Month: August 2004

Broadband users are impatient – Apparently people who have Broadband expect the same speed of service in real life. I can definately vouch for that. I’ve personally had broadband in some form since 1998 and even before then had broadband in high school. I’m also highly impatient in line at stores.

Wouldn’t you just love a Cowch of your very own? No, they’re not made from real cow.

CBC Toronto – Man shot dead in downtown stand-off – This was going on as I got off the GO Train in Union station this morning. The station was evacuated, Front St was closed from Yonge to University (a very busy street during the morning rush), no one was being let into the underground PATH either.

Near -crushing If there’s something I’ve learned from living in Toronto and attending UTS, it’s how to jaywalk.

UTS, my former high school, is situated at the corner of Bloor & Spadina in Toronto. This is a very busy intersection at most times of day and night. When I went there, there was a Pizza Pizza And a Second Cup right across Bloor St from the school. Obviously, these were popular lunchtime destinations, and so I quickly learned how to jaywalk, including standing on the yellow line as cars and trucks went by inches away.

Now I cross the street twice a day at the corner of Church and Front / Wellington Streets. I know the exact timing and behaviour of the traffic signals. Today on my walk to Union station I crossed Church Street against the signal because there were no cars turning from Front Street. Standard Procedure most of the time. However there was a streetcar that wanted to turn right from Church on to Wellington. The driver started to turn but then stopped when he noticed I was crossing in front of him. Guess I narrowly averted being crushed. Once I made it across, I started to cross Wellington, again against the signal. Hey, there were no cars! But remember the streetcar? Yeah, it was turning. And the driver didn’t notice me this time. Somehow I sensed the streetcar and turned around and headed for the safety of the sidewalk. A couple of guys patiently waiting for the signal to change and who saw all of this told me I was going to die. I smiled, gave them a thumbs-up, and kept walking.

Pay attention to those streetcars, kids.

I saw Tony Shaloub yesterday.

I was walking up Church St at Queen, where the big Henry’s camera store is, and a Cadillac Escalade parked on Church St across from Henry’s. Tony Shaloub wearing some sunglasses got out of one side, and some other guy got out of the other side. I saw Tony, recognized him pretty instantly. I looked at the other guy, who immediately gave me a “keep f*cking walking” type of look. Which I did. I glanced back a few seconds later and I was still being stared at.

Not sure if this ranks higher than the time I saw Richard Dreyfuss jaywalking across King St E back in 2001.

CBC News: Toronto student killed in solar-powered car – The student is Andrew Frow, UTS class of 2001. I remember going to high school with him at UTS, even though he was three years younger.

This story is all over the place now, including slashdot.

Time to get more t-shirts. Via boingboing I found this awesome place called Jinx that sells really cool geeky t-shirts like these.