more pre-concert fun

He really can't stand them. He's in hell. Me? Laughing like hell.

unamused security at spice girls

To the right, a security man who clearly didn't need to hear the Spice Girls twice. To the left, girls who with enough beer thinks they're the Spice Girls.

8:15 no spice girls yet

The security looks pretty tired of dealing with the girls here... Haha.

at the spice girls in montreal

So far, it's girls and gays here. Oh, and the poor fathers dragged here by their daughters.

the more humane way to travel?

On the train to Montreal and I just realized we're stopping 7 times before we arrive. Pas de probleme, I guess, since at least I'm not taking the bus. (The scenery is also nicer than if I were on the bus or plane.)

The train is half the price of flying and doesn't incur the same incidental costs like a taxi to and from the airport. We also arrive 20 minutes before to catch the train, whereas the plane would be at least an hour. As well, there will be no waiting for luggage at the carousel. We're on a slower train, but travelling by train could be as fast as four and a half hours. Including time to get to the aiport, security checks, and luggage time, I wonder how much quicker is flying from Pearson?

The train isn't perfect though. Seating should be assigned. Otherwise, double seats are taken over by just one single traveller, as if we're on the TTC. Also, electrical outlets would be appreciated. Five hours on a train goes by easier with laptop use or not having to worry about an iPod going dead. Finally, wi-fi is too pricey. Four bucks for fifteen minutes? Give me a break. Five bucks for the train ride, tops. I guarantee usage would go up. Then again, without outlets, I guess there's no use.

Everyone on the train do seem calmer though. No frantic pressure to keep you entertained, like on a plane. No canned fish freaking out, like on a bus. If it could drop to 100 for a round trip, I might take the train to Montreal once a month, just to get away now and then. I'd consider it therapy, and money well spent.

UPDATE: The return train had outlets against the train wall-covered by the brown paper throw up bags. It's still kinda cramped though to use.

victor's finds, part 4

12:20 PM Victor: do you remember my proposition that all my intelligent female friends should bear at least 10 children?

this is why

12:21 PM me: we should invent the octo-womb

12:22 PM me: to allow smart women to have multiple babies on the go!

12:23 PM Victor: I am both vindicated and alarmed

help me spread the message!

12:24 PM me: yes, yes, it'll go up as Victor's Finds #4

If only God had found a way to combine pleasure and reproduction. Sigh.

social networking sites do not deepen friendships

This article in the Guardian notes:

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks.
Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.

Duh.

weird google hits for jaime woo

Googling yourself is a healthy pastime. It doesn't make you go blind... unless you stare at the screen too closely, I guess. But it can yield odd results.

Webcrawling bots from random fake websites will search the web, usually hunting for specific tags or keywords without rhyme or reason, for articles to automatically add to the site. It means something that I write for Torontoist will end up linked or copied all over the web and often make no sense.

For example, the post I wrote on quitting smoking was picked up by one of these sites, except the bot attributed my name to someone else's article. It's nice to see which genuine sites are picking up on Torontoist posts, but these fake websites are essentially Google Adsense pit holes, similar to the ones you see when you misspell a URL.

On a random note, did you know there's another Jaime Woo in BC? We're so awesome, we need Jaime Woos at each coast. Otherwise, a lot of hits end up people adding the phrase "wooooo!" after the name Jaime. Ick.

best wedding dance ever?

Ah, the performance of a lifetime:



Don't you love when "real people" act? The half-smirking, "gee, what's going on here" looks are my guilty pleasure. It's like when I catch Chris and John to the Rescue.

PS. How did I scoop Victor on getting this video?

rohit's musical showcase, edition three: tokyo police club

Rohit just sent me an email to check out uber-awesome band "Tokyo Police Club." TPC are four guys who hail from Newmarket and are acquiring a load of buzz. See CBC naming them a band to watch in 2008.

Watch on, with two videos off Youtube for "Nature of the Experiment" and "Your English is Good."

Nature of the Experiment:


Your English is Good:

cbc news doing a great job

I know news outlets tend to circle around the same stories, but so many great stories that I see come from CBC News first. Then, days later, the Star will come out with a similar article.

Example: I plucked this article off CBC on gay men and organ donation from the 7th. The Star wrote about it two days later.

Then, I saw on CBC that Australians were being warned that Canada was dangerous from the 15th. The Globe wrote about it a week and a half later. So did CTV News.

Bravo to the CBC News team! I know as a blogger where to first look for issues that matter.

amazing but true

Ahh... after weeks of non-confidence in our dollar, it's almost done its climbs towards parity. But the Canadian dollar has not always been consolidated. I found this off Wikipedia:

Newfoundland issued its own currency until joining Confederation in 1949, although the value of the Newfoundland dollar was adjusted in 1895 to make it equal to the Canadian dollar.

Reminding ourselves of how close the past really is is surreal. Sometimes, the idea of an independent Quebecois dollar is scoffed at, but, 60 years ago, Newfoundland used its own currency!

Photo by SqueakyMarmot

conserve your water, conserve your wallet

The Star reports how municipalities are hurting in revenue because people are conserving on water use.

"Toronto alone is facing about $800 million worth of repair and replacement work, since half of the city's water mains and 30 per cent of its sewer pipes are more than 50 years old. But last year, total revenue was only $604 million."

However, consider this fact from a Maclean's article on bottled water: "Canadians spent $652.7 million on bottled water that year, consuming 1.9 billion litres, 60 litres per capita..."

Bottled water in PET bottles in the home makes no sense where there is perfectly good water running through the tap. If people gave up bottled water and went back to tap water, win-win, baby.

Photo by shrff14

gimme shelter

Take your monthly income. Multiply it by 0.3. Now compare it to your monthly rental or mortgage payment. If it's higher than 30% of your monthly income, you are above the affordable range for the shelter cost-to-income ratio. Don't worry though, according to CBC, 3 in 10 Canadians are above this ratio. Sadly, the lack of affordable housing means many of the 3 in 10 Canadians are low income earners.

I have no idea if the ratio depends on pre- or post-tax income. However, I'm sure the remainder are middle-class folks who are living beyond their means, regardless of how it's calculated. Now, if only someone could make a handbag and shoes ratio for girls.

the free spice girls tickets contest begins!

Alright, at the stroke of midnight, I'm opening up entries for the free Spice Girls tickets in NYC. (What? Did I really say I'm giving them away. YES SIR!) Full deets @ http://freespicegirlstickets.blogspot.com/