So another week rolls by and another blog message mid-week flits and flops on the side of the weathered path of life. I really do have to amend my ways. Of course, it was much easier to write a blog when there were less satisfying distractions to hand….the pup, the missus, friends, telly, XBox, computer games, iTunes, etc., etc. But enough. A little more consistency is required.
I discovered some disturbing, but helpful news in the last week (particularly disturbing to the missus 'cos it costs a little cash on an almost daily basis)....I can get boot loads more work done if I bugger off from the house and find a wireless hotspot (read Starbucks). Not sure why (well, actually I do know why), but if I take my iPod, my bberry and the laptop to a Starbucks and work for two or three hours, I get the equivalent accomplished of what would take me about four to five hours at home. Granted, I only get two hours free wifi in a Starbucks, but I’ even organized for that. I pop in, work offline for about an hour (I still have email coming in on my bberry), then log on and get my research aspects done with the remaining two hours. It's been working brilliantly.
But why? Why do I need to be in a busy environment with people milling uselessly around me and blabbering on about inane shit that really doesn’t mean squat, requiring me to put on my iPod and blast my eardrums, in order to get motivated and get shit done? I don’t know, but it’s working.
The downsides to my newfound stream of creativity and productivity are that the pup doesn't have the benefit of my company for half the day, I don't get to take breaks in my undies, lying on the couch, watching rugger or The Sea Hunters (more on this in a moment, because I am growing to loathe myself for that one trait) and I can't crack on the ol' XBox for some unmitigated violence for a brief respite. Oh, and it usually costs me about $4 something, because I get a redeye, followed by a tall mild in a grande cup. Well, ok, it has cost a little more a couple of times, because I also have been to Starbucks in Chapters, which inevitably lead to me buying a book or magazine while I am there. I am trying now to avoid such Starbucks, the temptation is simply too great. It's like putting a fat Texan in a McDonald's and telling them they can only eat salad.....no, wait, that wouldn't work, McDonald's salads have a higher calorie count than their burgers....ok, it's like putting an anorexic in a room full of toilet paper and telling them to just use it for its natural application....ok, that was just bad. Anyway, you get my point....book stores are like crack to me.
But on the bright side, I finally managed to rip off the draft of the shareholders agreement; I've put together a rudimentary plan for how to approach various targets client groups; jotted down ideas for website and logo; written a draft mission statement/roadmap; researched target markets; contacted pools and even looked into Richard Florida’s machinations for ideas and inspiration (thanks for the suggestion, Danielle).
Let me just rant for a second about this whole Richard Florida thing for a second. For those of you who aren't Toronto-centric (and some of you who may be but just don't give a crap), Richard Florida is an urban studies theorist, who focuses on social and economic theory (thanks, Wikipedia). The University of Toronto and the City of Toronto are currently feting Florida as the city-planning guru that can lead Toronto in the right direction…basically, he’s the best thing since sliced bread. In a nutshell (and there may be some of you who research this and come up with a slightly different opinion, but hey, whatevs), his major hypothesis has been that very educated and "Bohemian" people flock to certain urban centres and it is the retention of these people that will allow said urban centre to truly flourish and grow. In league with that hypothesis, he has recently been suggesting certain steps that Toronto could take to grow into one of the world's true major cultural and influential global cities.
Some of his suggestions and observations are very cool ideas (such as getting a bullet train system in place between Detroit and Montreal with Toronto as the central hub along the route, not looking to the US for inspiration …like we needed a hint for that, the US is in a tailspin), but I can’t shake this feeling of “yeuch” when I hear about his ideas. For one, he is almost exclusionary in his model…he argues that cities should do more to keep the artists, the creative class, the gay scene (he’s a huge supporter of increasingly larger gay communities, which I guess is cool, although I think we shouldn’t need to have a “community”, to me I think that if someone is gay, then cool, but it should be so accepted that there shouldn’t be a need to live in gay collectives), the Bohos, but he never really addresses the impoverished, the disenfranchised, etc. While I am all for a very large creative class in Toronto, it smacks a little of Nazism in an odd way. Don’t go getting all righteous on me and pointing out that the Nazi’s persecuted artists, gays, bohos, etc. I’m not talking 1939 German Nazi’s, I’m talking of Nazism in general. Look after the “select” and ignore the “dirty”. I would love Toronto to grow and be a cultural icon, but we really do need to address some social issues in this City.
What is even more ironic is that this guy lives in a fancy house on the ravine in Rosedale. He’s just so damn elitist.
The other slight beef I have with this is that the concepts he is coming up with are fine, but I imagine they have been bandied about before. Nothing is starkly original. It’s just that because this guy says it, suddenly it is brilliant.
Anyway, enough ranting.
Let’s get positive. I’ve finally started feeling a little warmer in my home and sorta-native land. It only took a month. I guess the rising temperatures have also helped. We even got to a balmy 14 degrees last week. Even if there was a slight windchill with it. I still don’t get why some people get idiotic though when the weather is mildly warmer. I saw two or three guys out in shorts. Seriously. 14 degrees and you think it is shorts weather? Knobs.
Last week the milder temperatures actually almost killed me! No, really, I almost died. You would have had to go blogless forever more. The rapidly rising temperatures made the ice rink that is the dog path in High Park (where I walk the puppy) turn into a sliding sheet of death. It was like someone had taken a zamboni out to make the ice nice and smooth. Even off the beaten track, every step was hair-raising and a potential disaster waiting to happen.
And then it did happen. I was trying to come down a small relatively steep embankment. I was roughly following a path, but as it was nicely glassed over, I was treading along the sides on the more roughened snowy ice. One foot slipped. It was like watching the missus fall over (did I ever mention this before? The missus has this uncanny knack of falling over and hurting herself ever so slowly. She does this often and while it is not fun for her, it never fails to crack me up. I know that sounds mean, but if you were there when it happens, you’d laugh too. She takes like three or four seconds to hit the ground. You fall, I fall, the world falls and boom…..we’re on our asses. Not the missus. She starts falling and she’s all “no, arghhh”, “I’m fallinnnnnnnngggggg”. It is like watching a slo-mo moment on the telly or in a film. Think Will Farrell slow-mo going “nooooooo” and you’d get the idea. And the sound effects, they totally remind me of that skit by Eddie Murphy when his aunt falls down the stairs….was that Delirious or Raw? Her last fall was in Koh Phanang. She hurt her knee, but even she had to laugh when I re-enacted her fall). Anyway, my foot slips and I try to regain my balance with my other foot, but it too starts sliding and before you know it I am literally ice skating down the slope. Poor little saplings and some arsehole-not-so-small saplings are pinging off me left, right and centre…twigs stuck to me, branches crashing, wood flying. I’m about to totally wipe out and hit Spring Road (which is cement and ice-encrusted) and have things end very badly, when a particularly large sapling helpfully stops me…..by having my crotch embrace it. Sure it was painful, but I guess I lived.
And I shouldn’t whine so much, the poor puppy has had a shitty week. Bailey has a hotspot on the side of her neck. How a dog gets a hotspot in the middle of winter, I don’t know, but the vet had to shave it and we have to clean and dry it twice a day. It’s an ordeal for her and us. First, she hates the cleaning and drying with a vengeance. Second, she has been wearing a bucket for the last few days, particularly when I am out of the house. This is because, left to her own devices, she scratches the hotspot with her paw, which opens it up and makes it bleed. It’s drying up, but the poor bugger hasn’t slept properly in about four days. On top of which, she gets all anxious to have some exercise when I take her out, but up until yesterday, she had to remain leashed and even sometimes bucketed on her walks. I’m hoping it clears up by the weekend, so that she can get back to normal and truly enjoy some of these milder temperatures.
I discovered some disturbing, but helpful news in the last week (particularly disturbing to the missus 'cos it costs a little cash on an almost daily basis)....I can get boot loads more work done if I bugger off from the house and find a wireless hotspot (read Starbucks). Not sure why (well, actually I do know why), but if I take my iPod, my bberry and the laptop to a Starbucks and work for two or three hours, I get the equivalent accomplished of what would take me about four to five hours at home. Granted, I only get two hours free wifi in a Starbucks, but I’ even organized for that. I pop in, work offline for about an hour (I still have email coming in on my bberry), then log on and get my research aspects done with the remaining two hours. It's been working brilliantly.
But why? Why do I need to be in a busy environment with people milling uselessly around me and blabbering on about inane shit that really doesn’t mean squat, requiring me to put on my iPod and blast my eardrums, in order to get motivated and get shit done? I don’t know, but it’s working.
The downsides to my newfound stream of creativity and productivity are that the pup doesn't have the benefit of my company for half the day, I don't get to take breaks in my undies, lying on the couch, watching rugger or The Sea Hunters (more on this in a moment, because I am growing to loathe myself for that one trait) and I can't crack on the ol' XBox for some unmitigated violence for a brief respite. Oh, and it usually costs me about $4 something, because I get a redeye, followed by a tall mild in a grande cup. Well, ok, it has cost a little more a couple of times, because I also have been to Starbucks in Chapters, which inevitably lead to me buying a book or magazine while I am there. I am trying now to avoid such Starbucks, the temptation is simply too great. It's like putting a fat Texan in a McDonald's and telling them they can only eat salad.....no, wait, that wouldn't work, McDonald's salads have a higher calorie count than their burgers....ok, it's like putting an anorexic in a room full of toilet paper and telling them to just use it for its natural application....ok, that was just bad. Anyway, you get my point....book stores are like crack to me.
But on the bright side, I finally managed to rip off the draft of the shareholders agreement; I've put together a rudimentary plan for how to approach various targets client groups; jotted down ideas for website and logo; written a draft mission statement/roadmap; researched target markets; contacted pools and even looked into Richard Florida’s machinations for ideas and inspiration (thanks for the suggestion, Danielle).
Let me just rant for a second about this whole Richard Florida thing for a second. For those of you who aren't Toronto-centric (and some of you who may be but just don't give a crap), Richard Florida is an urban studies theorist, who focuses on social and economic theory (thanks, Wikipedia). The University of Toronto and the City of Toronto are currently feting Florida as the city-planning guru that can lead Toronto in the right direction…basically, he’s the best thing since sliced bread. In a nutshell (and there may be some of you who research this and come up with a slightly different opinion, but hey, whatevs), his major hypothesis has been that very educated and "Bohemian" people flock to certain urban centres and it is the retention of these people that will allow said urban centre to truly flourish and grow. In league with that hypothesis, he has recently been suggesting certain steps that Toronto could take to grow into one of the world's true major cultural and influential global cities.
Some of his suggestions and observations are very cool ideas (such as getting a bullet train system in place between Detroit and Montreal with Toronto as the central hub along the route, not looking to the US for inspiration …like we needed a hint for that, the US is in a tailspin), but I can’t shake this feeling of “yeuch” when I hear about his ideas. For one, he is almost exclusionary in his model…he argues that cities should do more to keep the artists, the creative class, the gay scene (he’s a huge supporter of increasingly larger gay communities, which I guess is cool, although I think we shouldn’t need to have a “community”, to me I think that if someone is gay, then cool, but it should be so accepted that there shouldn’t be a need to live in gay collectives), the Bohos, but he never really addresses the impoverished, the disenfranchised, etc. While I am all for a very large creative class in Toronto, it smacks a little of Nazism in an odd way. Don’t go getting all righteous on me and pointing out that the Nazi’s persecuted artists, gays, bohos, etc. I’m not talking 1939 German Nazi’s, I’m talking of Nazism in general. Look after the “select” and ignore the “dirty”. I would love Toronto to grow and be a cultural icon, but we really do need to address some social issues in this City.
What is even more ironic is that this guy lives in a fancy house on the ravine in Rosedale. He’s just so damn elitist.
The other slight beef I have with this is that the concepts he is coming up with are fine, but I imagine they have been bandied about before. Nothing is starkly original. It’s just that because this guy says it, suddenly it is brilliant.
Anyway, enough ranting.
Let’s get positive. I’ve finally started feeling a little warmer in my home and sorta-native land. It only took a month. I guess the rising temperatures have also helped. We even got to a balmy 14 degrees last week. Even if there was a slight windchill with it. I still don’t get why some people get idiotic though when the weather is mildly warmer. I saw two or three guys out in shorts. Seriously. 14 degrees and you think it is shorts weather? Knobs.
Last week the milder temperatures actually almost killed me! No, really, I almost died. You would have had to go blogless forever more. The rapidly rising temperatures made the ice rink that is the dog path in High Park (where I walk the puppy) turn into a sliding sheet of death. It was like someone had taken a zamboni out to make the ice nice and smooth. Even off the beaten track, every step was hair-raising and a potential disaster waiting to happen.
And then it did happen. I was trying to come down a small relatively steep embankment. I was roughly following a path, but as it was nicely glassed over, I was treading along the sides on the more roughened snowy ice. One foot slipped. It was like watching the missus fall over (did I ever mention this before? The missus has this uncanny knack of falling over and hurting herself ever so slowly. She does this often and while it is not fun for her, it never fails to crack me up. I know that sounds mean, but if you were there when it happens, you’d laugh too. She takes like three or four seconds to hit the ground. You fall, I fall, the world falls and boom…..we’re on our asses. Not the missus. She starts falling and she’s all “no, arghhh”, “I’m fallinnnnnnnngggggg”. It is like watching a slo-mo moment on the telly or in a film. Think Will Farrell slow-mo going “nooooooo” and you’d get the idea. And the sound effects, they totally remind me of that skit by Eddie Murphy when his aunt falls down the stairs….was that Delirious or Raw? Her last fall was in Koh Phanang. She hurt her knee, but even she had to laugh when I re-enacted her fall). Anyway, my foot slips and I try to regain my balance with my other foot, but it too starts sliding and before you know it I am literally ice skating down the slope. Poor little saplings and some arsehole-not-so-small saplings are pinging off me left, right and centre…twigs stuck to me, branches crashing, wood flying. I’m about to totally wipe out and hit Spring Road (which is cement and ice-encrusted) and have things end very badly, when a particularly large sapling helpfully stops me…..by having my crotch embrace it. Sure it was painful, but I guess I lived.
And I shouldn’t whine so much, the poor puppy has had a shitty week. Bailey has a hotspot on the side of her neck. How a dog gets a hotspot in the middle of winter, I don’t know, but the vet had to shave it and we have to clean and dry it twice a day. It’s an ordeal for her and us. First, she hates the cleaning and drying with a vengeance. Second, she has been wearing a bucket for the last few days, particularly when I am out of the house. This is because, left to her own devices, she scratches the hotspot with her paw, which opens it up and makes it bleed. It’s drying up, but the poor bugger hasn’t slept properly in about four days. On top of which, she gets all anxious to have some exercise when I take her out, but up until yesterday, she had to remain leashed and even sometimes bucketed on her walks. I’m hoping it clears up by the weekend, so that she can get back to normal and truly enjoy some of these milder temperatures.
Here's the little bucket-head:
Oh…..and I am getting in great shape!! I know work out and run days of the workweek and if there is no football, I work out at least once on the weekend too. Running, weights and stretching. Kinda scarily though I know weigh somewhere between 175 and 185 pounds. That’s a bit too skinny, so I am working on getting more muscle mass. Just picked up some new weights from good old Walmart this afternoon! The one thing all this working out has told me though is that I really really miss my $9 Thai massages!
Ah well, Peter got back yesterday. Time to focus and get this beast off the ground. I’m off to have a chat with the lad now. New blog soon, I hesitantly promise…..
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