (either Ag or Neutral). Dave, since Alex is taking the lead on both of these will you shoot over the contact info. for Sheldon Jones and Jim Miller. I have a good start to some ideas for that weekend....

:)
On Aug 6, 2007, at 5:29 PM, Alexandra Jean Aronson wrote:

I am totally okay with changing some of the Friday/Saturdays to SAturday/nSundays. Totally fine. So, we can chat about it tomorrow Tiff.

Love you, mean it.

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 14:04:38 -0600
From: Tiffany A Wiley
Subject: Re: AG. WEEKEND
To: Alexandra Jean Aronson
Cc: David Dorey

What do you two HONESTLY think? Your weekend success depends on the students attending so I want your opinions.
What do you think?
Tiff

On Aug 6, 2007, at 1:21 PM, Alexandra Jean Aronson wrote:

Hey Tiff,
sorry didn't check emial till just now. I set the Natural for Friday and Saturday. I can change it, however, if might be more difficult to meet people at businesses on Saturday and Sunday.
Let me know.

---- Original message ----
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:59:57 -0600
From: Tiffany A Wiley
Subject: Re: AG. WEEKEND
To: Dave Dorey
Cc: Alexandra Aronson

Sundays. Totally fine. So, we can chat about it tomorrow Tiff.
Love you, mean it.
Alex

---- Original message ----

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 14:04:38 -0600
From: Tiffany A Wiley
Subject: Re: AG. WEEKEND
To: Alexandra Jean Aronson
Cc: David Dorey

What do you two HONESTLY think? Your weekend
success depends on the students attending so I want
your opinions. What do you think?
Tiff

On Aug 6, 2007, at 1:21 PM, Alexandra Jean Aronson wrote:

Hey Tiff,
sorry didn't check emial till just now. I set
the Natural for Friday and Saturday. I
can change it, however, if might be more difficult
to meet people at businesses
on Saturday and Sunday. Let me know.

---- Original message ----

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:59:57 -0600
From: Tiffany A Wiley
Subject: Re: AG. WEEKEND
To: Dave Dorey
Cc: Alexandra Aronson

What do you think Ms. Alex? Is Nat. colorado set for Friday/Sat? And do you think only one Sat/Sun would work?

Tiff

On Aug 6, 2007, at 11:55 AM, Dave Dorey wrote:

I do see the problems with that possibility...if we can decide ASAP if we are moving it, I can get back talking with them. However, we do have a good deal of spots on each weekend, so we can be fairly accommodating on tourism weekend to those that can’t miss Fridays.

And yes, I’d rather have the proactivity problems than the other way.

~Dave

Tiffany Wiley
Program Director
Presidents Leadership Class

What do you think Ms. Alex? Is Nat.
colorado set
for Friday/Sat? And do you think only one
Sat/Sun
would work?
Tiff

On Aug 6, 2007, at 11:55 AM, Dave Dorey wrote:
I do see the problems with that
possibility...if
we can decide ASAP if we are moving it, I
can get
back talking with them. However, we do
have a
good deal of spots on each weekend, so we
can be
fairly accommodating on tourism weekend to
those
that can’t miss Fridays.
And yes, I’d rather have the proactivity
problems than the other way.
~Dave

'abomination'

2007-07-20T10:53:00.000-04:00

so the reviews are coming in for smartcentres' proposed alcan development and so far they ain't good.

a public hearing last night railed against the proposal to plop a new sprawlmart and crappy tire tucked in behind the wendy's and shoppers. it's a big project and one hot on the heels of the king's crossing development that's been taking over the north end. the combined heft of just the one alcan development would, in theory, equal the whole of downtown kingston's retail space.

gah.

what is more, the alcan project would sidetrack another plan underway to bring a 'high-tech business park' to the area from queen's. i'm not sure if there would be overlap as i had heard earlier that queen's was earmarking the eastern flank of the site near the apartments at the beginning of concession. there was a kerfluffle about the potential for this development to uproot the baseball diamonds and fields there...

i'll post some pics of the site in a bit - for now here are the links to smartcentres (click on 'our centres' on the right, select ontario and kingston), the whig story and kings crossing for a recap of the 401 plaza-ish thing that throws a monkey wrench into these new proposals.

howard sloan, a proponent of the plan, said that having a home-improvement store so close to the downtown would "cut my fuel and travel time in half". as the rona on princess is located just about 3.5 km from the alcan site this would mean that howard lives around division and princess... man, just think... he could save 8 minutes off his commute!

update: colorado me

2007-07-17T10:38:00.000-04:00

well... it's been seconds since i posted about my echo me in colorado. well... it appears that this story might have legs... not that he's emailed me back but this site does elaborate on the type of person he is...

bible quiz champion, 2004 (he won the silver in 2003)

president's leadership class

intersting...

on a side note... while googling i found that there was an apparent dave dorey affair involving football. i shall investigate.

confused in colorado

2007-07-17T10:29:00.000-04:00

ok so i don't have the most popular of names. it's a bit odd... off the beaten track. all told there are probably only enough doreys to fill a clown car (one on the larger side, yes...), and then you tack my first name onto the front and that's gotta narrow the field by a factor of at least 10. so... recently someone with my very same name has gotten it into his head that he's sending emails to himself, only he's addressing them to someone named paul. so this is even weirder cause paul was my father's name.

here's the first email exchange - his number has been omitted...

Dear Paul,
I wanted to let you know that I have dropped our security deposit in the
mail today, and it should arrive shortly.

I will contact you again as Aug. 1 approaches to setup a day for move-in and
check-in.

Thanks,
Dave

i politely responded that he must be confuzzled for the following reasons: i'm not paul, i have the same name as he does, and he adds a dot in the middle of my email address (which google doesn't recognize - they say so right here).

i responded with the following...

Hi there,

Unfortunately you've got the wrong email (while mine doesn't have a
dot in the address it still made it to my inbox) - while we share a
great name I don't live anywhere near Colorado and do not know Paul.

All the best and hope you get it figured out,

Dave.

i thought this would have settled it right there... but no, i was wrong. today i get the second message...

Dear Paul,
Thanks again for your call the other day regarding putting in wood floors
upstairs.

I was wondering, since there will already be construction going on in the
house at this point, if it would be too much trouble to ask to have a door
put on the third bedroom upstairs where I will be staying?

I noticed that this last year the screen had broken on the guy who was
staying in the room, so I thought it might be a useful change to safeguard
against future breaks.

Just thought I'd ask.

Thanks,

Dave Dorey

so... i responded with the short, but i consider witty, rejoinder...

I'm not Paul so while your request sounds reasonable I cannot fulfill it.

once again... you've got a great name but i think you're confused about where you're sending emails.

dave.

i'll keep you posted on where this goes...

kingston - home of the big box store

2007-07-17T07:37:00.000-04:00

article in the whig today about the possibility for yet another big box development in k-town. this one would be plopped at the corner of sir john a. and princess, just behind the paint and pet food place and would include a new crappy tire and walmart. and... the new stores would dwarf the old ones. yep, they are planning larger versions of the already massive sites.

while the cdn tire would be bigger, by 1,800 square metres, than the current record holder out on gardener's road (the new one would be 110,000 square feet for imperial comparison). by the time it's completed, though, one in halifax will have been built at a mind-numbing 14,000 square metres (the gardener's one is a relatively puny 8,400). that's a hell of a lot of wd-40, second-rate electronics and discounted camping gear.

however, both of these stores would have sand kicked in their faces by the 20,000 square metre behemoth that is the new walmart (215,000 square feet), some 7,500 square metres bigger than the current one in the township.

apparently there is demand for these guys - along with a new department store and hardware store (the first lowes perhaps???). i was hoping for an ikea. to figure out the walmart demand they actually counted licence plates and did a geographical analysis of where people were coming from. yep, if you went to walmart over the past few months and had not stolen a car to get there, they most likely know.

i have no idea what this will do to the kings crossing development taking shape over on division at the 401. already they've begun the clear cut and assessment of the groups in prep of constructing that big box heaven. wild stuff. and we can start the betting on what the old cdn tire will become once the new one is up and running. i've voting for waterpark.

block d's octopark

2007-06-15T11:17:00.001-04:00

BlockDPark
Originally uploaded by bender folksinger

here's the potential park for block d, tucked in behind those new apartments that sprouted in the past year. it looks ok but i'm concerned as to what the star shaped thingy is in the middle. the flailing arms off to the side are also kind of interesting. a marina is tucked in at the right-hand side looking an awful lot like a tetris block. it is said that the centre piece star would be a site of events and goings on during the summer, sort of like an overflow for happenings at confed basin. it is said to be a 'grassed amphitheatre'. the squigglies on the left are sail sculptures meant to be both aesthetically pleasing and help block out cross winds. to me they look like snakes doing some sort of synchronized routine. info is at the following city website.

queen's u computers

2007-06-12T11:00:00.000-04:00

looking for a document i autosaved from gmail at queen's and decided to sniff around the 'my docs' folder to see what others have decided to save anonymously (or otherwise). i used to find all sorts of odd things - a lot of pr0n too. i remember there used to be this one guy that would surf pr0n in the middle of the compu lab just having a grand old time.

not that it's all that exciting but here's a snippet of what i found today... i very boring but enlightening back and forth that someone decided was important enough to save. makes me weep for the children of tomorrow... poor kelvin, he does enjoy learning though - perhaps he'll jot that down on match.com.