Michael's Blog

YRT Strike: Where does it Go From Here

2012-01-29T10:26:00.002-05:00

Saturday afternoon Ray Doyle, Union Leader of ATU 1587, announced his union membership had accepted the offer from Miller Transit with an 80% approval rating and thus ending the 3 month plus YRT/VIVA Bus strike of 2011-2012.   Earlier this week Bob Kinnear, Union Leader of ATU 113, announced his union local membership had accepted the offer from Veolia Transit with a 77% approval rating. Meanwhile, the Region of York had earlier cancelled the YRT Services Contract for the YRT North Service Area with First Student and awarded it to TOK Transit. Thus, with the Strike ending and promises of resumption of service starting February 4th after a little bit of driver training and some bus maintenance, there a couple of questions to consider.

1. Why did the strike drag on so long?

The main reason the York Region Transit Strike took so long was the union leadership of both Union Locals 113 (Bob Kinnear) and 1573 (Ray Doyle) seemed more interested in trying to bring in the Region of York into the mix rather than negotiating with the private contractors of Miller, Veolia and First Student. A great case in point is found in this interview with ATU Union Leader Ray Doyle where he spends most of the interview bashing the Region of York and it's Chairman and CEO Bill Fisch than talking about why he is not negotiating with Miller Transit or First Canada.

Both Bob Kinnear, ATU Local 113 Leader and Mr. Doyle spent more time calling on the Region of York to get involved by requesting binding arbitration from the province so his workers could return to work than they did at the negotiating table. What's funny is when the Region of York did do something, by cancelling First Canada's contract, Mr. Kinnear files a motion with the Ontario Labour Board saying the Region of York is interfering negotiations by doing this right before a union membership vote on an offer from Veolia. First, Mr. Doyle and Mr. Kinnear wanted the Region of York involved in negotiations, then when the Region does enter by terminating a service contract with a contractor that has had very little negotiations with the unions, Mr. Kinnear cries fowl.

Speaking of that particular vote, the Ontario Labour Board forced the vote via Veolia's request which took over a week to occur. Meanwhile, in a similar situation Mr. Doyle's Union vote on a Miller Transit offer dook a mere two to three days to occur. Why did Mr. Kinnear wait over a week for the vote to occur? Was he trying to make sure all his membership fell in line to vote against the offer?

The Region of York rightly pointed out throughout the negotiations that it contracted out all transit operations to three service companies: Veolia, Miller and First Transit and that the labour negotiations with the ATU Union Locals was with the companies. It rightly ended the contract with First Student and asked the other companies to present a plan on how they were going to restore service.  The union leadership meanwhile finally got the message after First Transit was terminated that the only way forward for their membership was to negotiate with the companies.

Before this past week of negotations that led to agreements between Veolia and ATU Local 113 as well as Miller Transit and ATU Local 1573, the union leadership had periodic less than one day negotiation sessions with the companies. These meetings, optically, seemed only to show that the ATU Locals were at least attempting to meet with the companies and that it wasn't working. This basically was orchistrated by the union leadership in order to try to pressure the Region of York to become involved and ask the province to order binding arbitration.   This tactic went on for months and is mainly why the strike dragged on for so long.

Bob Kinnear, after ATU Local 113 Membership approved Veolia's offer, said the following:

“It is unfortunate (Veolia and York Region) penalized the people of York Region throughout this dispute and had to wait three months to finally come to the table and realize that your worth and the service you provide to the people of York Region is worth substantially more than they were offering up until a week ago,”... “Congratulations, brothers and sisters, you came out on top.” - Yorkregion.com story.

Bob still just does not get it. The Region of York was not involved in negotiations between Veolia and ATU Local 113 membership. If they did get involved you can sure bet Mr. Kinnear and his union leadership brethrin would have been at knocking on the doors of the Newmarket court house so fast, York Regional Police could have met their quotas for speeding tickets at the corner of Yonge & Eagle Streets in Newmarket.   Bottom line, this strike dragged on so long not because of the companies and the region, but because the ATU Union Locals dragged their feet in returning to the negotiating table with the contractor companies. This is how Ray Doyle, Bob Kinnear and the union leadership penalized the people of York Region, by making politicial hay out of the contract dispute instead of faithfully negotiating with the companies over new offers. If this wasn't political, then why was the three union contracts with 3 different companies representing YRT workers all end at the same time? Weird timing isn't it?

This strike could have been a lot shorter if negotiations if the union leadership was actually interested in negotiating with their employers and not going after their employer's client, the Region of York.

2. Where do the unions go from here?

There really is no definitive answer about where the union leadership and/or membership will go from here. But there are at least two ways (and probably more) the unions could take things:

a) Remain the same with their workers working for the contractors Miller, Veolia and TOK Transit.

b) Call on the Region to take remove the contractors from YRT Services and let union membership run the operations with Region management oversight.  This would show the union leadership continues it's interests in removing what it calls multinational companies making enormous profits off the backs of union members and have their union members enjoy some benifits of hard work.

The other option would be once the contracts come up for retendering was to put in their own competitive bid. The unions, ironically enough as noted before, did not do this when the last YRT service contract came up for the Southwest Division.   Hopefully the union leadership will put their money and efforts into what they are saying about their membership's employers and take action by landing their own contracts with the Region. Otherwise it is pretty hypocritical of Bob Kinnear and Ray Doyle to say the Region needs to be involved if the ATU Union refuses to become involved when the time comes to talk to the region about transit service agreements.

3. What will happen when service resumes?

Media reports and YRT press releases have noted February 4th as most likely start date for service to resume following the strike by ATU Union Membership.   This is so bus maintenance can be undertaken and driver retraining can be done to ensure proper safe operating procedures. Not all bus routes will be up and running on February 4th as TOK Transportation, who was awarded the service contract for YRT's North Division, has until mid April to complete roll out of service to all routes  (Source: page 4 of this Regional Council report).

The Region of York has repeatedly promised 1 month free service to all customers when service resumes. The question many have asked over at the Region's Facebook page is when this will start with replies from the Region of York stating details will be available this coming week. But with TOK Transit taking it's time in hiring workers and rolling out buses to the North Division and YRT customers now with February 2012 monthly passes in hand how will the region equitably start the free transit service so all customers can enjoy the benefits? Many YRT/VIVA customers will be interested to see how this will be done.

Relations between YRT/VIVA customers and drivers have become strained. Many customers felt like hostages as the drivers refused work. Many customers walked long distances to get to school and work while the YRT/VIVA drivers walked the picket lines disrupting existing services legally and possibly illegally. It will be interesting to see how the drivers are treated when they resume service, expect private security, YRT/VIVA Special Constables and York Regional Police presence to stepped up at least the first two weeks of service.

Overall the Union Leadership is to blame for both the duration of the strike and the return to work conditions their drivers face. ATU Union Local Leaders Bob Kinnear and Ray Doyle spent more time battling with their employee's employer's client, the Region of York than negotiating with their employers. This caused the strike to drag on unnecessarily for months instead of a short duration like in 2008 when VIVA drivers under Bob Kinnear negotiated and resolved their contract with Veolia. As the strike dragged on and the tiresome rhetoric from Bob Kinnear, Ray Doyle and others, customers became frhustrated which has led towards animosity towards both the union leadership and the drivers. Thus, it is really the union leadership who are responsible as they had the power to quickly return to negotations with Miller, Veolia and First Canada and chose not to do so by playing political games while their union membership walked the picket lines loosing out on just over 3 months of pay cheques.

Pizza Delight

2012-01-28T20:06:00.003-05:00

This evening we rustled up some veggies, a little tomato sauce and other ingredients and dove head first into a little pizza making. We found a recipe first in the local edition of 24 Hours newspaper and modified it once we had the pizza yeast with yet another recipe. That recipe is what we chose to make in the end.

After just less than hour of making the 30 minute pizza (hey the first attempt is always the longest time you ever make a recipe) we popped the pizza into the oven for a fifteen minute baking.

Pizza before baking.

We waited patiently while the sweet smell of pizza emanated from the oven. But finally the wait was over and we opened the oven to find our pizza ready for cutting.

Pizza after 15 Minutes of Baking

Overall this recipe tasted just like the pizza from our nearby pizza place, Abruzzo's which we enjoy somewhat. On our pizza we included mushrooms, chicken, red peppers, spinach and of course mozzarella cheese.

Hopefully next weekend we will take this recipe for a whirl, because over an hour later I'm still full!

2012-01-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

On Friday, my coworker and I grabbed some coupons ordered over the phone and headed over to Pizza Pizza (14846 Yonge Street, Aurora) to pick up our order.

The Order: 1 Extra Large Pizza with Pepperoni, Mushrooms and Sausage, 2 Cokes and 2 Poutines.

But before we could leave our office Pizza Pizza Customer service called to inquire if we actually placed an order for pick-up. They explained that location had several blank orders come through and which location did we wish to order from.

So I reordered again, pulled up the location on Google Maps so Pizza Pizza Customer Service could have the exact location to pick-up from (and not the one from across town). So with the order in twice to Pizza Pizza we finely left hoping to pick up at least something.

When we arrived at the Pizza Pizza store it was crowded with High School students from the nearby Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School. I stood in line while my coworker went to see if he could flag down the guy behind the counter as we had preordered and just wanted to pay, pick up and leave. There was only one server, as far as I could tell, wandering between the pizza oven, the cash register and ready made slices to serve easily 50 high school students.

Thank goodness my coworker was successful as otherwise I might still be in line as of this writing waiting for my now cold (frozen?) order. We escaped virtually unscathed back to our office instead of hanging out with the zoo of high school students.

The pizza overall was quite good. The sausage was better than the nearby Regino's Pizza. Otherwise the pizza was the usual run of the mill Pizza Pizza with tomato sauce and other toppings. Nothing really to write home about, nothing special just Pizza Pizza taste. What else would you expect from a chain pizza place?

The poutine was lackluster. One poutine was drowned in gravy and cheese and was not too bad. The other had a little gravy and might as well been an order of fries with a sneeze of gravy and barely any cheese. It was like the fries had been wafted over the cheese and gravy sauce pan.

Overall the pizza was good, the customer service and poutine had much to be desired. I might retry ordering another time from this Pizza Pizza while ensuring I do not pick-up or order while the high school students are clamouring for some za.

A Scrumptious Weekend of Cooking and Baking

2012-01-15T16:09:00.000-05:00

This past weekend my wife and myself rolled up our sleeves, dug out the borrowed cook books from the local library and tried some new dishes and a recent faithful recipe.

First up was the Spaghetti with Olive Oil and Garlic. We even took put our own little spin on the recipe and added some boiled spinach. The dish, as you can see - and we tasted - was quite delicious.

Spaghetti with Olive Oil & Garlic

Next up was an old favourite of both myself and the coniseur of cookies. The one and only chocolate chip cookie. This one also turned out fairly well except that we did not buy enough chocolate chips from Bulk Barn for the recipe so there may not have been enough chocolate chips per cookie quotient in the end. Why Bulk Barn? Because you can purchase just enough ingredients for your new found recipe and if you do not like the results in the end, at least you are not stuck with more of the same ingredient with no use.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finally the old/new standby recipe, the Artisan Bread which I previously made two weeks ago. It also turned out fabulous.

Hopefully there will be more of all of the above recipes in my future. My stomach already thanks me!

YRT STRIKE: Important Memo to Drivers

2012-01-14T19:25:00.001-05:00

MEMO
TO: York Region Transit Drivers

FROM: A Pragmatic Customer

RE: Your Current Employment or lack thereof.

As you know York Region Transit and VIVA Rapid Transit Contracted Drivers continue to be on strike this week. Riders have been without service on 60% of the York Region Transit System verging on three months.

The Union Locals representing the drivers (ATU 113 and ATU 1587) have had off and on talks with the their contracted companies Veolia, Miller Transit and First Group with the Union and the Contracted companies walking away from the table.

The union leaders, Bob Kinnear (ATU 113) and Ray Doyle (ATU 1587) have been spending more time targeting the Region of York and it's Chairman and CEO Bill Fisch saying Bill Fisch is the cause of the strike (perfect example here). Both Union leaders have targeted the Region of York to encourage negotiations forward and possible binding arbitration in a bid to end the strike.   Both Mr. Doyle and Mr. Kinnear have encouraged the Region of York to come to the table to negotiate. The drivers themselves are encouraging the Region to negotiate which, under normal circumstances would make sense. However, these are not normal public transit driver union negotiations because drivers are not, and never have been, employees of the Region of York.

The Region of York contracts out the service of driving the buses to private companies (e.g. Miller Transit, Veolia, First Student, etc.) to provide service while retaining ownership of the bus fleet and the YRT and VIVA names. Therefore, the Region of York is the private contractor's (i.e. Miller's) client or customer. The drivers are merely employees of the respective contractor (i.e. employees of Miller) and not the Region of York. Thus, drivers or their representative unions negotiate with the private contractors over wages, benefits and scheduling and not with the Region of York as the Region is not involved in these negotiations. That is the way this relationship has worked for decades with the current York Region Transit and VIVA as well as the predecessor municipal transit agencies.

There is only one other option, when the time comes for the Region of York to retender the transit contracts after the current contracts expire with the private contractors. An example of this retendering occurred in 2010 when YRT's southwest division was tendered and awarded to Veolia.  A duly noted omission in the Region's decision to award was the failure of ATU to put forth a bid to provide driver services to for the Southwest division.  Thus, it appears ATU Union, and by extension, their membership did not wish in 2010 to remove the contractors and deal directly with the Region by putting forth a competitive offer on at least the Southwest Division. So drivers, what has changed since 2010 when it appears, you were so happy with your jobs that your Union failed to put forth a bid to provide services to YRT?

Recently the Region of York has started to replace the usual 40 foot buses with 60 foot VIVA buses along YRT Route 99. It has been reported by the media that striking drivers have been blocking these VIVA buses longer than 3 minutes which goes against the court injunction. It has also been noted that striking drivers believe the VIVA buses are being driven non-unionized drivers and thus the court injunction's 3 minute limit does not apply.  Thus a VIVA bus attempting to leave Finch Station was blocked by ATU Memberslonger than the court imposed 3 minutes. Drivers should reread the court injunction and notice nowhere is it mentioned whether the drivers of the YRT vehicles had to be unionzied in any way. Thus, the reporting by the media would suggest that these particular striking YRT workers would be in comtempt of the court injunction and probably would be charged if a law enforcement official had been present.

To make all of the above simpler, ATU Unionized drivers are employees of their respective contractors and not employees of the Region of York. Bill Fisch, the Chairman and CEO, of the Region of York is one of the main decision makers in whether the customer -- The Region of York-- wants to renew the contracts with the contractors who just happen to be your employers. Thus, the picketing, disruptions and other denigrative activities towards the Region is basically calling the customer dumb for contracting your employer and your services in the first place.

York Region Transit's Moneypit: Richmond Hill Centre

2012-01-02T17:57:00.000-05:00

Last Summer the Region of York announced it, via it's Summer YorkWorks Newsletter further construction at Richmond Hill Centre which is the main hub for connecting transit in York Region.
The Region has just finished enclosing two passenger waiting areas with glass and automatic sliding doors and relocation of transit bays to accomodate longer VIVA Purple buses. This will be followed up by implementation of washrooms, as the YorkWorks Newsletter promises, by end of 2013.

There are a couple of issues here that need to be investigated in terms of how if taxpayers are seeing a proper return on investment at Richmond Hill Centre.

A. Numerous Construction projects at Richmond Hill Centre since it's September 2005 opening.

B. Promised implementation of construction phases and Region of York's / York Region Transit's implementation track record on previous projects.

Richmond Hill Centre has had a couple of construction projects since it opened in 2005 to VIVA Service. These include (Note: all dates below are approximate):

1. Boxing in of the semi-enclosed passenger waiting areas in 2006. This improvement was required because Richmond Hill Centre at the time, like it is today, is fairly open to the elements and wind. Thus, passengers were freezing waiting for arriving buses as the wind wipped through the california style waiting areas with wide open entrances, glass partitions with seperation between support pillars and ground. Add to this the awesome idea of stainless steel metal benches to sit on February, YRT and the Region had a significant issue on its hands. YRT and York Region decided to add metal pieces to at least remove the voids between the support beams, the ground and the glass. However, this did not help matters as the large entryways were still left open.

2. Bridge from Richmond Hill Centre to Langstaff GO Station opened in 2008. The Region of York constructed a pedestrian bridge to connect the Langstaff GO Station together. The concept of a bridge connecting two transit stations together was a great idea. However, like many other YRT concepts, things did not turn out so well as several issues with the finished product emerged (and many are still evident today):

a) The first issue was for disabled passengers looking to traverse the bridge (note all doors have handicap access buttons). First lets enter the new bridge from Richmond Hill Terminal via an exterior door. Next turn left to open the door to the waiting area of the elevator (yes there is a door to the elevator waiting area!).  Then push the button to open the elevator carriage door and board the elevator. Next, after the elevator door opens on the 2nd floor, open that elevator waiting area door and traverse the bridge. Repeat elevator door waiting area door opening, descend the elevator, and repeat again the next door and the exterior door and turns into quite the trip. Whose idea was it to include exterior elevator door waiting areas with their own doors? The whole structure is covered in glass and has exterior doors. It is not that drafty all to require full enclosure of elevator waiting areas. The only reason to necessitate this issue is a fire code requirement, but I doubt it.

b) The Second issue is both the distance to the Langstaff GO Transit station and nearby retail shops from the Region of York constructed bridge from Richmond Hill Centre. The Region, in their infinite wisdom, decided to construct the bridge to exit near the railway tracks and provide a 200 metre passenger walkway to the Langstaff GO Station guarded by a chainlink fence, which later they would add a further extension on top to prevent people from climbing the fence. The main problem with this chainlink fence is, after a pedestrian exits the bridge on the Langstaff side, pedestrians are located within 50 metres of the entrance to Home Depot. So lets say someone was going to Home Depot for a hammer, you traverse the bridge and then are forced to walk 200 metres down to the Langstaff GO Station, and back again (i.e. another 200 metres) in order to go about 5 metres from where you started. Thus, it is pretty inconvienient to visit the Home Depot which would be a major possible trip generator for YRT and GO Transit.

3. Electric Heaters were added to passenger waiting areas in 2009. This improvement again attempted to address the issues with passenger discomfort during the winter months. But again the Region of York and YRT left the entrance openings void still allowing for a wicked wind to whip through. The only improvement of YRT infrastructure layout was the no longer using stainless steel benches at new transit stop implementation. Yet passengers at Richmond Hill Centre and other stops are not so lucky as the stainless steel benches remain.

4. Creation of new fully enclosed of the Passenger waiting areas with automatic glass doors in 2011. This project, noted above, created new passenger waiting areas that are heated, enclosed and fairly comfortable for passengers. This project was completed in two phases for the passenger waiting areas that seemed to take about 3 months each. The length of time to construct and complete the project at 3 months apeice seems a little lengthy considering both of the structures appear exactly the same, yes, the same layout, almost the same the measurements, etc. At times there was little to know activity at the construction site while passengers filed by on reduced platform widths etc. As well, the old passenger waiting areas remained untouched.

Now there are two prospective construction projects for the future. 1. The Washrooms installation promised by to be completed by 2013 in writing by the Region of York in their YorkWorks newsletter. 2. The integration of Richmond Hill Centre area into the possible Yonge Street Subway extension which may or may not see the integration of the current Richmond Hill Centre Bus Terminal into a new subway station. This latter project will be one to see whether the Region of York has wasted millions of dollars just to see the existing terminal demolished and a new one built. The first future project will also be interesting to watch as the YRT is not really great a finishing promised projects on time or, as the above noted issues with Richmond Hill Centre note, without further remedial work.

York Region and York Region Transit do not have a great track record when it comes to promising improvements for the transit system. My blog post from last year noted several delayed or not implemented projects. Perhaps the best known YRT implementation fiasco was their implementaiton of the PRESTO payment system which saw implementation delays and constant issues with the PRESTO technology that caused passenger headaches. Even today, York Region Transit has yet to fully implement the PRESTO system into all of it's ticket vendor locations. With YRT's track record on PRESTO and other issues, it will be interesting to see if the new Richmond Hill Centre washrooms are completed on time and if they will need further refinement.

Overall YRT has proven itself not to be able to finish transit projects on time or as even start the ones as promised. Further the implementation of certain supposedly transit rider friendly items seems to be lacking. The use of stainless steel benches and open concept bus shelter in the original VIVA Stations upon initial system construction raises an eyebrow, especially to a Canadian in January waiting for a bus.   These delays and misssteps  leaves YRT in the eyes of transit riders and taxpayers overpromised, poorly implemented, not well served and costly to remediate. Hopefully the Richmond Hill Centre will not need any further construction for the forseable future, as all the above noted construction projects between opening in late 2005 to today (2012) adds up to almost one construction project per year. And that equals a taxpayer and transit rider money pit.

Whole Grain Artisan Loaf

2012-01-01T16:50:00.001-05:00

My wife and I recently tried for the first time to make bread in our very own kitchen.

My wife has never really baked in her life and I haven't baked since I was a little person dreaming of licking the chocolate chip cookie batter off the mixer beaters while my mother was baking.

We have both being trying out easy recipes for a while with our general cooking for dinners and weekend meals.

This time we are going to go all out and try baking. Yes baking more than peanut butter cookie recipes that a three year old could do (just with way more mess). We were going to try our own bread.

My wife found an easy recipe online with simple instructions and a how to video to go along with it.

We started the whole process yesterday (or is that last year?) with the preparation of purchasing the ingredients both food and utensil wise at Winners, Bulk Barn and No Frills.

The only thing we didn't by was the seed topping seen in the recipe and the video above. We decided to see how the bread tasted before going to the expense of gussying up the bread with frills.

Fast forward to today and the above photo is what resulted. This evening for dinner we are going to enjoy a fine loaf of healthy Whole Grain Artisan Loaf.

Comfortable at Country Style

2012-01-01T10:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I enjoy being a good husband and letting my wife sleep in the mornings. I wander off to a coffee shop early in the morning in search of breakfast, coffee and a newspaper. I enjoy a nice quiet morning walk with little to no traffic to collect my thoughts for the day, wake up and get a little excercise in.

My main destination targets tend to be McDonald's and Tim Horton's due to the better quality coffee and ease to walk to and from their nearby establishments.

However, there are a couple of other coffee shops nearby that I do not frequent as often including Second Cup and Country Style. These two chains lack certain items that I look for in a simple fast food breakfast locale. Second Cup has a wide selection of baked goods and interesting tasting cofees. What it lacks is ready made foods similar to a McDonald's Egg McMuffin Sandwich. Country Style's main issue is it's coffee. Tim Horton's, McDonald's and Second Cup are way ahead in the coffee department.

This morning, New Years Day 2012, I headed off for a morning coffee and bagel. I stopped off at Tim Horton's only to find it was closed until 8:00 A.M. this morning. I continued forth to Country Style (9218 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill)

I entered the location, recognizing a few familiar faces who hang out at the local Tim Horton's and was second in line to order.

The Order: Poppy Seed Bagel with Cream Cheese and a Medium Black Coffee.

The server took my order and then left the till to fill my order for coffee. The other attendent came over and inquired what my order was and then punched it into the machine. My only real gripe about this place is always inquiring about the customer's order. At Tim Horton's, you order once and the computer screens tell the sandwich maker what to make, the coffee pourer what size and how you like your coffee. At this Country Style I get asked "is that a bagel with butter on it? is that for here or to go?" Meanwhile I have already told their employee who took my order exactly what I want and whether I was hanging out the restaurant or needing to dissappear out the door.

But overall once the staff has all the information they need the service is pretty quick. That is mainly because this location does not see the volume as the nearby McDonald's or Tim Horton's does. But still it seems to hold it's own.

The food overall is quite good. The bagels taste to be freshly made or at least on location unlike Tim Horton's or McDonald's which has product shipped in the local restaurant merely reheats it and/or just dumps it on the shelf. The cream cheese on the bagel is merely average to Tim Horton's.

The coffee is where Country Style sets itself apart. The coffee really is not that special and where the chain is handicapped. McDonald's new coffee and Tim Horton's old standby recipe is where coffee drinkers go. Country Style meanwhile has tried other ways to attract customers including adding frozen yogourt and "Bistro Deli" offerings. As far as I can see based on my visits to the Richmond Hill location and the Aurora locations, this is not working. It seems based on McDonald's experience that having a good brew of coffee is how a coffee shop can increase customer volume and sales.

But all is not lost at Country Style, the chain has teamed up with the Toronto Sun to provide free newspapers in the Toronto area. Sure the newspaper may not be the greatest, but at least at free it is the right price.

Overall this Country Style location is mediocre at best, good bagels but subpar to mediocre coffee and service that needs a little improvement. But for a quiet fast food breakfast place this location is not bad at all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-31T16:15:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year 2012 to all!

It has been quite the year for myself and the world around us.

Here is a retro look of City of Toronto's celebrations in 2007:

Hope you have a happy, yet exciting, new year!

Swiss Chalet Not on the Scene Points

2011-12-18T18:19:00.000-05:00

This past Thursday I received an e-mail from Swiss Chalet promoting their line of gift cards for the holiday season. Near the bottom of the e-mail was a promotion for Scene Card holders could obtain 6 points for every dollar spent on gift cards to Swiss Chalet, Harvey's, Milestones, Kelsey's and Montana's.

So looking for a gift for one my friends I thought this would be a great idea. After hitting our local Zellers on Friday night we cruised over to Swiss Chalet (9350 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for some chicken and a gift card. The wait for dine in was 30 minutes to be seated. We inquired about the gift card and was told it was at the take out only. So about face and headed towards the door where the take out was. We stood in line for about ten minutes to order the chicken.

A server took our order, copying it down on the back of receipt in crayon and dissappeared into the kitchen. Next we arrived at the cash where I ordered the gift card. The cashier rang up the gift card and nothing else. My food order did not even get entered and I was forced to reorder. Not only that this location was out of the special Scene point marked gift cards and I had to settle for a regular one.

I'm not really sure of two things from this Swiss Chalet experience:

1. Why promote the Bon Apetit gift card with Scene Points benefits when there are not enough cards in stock?

2. What was the purpose in having a server take my order and dissapear into the kitchen with it only for me to have to reorder at the cashier and have the cashier's order take presidence? After all I did order two quarter chicken dinners one with a multigrain role and one with a white role to our crayoning expert server and received two quarter chicken dinners with white roles when I unpackaged our dinner at home.

Other than that, the food was the usual Swiss Chalet quality. I just wonder sometimes how chains can promote something when there isn't enough stock and their attention to detail is somewhat lacking.

YRT/VIVA Strike: The Rest of Mr. Doyle's Story

2011-12-13T20:33:00.001-05:00

As the York Region Transit Strike drags on into it's eighth week, union leaders are still trying to get their message out to the public, the Region of York and the contractors that the unions are unhappy with the current private contracting arrangement using contractors Veolia, Miller and First Group. ATU Union Local 1587 President Ray Doyle though has taken the step too far by not telling the full truth behind York Region Transit's history and it's current operations.

Ray Doyle was interviewed on CityTV saying that:

GO Transit, a government operated transit system, paying better wages and benefits, operated regional service...York Region transit service in Richmond Hill and they turned a profit on those lines and now it's turned over to the Region they put four private contractors in place and they are subsized at $4.10 per ride. I would like Bill Fisch to explain to the taxpayers of this Region why now with all these contractors that he says are working so well is costing the taxpayers so much more money to operate. - Ray Doyle, ATU 1587, CityTV Interview.

Mr. Doyle continued speaking to the media on this same issue when David Fleisher who is a reporter for Yorkregion.com caught up to Mr. Doyle:

Mr. Doyle pointed out GO Transit used to run profitable routes on Bayview Avenue and Yonge Street, while the region’s taxpayers subsidize more than 60 per cent of every transit ride. - Yorkregion.com Story

What Mr. Doyle fails to understand is the full history of York Region Transit (YRT). He is completely right that, in 2003, Region of York purchased GO Transit's old Yonge "C" Route on Yonge Street and the Bayview Avenue route and were notably profitable.

What Mr. Doyle failes to explain was that 2 years earlier, in 2001, the Region of York amalgamated five municipal transit agencies (Vaughan Transit, Richmond Hill Transit, Markham Transit, Newmarket Transit and the former Aurora Transit) into one Regionally controlled and funded agency. Each of these individual agencies had contracted their operations out to contractors like Miller, Laidlaw and Can-ar. These routes include same routes that Mr. Doyle's own Union Members now drive including Route 85 along Rutherford Road, Route 1 along Highway 7 in Markham and others. These same routes and other neighbourhood routes (like the 86 Weldrick-Newkirk) are not currently profitable at all because there just is not the ridership or these routes travel long distances through winding neighbourhoods in search of passengers. Bottom line Mr. Doyle, you conveniently left out the old routes the municipal transit agencies used to operate that never were intended to be profitable and thus only provided half the truth.

By conveniently leaving out the other 95% of the pieces that make up the Region of York, and probably 80% of ATU Local 1587 (i.e. Mr. Doyle's) membership, it is quite easy for Mr. Doyle to try and paint the Region and the contractors as money mismanagers. But then again, perhaps Mr. Doyle is subtely suggestiong that the Region should get rid of 80% of Mr. Doyle's membership and the contractors and invite GO Transit to resume service along the Yonge "C" Service and Bayview Avenue. The real question in all of this, do the other 80% of the drivers stand behind Mr. Doyle and his suggestion of Union Layoffs or half truths?

Mr. Doyle should study up on the History of York Region Transit a little better. Obviously he doesn't know the full history otherwise Mr. Doyle, as President of ATU Local 1587, would know of regional amalgamation of transit through Aurora Transit, Markham Transit, Newmarket Transit, Richmond Hill Transit and Vaughan transit in 2001 and not just the purchase of the GO Transit Routes. Otherwise Ray Doyle and the ATU Local 1587 has slid into only conveniently telling half truths during this strike which will never stand up in the court of law where in most jurisdictions it is "the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God".

Always Something Good Going Down at Mr. Sub

2011-12-11T11:29:00.001-05:00

This past Friday, I headed out for lunch to Mr. Sub (14760 Yonge Street, Aurora) for a little old fashioned Mr. Sub footlong sandwich that I remember devouring as a teen.

I arrived with a coworker to a well staffed store of three workers just moving customers through like no tomorrow. The franchisee, Arthur, took my order immediately.

The Order: Foot long Assorted Cold cuts on Whole Wheat Bread with Sour Cream & Onion Potato chips and a can of Coke.

I was in and out of the store in less than 5 minutes with my order, not too shabby. This is a significant improvement over some sandwich shops who only have one or two employees working behind the counter and it seems to take forever for them to power through a lunch time line up.

The surprise came at the cash register, the final price for a basic Assorted combo after taxes was $10.11. This seems a little steep considering the equivalent sandwich at Subway, which has a location just down the street, for $5.00 plus tax.

The sandwich itself was just as I remembered it. A healthy combination of vegetables, meat and bread with a side of guilty pleasures in potato chips and a refreshing can of Coke.

YRT/VIVA Strike 2011: The Full Story

2011-12-04T15:01:00.006-05:00

The YRT/VIVA Strike has been going on for over six weeks now in York Region and has reulted in only 40% of the York Region Transit's routes are in operation.    What happenned to transit service in York Region? Whose to blame for the ATU Locals 1587 (representing Miller who has the YRT contract for Markham area & First Group who has the contract for Newmarket and Aurora areas) and 113 (Representing Veolia Workers for both VIVA drivers and the current at work Vaughan area) walking out?

This is a complicated issue with the Region of York, the Unions (ATU 113 & 1587 locals) and the contractors (Miller, First Group and Veolia) themselves. The best way to figure out where the issues lie and how this the whole labour dispute can be resolved is to separate out the parties involved and look at their angle indvidually and then see how each party is strategizing to get their way (The Skinny).

The Region of York

The Region of York amalgamated the old municipal transit systems of Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham, Newmarket (which had previously amalagamated with Aurora) and sections of GO Transit providing service on Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue from Finch Station to form York Region Transit. All former transit agencies had contracted out the operations to invidual contractors and remained so even after amalgamation. Hence, this is why the Region of York does not directly employ any mechanics or drivers, as these employees are directly employed by the contractors.

The privatized model for the Region worked well for both the predecessor municipal transit agencies and the York Region Transit until 2008 when ATU 113 Union members (VIVA Drivers) went on strike. The Region stayed out of this strike and let the union and the employer, Veolia Transportation, negotiate a contract. The only move the Region of York successfully completed was to seek a court injunction against the ATU 113 from blocking buses entering and existing Finch Station. This resulted in an agreement betwen ATU 113 and the Region of York over the picketing of Finch Station. The 2008 Strike only lasted about 3 weeks once the Union members started to notice the public was not on their side and ridership was substituting other YRT and GO Transit services to bypass the VIVA routes that were out of operation due to the strike.

Fast forward to 2011 when the ATU Locals 113 & 1587 all had expiring contracts during 2011. The Region continued and continues to stand back yet encouraging the unions and contractors to return to the bargaining table.  The Region even refuses to, like in 2008, to seek a court injunction to limit picketing at Finch Station and other transit terminals by the striking ATU locals. The Region's and York Region Transit's main line has been: "York Region continues to encourage resolution of the issues between the unions and contractors involved in this dispute."

The Region of York and York Region Transit (YRT) has yet to say how long the strikes can go on before transit contracts with the respective contractors can be cancelled and retendered due to refusing to contractors inability to provide legally contracted service under the contracts.

The Companies (Contractors)

Veolia, Miller and First Group are all companies of varying sizes and have varying histories with York Region Transit. All contractors directly look after the operation of their contracted YRT routes including the employement of drivers, mechanics, cleaners, etc. The contractors, therefore, control how many employees are hired to operate the routes successfully and not the Region of York. Miller and First Group started operations for York Region Transit as contractors for the previous municipally run transit agencies while Veolia came along later when the VIVA system was started.

Miller Transit operates the Markham (south-east division of York Region Transit) from it's headquarters and yards on Woodbine Avenue in Markham.

First Group took over the contracts vacated by Laidlaw when that company went bankrupt. First Group also operates school bus routes throughout Canada and the United States under the name "First Student". This company currently has offices in Newmarket.

Veolia meanwhile came later when VIVA rapid transit service was introduced and has since won the contract from the Region of York for the Vaughan (South-West area) that Can-Ar formerly had. Veolia was also the company that had the 2008 Strike against it by ATU 113. So it is eyebrow raising that the Region of York would award Veolia the contract for the South-West area to Veolia considering the labour issues of 2008 with the VIVA drivers and ATU 113. Veolia operates two Region of York owned yards in Newmarket and Vaughan for both VIVA and YRT operations.
Miller & First Groups seem to be drawn into this strike by the ATU Unions themselves. At no time in York Region Transit or the previous municipal transit agencies has there been a strike or walkout by the workers. Meanwhile, Veolia has only 1 strike in 2008 by ATU Local 113 workers. But the strangeness persists that there was no strike for Veolia workers until they switched to the ATU Local 113 led by Bob Kinnear before the 2008 strike.

All three companies had labour contracts end in 2011 by ATU. First Group (January 31st) and Miller (March 31st) had contracts end in 2011 that are publicly viewable by anyone online. Meanwhile Veolia has had two contracts come up for renewal in 2011 without any contracts being publicly available. In fact, ATU 113 is not even listed as a local on the main Amalgamated Transit Union local section, so one wonders what this union local and the company has to hide in it's contract.

However,  A Veolia press release says that Veolia's Viva  drivers current negotiations were for a current contract to start on September 5, 2011 and onward. The Region of York reported that a new contract had been reached between Veolia's south west YRT workers, represented by ATU 113 and Veolia in February 2011. Thus, Veolia has a contract with the South-West workers under one labour contract currently valid while ATU 113 walks the picket lines without a labour contract with Veolia for VIVA services.

The Unions

Both union locals are members of the Amalgamated Transit Union and seemingly walked out on October 24, 2011 together over labour contract negotiations with Veolia, First Student and Miller Transportation.  The unions were almost joined by GO Transit workers of ATU 1583 on the same day. But GO Transit workers reached an agreement with GO Transit & Metrolinx on the eve of the strike. As well, the Veolia South-West contract was confirmed in February 2011.

If both GO Transit and Veolia South-West had joined their counterparts the entire Region of York transit system would have been shut down. However, luckily enough this scenario did not come to fruition.

The Unions claim the companies mistreat their workers in terms of sick time, pay and other similar issues. The Union Locals claim their workers currently recieve no sick time and often work while sick otherwise they lose pay. The locals also point out that their workers receive much less pay ($7.00 less per hour according to Bob Kinnear) than a TTC driver doing a similar job. As well, there have been noted complaints about split shift scheduling and long hours of driving time with little in the way of breaks.

Since the strike has started, only ATU Local 113 has returned for session of negotiations with Veolia for one day. ATU Local 1587 has refused to even talk with Miller and/or First Group to resume negotiations. This seems a little suspect as it looks like ATU 113 would be attempting to get a deal with Veolia in which ATU Local 1587 might piggy back on with Miller and First Group.

However, the optics look worse when the 2008 history is taken into account. Back then, VIVA drivers were on strike with ATU Local 113 and in legal trouble with the Region of York when the Region was attempted to get a court injunction to limit picketing. As well the VIVA drivers did not have much support from the public then due to striking workers interupting transit service at Finch Station and being generally disruptive. Others pointed out that VIVA drivers were not really missed either as alternative transit routes were available at the time. Therefore, it is no wonder why ATU Locals 113 and 1587 wished to go out at the same time to maximize the disruption in transit services to the Region.

The Unions have called upon the Region of York, through rallies and letters to come to the negotiating table as well to help resolve the dispute. Basically the Unions want the Region to be part of the negotiations claiming it is the Region who sets operating schedules, break time at the end of driving routes and other items.

The Region of York, via Chairmen & CEO Bill Fisch, has refused to be at the bargaining table pointing out the contracts are negotiated between the contracted companies (i.e. Miller, First Group and Veolia) and the unions (i.e. ATU Locals 113 & 1587).  Rick Leary, General Manager of YRT, rightly points out that the Region does "... tell them how many bus drivers to hire." The Region only sets the route schedules (i.e. depart times and arrive times at differing time points at the beginning, middle points and end).

The Skinny

The negotiations are between the contractors and the Union Locals and not the Region of York. The striking workers knew when they accepted the job the would be working for Miller, Veolia or First Group and not the Region of York when they signed their contracts. If not, the workers should relook at their initial employment contracts and where their pay cheques originate. I would bet none of the contracts or pay cheques originate from the "Regional Municipality of York" or the like. Further evidence of the worker's relationship with the region originates from York Region Transit General Manager Rick Leary who noted in a Torontoist.com article: "We don’t tell them how many bus drivers to hire." What Mr. Leary is saying is the Region doesn't hire or recommending hiring of bus drivers, that is up to the individual contractors to figure out with the Union ATU locals. Therefore, the workers should not expect the Region of York to negotiate or be part of the negotiations with the unions and the contractors. The workers, after all, signed their employment contracts knowing full well the Region of York was not involved in their employment situation in terms of pay, sick leave or even if they should be hired in the first place.

Some of the Contractors, mainly in frustration with the ATU Union Locals 113 & 1587, have released some contract details publicly via their website (i.e. Veolia) or via correspondance that the Region of York has released (i.e. Miller). No word on contract offers or demands from First Group or any of the ATU Locals has been released as far as I can find similar to the Veolia and Miller formats noted above in a detailed layout released by the individual parties involved (i.e. ATU Locals 113 & 1583 or First Group).

The main reason the companies would release this information is their belief the companies have offerred a fair package to the union respective union local members and yet the local negotiation team has rejected the offer. At any point, as ATU Local 113 has seen in the 2008 VIVA Strike and the recent YRT South-West strike, workers can demand these offers to be voted upon. But these demands from the union local membership to vote on the contract offer has yet to become known.

The contractors release of contract proposals seems to be a fair agreement between the Union and the Contractors. Let's take a look first at Veolia's offer followed by Miller Transit's Offer:

The elements of the proposed contract are as follows:

A two year Agreement effective September 5, 2011, to September 4, 2013
A wage increase of 3% in year one and 2% in the year two
Implementation of a sick day policy effective on the date of ratification. Employees would be entitled to four (4) annual sick days at six hours pay if unable to work the full day.
Shift premium for maintenance employees on the night shift of 75 cents/hr.
Three (3) weeks of vacation after four (4) years of time in service.
Health Insurance premium with 55% paid by Veolia and 45% paid by the employee in Year one and 60% paid by Veolia and 40% paid by the employee in Year two.
Annual boot allowance of $120 for maintenance staff and $70 per year for drivers.

A two year contract with 5% increase by the end of the 2nd year and 4 sick days allowed with six hours paid per day? That seems quite reasonable along with 3 weeks vacation. Let's remember that that unlike TTC Drivers, VIVA Drivers do not have to ensure fare payment as this duty is the responsibility of YRT/VIVA duly deputised and trained Special Constables and Fare Inspectors. As well VIVA/YRT drivers do not have drive in the same traffic conditions as a TTC Streetcar or bus and are quite often not dealing with vehicle capacity issues where YRT/VIVA customers have to be left behind.

Miller has also released recent contract offers via a letter to Region of York Chairman & CEO Bill Fisch:

"Miller has offered a total of 13.5% over a 5 year contract an average of 2.7% per year."

It should be noted that Miller has not released sick days or other contract terms like the Veolia Offer but I would imagine similar clauses as the company and Union Local 1587s previous contract would also be included. The only issue seems to be the need for sick days on the Miller contract as the currently expired contract makes no mention of Sick days except for personal leave.

For both Union Locals 113 & 1587 they continue to espouse the average pay difference is $7.00 between TTC and what YRT Drivers make.   Union membership needs to remember that:

a)  Individually the drivers signed their contracts with Miller, Veolia or First Group with the amount of renumeration clearly spelled out in the contracts and union contracts. These same workers in the past could have easily signed on with the TTC and for whatever reason either chose not do so or were not hired by the TTC.

b) There are differences in responsbilities between TTC Drivers and YRT Drivers including obtaining fares from passengers (VIVA Drivers do not), traffic issues (York Region has less traffic volume and congestion than downtown Toronto), passenger loads (less over capacity busses on a regular bases for YRT than TTC), number of passengers carried and vehicle types (TTC: Subway, LRT, Streetcar and Buses and YRT regular bus and articulated bus).

c) As Regional Chairman & CEO Bill Fisch noted the difference in demands for pay increases between ATU Local 1587 and Miller and other agencies is vastly out of range of other transit agencies in Ontario. Fisch notes that GO Transit had a 3 year contract ratified, ironically, by ATU Local 1587 that saw wage increases of 2% in year one, 2% in year 2 and 2.3% in year three. As well Fisch included OC Transpo (Ottawa) settlement that saw a wage increase of 2% in a one year contract. Thus, a 16% wage increase in year one as requested by ATU Local 1587 seems a little ludicurous especially in this economic climate.

The Unions counter both the Regions claims the Region is not involved in negotiations and the Contractor's offer with claims that the two sides are too far apart and arbitration. The Region though is not involved in the negotiations at this time and the Union knows there only negotiation partner is the company's contracted by the Region as they are the employer and not the Region of York. What the both Union Locals failed to point out is their lack of willingness to negotiate with the company's themselves. In the Miller letter, dated November 15, 2011, to Regional Chairman Fisch it noted:

"The Union showed little interest in bargaining substantive issues. Its admitted strategy was to secure strike mandates from GO employees and the three YRT contractors with the intention of creating a major disrupting of service, to inconvenience as many people as possible in order to extract the maximum concessions and to force the Region to the bargaining table....The Union did not even table a financial position until after the 18th session. The union seeks increases of over 20% over a three year contract, with over 16% in the first year."

The above sounds like the Union Locals were both not interested in negotiating a new contract, but wanted both the Region at the negotiating table as well as a massive labour transit strike to put the maximum pressure on the table. But the Region has rightly stayed out of the negotiation process as they are not legally involved in negotiations. Further detrimental was the ratification of the GO Transit employees who also did not walk out with their Union brothers and sisters. What is most notable is the absence of GO Unionized Workers on the picket lines at Finch Station while off duty.

The Union Local 113 & 1587 have become frustrated with mainly the Region. The Unions have stepped up picketing at Finch Station, Richmond Hill Terminal, Bernard Terminal and the YRT South-West Transit Yard on Calidary road to disrupt existing YRT operations in order to affect transit riders the most via delays which cause dangerous overcrowding conditions on many YRT Routes that continue to operate.

The Region will need to respond to the Union's increased picketing lines affecting YRT operations. As previously noted, the Region of York started legal action in the 2008 VIVA Driver Strike to prevent ATU Local 113 members from picketing Finch Station and other key transit notes. The question arises as the ATU Local 113 and 1587 start disrupting YRT services with picketing is when will the Region start the legal process to stop the picketing practices? This causes addtional questions to surface like how will the ATU Union locals respond to the court injunction? Will police from Toronto and York Region respectively enforce the court injunction? On these question only time will tell.

The Unions also have some issues to sort out themselves. Both Union Locals have spent more time and energy in publicly communicating and picketing the Region of York who is not even at the bargaining table than the respective contractor. I find it really strange that the unions have spent more time picketing at the Region of York's Newmarket Headquarters and Region of York Transit Terminals than employer offices and maintenance facilities with the exception of Veolia's contracted yard in Vaughan on Calidari Road where existing routes during the strike are operating out of.  The Union Locals therefore seem to be only interested concentrating their efforts in taking their frustrations out on the general public (i.e. the YRT passengers) and those not involved at the negotiating table (i.e. the Region of York) than the contractors (i.e Miller, Veolia and First Group).

A more tactful response for the Union Locals would be to picket the huge Miller Operations Yard on Woodbine Avenue in Markham, First Group in Newmarket and the Veolia Yards in Newmarket and Vaughan. This would disrupt the contractor's own operations causing the contractors financial hardship instead of the general public trying to get to work and their political representatives.

The only way for this entire labour dispute to come to a resolution is if one of the following happens:

1. The Union Locals and their respective contractors have successful negotations or, failing these negotaitions some arbitration. The arbitration would take into account the contract stipulations with Region of York and the company's ability to renumerate the ATU Local employees.

2. The Region of York voids the contract with the contractors over failure to provide service as contracted.

Right now this entire situation is in the ATU Union Local 113 and 1573's hands. Union Local Leaders Bob Kinnear and Ray Doyle can continue posturing about wanting the Region to come to the table or these same men can return to the negotiating table with the contractors. The latter option is what the employees signed up for when signing the contracts, to be employees of Miller, Veolia or First Group and not the Region of York or the TTC. Kinnear and Doyle should respectfully go back to the negotiation table and talk honestly with the contractors to reach a deal. Failing that the Union Locals may find that the Region of York may act, and I would be the ATU Union Locals 113 and 1587 will not like the action whether it be a result of a court action or a voiding of the contract with the contractors. Actions resulting in legal action or resulting in unemployment are never a good thing for the union members. Hopefully Kinnear and Doyle realise this before it is too late.

Shrinking Wendy's

2011-11-19T16:51:00.000-05:00

I was at the International Centre last week for a tradeshow and decided to skip the overly expensive food served at the convention centre ($9.00 for luke warm Pizza Pizza slice of pizza, a bag a chips and a bottle of Pepsi? FORGET IT!)

So I headed over to the nearby Wendy's we saw coming off the nearby highway with a coworker. The Wendy's (3650 Derry Road East, Mississauga) had nobody in line despite it being noon on a weekday.

The Order: 1 1/4 Pound Hamburger, Fries and Medium Pepsi.

Overall the taste of the food was the way old Dave would have like it. The fries hadn't changed in taste, the burger was still delicious.

The packaging was a little different. The burger was wrapped in a paper wrapping and placed in half cardboard packaging advertising one Wendy's recent specials.

The fries though were also very different in their new packaging. They shrank in size compared to just a year ago. Now quantity of fries is even less than the medium fries at McDonald's. Meanwhile the price, as noted in a previous posting, is still the same.

It seems Wendy's is now cutting back on packaging sizing instead of increasing the price of their products. What ever happenned to Wendy's of old with Dave commercialing himself at the grill promising good tasting food and quality service and price. Things just aren't the same.

Find me on Twitter!

2011-11-12T16:37:00.001-05:00

I just cracked and started a Twitter Account. I have found that there are lots of deals out there if you follow companies, people and other unmentionable things on Twitter.

What am I going to be doing on Twitter? What am I going to be doing with Twitter? I have no idea yet, I can barely keep up with blogging here on a regular basis. But with 140 Characters limit? Who knows!

Follow me to find out what adventures I have with this new to me social medium!

Not So Crabby about Crabby Joe's Tap & Grill

2011-10-27T19:41:00.000-04:00

This past Tuesday my coworkers and I headed on over to Crabby Joe's Tap & Grill (125 Pederson Drive, Aurora) for Wing night. There were twelve of us arriving.

We attempted to make a reservation, but the restaurant does not allow for reservations on wing nights. But we were promised probably success if we came before 6 P.M. as there is usually tables together.

A couple of minutes of the waitresses to push some tables together and we were escorted to our table in the back. This is where the first issue happenned. There really was only space for twelve people in a spot for barely 10 people normally. We quickly resolved the issue by adding another table.

A waitress stopped by and took our drink order. The drinks quickly came to the table with some assistance of the waitresses' coworkers. The food orders were then taken with Chicken wings all around and pitchers of beer, coke and Water all around.

My Order: 1 Pound of Parmesan wings with a pitcher of Molson Canadian.

The orders of food came in with just as much promptness as the drinks which is pretty quick!

But here is where the wheels fall off. My Parmesan wings were fairly dry. Not like the much more tastier Parmesan wings offered at All Star Wings. Also, there were no carrot sticks or celery that normally come with chicken wings. But at least at the price was right at 39 cents per wing.

For wing night it was also dissapointing. There were only about 9 different kinds of wings served. True this place isn't just a Chicken Wing specialty restaurant like All Star or Wild Wing. But considering this is wing night it seems they might want to break out a few more flavours.

Overall, Crabby Joe's Tap & Grill is a mediocre pub at best. There are plenty of pubs in the area to choose from that have better atmosphere rather than a pub with average restaurant looks. Thus, I like the restaurant in terms of service. However, the food wasn't totally bad but not great either.

Sears Sheysters at Promenade

2011-10-24T19:22:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Sears Canada advertised 40% off all Women's, Men's and Kids boots before 11 A.M. on Saturday and 30% off after 11 A.M. Of course there was a caveat that any boots already on sale with the end pricing in "97 cents" were not included in this promotion. My wife and I headed over to Sears at Promenade Mall to check out the deals for a possible new set of boots for my winter travels.

We were sadly disapointed. Even though it was only 8 A.M. on Saturday, there was only one style of boots available that was not priced at 97 cents and it was the most pathetic Sorel type of boot ever seen. We nosed around the mens shoe section double checking to make sure we did not miss anything. The store filled their small Men's shoe section with runners and fancy shoes for the workplace. Sears finished it with two pairs of boots at regular price that neither interested me or nor did they have my size.

We wandered over to the much larger Women's shoe section where a store employee was assisting another customer with her purchase. We inquired as to if there were any other Men's boots in the back for the sale that had yet to be brought out as we had viewed some styles online that were interested in purchasing. We were about to get an answer when the customer let out a loud shriek and a centipede emerged from her boot. She grabbed a shoe from nearby and lowered the resident population at Sears by one.

The employee returned her attention to us and said there was nothing else in stock. She said to try online as they are different type of store than us.

I thought to myself, no kidding the online is a different type of store than Promenade Mall Sears. Promenade Mall Sears has only two styles of boots in stock for a flyer promising across the line savings. The Sears.ca s website meanwhile does have a variety of boots in decent quantities. But I was expecting Sears.ca to have a much wider selection than the regular bricks and mortar store due to Sears.ca being in a no name warehouse in who knows where. But I also expected the Promenade Sears location to have at least 10 styles of boots to choose from rather than the lest than impressive five in which three styles were on sale. That is after all what the Upper Canada Mall Sears location in Newmarket had two years ago when I last went boot shopping. Is it too much to ask to have a decent selection of boots for at a duly advertised boot sale? I think not.

Sears Promenade sure did pull one over on me. What Sheysters.

Armed With a Burger at King Henry's Arms

2011-10-16T20:13:00.000-04:00

Today my wife and I visited King Henry's Arms (9301 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for a little lunch. I was looking to sink my teeth into a quality ground beef burger and McDonald's (also nearby) just simply wouldn't do.

We arrived at 12:30 P.M. and the place was lively for a Sunday lunch with quite a few patrons waiting for the afternoon NFL Football game to start.

My wife and I were welcomed by the bartender who said we could sit anywhere we want. She arrived in two minutes to wipe down the table and drop off the menues.

We reviewed them and the bartender returned to take our drink and food orders.

The Order: 1 King's Breakfast (Eggs Scrambled with Whole Wheat Toast), 1 Arms Burger with Fries and Pepsi.

The food came within ten minutes of ordering. The Arms Burger was as expected. Decent pub burger made of ground beef served with golden fries. The fries were luke warm at best but still potato tasty and not overcooked hard.

The breakfast that my wife had was mediocre at best. Sure her plate was full but this is not your big breakfast that you would receive at other places. Do not visit King Henry's expecting a great breakfast feast, the King's Breakfast is more for those who want a simple breakfast while others have moved onto lunch. The breakfast food itself could be a little better in quality. The bacon was rock hard and not very warm it all. It seemed the bacon had been sitting in a tray by itself waiting to be served to unsuspecting customers. The homefries were also a little to be desired in the warmth department.

The service itself on a Sunday can be a little problematic with only the bartender serving customers without the aide of kitchen runner or a waitress on the floor. The pub needs at least a floor waitress when getting geared up for Sunday afternoon football as I noticed there were at least twenty people at the establishment. This would perhaps speed the food service up a bit which would reduce the amount of heat lost while the food waits to be served to customers.

It should be noted the washrooms have recently been renovated in the previous six months and have improved over the previous incarnations. The Men's washroom itself has recently been remodeled with new taps and tiling which leaves it with a fresher look. But this is a regular pub washroom though with nothing really special in it except the basics.

Overall King Henry's Arms is decent place to have a lunch time meal of a burger and fries as well as other pub fare washed down with a pint.

"It's All Fair in the Agreement"

2011-10-16T18:27:00.001-04:00

In my Posting on the lack of an Aurora Museum posted back in March of this year, "Young & Progressive" commented:

"Congratulations on a great blog...however, just an FYI...the Centre just finished a month long exhibit of Heritage artifacts...the artifacts don't sit in boxes, they are rotated out for show. It's all fair in the agreement. I agree with you that the space can be shared."

From the above comment there are two main issues I wish to draw to light the issues with the current arrangement with the comittee that operates the Aurora Cultural Centre. Before I go any further I totally agree with what Aurora Councillor Eveyln Buck posted recently on her blog especially when she noted:

"I have made it clear, numerous times, the board and staff at the Culture Centre did not create the original problem."

And I would love to add to the blog posting this line: "The current staff at the Cultural Centre do put on great events for the general public, but there seems to be a missing piece of the original intentions of the renovations to Church Street School."

Let's rewind a little to the original agreement made between the Town of Aurora and the Aurora Historical Society. Back then it was to renovate the Church Street School into an Aurora Heritage Centre using funds raised by the Aurora Historical Society. The dream was to ensure the historical artifacts were housed in the proper climate controlled environments yet acessible to those that wished to study and enjoy them. Hence why there currently is a climate controlled room on the second floor of the current Cultural Centre as well as an extensive HVAC system installed that visitors enjoy today. However, somewhere during the renovations the wheels fell off and the Town of Aurora was asked to take over the project by the Aurora Historical Society.

Chris Watts on his blog gave the perfect explanation of what happened next once the Town of Aurora took over the project. The Town approached the federal government for assistance to obtain a grant to assist in finishing the renovations started by the Historical Society. Chris obviously did a little digging and came up with this Town of Aurora By-Law from 2008:

"...the town's bylaw # 5014-08.F:

Whereas Council has endorsed the grant application to the Minister of Canadian Heritage for funding under the program entitled "Cultural Spaces Canada" to receive funding for Capital Project No. 72059 - Aurora Heritage Centre, toward upgrades to the Aurora Heritage Centre;
And whereas the Minister of Canadian Heritage is providing financial assistance under the Cultural Spaces Canada - Grant Program in support of Capital Project No. 72059 - Aurora Heritage Centre, in the amount of $750,000.

Under the heading "Purpose of Conribution" [sic] it reads :

The Minister agrees to enter into this Contribution Agreement in order to grant financial assistance to the Recipient soley for the purpose of implementing the Project described in Annex A of this agreement entitled: "Aurora Heritage Centre".

So the federal government has provided a grant to the Town of Aurora to upgrades to the "Aurora Heritage Centre". I believe as well there was a Trillium Grant made to the Historical Society or the Town of Aurora as well for these purposes. So obviously there are written agreements out there with federal and provincial departments/agencies that show the money was granted for historical/heritage purposes and, it seems, the original intentions were to incorporate at museum into the new Aurora Heritage Centre. As a citizen of Aurora at the time, it was my expecatation as well as others in the Aurora blogosphere, that Church Street school would at least host a museum as well.

"At least" being the operative words. Historically the building has held a museum as well as been a home for the local area Scout Shop, Big Brothers, the Pine Tree Potters and other community organizations. These organizations and the museum had lived in harmony for many years in the town owned building. So why would the Aurora Museum not continue to share the space? Perhaps with the movement of the community groups out of the building into new homes elsewhere another shared space would occurr. Thus the next step of the evolution of the Church Street School would be once the renovations were completed.

Once the renovations were completed an agreement was created between the Town of Aurora and the a volunteer board for cultural programming to be offered. This is the same agreement that "Young & Progressive" has noted in his/her comment noted above. This is the same agreement in a recent auditor's report to the Town of Aurora Council and referenced in The Auroran edition of October 11, 2011 on page 7. The auditors found the Cultural Centre to be in complete compliance with the agreement between the council of the day and the Cultural Centre committee.

The main issue that obviously needs to be resolved and seems to keep getting bogged down in details and personalities is the missing Musuem component of the original intention of the Church Street School building for which federal, provincial and municipal to the town council as well as the private donor funding via the Aurora Historical Society was provided.

Some, like "Young & Progressive" have pointed out that the artifacts of the Aurora Historical Society do make their rounds at shows at the Cultural Centre from time to time. I did note that in the original posting in March 2011 and Anna has noted on her blog recently some artifacts have shown up at the Aurora Public Library. However, this overlooks the original intentions many had of the renovations to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lester B. Pearson's former school building in the dream of a state of the art museum operating in a historic building.

A state of the art museum was the original dream of the Aurora Historical Society, the private donors, and the Town Council of the day. Even the original Aurora Council Motion moved by Councillor Ron Wallace and seconded by Councillor Evelyn Buck to start the process for a "Heritage & Cultural Centre" to be created at Church Street School. It is duly noted and appreciated by many including myself and the recent auditor's report that the Cultural aspect of this motion has been adhered to quite well. But there seems to be a musuem missing from the original intent of the motion. It is one thing to show the artifacts in random showings around town in displays. But it is quite another to have a modern state of the art musuem available as promised in the original agreement between the Town of Aurora, the federal government and the province.

No Promenading at Swiss Chalet

2011-10-11T19:19:00.000-04:00

Today for lunch I headed over to Swiss Chalet (7700 Bathurst Street, Vaughan) to have lunch with coworkers, a table of 20.

When we arrived the place was empty except for a lone elderly lady having a nice quiet lunch by herself.

We were seated almost immediately after some table shuffling and assigned us two waitresses to our group who took our drink orders pretty quickly. Once the drinks were delivered to our table, the food order was taken.

My Order: Quarter Chicken Dark Meat with Steamed Vegetables with a multigrain roll.

The food showed up fifteen minutes later which with this large number of orders was impressive. But things started to slide from there.

My order showed up with scant amount of vegetables and a white roll instead of the aformentioned multigrain role. The vegetables tasted fairly bland and seemed to have been oversteamed at times. The chicken was dry to the taste and was not the usual delicious chicken one comes to expect from Swiss Chalet. As well other orders at our table also seemed misdone.

The two servers tried to serve a chicken salad wrap and demanding to know which person ordered it when no one in the party had ordered that item from the menu. As well the server was not very careful in refilling the water glasses. She spilled water at least twice on each table.

The person sitting next to me had to wait ten minutes longer than everyone else even though he ordered a simple Quarter Chicken Dark Meat with a Multigrain roll and Fries. One would have thought that Swiss Chalet, serving chicken for decades, would be able to serve a simple chicken dinner at the same time as everyone else. Apparently this was not the case at this location.

Billing, obviously with the large group, took a while as each person was billed individually.

Overall the servers seemed ill at ease with their responsibilities despite only twenty people coming in to an empty restaurant. This despite reservations being made so the restaurant could be prepared for such a large group of people.

McDonald's Poor Service

2011-10-10T10:45:00.000-04:00

On this Thanksgiving Monday Morning we decided to head to McDonald's (9301 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for a little morning breakfast. We had preplanned our tactics to get the most out of our money while playing McDonald's Monopoly promotion.

The last time the Egg McMuffin sandwich had Monopoly pieces. Normally without my wife I do not order the Egg portion of the sandwich as I really don't care for eggs. But this time I ordered it and my wife was able to enjoy a double Egg McMuffin sandwich. But sadly, the Egg McMuffin sandwich did not come with Monopoly pieces. McDonald's had changed it to the Buttermilk biscuits only.

The Order: Two Egg McMuffin Combos. One with Medium Coffee and the second with a Medium Earl Grey Tea.

I ordered followed by four other people behind us. We waited watching the clock on the order screen tick away. The server taking the cash was the only person behind the counter except for the person serving the food at the drive thru which is less than ten feet away. The in store cashier just took the orders one after another lining up the trays across the counter. The drive thru attendant stacked and reshuffled her drinking cups over and over again no cars in the drive thru in site. The entire time I waited for my order the drive thru window never opened. Still the order screen ticked away. Our food sat ready to be picked up. The order screen continued to tick away and started to flash after two minutes had elapsed. The food was so close I wanted to hop over the counter and serve myself...the order screen continued flashing as it slowly passed four minutes and thirty seconds. "Next customer please..." the cashier said. I interrupted her

"Could we get our food?"

"I'm supposed to have a runner who should be here shortly."

"Your order screen has just passed four minutes and thirty seconds."

She finally relented and gradually dropped off our meal and started working on the others.

I sat down fuming. This was the third time in three weeks that at this particular McDonald's there had been a disconnect in service. The cashier was eager to take your order and your cash. But refused to hand over the food that was duly ordered and paid for without a little prodding.

On a previous visit the order taker took my order and the next person's order. Then with nobody in line she stared right through us to see if anyone else was coming in the door. Meanwhile the order screen ticked away. It wasn't until I said something that she moved to at least pour my coffee.

Not sure what happenned at this McDonald's that the people behind the counter cannot multitask to ensure the customer moves quickly from ordering to getting their food.

It was a normal McDonald's food order. A greasy hash brown and Sausage McMuffin washed down with their excellent coffee.

I didn't win the million dollars from the McDonald's Monopoly promotion. But at least I won a free muffin and cheeseburger from this visit. I did not return to the counter for my muffin on this visit though. I figured it would take five minutes just to have someone to retrieve it.

Good Food at Alice Fazooli's

2011-10-09T19:27:00.000-04:00

Recently in the mail I received a buy $50.00 or more in food and receive $25.00 off to Alice Fazooli's (155 York Boulevard, Richmond Hill). My wife and I headed out for a Saturday lunch.

We arrived shortly after 1:00 P.M. to find the place virtually deserted except for a few occupied tables. Really it looked like a few drops of water in an Olympic sized swimming pool. But a least there was no wait for seating.

After being seated, our waitress stopped by and took our drink order. We stared at the menu trying to figure out how to ensure our order was at least fifty bucks so we could best use our coupon. Eventually we placed our order that came in at a magical $55.00. Enough to be filling yet economical to ensure the coupon was used correctly.

The Order: Alice's Homemade Meatballs sprinkled with Parmesan Cheese, Fettuccini Di Mare and Steak with Beans and roasted Mushrooms in a Red Wine Sauce.

The waitress quickly returned with some rolls and olive oil. The olive oil was well done and made the rolls taste perfect. The rolls themselves though do have hold their own and seamed freshly baked that day, but it was hard to tell since they were not warm as in fresh out of the oven.

Alice's Homemade Meatballs arrived first as an appetizer. There were two large metaballs doused in a delicious tomato sauce which our server sprinkled parmesan cheese on. The meetballs were delicious and we soon found the asiago cheese in the middle.

Another five minutes passed and our food arrived.

I dug into the steak to find it succulant yet tasty with the red wine sauce. The beans were the typical steamed vegetables that were nothing really to write home about. The mushrooms were great when integrated in with the sauce from the steak.

My wife enjoyed the muscles and shrimp in her Fettucini as well as the sauce and noodles. She was full yet sated after devouring her meal.

Overall Alice Fazooli's was a great lunch spot with great food. Based on the layout of the restaurant, the place is usually hopping on weekend nights as it seemed to hold over a hundred people. But the price is a little pricey for a weekly visiting.

Guest Post: What I'm Thankful For by My Wife

2011-10-08T17:31:00.001-04:00

On this Thanksfiving weekend my wife provides my first ever guest post for which I'm Thankful for. -- Michael

I am Thankful for....

10. A husband who ...

a. Shares in the chores such as drying the dishes and making lunches for the workdays.

b. Reminds me of the positive characteristics and traits about myself that I don’t always see.

c. Encourages me to try new activities that I otherwise would not venture to attempt.

9. Having the motivation to exercise on a regular basis to maintain a healthy body.

8. The opportunity to live, work and study in New York City for 3 years.

7. Our neighbourhood basset hounds, Daffy and Dumpy, who puts a smile on our faces with their personalities and antics.

"Dumpy The Neighbourhood Hound"

6. That I had the opportunity to study French full time for 1 year.

5. The Richmond Hill Public Library and the accessibility that it provides to good reading materials.

4. Bus rides where all the connections work out and I am able to get to my destination 5-10 minutes earlier.

3. Living in a day and age where information is accessible through the Internet.

2. The invention of pumpkin pie.

1. That I have things to be thankful for.

Mary Brown's Not the Best Legs in Town

2011-09-13T19:59:00.000-04:00

Recently I visited Mary Brown's (2 Henderson Drive, Aurora, Ontario) for some fried chicken for lunch.

The Order: Six Piece meal with Potato Wedges, cole slaw and a can of Pepsi.

I waited about five minutes for my order to be prepared which was adequate. I grabbed my bag and returned to my workplace to eat.

At work, unwrapping my order I noticed there was only one box, which I assumed was the chicken and a smaller container of Cole Slaw. I wondered where my potato wedges were, I paid for it gosh darn it! They didn't seem to be in my bag to go.

I opened what I figured to be the chicken box only to find potato wedges. But there was the aroma of fried chicken tickeling my nose. I dug into the box a little further to find the chicken. They had buried the chicken in with potato wedges which, even my coworkers agreed, was a little weird.

The food itself was decent. The potato wedges was tasty with a potatoey taste. The wedges themselves competed with ketchup for my taste buds. The chicken though was unremarkable. The chicken tasted like anything you would receive at a reputable KFC. The cole slaw was barely a thimble full worth in quantity. I felt skimped on the slaw!

So overall, nothing really special about Mary Brown's except for the potato wedges. So I may return for a side of potato wedges for snacking purposes, but with a bill for over ten bucks for mediocre chicken with potato wedges, a lunch place it is not.

An Inexpensive Day in Toronto

2011-09-12T20:36:00.000-04:00

On the Labour Day Monday in Toronto my wife and I headed down to Toronto's waterfront for a little sightseeing of the military variety. We took the subway down from Finch Station using a TTC Day Pass ($10.00 for two adults and two children on weekends).

First we stopped off at Coronation Park which is near the Canadian National Exhibition to watch the air show which we thought started at 12:30 and ended at 4:00 P.M. as it was advertised on their website at the time. We waited from 12:30 until 1:00 and only saw a brief glimpse of the Airplane/Helicopter from the U.S. Army. At 1:00 P.M. we threw in the towel and started walking eastward as we had another stop we wanted to see. We started working our way around the condos on the waterfront when a couple of military planes took off. We admired them as they dissappeared in the distance.

The CNE should get together with the air show and have tighter start and end times for the planes taking off. Having air show fans sitting for hours on end while the planes come and go every fifteen minutes doesn't seem that impressive to me. As well this spread out air show keeps patrons who are on the CNE grounds from taking part in rides and travelling very far from the waterfront to spend money because they are worried about missing something. Anyway, we missed most of the airshow except what we could see from our travels by foot to the foot of Yonge Street.

Our second stop was the visiting HMCS Montreal and the HMCS Summerside.

The HMCS Montreal

The HMCS Summerside (left) and the HMCS Shawinigan (right)

The best part about visiting the HMCS Montreal and Summerside? It was all FREE! So watch out next year to see which of the naval vessels of the Canadian Navy will be in port. For more pictures of the HMCS Montreal and the HMCS Summerside check the Toronto albumn of my pictures.

For the entire afternoon for two adults cost us $10.00 Day pass for the TTC plus a lunch at Tim Hortons resulted in an afternoon of fun and frolic.

YRT's Problems with Presto

2011-08-28T10:19:00.002-04:00

After much delay and marketing, on July 18th York Region Transit (YRT) rolled out the Presto Card payment system. There were free Presto Card campaigns where the card issuance fee was waived at Richmond Hill Centre Terminal, Finch Station and Newmarket Terminal.
From travellings on Yonge Street there has not been that many passengers using the card. Since the roll out I have only seen one person use their Presto Card to pay a fare.   But, YRT has only rolled out the Presto Card to those that regularly use tickets. Hopefully once all the kinks are worked out YRT will roll them out to the monthly pass holders to use.   But this will take a while as there are several issues that need to be ironed out.

Yorkregion.com is reporting several customer complaints that YRT seems to be unreasonably attempting to resolve. The first has the been the distribution of the card. Kevin Ball says it best about this experience:

"All in all, it has been only a frustrating and disappointing experience,” he said. “I was dumbfounded that any system could be run this poorly.” -Yorkregion.com article.

Kevin had issues finding the card distribution in the first place. He lives in Newmarket and attended the Newmarket Terminal where he was told he could obtain it. The card was not there. He was told the York Region Transit Office in Richmond Hill has the card. A couple of issues here for Mr. Ball, the Richmond Hill Transit Office is open between 8:30 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. Monday to Friday. Now let's ask a very poignent question, what might the average transit user be doing between the hours of 8:30 and 4:30 during a regular weekday? Working full time or attempting to navigate the transit system just like Kevin Ball. Mr. Ball even tried the local GO Train stations, sure they have the cards but they are only open in the mornings for a couple of hours to sell GO Fares. In the end Mr. Ball returned his card after having the Presto system reject his card and unable to refill the card. To further agravate the situation, Mr. Ball was unable to get a live operater on the phone when calling Presto itself and e-mailing  about the issues.

Next up is Jo-anne Brown who ordered the Presto card online and had it delivered for her teenage daughter. Ms. Brown then inquired with York Region Transit as to how to ensure only student fares were deducted as her daughter fits into that category. The rocket scientists at YRT said the only way to do this is to come down to the Richmond Hill YRT Office to have the card set correctly. And the hours again on that office: 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Monday to Friday. Ms. Brown was also told the Newmarket Terminal would be able to do this as well. But, the Newmarket Terminal, like Mr. Ball above found out, did not do this.  She visited the Richmond Hill Transit office during her work hours to get the card activated. But that was not all to finish activating the student card: "Ms Brown had to tap the card within seven days to complete activation, but was told that, since she didn’t want to actually board a bus, she could have the fare refunded by pushing the cancel button. There was no cancel button, however, and instead she had $2.75 deducted,..." Ms. Brown has since turned the Presto card into an very expensive yet decorative coaster for her coffee table.

Two weeks ago on CBC Radio's Metro Morning with Matt Galloway, a freelance reporter reported that he tapped his Presto Card at Finch Station and boarded a northbound VIVA Blue bus. YRT's Transit Enforcement was on the VIVA bus checking fares. They tapped the reporter's card to show he hadn't paid. He disembarked the bus with the transit enforcement team and tapped the Presto Machine he used and it showe he paid. In the meantime, the VIVA Blue bus pulled out without the reporter on the bus for which he duly paid his fare and he was made to look like a fare evading scofflaw when in fact the reporter had fully paid his fare and was entitled to board the bus. There was no word of an apology from York Region Transit or Presto. The next guest on CBC's Metro Morning was the head of Metrolinx, Bruce McCuaig, who did not offer an apology but pointed out Presto was a new system and there were technical glitches being worked out across the system.

So with this in mind the Yorkregion.com reporter followed up with the head of York Region Transit, Richard Leary. Mr. Leary however stayed on YRT's carefully written script just like a seasoned politician in a political campaign in response to the Yorkregion.com reporter's questioning. Unfortunately the Mr. Leary's published comments in the article only make him seem totally out of touch with what has gone on in YRT's failed attempt at rolling out Presto:

YRT general manager Rick Leary said the rollout has gone better than expected and the transit service has registered only eight complaints.
Really? Then why was the Presto roll out delayed from March 2011, as written in a staff report to the Region of York's transportation comittee, to July 2011. According to my sources at YRT there were significant technical issues that needed to be worked out and that is why there was a delay. From Mr. Ball's and Ms. Brown's experiences and Mr. McQuaig's own admissions, it appears that there are still technical issues to be worked out. Thus, Mr. Leary's contention that the "rollout has gone better than expected" is simply not true.

“It’s been nearly seamless because everyone else has gone first.”
No things have not been "seamless" for York Region Transit. If the system roll out was "seamless" the Presto programme would have been rolled out as promised by Regional Transportation staff of March 2011 instead of July 2011. "Seamless" also does not mean having distribution network issues requiring people to have to take off work to visit the transit office during work hours. "Seamless" also does not mean Presto card fare payment issues where users are accused of not paying their fares properly (CBC Reporter) or not being able to use the duly payed for card itself (Mr. Brown).

As for the issues raised by Mr. Brown and Ms Ball, he conceded the distribution network is not fully in place, but said it will change in 2012 as the system expands. Right now, the focus is on education and attracting riders who typically use a cash fare or 10-ticket packages. By the middle of next year, YRT hope to also sell monthly passes via Presto.

"Education and attracting riders"? The only thing the Presto experience so far has shown is YRT can not handle a roll out of a new fare system that is properly tested and easy for the customer to use. Presto has had technical issues as Bruce McQuaig, the head of Metrolinx pointed out on CBC Radio. So if there were so many technical issues, why was the Presto system not delayed by YRT and a proper explanation in staff report presented to the Region's Transportation comittee. This report would have said there had been issues in other jurisdictions that need to be ironed out and thus a one year delay would save the Region and it's transit customers time, money and frustration. But then again, Mr. Leary would not be able to contend that the roll out has been "seamless" and would be forced to admit the failure of Presto.

“What we have is working very well,” Mr. Leary said.

Really?  After reading and hearing about the issue of Presto, I don't think this statement by Mr. Leary is believable.

Decent Wimpy's Diner with a Big Burger with It

2011-08-21T08:35:00.001-04:00

Friday night my wife and I headed down to Wimpy's Diner (8123 Yonge Street, Markham) for a burger and some greasy breakfast food. We had been to the Aurora location before and liked the burgers and food. Now we thought we would try a sister location of this Toronto area chain.

We originally came to Wimpy's looking for a new breakfast greasy spoon restaurant. Last weekend we visited Three Coins in downtown Richmond Hill to find the big breakfast portions had shrunken a little. So we turned to Wimpy's to see if they could fulfill the role of being the tastly local greasy spoon breakfast location.

We entered and immediately noticed this location looked slightly smaller than the Aurora location. There were only two tables open when we arrived, but while we ate our meal there seemed to be a steady stream coming into the restaurant to replace those that had just vacated.

There were two harried waitresses on the floor. One looked experienced while the other seemed a little dazed at times at what to do next. We were greated by the experienced one and told to choose between the front table and a table further in the back. We selected the front table and reviewed the menus.

The Order: Wimpy's Famous Burger combo with fries and a Coke. Wimpy's Five Star Combo (breakfast combo).

Unfortunately we could not find the "Wimpy's Big Breakfast" and had to settle for the smaller brakfast combo on the menu. As an aside, this is a little puzzling as today I review Wimpy's website the big breakfast is still listed there. So is the breakfast being discontinued or just not offered at the Thornhill location.

The food came within ten minutes of ordering. My wife's big breakfast came first and sat on our table for about two minutes until my burger was topped and brought to the table. No big deal really about the small gap between the food plates, I have experienced worse.

The breakfast seemed to dissapear courtesy of my wife. But again the portions just were not there like the big breakfast portions provided previously at the Aurora location. The breakfast food itself was nothing really special or to write home about. The sausages, which I had one, was a little dry and not really bursting with flavour. The home fries were decent and well matched with a little ketchup but also stood on their own if need be.

The burger combo itself was the usual oversized steak like patty that Wimpy's is famous for. The burger comes with whatever toppings you wish and was, as usual, well cooked and delicious. The fries were well done as well taste wise. However, quantity wise it was stretch to have them cover the rest of the plate the burger did not.

Wimpy's is a decent spot for their burger and fries. The demise of the big breakfast is a little cocerning though and may lose some of their loyal customers. Overall this greasy spoon needs to watch that they do not merely become like their competitors by lowering the portion sizes and starting to do away with the large hearty breakfasts. This is how Wimpy's will retain their customers, by offering their customers old fashioned large portioned heartwarming greasy spoon breakfasts while also grilling up their famous steak like burgers.

In the Blogosphere Recently...

2011-08-14T19:43:00.001-04:00

Lately, I have been mentioned in the local Aurora blogosphere a couple of times in August. The topics of Town of Aurora history and politics are where I am being quoted as both a helper and a well reasoned opinionator of local Aurora issues.

First the interesting historical part. Growing up in Aurora I have been around many of the long time Aurora residents who know of days gone by, an avid reader of local newspapers and the book Àurora: A History in Pictures (now out of print but can be found at the Aurora Library).   As well, lately I follow several Aurora based blogs including Anna`s Living in Aurora. One entry that caught my eye was Anna`s recounting of her purchasing the aformentioned Aurora: A History in Pictures only to find an old photograph stuck inside the book. She wondered about the photo in the book. Chris Watts' weighed in pointing out that David Heard who regularly attends the Aurora Farmer`s Market may help as he has done quite a bit of historical Aurora research for his gig overseeing A Step in Time which provides walking tours of historical Aurora as well as pointing out that the man in the photo was possibly a relation to the former Knowles Butcher shop that used to be on Wellington Street in Aurora.

I responded two times. At first I was thinking of the name "Knowles Crescent" and thought it could be the person the street was named after. As well, I suggested a few locals who are into history in Aurora who could shed some light on the topic. After clicking the ``submit`` button a thought popped into mind. I leafed through my copy of Aurora: a History in Pictures and stopped on the photo of old Wells Street School. There was the man in the photo, J.H. Knowles the principal. The principal`s face matched the man in the photo perfectly. I suggested to Anna, in another comment on her blog posting that she contact Bob McRoberts as I remember somehow he was a relation to J.H. Knowles (i.e. a man in the photo) and may be able to shed some light on it.

In a follow up posting, Anna, thanked myself, Chris Watts and Bob McRoberts for getting the photo returned to it`s rightful place, J.H. Knowles' descendants, Bob McRoberts himself.    I`m glad I could help Anna both experience Aurora history in real life but also help her learn who some of Aurora`s builders were. As an added bonus, and to drive her crazy a little more about the "Knowles" name in Aurorora, I noted this evening that there are 52 mentions of the Knowles family name in the listings of the Aurora Members of Council on the Town of Aurora history.

Meanwhile, over on Chris Watts' blog I happen to be mentioned two times. The first was on my blog`s posting on the ongoing debate about some playground equipment at Confederation Park. Chris uses several excerpts from my posting (Note: I`m honoured Chris quoted my posting) to both question the municipalities` communications department and take my side of the issue that the climber needs to stay and parent`s supervising need to shape up and watch their children better.

Chris Watts` other posting about the arrival of his 2011 edition of the local phone book on his front stoop. Chris linked to my posting when I attempted to auction off the local edition of Goldbook. Chris ruminates about the usefulness of the printed phone book in the age of the internet before coming to the conclusion that "Phonebooks need to be flushed from our wasteful society once and for all."

It has been a very busy couple of weeks in the blogosphere for me lately indeed!

Wobbelling like a Domino at Domino's

2011-08-01T19:31:00.001-04:00

Sunday evening my wife and I decided to have a nice pizza and a movie night in. We thought for a change we would try our local Domino's Pizza (9251 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill).

We attempted to go online to pick out our pizza and search for deals. But the Dominos Canada website kept asking us for our local address information and finding our local Domino's Pizza. The whole idea behind the website was to get to the customer to order online as that was the only way I was lead to seeing the menu. I can understand choosing the local Domino's location for pricing and product availability issues for the menu, but really must I put in my home address information to even see the menu and/or your specials? It was a little frustrating and we almost decided to order from another place. But I stuck through it and found a pizza we thought we would try.

The Order: 1 Medium Deluxe Feast Pizza (toppings: meatballs, pepperoni, mushrooms and green pepper).

I placed the order over the phone and was told the pizza would be ready in 15 to 20 minutes. Fifteen minutes later I walked through the front door for pick-up. The pizza was just coming out of the oven as the attendent reached for the pizza flipper to put it in the box and cut. Two minutes later I was paid and out of the store.

I got home five minutes later and we dug in. The pizza was perfectly sauced and cheesed like any other pizza would be from a chain pizzeria, so no complaints there. The only real issue were the toppings. The mushrooms and meatballs did not want to be eaten at all as they slid off the pizza slices repeatedly either into the box or onto the floor. There has to be a better way to keep these type of toppings from sliding off.

Otherwise the pizza dissappeared pretty quickly as it was finely done and for just over ten dollars a decent price. Will I go back? Likely but there are other pizzas places out there waiting to be tried, thus Domino's really didn't hook me in as a guarenteed customer.

Not Quite On Target: How the World's Hottest Retailer Hit a Bull's-Eye

2011-07-28T14:56:00.000-04:00

On Target: How the World's Hottest Retailer Hit a Bull's Eye by Laura Rowley investigates the history and popularity behind how Target became a retailing sensation while taking the discount juggernaut Wal-Mart.

The book is a decent read but hardly an outstanding recount of Target's history from department store to 1,300 plus store retail chain.

The problem with the book, ironically, is right at the beginning where traditionally authors tend to hook the reader. In this particular book Rowley starts off writing about how great target is in terms of how Target competes on price, design, welcoming environment and being good corporate citizens. Except, she spends five plus chapters, 82 pages, telling readers what Target today is all about. Then, on page 83 the rewind occurs and the reader is taken back to start the history of Target from George Draper Dayton onwards. The rest of the book takes the reader from George's founding of what would become Target up until the early 2000s and the challenges Target faces. The main issue about the book is it is not written in chronological order and makes a great jump.

Perhaps the book could have been reordered so that the introduction gives the reader a snapshot of what Target is today. This introduction could be five to ten pages at most. Next in Chapter one it would start off by saying "to actually understand Target's success and corporate values one must start at the beginning and watch the company evolve." This would then lead the reader from back of George Draper Dayton's era to the issues Target is facing today and then forcast into the future how target could be a success.

The book overall - once the excitement about how the Target is a great designer, marketer, clean and philantropic is ingrained into the reader in the first five chapters - is a fantastic read. The book investigates how George Draper Dayton moved into retailing industry via founding a department store in Minnesota. From there, Bowley takes us through how the return policies, corporate values, company was passed down through the Dayton family and the possible hostile takeover was thwarted. While chronologically moving through the history of Target, author Laura Rowley, brings in current and ex Target executives and management to provide insight into how things were at the time. As well, she brings forth ample amount of research noted in over 8 pages of endnotes.

The only downfall with her research is the failure to provide a full Bibliography of her sources at all. The insight the reader has that Laura Rowley actually did any reasearch is her end notes. However, a complete list of sources at the end would have made her research stand out even more. Without the Bibliography, one wonders how in depth the research actually was in terms of reading the current availbility of books, newspaper articles, in depth interviews and much more was. The only indication at all about the depth of research is mainly evidenced in the content of the book with direct quotes from company and industry executives as well as, again, the end notes. But the Bibliogpraphy references would have further reinforced the author's authority on Target company history.

Overall, those wondering how Target as a company came to be a leading American, and soon to be Canadian retailer, should read Laura Rowley's book as it delves into the company history quite nicely. However, the reader should be warned this book does have it's drawbacks that need to be duly noted.

PRESTO! The Card is Here!

2011-07-25T12:11:00.002-04:00

After overpromising a March start, York Region Transit (YRT) finally launched the Presto Card to it's transit system as a fare payment option. On July 18th the Presto system went live on York Region's transit system.    So far there have been lots of pluses and minuses about the system during the roll out.

The first issue remains the delays in rolling out the Presto system in York Region. Yorkregion.com reported the original delay back in March 2011 with the Region of York being tight lipped about the delay. At that time I noted there was no mention in either the Region's Transportation Comittee or the Regional Council's minutes or staff reports about the delay. It was not until I heard rumours there were technical difficulties that needed to be worked out that caused the delay. But about a 90 day delay? Was this so the great YRT "everything is hunky dory!" marketing machine could get their act together and overpromote the launch of Presto?   For months several YRT buses had the Presto green advertising bus raps on them promoting the launch of the Presto card, yet no explanation was coming forth about the delayed launch date being due to technical difficulties. To be clear, technical difficulties do occur with new and proven technical installations, thus, a proper customer update that technical issues have caused YRT to push back the launch date and updates are coming soon should have been publicized to YRT customers via their website, their My Transit customer newsletter, and, since Presto has been a large taxpayer investment in transit, a mention at the Region's Transportation comittee. YRT and the Region really dropped the ball on communicating with the public non positive news about the roll out.

Next comes the expected traditional YRT overhyped roll out date of July 18th. Ironically this type the prehype just was not there. Perhaps this was because the Summer 2011 edition of My Transit had already hit the printer and was being distributed on the buses by mid May so that marketing option was not a possibility and the budget on bus advertising raps had been blown already with the promised launch of March 2011 that that was not an option either. The only mention was on the YRT website with the promise of a July 18, 2011 launch. YRT did miss an marketing option though through the local municipalities Notice Boards in the local papers. Local municipalities post these noticeboards weekly in the local papers to provide information to residents about upcoming activities, meetings and other relevant public notices. Richmond Hill and Aurora both have previously had YRT transit updates included in these noticeboards so why was the launch of Presto not included in there as well? The great YRT marketing machine seems to have missed this but may have been caught off guard with the push back of the launch date to properly organize a marketing campaign on the fly.

Perhaps the marketing budget was not for the marketing purposes advertising the launch date but for ensuring the launch day itself was overmarketed. On the YRT website, YRT promised prospective riders that their team would be at Richmond Hill Centre to help sign up people with the Presto Card and show them how to use it. YRT even promised 5,000 cards would be given out free with the $6.00 issuance fee waived as long as riders purchase $19.00 worth to put on the card.

On July 18th I took VIVA Blue up and down Yonge Street a couple of times including through Richmond Hill Centre. In the afternoon at Richmond Hill centre as I waited to transfer buses I noted the YRT tent was there with at least four laptops set up. This same tent was staffed by two burly YRT Special Constables who were sitting there making sure the laptops did not grow legs and walk away. I also noted the YRT Special Constable SUV was illegally parked on the island where the buses pull up to. This despite there being a perfectly good parking lot less than 90 feet away for the peons who ride transit can park their vehicles to ride transit. But I digress, this would obviously be such a burden to them to park over there instead of pulling right by "Do Not Enter, Buses Excepted" signs and park right in the middle of transit island. Also on hand were five Presto swag outfitted agents all standing around talking with each other. These agents were not really useful either as after I boarded the bus I was waiting for a YRT customer had questions for the driver. Not one of the Presto agents walked over to lend a hand so our bus could get on it's way. About thirty passengers were on the bus delayed because a Presto agent couldn't walk less than thirty feet over to provide a little customer service.

Overall a quick calculation of what I observed for the roll out of Presto so far:

$6.00 x 5,000 = 30,000 in free Presto cards handed out. (costs noted based on promotion on YRT website)

$15.00 per hour for 7 Presto Agents for four eight hour work days to provide customer support = $840 (all these numbers are estimated).

Bus wraps, lap tops, paying two special constables to guard the lap tops, printing of promotional materials before Presto was rolled out and the Presto Machines themselves?????

As you can see the costs of the Presto Roll out exceed probably exceeded $50,000 to launch the machines themselves. And there is no word yet on how much Presto (i.e. the Province of Ontario) and YRT (Region of York) are paying for the launch.

There are some good marketing aspects YRT managed to acquire including a free how to use Presto video. Over at Yorkregion.com a video is up showing YRT General Manager Richard Leary modelling how the Presto card is used to pay fares.   This is precisely what YRT could have produced themselves and uploaded to YouTube could have helped. In the past VIVA and YRT have used videos to show the public how VIVA would like before VIVA was launched in September 2005.   Those videos showed riders how to validate a ticket, purchase a ticket, to board a VIVA vehicle and how the routes would operate. A similar video could have been produced for Presto but sadly was not until Mr. Leary mugged for the press.

The major issue with Presto is the cost of the card itself. Riders are required to pay $6.00 for the card itself without anything on it. So for $6.00 all you get is flashy green credit card that does absolutly nothing. You can not get on a bus until you add value to the card. The card though is refillable at any time. As of right now Presto can only be used in York Region for single or multi rides with the intent on eventually replacing the current fares of ten paper tickets that can be purchased at select merchants throughout the region.

Contrast this to New York City and famed "Metrocard." Metrocards are magenetic stripped cards provided free as long as the rider pays a fare to board the city's transit system. Metrocards can also be loaded with ten rides, day passes, weekly passes and monthly passes. The added bonus of weekly and monthly passes is the user can use it for 7 (weekly) or 30 (monthly) days from the date of purchase. Thus, you are not hogtied like you are with the YRT GTA weekly pass into using it between Monday to Sunday of a certain week, you can use it from, for example, Wednesday to Tuesday if it is a weekly. New York City at least makes it convenient and economical for riders to pay and utilize their fares.

The New York City options obviously gives more flexibility and less costly fare payment options than the current fare options provided by YRT. Hopefully Presto in the future will be broadened to replace and improve the fare payment options, but the initial $6.00 fee for the card needs to seriously be relooked at as I believe this is nothing but a cash grab by YRT or Presto.

Another issue that YRT should be working on is where do customers obtain the Presto card for $6.00. Currently the only place in York Region to pick up a Presto Card is at the YRT offices in Richmond Hill between 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Friday. Otherwise riders have to travel outside the region to purchase their card to places like Brampton and Mississauga. Presto does advertise that riders can puchase Presto cards "at any PRESTO activated GO Transit rail station", but then does not give a list of these stations and the hours. Perhaps Presto could provide a continously updated list of fare purchasing locations that include contact information and hours that the fares are sold similar to how York Region Transit does on their website. This would allow riders interested in Presto to see when and where to get their card at a convenient time for them. Presto does provide an online order option, but many people are leary of purchasing things online.   But then again, allowing YRT customers to conveniently purchase their fares was never a forte of YRT at times. Hopefully YRT is working on getting their fare providers up and running with the distribution of Presto cards.

There are some kudos to go to YRT, the Region of York, Presto and the provincial government. One of the kudos is to the way fares are now collected and receipts (transfers) issued to passengers. Previously, YRT local route (e.g. Route 4, Route 85, Route 98, Route 99, etc.) had to let passengers board pay their fare and have the driver manually rip off a transfer just right. The transfer had to be ripped just right as across the bottom it shows when the passengar has until to use the transfer (i.e. 2 hours after paying initial fare). This manual process resulted in short delays while drivers readjusted the transfer ripping equipment and punched new booklets of transfers. As well added waste was created as YRT had a different coloured transfer booklet for each month. There was much wasted customer travel time and probably paper waste using this manual system.

Fare payment and transfers all changed with the installation of Presto. The added bonus of the Presto system is not only is there an added convenient way to pay a fare, the transfer system has been automized as well. Now when a passenger boards a YRT vehicle with a cash fare and drops it in the fare box the driver can push a button on the Presto machine to have a transfer automatically printed which now removes the need for the driver to fiddle with outdated transfers while passengers waste their time watching the second hand on their watches wizz by. But this method of printing transfers is not new. YRT's counterparts in Ottawa at OC Transpo have been offering automated transfers similar to Presto's since at least 1998. But at least for YRT this is a step forward and a significant improvement over TTC that offers one way travel only for one fare nevermind the need for two way travel within a time period.

With Presto there seems to be the intent of getting it right. But the launch in York Region by YRT leaves quite a bit to be desired. The setting of the launch date, the marketing, the overall launch date and the launch date itself are concerning. As well, YRT needs to work with Presto in setting up a better network of agents to provide convenient locations to pick up Presto cards and refill their cards. The start of Presto in York Region has had a rocky start to begin with. But hopefully Presto will lead to better fare collection processes and convenience of use for passengers similar to other more advanced transit systems around the world.

Confederation Park Climber Kerfuffle

2011-07-21T16:04:00.004-04:00

Recently at the past two Aurora Council meetings two residents, Laurie Harris and Martin McIntaggart, have come forth to speak to council pleading to have the "double hump camel climber" removed from Aurora's Confederation Park.

Laurie Harris, at the latest meeting, brought her four year old daughter to the recent council meeting to explain that her daughter hurt herself when falling from the climber. Ms. Harris, along with her husband Jeff Harris, believe that the climber should be totally removed before a child is seriously injured or killed. Her husband Jeff Harris has taken to Evelyn Buck's blog and the local media to defend their family's belief the the climber should be removed as well.

Martin McIntaggart, claiming to be a Labour ministry specialist who inspects buildings like the CN Tower, also believes the climber should be removed. He believes this structure should be removed as he has seen kids climb up to the top and freeze in fear of continuing onwards.

The Town's Parks and Recreation Department attempted to take a poll of local residents who use the park about the structure. Instead of having a clearly posted sign attached to the climber or posted in a conspicous spot next to the structure, town staff posted a computer print out in a plastic baggy on a baby swingset. This sign eventually became so weathered it became unreadable. Thus, as Park and Recreation Director Al Downey told Aurora Council, the town did not receive a conclusive feedback of for or against the climber being removed. In fact, I would imagine, the town park's staff probably wasted their time and money in putting up the sign and undertaking such an under publicized inconclusive poll. Overall, I did not see anything posted on the Town's website about the poll and I doubt anything was published in the Town of Aurora's Noticeboard in the local newspaper asking for feedback. Further, the town communications department late last year launched Twitter and Facebook accounts, I've just done a search on both and not even a mention in the last 30 days of the words "Confederation Park." The Parks and Recreation department has done this before for resident feedback for such opinions on the Aurora Family Leisure Complex Fitness Centre. One wonders why the Parks and Recreation Department never did this.

Also at the last council meeting were two mothers who also work as lunch time assistants at Regency Acres Public School who believe the climber should be left in its place. Gayle Palmer and Leah Clark noted to council that kids have issues all the time with playground equipment whether it being tumbling over the sides of slides or misjudging the height of monkey bars. They also pointed out that children should be shown age appropriate equipment and explained that when they get older they can try the other equipment.

Parks and Recreation Director, Al Downey, pointed out in a Yorkregion.com article:

[He] confirmed the park, including the climber that was installed two years ago, was approved by the Canadian Safety Association and continues to comply with those standards.
“However, this doesn’t prevent injury,” he said. “There is challenges in the parks to increase enjoyment.”

With all of the above in mind Aurora Council has a major decision to make, to remove the "double hump camel climber" or let it sit in place as is and move on.

Aurora Mayor Geoffrey Dawe at the recent council meeting put forth a motion to have the camel climber removed. There was vigorous debate before Councillor Evelyn Buck moved for a staff report be brought forth with options on removal or letting the climber remain in place. Al Downey and his team at Parks and Recreation have a big issue at hand and need to come through with all the possible options. Hopefully the Mr. Downey and his department will overcome the mistaken public input process undertaken on the initial public consultation methods as noted above and bring forth a superb report on whether or not to remove the equipment. If the latter is chosen council has inquired as to what the climber could be replaced with. Mr. Downey needs to do his homework on this report along with his staff to prevent this issue from becoming even larger.

The question overall is simple on this issue. It is not whether the equipment should be pulled or not, but the answer can be pieced together through several opinions in an easy to understand way.

The first, Councillor Evelyn Buck responded with an e-mail to Laurie Harris with her stand on the issue which Ms. Buck posted on her blog. Ms. Buck contends the equipment meets CSA safety standards and are consistently inspected. As a former day camp councillor with the Town of Aurora I have noted the parks department weekly inspecting the equipment for defects and other issues to ensure children's safety.

Secondly, over at her blog, Living in Aurora, Anna echoes Councillor Buck's beliefs and furthers the point in a posting by noting:

Playground equipment is not designed for one age. It is designed for range of ages. It is my responsibility as a parent to recognize my child’s climbing and maneuverability skills and let them play with the monkey bars. Would I let my three year old now, or four year old next year climb the monkey bars? No, he is a talker, but definitely not a climber at this stage of his life.

Thus, parents should be responsible for what their children are using at the local parks and not merely sit on the bench to talk to the other parents.

Thirdly Professional playground designer, Daniel Haddaway of Designed for Fun Inc., points out, in a letter to the editor on Yorkregion.com that this particular structure is for ages 5 to 12. Ms. Harris' daughter, as noted above, is four years old, under the age of five.

Thus the main issue as pointed out by the people above is the lack of supervision of the children involved which lead children to attempt to try equipment not manufactured for their age. This resulted in injury that the parent is now trying to blame the town on instead of themselves.

The only change that needs to be made in this case would be for the town to add a nearby sign stating the equipment should be used by those five years old and up while being supervised by an adult.

All parents and others supervising children visiting the local park need to take heed of some important safety precautions. During my five plus years on staff at the Town of Aurora Day Camps we were guided on how to properly inspect the playground and surrounding grounds before the children arrived for the day. The first step was do a complete walk around each piece of playground equipment (e.g. jungle gym, swings, etc.) looking for anything on the ground, particularly at entry and exit points (i.e. stairs and slides) that would harm a child including glass and other garbage. Next we completed an overview of the equipment itself looking for any possible damage or issues that might arise including splinters and, as Anna mentioned in her blog post, hot surfaces like slides.

During the day when the participants were attending camp counsellors oversaw their safety. Day camp participants on their first day were shown the boundaries of where they could safely be and if they had questions or concerns about the playground equipment or if they wanted to try something they had never done before. If the latter was the case and the equipment was allowable to be used by the age of the child, the counsellor would have another child show them how the equipment was used and the counsellor carefully supervised the participant trying it. To ensure participants knew the safety rules each day were also asked to repeat the safety instructions whenever possible to ensure compliance. This was especially important for younger children as this shows younger participants know where it was safe to play and which one they were not big enough to try yet.

Finally, each counsellor had a group of six to eight campers (depending on the age group) and at minimum always had a fellow staff member on site with them when completing outdoor activities. Thus, while the children were engaged with the playground equipment, each staff member had their own section of the playground to watch from their vantage point. Periodically each staff member would count the kids in his/her group to ensure each participant was accounted for and obviously enjoying themselves.

The town of Aurora and other municipalities install playground equipment for children of various ages. Therefore, not all children should be using all the equipment. Children should be shown by parents and supervisoring adults which equipment they should be using and what they should not be using because it is above their abilities. Those supervising children on playgrounds should be closly watching children playing on playgrounds carefully. If the child is younger than seven years old, supervisors should be withing three to five feet of their youngster for safety purposes. Overall proper supervision and safety precautions are key at playgrounds because these prevent accidents. But accidents can never be fully prevented on playgrounds as children can be unpredictable. Scrapes, bruises and the odd broken bone happen and are part of growing up in childhood. The sooner parents realize this, the better parents they will become.

Kelsey's: A Richmond Hill full of Food

2011-07-16T08:33:00.000-04:00

Last night my wife and I headed on down to try Kelsey's (8715 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill).

We were a little worried that being a chain restaurant this location might be a little sketchy in terms of food and service. However, we were only partly right.

My wife and I were seated quickly as the restaurant was not that busy (it was 5:30 P.M.).

Our waiter, a young person looking fresh out of high school, strolled by to inquire if we wanted any drinks. We ordered the drinks and, quickly before he got away, surprised him with our food order as well.

The Order: Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with Fries and a Pepsi and a Kelsey's Fish and Chips with a glass of Richmond Hill's finest tap water.

The waiter dashed off to input our order and returned within 10 minutes of our pleasant conversation with our food order along with a refill of my Pepsi. No problems on the service at this chain restaurant, everything was excellent.

The food though was not great but was not terrible either. The Buffalo Chicken Sandwich was definatly brushed with Kelsey's medium chicken wing sauce. In fact the breaded chicken breast with the lettuce and tomato on a sesame seed bun was barely noticeable. The fries were standard pub fries that were of decent temperature.

The Fish & Chips are supposed to be Rickard's Red beer battered. However, they arrived at our table looking dry. Overall the Fish was decent but we could not really taste the beer battering so we wondered if this fish had ever seen the bar alive or cooked. The fries with this dish were the same as the Buffalo chicken sandwich but were seasoned with something spicy we couldn't figure out what it was.

Overall the meal was mediocre chain food with decent service. We are going to give this place another try in the near future as we neither hated or really like this place. It just needs another go around.

Thought: Not Serving but Helping People

2011-07-15T10:12:00.001-04:00

Americans themselves pride themselves on an egalitarian society premised on social mobility, not, as in some other cultures, on a permanent servant class. I wasn't wild about being someone's servant or being servile, but I do love helping people. I frequently stop lost tourists in Manhattan to offer them assistance. I open doors and give up bus or subway seats. I've mentored many other writers and enjoyed watching their success. It's gratifying to ease someone's day, certainly when it only takes a few minutes. Life is complicated enough that the simple idea of making someone happy quickly seemed appealing indeed. I'd be very happy to help. - Caitlin Kelly, Malled.

I wish we all could do the above. A simple "thanks" and "your welcome" go a long way in society especially accompanied by a smile.

How to Make Money With Your Blog

2011-07-13T16:40:00.001-04:00

How to Make Money with your Blog by Duane Forrester and Gavin Powell provides readers with experiential knowledge of the options and pitfalls of setting up a weblog (blog), increasing traffic and moving towards successfully monetizing your blog.

Unlike some other books on the market, this book's authors are experienced in a variety of blogging platforms and monetizing strategies in a variety of fields including auto, marketing and music. These authors have so much experience in blogging it is almost like Bill Gates is holding your hand to show you how to use the latest features and technology of Windows. The authors draw upon various resources from around the web and their own experience to show readers how to be successful.

But the authors do bring a downside to the book via the repetitive shameless plugs of all the websites the authors oversee and their contact information. At times the book reads like an late night advertorial for some cheap kitchen gadget. After the third time I wanted to scream that I could care less about visiting your website and contacting you! Just tell me: "How to Make Money with Your Blog."

At first the book takes the book investigates the different options of setting up a blog with the different platforms (e.g. Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, etc.) and using a self hosted blog. Each of the online platforms are given the pros and cons explained by each of the authors who has experience manipulating them for their own use. This allows the reader to see how a blogging expert has "kicked the tires" and the results of the test before deciding on a platform for their blogging work. Having tested the blog software is an important step in monetizing a blog as the platform dictates what add systems can be placed, the ease of monetizing a blog and if there are any issues with the visual appearance of the blog showing the ad and the blog content.

Second the book investigates how to improve traffic flows to the blog by keeping visitors longer and attracting new visitors. Great suggestions include the frequency of publishing content, adding feeds to your blogs and how to keep your content relevant so as to not annoy readers. The authors provide basic pointers on how to keep the blog in tip top shape while attracting as many readers as possible so that the blog can then generate revenue.

Finally, the authors review the top ad programmes and the pluses and pitfalls behind each one. As well, the authors show bloggers where the best spots are to place ads. But really, as the authors point out, the best places to place ads are really up to each blogger to investigate over time. These suggestions allow readers to begin to optimize their blogs for revenue while already gaining from the experience of two experienced bloggers about the pitfalls and pluses of placing ads and types of adds in certain places.

Overall How to Make Money with your Blog is a must read for beginning, novice and experienced bloggers because the book provides useful advice on how to improve blog content and monitization.

Mailbag: I Won! I Won!

2011-07-13T09:19:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I get interesting e-mails from people who I have now idea who they are claiming I have won a great prize. I just need send them some important information and the cash is mine. The following e-mail is just one of those instances.

---------------------------------------------

From:	Daniel Jamon (d.daniel_jamon@sify.com)
Sent:	July-12-11 10:49:07 PM
To:

HELLO

I AM DANIEL JAMON FROM FEDEX COURIER COMPANY LIMITED, I AM DIPLOMAT ASSIGNED TO DELIVER PARCELS TO THE WINNERS OF UNITED KINGDOM -UK BLACK BERRY EMAIL DRAW AWARD PROMO.

YOUR OWN PARCEL IS CONTAINING A VERIFIED BANK DEMAND DRAFT WHICH CONTAIN $550,000 USD (FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLAR) PACKAGED WITH ALL BACK UP DOCUMENT..

I AM ON TRANSIT AND I HAVE ARRIVED NOW AT OUAGADOUGOU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BURKINA FASO, SO YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SEND THE BELOW INFORMATION IMMEDIATELY FOR FINAL DELIVERY TO YOUR ADDRESS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE:

NAME:.......
ADDRESS:.....
COUNTRY:.......
AGE & SEX:.........
DIRECT PHONE:......

THANK YOU AS I WAIT TO RECEIVE THOSE INFORMATION IMMEDIATELY.

SINCERELY IN YOUR SERVICE,
DIPLOMAT DANIEL JAMON.

-----------------------------------------------------

The above is one of the more riduculous e-mails I've received. Let me count the ways there are obvious issues:

1. There is nothing in the "To:" field. If I received this e-mail because I won a prize why is my e-mail address not there? Obviously Daniel has my e-mail address as I did receive this e-mail.

2. If Daniel is working for Fedex, which he claims, why does he not have a Fedex.com e-mail address? As having worked in shipping industry with Fedex I know that all Fedex represenatives have a Fedex.com e-mail address.

3. If Daniel is a "Diplomat" why would he send the e-mail in all caps? Is he really that mad at me he ended up landing his fat patootie in Burkina Faso from London, England? Will he be even more angered after if I e-mail him back that he is going the wrong way around the world because I live in Canada and there is a direct flight from London to Toronto? Wait, if he is really working for Fedex he would probably at least have a flight on Fedex aircraft directly from England to Canada or at least the United States. How did he end up in Burkina Faso in Africa? Was it a wrong turn?

4. If Daniel is already on route with my package, why does he need my name, address and phone number? Fedex normally requires this information before anything can be moved. With this large amount of money in prize winnings why would Fedex allow this package to hit the road and not hold it until they have confirmed with me my details. Perhaps if Daniel and Fedex did this, Mr. Daniel would not have ended up in the middle of Africa.

5. Are "diplomats" not normally ambassadors or consul general like people? Why would a diplomat with some foreign government to Great Britain be involved with some contest for a Blackberry. If RIM, the maker of Blackberry, is involved, how about we just have RIM in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada just ship me something instead? It would be just so much cheaper and obviously easier than to have Daniel come to Canada via Africa. Daniel, I imagine, has much more important things to do including hobnobbing with Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Heck, the Duke and Duchess could have saved Daniel so much time by dropping off my prize winnings when they arrived in Canada for their recent visit.

So with all the questions above, why in the heck would I send a reply really. Mr. Daniel should be relieved of his duties by some foreign government for taking part in this contest. Obviously he is not doing his duties for his country as he is globe trotting in search of myself in Canada for a contest.

I haven't the heart to write back to Daniel. He is so lost in his ways and obviously doesn't know what a diplomat is supposed to do. He probably has better things to do with his time than visit little old me in Canada.

Another Hero in Aurora

2011-07-08T10:46:00.001-04:00

This past Canada Day weekend my family headed out for lunch at Hero Burger (15340 Bayview Avenue, Aurora).

There were six of us with coupons for a free 4 OZ burger with the purchase of a fries and a soft drink. The staff at this location was really friendly in answering my father's questions about the coupon in case he wanted a larger burger. The deal was if you wanted a 6 OZ or 8 OZ burger all the customer would have to do is pay the difference in price from the 4 OZ burger.

The Order: (My order only): a 4 OZ Burger with a Pepsi and Fries.

The order took about five minutes to be ready which, considering we were the only customers in the store when we entered, is pretty impressive.

The burger, fries and Pepsi themselves were the same great quality I have come to expect from Hero Burger. Admittingly at this writing the Richmond Hill Yonge Street location was the only other location I had been too, I was a little worried. Sometimes chain restaurants are hit and miss in terms of quality of food and service. Would Hero Burger be like other chain restaurants with different quality food and service from location to location? No, it was exactly the same. Great grilled burger with delicious fries as a great burger sidekick, just like Batman and Robin.

Overall I continued to be impressed with Hero Burger. This location easily handled the ordering process including coupons, custom making our burgers with toppings and ensuring we were seated and eating within ten minutes without any fuss.

FREE Harvey's Burger Upgrade

2011-06-30T15:46:00.000-04:00

Like many other foodies out there I enjoy a decent burger. In Richmond Hill there are several choices for burgers.

On the last day of each week I tend to like to also to go out for lunch. Again in Richmond Hill there are several options to choose from that sometimes I have no idea where I want to go.

Sometimes a little help comes along. Help? I don't mean in terms of the four flyers and counting I received in my mailbox now that Canada Post has returned normal operations after a strike (READ: All I get is flyers and Canada Post says that there is a backlog in mail? Um...how about dumping the outdated flyers in the recycling bin and start moving the mail with addresses on it!)....but I digress....

The little help came in the form of an online coupon from Harvey's. The coupon entitles the bearer to enjoy a Great Canadian Hamburger combo for the price of an Original Combo.

That did it, I headed off to my local Harvey's (9471 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for one of these combos with fries and Pepsi.

The burger was deliciously good. The mushrooms and cheese just added to the deliciousness of the burger goodness. The fries were run of the mill warmish Harvey's fries and the Pepsi the boring fast food fountain pop. But at least on this day the fast food burger meal was a decent find. In fact I might try this all again next week as the coupon does not expire until July 12th.

Happy eating!

Norton Auto Renewal = One hand in your pocket, in your pocket

2011-06-29T12:48:00.003-04:00

Recently Jack blogged about his travails of his dealings with the call centre of AT&T. His blog posting read like the ranting and raving of anyone who has had to deal with a "customer service" call centre supposedly designed to respond to customer inquiries and concerns.  On Jack's posting one could simply replace the company name (i.e. AT&T) and insert some other company name and it would all work out.

Last Friday, I had the same horrible experience as Jack. Instead of it being a telecommunications company like AT&T or Bell or Rogers, it was with the trusted company of Symantec, the makers of Norton Antivirus. That evening I was trolling through my junk e-mail folder to see what pharmaceutical companies were offering these days. As well I was looking to see what free money I could get from African countries who seem to more than willing to send these funds my way as long as I send them my banking information.

In this junk mail folder was also a message from Norton complete with my name and some credit card information. The message was a little mysterious to me as Norton normally lets me know via a pop up window that my antivirus subscription was about to run out. Never in has it shown my credit card information and sent it via e-mail. I scrolled over the link to see the internet address to see if this was a phishing scheme. No it was not, it was a complete Norton.com internet address for renewal. I clicked on the link. Both the e-mail and newly brought up webpage said that if I do not request otherwise that my subscription to Norton Antivirus would be renewed on my credit card. As well, to request this automatic renewal from not going forward I would have to sign in with my e-mail and password.

E-mail address and password? Since when did I have an account with Norton? I requested the password be sent to my e-mail address. I then signed into this supposed account to find my complete mailing address and credit card information.   I cleared out as much information as I could from this account. To say the least I now have a few newly painted blue walls to take care of in my house.

FIRST CALL: I called Norton's customer service number and somehow by act of the big man upstairs my call was routed to the Phillipines. I nicely explained the issue to the customer service agent who picked up the phone what the issue was and how I did not appreciate Symentec and Norton storing my personal information without my express consent. I also had her promise that Norton or Symantec would not use, sell or give away my e-mail address and that her agreement would constitute a legal agreement. She agreed to this statement. She offered to put me through to a manager right away and put me on hold. I stayed on hold for 10 minutes listening to their music before hanging up.

SECOND CALL: I called back and got the same agent. She said she would put me through to the manager once again. I was then put through to a different sounding que that said "Your call is very important to us, a project manager will be right with you." I heard this again for another ten minutes before hanging up yet again.

From what I can tell at least this time the customer service agent put me through to a que to speak to a manager. The first call the customer service representative put me on hold and hoped I was going away.

While on hold during these time periods I did a Google search and found several customer service complaints about the Norton Antivirus auto renewal process. All of these complaints noted that the customer never got to speak to a manager at any point. A few of these complaints the customer's bank was contacted and charges to the credit cards were at reversed only to have Norton reapply the charges back on later. Norton customers were understandibly frustrated.

THIRD CALL: I called back again and gave an agent, named Raj, my Norton case number and asked to speak to a manager. He said "yes Robert I can do that." Um...Robert? Whose Robert?   Great, customer service who cannot even get a name right. And these guys hold onto and have access to your credit card information? I said to Raj that I wanted a customer service manager on the phone within 5 minutes or I would be leaving Norton as a customer due to the poor customer service. Raj then wasted another one minute reading his script apologizing profusely for the experience I had undertaken. I, of course, rudely interrupted his "Recitation of the Great Apology" to periodically tell him the time he had left to get a manager on the phone every fifteen seconds.

At the end of apology, Raj just sat their silently. I asked after 15 seconds of this if he was still there, he said yes, I said did he understand what I requested, he said yes. I then asked why he was not transferring me to a customer service manager as per my request and repeated the time back to him of how fast I wanted to speak to a manager. Raj said he understood and then sat their silently.   Apparently Raj is great at reading corporate customer service call centre scripts but is terrible at completing simple tasks like transferring a customer to a manager for escalation of the case. I got put on hold again (same music as the first call), I waited the prescribed five minutes and hung up again.

FOURTH CALL: I called again, I got through to customer service agent named "Lay". I asked to speak to a customer service manager again. She put me through to the same que promising some hogwash about the importance of my call. I waited five minutes before hanging up.

During the second and fourth calls I drafted two e-mails. One to the Toronto Star consumer columnist, Ellen Roseman. The second was an e-mail to the executive team of Symantec which I found the addresses after a Google Search here. I sent both off before dialing again.

FIFTH CALL: I dialed yet again, and I got an agent who did not even give his name as far as I could tell. I explained the issue again, the fact I had just sent off e-mails to a consumer columnist with Canada's largest daily newspaper and the higher ups at Symantec about the terrible customer service I had received. I said he had two minutes to put me through to the Customer Retention department as I was now ready to leave Symantec for their competition at McAfee. The agents response was he was not allowed to give out the contact information for executive level personnelle and that I would be put through the to department. He then went on with yet another "Recitation of the Great Apology." I interuptted him about three sentences in. telling him he had two minutes from when I say go to give me the Customer Retention Department. Then I had silence. Apparently this agent was trained by Raj. I merely counted down till there was no time and hung up on him.

SIXTH CALL: I called again and hoped at least I was helping to run up the phone tab for Symantec's 1-866 number to the Phillipines. I got another agent with no name. I explained that I wanted someone to call me back. She promised someone would and asked what time would be the best. I replied before I give that out, I said I would like to, no offense, speak to someone in Canada as I had enough issues with the call centre in the Phillipines. She replied with the start of the "Recitation of the Great Apology" followed up with having someone from the United States call me. I gave her my name and number (reciting my number a second time for good measure) and said to have someone call me between 9-5 my time. She agreed this would happen. I followed up with that if I'm not home the manager is supposed to leave their name and number of where they can be reached on my voicemail. She agreed and we hung up.

Fast forward to Saturday shortly after 11 A.M. I received a phone call from an American sounding manager. I relayed my frustration from the night before and all the action I had taken in trying to escalate this issue to no avail and was glad he called.

Next, I went through the research I had done online. The manager said that I did not have any context for the cases found online and if these customers ever found resolution. My response was that I had plenty of context of the frustration. Like the other customers, Norton was holding onto my credit card information and was going to charge my credit card information without my consent. I also noted that these other customers were also angry with Norton for doing so and outlined that they also had issues in speaking with a customer service manager when calling.  I also mentioned that I had contacted the executives and a consumer columnist for follow up if need be.

The Norton Manager then walked me through how Norton obtained my personal information. He explained a year ago when I renewed my subscription with Norton using my credit card and other information that somewhere in the process there was a Auto Renew function turned on. I told him that I had never knowingly authorized the autorenewal function and felt this was like negative option billing. I explained that a number of years ago Rogers had a similar incident that caused them to lose a bunch of customers.

The manager then ensured the auto renew function had been turned off from my actions I took online Friday evening. He confirmed this option had been turned off. I followed up with the simple question of "what credit card number do you have on file?" A couple of computer clicks on his end and he said he was unable to see the number. I replied it was a trick question to ensure the Norton record systems were working as I had cleared out that information the evening before.   He then apologized, this time without the "Recitation of the Great Apology" and asked if there was anything he could do. I replied that considering my experience, I would be contacting my computer specialist to see what other products that Symantec did not have a hand in were available. The manager then said if I wished to renew with Norton to watch for the autorenewal function on the sign up process. He said this option comes after the agreement in a tic box on this years renewal process. I thanked him for his time and we hung up after that point.

On Saturday, I checked the junk mail folder of my e-mail again. I found the below e-mail:

Dear Michael,

I’m sorry to hear that you have been encountering issues with the support that you have received.

To ensure that these issues are fixed, I would like to organize a time to call you back.

Please provide me a date, time and phone number of when I can call you back or you can call me up on + 1 866 870 0267.

Thank you

Vayapparaj K
Symantec Customer Relations
Direct Ph # 1 866 870 0267.

----------

Obviously Vayapparaj K had failed to read the notes on my case number. Otherwise he would have found that I spoke with one of this American counterparts that day. He would have also noticed that I had specfied what time I would like to be contacted at.

I wrote back to Vayapparaj with the following:

Hi Vayapparaj,

I'm thoroughly disgusted with customer relations. I waited over an hour combined on multiple occassions to speak to a supervisor. I'm not interested in speaking with you at this point as I spoke with an American representative of your company who understood what I was concerned about and actually answered my technical questions about renewal.

I also find it funny that you need my phone number as I, reluctantly, gave it to the customer service relations person on the final call after giving up.

I have contacted the Toronto Star's consumer Columnist Ellen Roseman about the poor customer service and autorenewal functions provided by Norton and Symantec.

Again, if you and Symantec wanted to resolve this issue, you had plenty of time last night to have a manager on the phone. After all, I was told repeatedly "your call is important to us..." several times while I was holding in the que. But apparently my call was not important as Symantec and Norton would have ensured enough management was there to take the call.

I'm now waiting for the Toronto Star to contact me about the possibility of others learning how Norton underhandily automatically renews contracts without the consent of it's users.

I hope their follow up will help others in my situation as I have noticed that I was not the only one to have issues with Norton. I had plenty of time last night waiting for a manager to use Google to see about how others felt about Norton Automatic Renewal process and the commentary was not good from over ten users that I found.

As well, I had time to e-mail all the top executives about the customer service issues with the Phillipines and the lack of customer service supervisors available in that call centre to adequately address Norton's customer service issues. I also included all the names I had from the phone calls and how useless they were. I also included the fact that I do no approve of the autorenewal process used by Norton.

I hope this helps Norton to become a better company in the future. For now I'm weighing my options of joining McAfee for my virus protection as Norton has lost my confidence.

Thanks

Michael

-------------------------

On Sunday, I received a reply from Ellen Roseman of the Toronto Star. She noted she had received my e-mail. She also pointed me to an article she wrote last December about similar issues with McAfee and other companies. I replied thanking Ellen for the heads up on autorenewals with McAfee and how I may have to "hold my nose and renew with Norton."

On Monday I received a phone call from Stefan Osthaus, Symantec's Vice President of Worldwide Support & Customer Service. He apologized for the experience I had calling it a perfect storm. He also noted that according to their records I was hung up on twice by their agents. He asked if I had any feedback for them or questions on what I experienced.

I started from the very beginning on how frustrating the experience was. I also said that I was now considering exploring my non-Norton options due to the autorenewal practices by Norton.

We then had an engaging conversation about how to best go about resolving the issue so other customers would not run into this issue. I suggested that the autorenewal option check box be not automatically filled in when going through the subscription renewal process online. This would ensure customers would have to add the check box to this function while those that just wanted to renew and move on could do so. He seemed to like this idea.

As for the account creation online, I told him I was against this idea for yearly renewal subscribers similar to myself who did not want their information stored and no autorenewal function instituted. He liked that idea as well saying he could probably have the system programmed so that only those choosing the autorenewal process would create an online account with Norton. I then said both sets of customers should have their product keys e-mailed to them after the renewal is complete for safekeeping. I told them that is what HP (Hewlette Packard) does for new computers who are activated under their warranty programme and that I still had that e-mail. He also like that idea.

At the end of the conversation he double checked with me what Norton programme I was using and inquired if I still wanted to be a Symantec customer. I replied that I was sitting on the fence considering my findings via Ellen Roseman about McAfee and my experiences with Norton.

Stefan then offered two things, he said he felt he needed to make amends for making me feel like Norton had a hand in my pocket for money and needed to have his company regain my trust. In doing so he said that he would personall e-mail me a product key that would give me a one year subscription for my Norton software for free and if at any point I had any further customer service issues with Symantec and Norton that I could e-mail him directly and he would have someone contact me immediately. I agree that that would be satisfactory to me in assisting me with my decision with choosing antivirus software. After we hung up I had an e-mail in my inbox from Stefan with the product key and his contact information.
At the end of it all, I spent over an hour off an on the phone running up the long distance tab of Norton via their 1-866 customer service number, e-mailed a well known consumer columnist, talked to a Vice-President and received a free one year subscription worth over seventy dollars. Sometimes it pays to be a persistant customer in search of customer satisfaction. Too bad most of this customer service satisfaction has been contracted out by companies like Symantec and AT&T to script reading customer service call centres.

Subway: Eat Fresh?

2011-06-26T18:32:00.000-04:00

I never understood why the Subway Restaurant chain had "Subway Eat Fresh" as their tagline. Subway restaurants are pretty well all the same. Theme based on New York City's subway system, every single location in Canada and the United States has the same New York City subway map wallpaper all over. One wonders why the words "fresh" and "New York City Subway" would ever be together. New York City subway stations alone each have their own distinct smell and the smell is never good. In fact each subway station has it's own distinct pungent odour that overpowers the nose sensors.

Even the trains themselves can be overpowering, I wrote back in 2005 one way to guard yourself against boarding a subway car that was odiforis:

"How can you tell the smell is going to hit you before the doors open at the station you are going to board the train from? Look to see if the car is nearly empty or full. If the train car is full of people, chances are its safe. If the car is near empty, then WATCH OUT! There might be a funky smell comin' your way."

So why would Subway (i.e. the company not the method of transportation) advertise "Subway Eat Fresh" when there could be no way anyone would want to eat on a New York City Subway car reaking of bodily fluids and who knows what else? Right, they serve fresh ingredients instead of odiforisity of homelessness.

This evening I headed over to Subway (8865 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for a pair of foot long sandwiches for $5.00 a piece plus tax. I walked into the store and was greeted by the sandwich chef.

The Order: 1 Cold Cut Combo on Parmesan Oregano and 1 Meatball Marinara on three cheese bread to go.

The sandwich maker quickly assembled the sandwiches just as I ordered them. The amazing thing about this visit was this location actually had Parmesan Oregano bread. Usually at this location the chances of getting Parmesan Oregano Bread is 50%. The off times I normally have to choose another bread.

That is really the only complaint I have about Subway, the availibility of their Paremesan Oregano bread. Otherwise I walk in, get pretty well the same sandwich each time at each location and walk out. No fuss no muss, just the way I like to get my fast food.

As for the combos, steer clear of their combos in terms of price. For $2.50 you get a fountain pop (or coffee if there before 11 A.M.) and a small bag of potato chips (or 2 cookies). Really? This is why I usually just get my sandwiches and go home to a nice large bag of potato chips ($0.99 each) and whatever the heck I wish to drink. All for the grand value of less than $2.50 plust tax.

Blocking Pedestrian Paths

2011-06-20T11:01:00.002-04:00

White Wolseley Canada truck obstructing pedestrian crossing

Recently Anna wrote on her blog, livinginaurora.ca, about drivers failing to stop at stop signs. She inquired with readers if she should whip out her camera and start photographing the culprits who fail to adhere to the rules of the road by blowing through stop signs.

One of my pet peeves are drivers who fail to remotely adhere to the stop line at a STOP sign or traffic light. Just last week I was walking south on the east side of Yonge Street near the entrance to Enzo's No Frills and the South Hill Shopping Centre. Rolling out of the South Hill plaza at the traffic light was a white Wolseley Canada company truck trying to make a right hand turn to head northbound on Yonge Street. The driver failed to stop in time for the stop line and rolled to a stop across the two painted lines delineating the pedestrian crossing. I walked around the back of the truck and finished crossing southwards. However, northbound in the intersection was a lady walking across while pushing a stroller. She had to carefully manoeuvre her way around the truck while the idiot Wolseley driver nonchalently watched the steady traffic on Yonge Street pass him by. I was incencensed that yet another driver drifted their way into the pedestrian area and failed to even acknowledge that others were there and the car was in the way. I whipped out my phone and took a photo of the offender.

Richmond Hill and Aurora are seeing significant growth in the past two decades and this growth is expected to continue at least over the next two decades. The Region of York is encouraging intensification and transit use throughout the area which will only increase pedestrian activity. The police need to start enforcing the stop lines and obstructing pedestrian crossings. If the police fail to do this than why should the Region and local municipalities use significant money in painting these lines on a yearly basis? Perhaps if enforcement were properly undertaken, then the dumb looks of the offending drivers of "what the heck is going on?" as I walk across the street in front of the car might end as these idiot drivers would have been well informed by a nice yellow ticket by authored by York Region's finest. Pedestrians can only hope, until then, like Anna I will be using my weapon to take photos of idiot drivers blocking the duly painted right away of pedestrians.

Play Pizza & Pub is Not Playing Much at All

2011-06-19T16:59:00.000-04:00

This afternoon my sister and myself took my father to a nice Father's Day lunch. We visited Play Pizzeria & Pub (15420 Bayview Avenue, Aurora, Ontario).

We were seated immediately, which isn't really a stretch considering the entire time we were there we were the only customers.

In hindsight this should have been a red flag. We were the ONLY customers on a Father's Day where people normally take out their Dads for lunch and we are the only people here? Really?

Anywho, we ordered our drinks and the waitress came back quickly with them and we ordered our food.

The Order: Two Calzones and a Margerita Pizza with a Coke, Water and Tankhouse Ale.

The food, as noted in the menu, did take a little while to show up. This is supposed to show that every dish is made with fresh ingredients caringly by their expert chef. It took about 20 minutes for the food to prepared which is normal for most restaurants. But considering we were the only party in restauarant this may be the reason why our food did not take that long.

I had the Margerita Pizza. The pizza was a little cool when it arrived not like the popping hot pan pizza served at Pizza Hut I had a week earlier. Otherwise the thin crust pizza was delicious prepared and went down well. The price of $16.00 for a dinner plate size pizza may have been a little much though.

Overall, two calzones, a Coke and a Marerita Pizza came to over fifty dollars for three people. The food was decent quality so I may attempt a return. The only concerning part was we were the only patrons there on a lunch Sunday around noon.

Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church Carillon Ringers in Aurora United Church

2011-06-16T11:13:00.003-04:00

Last night the Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church Carillon Ringers visited Aurora United Church for a combined concert with the Aurora United Church Handbell Choirs.

The great group of high school aged teens arrived from Rochester, New York by the mid-afternoon to enjoy a little rehearsal time, wandering around Aurora time and of course some dinner time.

Later they took to the Aurora United Church Sanctuary to put on a great handbell performance with tunes originating from Harry Potter (Hedgwig's Theme), The Phantom of the Opera (see video below) and Celtic Praise.

After the performance I was able to try out bell ringing myself with the help of one of the Ladue Ringers who allowed me to hold onto, with two hands, "Charlie" the low C note bell that is sized bigger than my head alone. You can see glimpses of "Charlie" in the Phantom of the Opera sitting on the table waiting to be used. He is one of the larger bells.

Overall it was a rare opportunity to see semi-professional handbell ringers perform in concert in a local setting. During the performance there was an intermission with lemonade and cookies served by the church. At the end of it all over 250 people took in the performance and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

Carillon Ringers playing The Phantom of the Opera
Carillon Ringers playing "Te Deum"

In Memory of Barb Suddard...

2011-06-15T07:33:00.002-04:00

My mother always loved children and the antics they got up to during her time at the YMCA and at Silver Pines Public School. She would tell stories of her little charges doing weird and wonderful things while at school, at play and not wanting to go home at the end of the day.

Silver Pines Public School is fund raising to help build a school in Kenya in coordination with Free the Children. They are trying to raise $8,0000 towards the goal. For every $10.00 donated your name will be put a brick to show the donation at the front of Silver Pines Public School.

If you would like to make donation visit: http://my.e2rm.com/personalpage.aspx?registrationid=1137386&langpref=en-ca

A Stunt the Great Gonzo would be proud of!

2011-06-14T17:02:00.002-04:00

The only question on the below video I have is, "WHY?" and simply, "WHY NOT?" is just not an answer.

Only The Great Gonzo (aka Gonzo the Great) would be proud of this vid

NOTE: For obvious safety reasons, this blog does not endorse or encourage pudding diving of any sort.

Attention Pizza Hut!

2011-06-14T08:30:00.004-04:00

Last Friday my wife and I headed to Pizza Hut (9580 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for a little za and some soft drinks. Nothing like an old time date night over some pizza and soft drinks.

We arrived and our waitress, instead of a hostess, seated us quickly.

We hmmmed and hawed over what pizza we wanted for five minutes and the waitress came by twice to see if we were decided yet...then a eureka moment....AN ORDER!

The Order: Grilled Chicken Rustico Pan Pizza (pizza made with grilled chicken breast, roasted red peppers, fresh ripe tomatoes, basil pesto, and pizza mozzarella), a Pepsi and a glass of Richmond Hill's finest & wettest water.

The pizza took the full twenty minutes to cook. But when it arrived it was piping hot and ready to be eaten!

I was a little skeptical about this choice of pizza, pizza with grilled chicken and veggies on it? Without any pepperoni? Would it be worth the money I paid? It had better be, we were paying twenty dollars for this!

I was satisfied after taking a few bites of the first slice. Then the next slice dissappeared. Thank goodness we got a large pizza, otherwise my wife would not have anything to eat. The pizza was delicisious.

One of the best part of the Richmond Hill Pizza Hut is it is one of the last remaining dining room Pizza Huts left anywhere in southern Ontario. The Newmarket location just north of Eagle Street on Yonge Street is being renovated and is unlikely to return as it's old self. I have long memories of visiting that location with my family for pizza and spaghetti nights. I believe I even had a birthday party or two at that location.

So it is with excitement that I have a Pizza Hut dining location near my home. When you just want to get out of the house and have some ZA this is the place to go!

So I Have Not Written in While....

2011-06-13T09:38:00.007-04:00

So I have not written for a while. The main reason was through May I started working on contract for a resume writing company and was staring at a computer screen all day. This has now shifted to barely part time contract work, so I am on the job hunt again since leaving my previous position at the end of December.

So if you know of any honest companies out there looking for someone in administration, feel free to send them my way via:

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsuddard

My Guestbook: (select the privacy option so only I can see the offer): http://htmlgear.tripod.com/guest/control.guest?a=sign&u=michaelsuddard&i=1001&r=

Please note that I would post my e-mail address, but I have made that mistake before and received thousands of e-mails promising various pharameutical remedies that I really do not require as well as thousands of dollars if I reply with my banking information.

What to look for in an Elected Representative

2011-05-06T12:39:00.001-04:00

Recently during the Canadian federal election voters were asked to make a choice out of a slate of possibilities. Voters were asked to choose someone from a list of candidates to represent them in the House of Commons in Ottawa.

Voters in Ontario will have voted three times for muncipal, federal and provincial representatives from late 2010 to late 2011. In each election voters were given several different shades of colour to choose from, different party platforms, different leaders and different scandals to choose from. But how does a voter choose between them all? The main answer is that the person who your riding ultimately chooses will represent your voice in the House of Commons, legislature or council chamber with a decent pay cheque. Bottom line is the candidates are applying for a job and the voter is a member of the hiring comittee. As a member of the hiring comittee each voter should be looking at the aspects outlined below.

Each candidate for election is applying for the job as representative for your community. Normally in a job search situation resumes and cover letters are required. In this previous federal election many candidates told us about their experience and achievements. Candidates should tell voters of experience both inside and outside politics. Experiences outside politics include previous jobs and volunteer opportunities involved in. Within politics candidates should answer if they have held elected office before and what goverment comittees they have been on as a citizen or elected member. Further on the resume portion the applicant should outline their educational achievements. Basically the candidate should outline their previous employment, volunteer and educational experience which should show how they would be a good candidate to choose for the job. Candidates need a good resume because they are after all applying for a position with a job description and a decent salary.

Poltics isn't always about experience.  Questions on issues during the election pop up and platforms are supposed to give the answers to these questions. Voters should investigate the beliefs and views of their candidates as it is usually a good indicator of how these candidates will espouse their ideas on behalf of the local community. Study these platforms carefully though as many political parties recently have gone into attack mode rather than layout their beliefs. Attack mode is easy to pick out as the parties or candidates make no mention of what they believe but point out in a negative way the beliefs of their opponents. Often the attacks will attempt to frame and/or skew the opponents platform in a bad light. Remember, you want to know what the candidate or political party themselves believe and not what they think of their opponent. This is because, quite frankly, if you were interested in their opponent you would be reviewing the opponent's platform and not those an opposing candidate.

In the previous election the issue of where a candidate lives have become an issue. In the Richmond Hill riding in the previous federal election two of the four candidates did not reside in the riding they wanted to represent. In Quebec an NDP candidate who was elected lived around 400 KM away from her riding and possibly has never set foot in the riding. The main question is: If an elected representative does not live in the riding for they represent for a decent period of time how do they intimately know the concerns, wishes, views and issues of the riding? The main fact is they do not. The candidate doesn't have the history or knowledge of the needs of the community and how it came to be in the recent past.

Candidates also need to look like they are applying for the position in a professional manner. Websites, signs and literature need to look professionally done and not completed as some student council high school election. The successfully elected candidate is going to be representing the community with a pay cheque around one hundred thousand dollars or higher along with a possible pension. Thus, candidates should have professionally printed materials and nice looking websites that espouse their experience and platform.  Candidates should dress up everything after all as they are applying for an executive level job with a matching compensation.

Candidates for election should also prove to voters that the community is going to be represented by their complete undivided attention. Federal, provincial and municipal politics require vast amounts of time to listen to debate, vote, meet with constituents and respond to comments and queries. Thus the job should have the complete undivided attention of the person holding the job description. A great case in point recently happenned with the NDP Candidate for the riding of Newmarket-Aurora in the previous federal election. Kassandra Bidarian was attending university courses at the University of Toronto. She promised that next year her course load would be less than it was this year. The main issue that arose in the community was how would Ms. Bidarian provide proper representation in Ottawa for Newmarket-Aurora while still taking courses at her university in Toronto? The right answer was she could not. Ms. Bidarian never really acknowledged this and this was perhaps one of the main reasons she was not elected. Elected officials are supposed to be mostly full time positions with adequate compensation for the position. Thus the position and responsibilities they entail should have the full undivided attention of the office holder. Any candidate who espouses a view differently doesn't deserve to be elected and the ensuing pay cheque and pension paid for by taxpayers money.

Overall political candidates have many failings including skeletons in the closet and lack of previous experience. But failing to adhere to provide voters with information on experience, proof of residency within a riding and a professional looking presentation should not be a failing. Failure to provide voters with these things just shows voters that the candidate could care less whether they get elected or not. This brings up the main quesiton: If a candidate doesn't care about getting elected than how do voters know the elected candidate will care about the community they represent?

NDP Candidate: Not Ready for MP because I'm at School

2011-04-29T11:11:00.001-04:00

I love watching the debates in elections. Candidates exchange views and sometimes end up looking like complete idiots. Sometimes it is the candidates who don't show up that look like they are just not into it. The latter occurred in the riding of Newmarket-Aurora when the same two candidates failed to show up at two different debates held back to back. Kassandra Bidarian (NDP candidate) and Yvonne Mackie (Animal Alliance Environment Voters Candidate) both failed to show up to debates.

No word has come forth as to why Yvonne failed to show up for the important debates held by the The Newmarket Era and Aurora Banner newspapers in Newmarket and The Auroran newspaper debate in Aurora.

Kassandra Bidarian, the NDP candidate, on the Aurora Citizen blog has responded as to why she failed to show up for the debates. Bidarian claims she is currently a student at the University of Toronto - St. George Campus doing a specialist in Philosophy, with a minor in political science, and the exam schedule has gotten in her way.  Thus she couldn't attend the debates because of the exams. Further she claims to have a 4.0 average and wishes to continue her studies.

Ms. Bidarian repeatedly says she is a serious candidate for the riding of Newmarket-Aurora. But, based on what I'm currently reading that doesn't appear to be the case:

1. She failed to show up for two debates claiming her exam schedule got in the way. This may be true that there were exams on both nights of the debates and she was stuck not being able to be two places at once.

2. From her comment on the Aurora Citizen blog:

"I am committed and I am a person dedicated to achieving all that I can. I have always committed myself to multiple avenues in the past with positive results, and if need be, I can continue that here. My educational load will be lessened next year, leaving me ample time to work as a Member of Parliament."

The above truly points out how Kassandra has lost touch with reality. A Member of Parliament, let alone one representing a riding around Toronto, is more than a FULL TIME JOB. Kassandra's studies in Toronto will obviously prevent her from being full time in Ottawa and serving her constituents in Newmarket-Aurora. So when exactly, if elected, Kassandra going to find all the time to: sit in the House of Commons, comittee meetings, traveling between Newmarket-Aurora and Ottawa, appearing at community events, responding to constituent inquires and working on her studies in downtown Toronto at University of Toronto? Will she give up sleeping to do all that? Something has to give, either her studies or her $100,000 dollar paid position as MP will.

3. A few posters on the Aurora Citizen blog noted the lack of signs for Ms. Bidarian in the riding. In fact some posters inquired to see if there were any out there. Sightings have been few and far between. Personally, travelling along Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue in Aurora I've seen only one sign for the NDP and the name on it? "Jack Layton". So where are the signs with "Kassandra Bidarian" on them? Kassandra responds ont he Aurora Citizen blog with:

"Unfortunately, there was a delay in retrieving signs that was out of my control. But as soon as we received them, we have been putting them around Newmarket and Aurora..."

So Kassandra failed to have her signs ready for an election that had ample warning of coming? Political writers were expecting an election weeks before the budget and the contempt of parliament charges being table in the House of Commons. As a political science student one would expect Kassandra to be watching closely while the politics played out on Parliament Hill with her leader Jack Layton humming and hawing over the budget and the contempt of Parliament charges. The NDP surely had given their candidates some prior warning to start the election campaign engines. Kassandra's opponent, Lois Brown (Conservative candidate) had election signs up all along Yonge Street in Aurora by the Sunday after the election writ had been dropped. Lois was ready, why wasn't Kassandra and NDP? As evidenced by Kassandra's response to her continuing studies while being an MP, planning is not Kassandra's strong suit. Otherwise her election signs would have been on order with the sign maker and all she would have to do is call them and say "start printing!"

4. Kassandra's election website is a complete joke. The only sections she has are contact information and her biography. Everything else on the simple one page layout is for the NDP overall party.  Even what she does have on their is a little thin. Her contact information lists her campaign office address for "mail or document delivery only". Thus if you want to volunteer and pick up materials to do a little canvassing or have questions you would like to meet with her office staff -- presuming she has office staff -- your out of luck. Next her biography is also very thin. About the only thing I learned about Kassandra is:

"Kassandra represents the riding of Newmarket-Aurora for the NDP. She first became engaged in politics as the New Democratic Party Youth representative for Newmarket-Aurora. She then furthered her involvement by participating in the Ontario New Democratic Party and was the Northern Ontario Representative for Ontario New Democratic Youth. Currently enrolled in Philosophy and Political Science at the University of Toronto, she is not only a student, but also a civically engaged and passionate youth."

The rest of the bafflegab in her biography is what she believes in. There isn't one word on what past positions she has held in terms of employment or any volunteer organizations she belongs to. She apparently is a blank slate applying for a $100,000 job position with only political volunteer campaigning experience behind her. And, sadly, that is all she has on her website pertaining to her.

As far as I can tell based the previous federal election, the NDP in Newmarket-Aurora has trouble finding candidates to run. Kassandra Bidarian is obviously just a filler for the NDP in this particular riding. She responds to the questions at the Aurora Citizen blog about her candidcy by outlining how she became a candidate:

"I want to make it clear that it is not just “anyone willing to be a candidate”, but that there was a long democratic process involved. Firstly, I had to fill out detailed papers containing my information and have them approved by Ottawa. Secondly, there had to be a nomination meeting with the New Democratic Party members of Newmarket and Aurora. During this meeting, I explained my credentials and what I plan to do and I was democratically voted in, unanimously. Thirdly, I had to obtain about 120 signatures from residents in Newmarket and Aurora, which basically stated they are giving me their permission to be a candidate for their riding.

Prior to all of the above, I was already involved within the party attending caucus’, being politically active, and speaking up for the youth and issues we faced. I was also the Youth Representative for Newmarket and on the executive of Ontario New Democratic Youth. To further my experience, I am also attending University of Toronto-St.George Campus and doing a specialist in Philosophy with a minor in Political Science. So the statement that “anyone willing to be a candidate” can, is completely false. If anyone had any concerns over my candidacy, they could have asked."

The above just shows again how out of touch with reality she is.  Perhaps she had to receive 120 signatures and fill out "detailed papers" in order to be approved to be a candidate for the NDP for Newmarket-Aurora for the federal election. But I would imagine so did Lois Brown, Kyle Peterson (Liberal candidate) and the others. These other candidates also opened campaign offices that people could visit or work from. They also have their signs out in relatively reasonable amount of time wich meant prospective voters didn't have to search for their signs. She also points out her continous learning by taking courses in Philosophy and politics which I've already outlined previously will be an issue if she is elected in terms of her time management.

But the most laughable two sentences of Kassandra's response to the questions of her candidacy is:

"So the statement that “anyone willing to be a candidate” can, is completely false. If anyone had any concerns over my candidacy, they could have asked."

Kassandra is completly wrong. The NDP in Newmarket-Aurora was presented with one possible candidate, Kassandra. There was nobody else stepping forward. The NDP membership, presuming their is such a thing in Newmarket-Aurora, had one choice as there was no mention in the media or anywhere else of any other candidate stepping forward to compete at the nomination meeting.   So Kassandra was the only person to step forward and thus was the only "anyone willing to be a candidate". Without her the NDP would have been forced to concede they do not have a candidate in all ridings across Canada and thus couldn't be considered to be a national party. Thus, the statement "anyone willing to be a candidate" is true in Kassandra's case.

Finally the statement of "If anyone had any concerns over my candidacy, they could have asked" is also hillarious. Up until the election writ was dropped nobody knew who Kassandra was. So who would exactly they ask? The local riding office which is a house on a residential street where only mail and documents can be sent? There is no name associated and there is no local riding association website that I can find to put inquiries to. Thus is there really a riding association President for the NDP? Not that I can tell or at least not someone who is willing to put their name to it. So voters had to wait to question her candidcy until she announced she was running for the NDP and failed miserably at debating and properly launching her campaign. Hence why the questions are now coming forth a week or two before voting day.

Kassandra Bidarian is obviously not ready to be elected MP for Newmarket-Aurora. She failed to show up for two seperate debates blaming her exam schedule. She failed to have campaign signs out and nailed in. Her local riding association who one would expect to be supporting her, doesn't even have a named President that is findable via a Google search. She doesn't have a campaign office at all. She also believes she can reduce her course load to continue studying at the University of Toronto while being an MP in Ottawa. Yet with all of the above she believes she can be a serious candidate for MP of Newmarket-Aurora. Kassandra Bidarian is an idealist who is not ready to be elected MP. She should stay in school and learn politics, the real world of time management and how to properly campaign.  Kassandra Bidarian needs to chock this campaign up to the school of hard knocks and move on.

Who to Vote For: The Federal Edition

2011-04-25T16:20:00.029-04:00

Another election is upon us. In Ontario it will be the third election in just about a year. Last October was the municipal election, currently there is a federal election underway and in October a provincial election is scheduled. And yet some of us, like Vaughan, will have seen four elections in that time frame.

I currently reside in Richmond Hill and have been investigating which one of the four candidates to vote for and what each of the parties they represent stand for. Through this investigation I've come up with nothing. You would think when candidates are applying for a job that pays over one hundred thousand dollars per year the parties and candidates would bring their "A Game" to the table.

First the incumbent for Richmond Hill, Bryon Wilfert (Liberal). Bryon claims on his website he has been an MP in Ottawa for this area for over ten years. At least he puts out his political involvement with various committees and positions he has held in the past. However, what had Bryon done outside of politics like in the private sector as a businessman or volunteer. About all we know about Bryon is that he has been honoured with various honourary chairs and memberships in over ten volunteer organizations. However, this doesn't say whether he was originally a volunteer or member of these organizations for a certain amount of time and did good works with them or did these organizations just honorarily bestow these memberships on him whilly nilly. About the only thing I know about Bryon is that he has a mother who needed hospital care and he has been involved in politics for a long period of time both municipally and federally. Too bad there is nothing else on his website that I can see as being more in touch with the community.

Bryon's other problem is his leader, Michael Ignatieff, who has failed to attend House of Commons votes over seventy percent of the time. So Bryon's leader and, I would surmise, his supposed muse for politics who is supposed to show his MPs how it is done has a worse attendance record for votes in the House of Commons than the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Stephen of course did miss votes but at least he has other duties like meeting with foreign dignataries at home and overseas as well as other similar Prime Ministerial duties. I can't imagine what more important duties Michael Ignatieff would have as the leader of Official Opposition than being in the House of Commons ensuring the government of the day is held to account and voting as the constituents he represents sees fit.

The next two candidates have the same issue and it is a major one. Neither of the following candidates lives in the Richmond Hill riding. If you do not live in the riding you wish to represent. How can someone represent an area if they do not even live there? How can someone know intimately what the issues are in the riding if they have not experienced them for themselves? Both Costas Menegakis (Conservative) and Cameron Hastings (Green) live in Richmond Hill. Costas lives in neighbouring Markham while Cameron lives in Scarborough.

Cameron has a major issue as even his own volunteers don't seem to know where the Richmond Hill riding starts and stops. This past Sunday I viewed campaign signs for Cameron at the corner of Yonge Street & Bernard Avenue in the town of Richmond Hill. Today I saw signs on the west side of Bathurst Street & Autumn Hill Blvd. The problem is neither of these locations is within the riding of Richmond Hill as set out by Elections Canada. The Yonge & Bernard location is within the riding of Oak Ridges-Markham and the Bathurst and Autumn Hill is in the riding of Thornhill. None of the opposing parties candidates made this mistake.

So neither Costas or Cameron I can really trust as they do not even live in the riding they are running for. In fact it appears their parties merely parachuted them into the riding.

This leaves the NDP candidate of Adam DeVita. Adam I have yet to hear from in terms of campaign literature or in person by any of his campaign volunteers or himself. All I've seen of his campaign is lawn signs up and down Yonge Street. I have yet to see one on actual front lawn of a supporter. This is opposed to his competition who have lawn signs on several neighbourhood lawns in front of houses. As well, his website is the local riding associations website and he doesn't seem to have one of his own. Of his campaign website he has a sparse bio stating he has lived in Richmond Hill for 35 years and he works in the technology sector. However, he doesn't say much beyond being a member of Richmond Hill United Church as his volunteer work. He also doesn't mention what his platorm is as a candidate for Richmond Hill. The only thing he really has on it in terms of platform is broad NDP policies placed on an electronic version of campaign literature with such a poor layout that it should be turned over to a high school student to improve. Bottom line, if you want a job that pays over 100,000 at least put a little effort into it.

In Richmond Hill the question comes down to the following, who do you want to represent you?

1. Someone whose leader believes it is fine to not be in the House of Commons for over seventy percent of all votes?

2. Do you want someone who doesn't live in the riding?

3. Do you want someone who believes the entire process is a high school assignment?

Who to vote for in Richmond Hill is all in how you answer the above questions.

One of the Reasons I moved

2011-04-19T16:51:00.001-04:00

There were many reasons I moved to my new place in Richmond Hill. These included a place to call my own (along with a mortgage of my own), a wider space to design and expand into.

After moving into my place for a lot of reasons I found yet another reason to find my place, the passing dogs! In my neighbourhood there are two basset hounds that go for a walk everyday with their owner. They love everyone and everything!

I happened to have my cell phone (hence the grainyness) with me and took the following encounter happening across the street of one of the reasons to love where I live!

Our Basset hound friends!

And yet another Movie!

2011-04-15T08:53:00.001-04:00

I've completed editing, uploading and fussing with the photos I took of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands from the cruise I went on in January of this year.

Steer Inn for Mediocre Burgers

2011-04-14T14:16:00.001-04:00

This afternoon I stopped by Richmond Hill's legendary burger palace, Steer In Burgers (9839 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill). This place in recent history has had several newspaper articles and "best of" nominatinos by local business associations which are duly posted on the walls of the establishment. So one would think that this place would rival the best burger ever made. I've been here once and had an mediocre experience.

This time I showed up for lunch shortly before noon today after visiting th local library. I walked in up to the counter and immediately ordered as there was no other customers there.

The Order: 1 hamburger, 1 fries and can of Coke.

I waited about five minutes for the order to be cooked, topped and put on the tray. This included telling the cook how I wanted my burger topped. Not a bad speed for food that is cooked to order.

I sat down at my table with a newspaper I brought myself. The seating appears to have been there for a while along with the plastic plants and lighting. So the atmosphere needs a little renovating.

I dug into the burger and found nothing special. It was not handpacked by the proprietor or be advertised as being green or anything. Really there was nothing special at all. It was an average burger that, barring the dated atmosphere, could have been from the local Harvey's.

Next came the fries. Nothing to write home about here, again similar to the Harvey's fries but a little more potato per fri than Harvey's.

The prices came to $7.54 including taxes for my meal which is more expensive than Harvey's The food was average, not terrible and the service was quite good. However, if I wanted Harvey's food at more expensive rates I would visit Harvey's and not this place. Overall, I probably won't be visiting this place for a while.

York's Bad Move with the Green Bin: A Follow Up

2011-04-12T16:27:00.009-04:00

As mentioned in the first post, the Region of York has mandated that effective May 1st all York Region residents will be required to use certified compostable bags in their Green Bins. Otherwise Green Bin waste not be picked up. Since the first post I've done some digging on prices as well further reaction has come forth from those affected.

I've recently completed a price analysis on purchasing compostable bags from major stores in the Richmond Hill area. Below are the cheapest bags I could find at each location. They are the smallest "kitchen catcher" bags (i.e. for smaller containers for under the counter) and all regular Green Bin bags cost more (around $0.25 to $0.60 per bag on average). Here is what I found (before taxes):

Dollarama: 10 bags for $2.00 = $0.20 per bag.

Home Depot: 30 bags for $3.99 = $0.13 per bag

No Frills: 20 bags for $5.49 = $0.27 per bag

Wal-Mart: 50 bags for $7.49 = $0.15 per bag
(Note: These were Sold out when I was there)

Zellers: 20 bags for $4.99 = $0.25

Now with the above pricing in mind, lets paint a picture of an average week for, lets say, a family of four people without a Costco membership.

Currently, my wife and I would normally fill one kitchen catcher bag plus maybe a half of a second one. So lets give the family four two kitchen catcher bags at the Home Depot price of $0.13 per bag (total of $0.26 bags for kitchen catcher bags per week then lets say there is one large bag to hold the two small bags and a little more of the compostables at a price of $0.25 per bag (if your lucky to find them) for a grand total of $0.50 per week to merely through out your compostables extra.

Extra? Yes, I currently use shopping bag in my kitchen one and go through one or two worth a week for free. I get my free grocery bags from the local Wal-Mart when I do grocery shopping there. Thus, because the Region of York believe this will be better for the Green Bin program an average family of four will have to be dealing with a $0.50 weekly increase or an extra $26.00 per year just to use the Green Bin program before the 13% HST in Ontario.

Now I've had reports from commenters on the previous post that the bags are available from Costco at $12.00 for a box of 200 (or $0.06 per bag) in the St. Catherines, Ontario area or a box of 100 for $10.00 (or $0.10 per bag) in Richmond Hill which I presume is for the larger green bin bags. I would suggest the kitchen catcher size is the same. I can only go on what the comments posted have said as I currently do not have a Costco membership. I do know someone with a Costco membership though and may purchase a mass amount through them. But unless a family knows someone with a Costco membership, has one themselves, the Costco membership option may not be a financially feasable option due to the extra cost of the Costco card on a yearly basis. Thus, for everyone purchasing the bags at Costco may not be a financially viable option.

Another update is the reaction from the Council of the Town of Markham. The Council has ruled that the By-law passed by the Region of York will not be enforced in the town of Markham until a new date until further notice. Markham Council has delayed the implementation in order to study the ramifications of the change as well as to take the time to review their diversion of waste from landfill tactics. This decision to delay by Markham may only create issues between the Town of Markham and the Region of York. Currently it is the local municipalities who complete curbside colleciton and the region looks after taking the bulk material from the municipalities to the composter or whoever will take it. So basically what the Region of York has said by passing the By-law for the use of compostable bags only is that no plastic bags will be accepted from the compost material handed over by the municipalities. So Markham's move to allow residents to continue to use plastic bags in the meantime creates a question: what will the region do when Markham's trucks come rolling in after the May 1st Regional deadline, will they be refused? If so where will these trucks dump their loads? Markham Town Hall?.

What is even more amusing is five members of the twenty one member Council of the Region of York originate from the Council of the Town of Markham. Did not one of these members of Markham Town Council speak up at the Region of York with reservations about the passing of the Regional By-law and the need for more study?

A further issue was brought forth by Markham's Manager of Waste Management, Claudia Marsales. In the Yorkregion.com article she points out that Markham's contractor for curbside pick-up, Miller Waste, will probably decline to inspect the bags due to health and safety issues as the bags contain pet waste and diapers amongst other items. So with the health and safety issues as a possibility, will the other curb side contractors for other municipalities also reject the requirement to inspect the bags? Probably. Thus, their is a possibility the Region of York's By-law may be declined as the contractors who pickup refuse to discriminate between plastic and compostable plastic due to health and safety issues under the province's Workplace Health & Safety Act.

Overall the Region of York's new By-law requirement that all residents as of May 1st have no option but to use compostable bags seems to be falling apart. First the cost to residents is a significant negative and now the region's second largest municipality, Markham, has refused to go along. Added to this is the possibility that many of the region's contracted collection companies may refuse to inspect the bags under York's By-law due to their right to refuse work under the provinces Workplace Health & Safety Act. Further to this mess is that much of York's 2010 Green Bin Material ended up in either in landfill or being incenerated anyway due to supply chain issues. So far it looks like the Region of York's attempt at implementing the compostable bag requirement within a successful Green Bin program may have been a noble reason that has turned into one big sopping stinky wet mess of compost.

Tips on Finding a Realtor

2011-04-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

One of my favourite columnists, Ellen Roseman of the Toronto Star, recently wrote a column on finding a realtor and the pitfalls some of her readers have gone through. She takes particular issue with the signing of the "buyer representation agreement" and it's many pitfalls. Ellen always brings forth the issues and highlights the areas of concern for consumers to watch out for when dealing with big companies and/or simple transactions.

As I've noted before I had good experiences with my realtor and my experience in purchasing a house. This is what reputable realtors will want you to have, a good time during the ride of the house hunting experience.
But, hiring a Realtor can be a little daunting.

Back in early 2010 my wife and I decided we would at least look at the housing market to see what the prices were like. We visited http://www.mls.ca/ (the Realtor website) to determine what prices were like. We then took a look at what we thought we could afford (i.e. a budget). As well, we took a look at what we were looking for in terms of "wants", "needs", "nice to haves but not necessary" and "forget it...NEXT HOUSE!" aspects for houses. We also read several articles online, library books and in the newspapers that we could find. Then we started looking for a real estate agent.

As first time homebuyers and knowing nothing about house hunting than houses with real estate signs in front of them we definately needed someone who could answer simple questions clearly as well as school us on what to look for in a house. We also had to be comfortable and trust our agent. It was also important in taking our time to choose the right agent.

I thought I had just the right person in mind. I had known that Roy Eveleigh had been a long time realtor and had spoken to a couple of people I knew about his services and recommended him. I spoke to Roy after church one day and he pointed me towards getting preapproved for a mortgage first. He gave me a couple of business cards and said once that step is done please feel free to contact me so we can move forward.

We contacted our current bank, one of Roy's recommendations and another bank to see what we could get in terms of rates. We then got preapproved at a great rate for us and took the paperwork with us to our next meeting with Roy.

We met Roy for an evening where he outlined how the Realtor and buyer relationship would work. He gave us a bunch of paperwork to read over, sign and return to him in the future. We appreciated that Roy let us take home the agreement to ponder and didn't pressure us into signing. In hindsight this was one the best suggestion Roy made as he wanted us to feel comfortable with him without any pressure. We took it home and read it over. The next visit we had a couple of questions on the Realtor agreement which Roy easily answered in straight forward language. We took the agreement back home to review again.
On the same visit, we also went over what the mortgage provider gave us to give Roy an idea on what we could afford. Roy was a complete professional. Together with Roy we went and looked at a few houses. Roy showed us a few houses by appointment and we gained some experience in what Roy would show us in. Roy never tried to "sell us" on a house. He always showed us both the good and bad of a house. If I had a question he always answered truthfully. This helped us bolster our decision to sign the Realtor agreement.

So my suggestions on finding a Realtor and before signing a Realtor agreement is (chronologically):

1. Get preapproved for a mortgage. This allows you to know what your price range for houses to purchase.

2. Have a referral from friends and family on who they feel is a good real estate agent.

3. Have a meeting with the agent and go over the details on what you looking for to give them an understanding.

4. At the same meeting go over the Realtor agreement with the agent but do not sign it at this point. Take the agreement home and reread it again. If you have questions be sure to ask your Realtor on the next meeting.

5. Also before signing, see a few houses (two or three houses) by appointment with your prospective Realtor. Remember you are going to be seeing probably close to forty houses or more with this Realtor so you must feel comfortable with them. Look to see if the Realtor is only playing up the good parts about the house or are they willing to point out both good and bad issues with the house. Also, when you ask a question do they sound truthful or are they giving you a sales pitch to explain a possible defect away? Bottom line, a good Realtor should make you feel comfortable with the buying process and want you to feel comfortable in your new home instead of trying to make a quick sale.

6. Ask any questions you may have about the agreement and then sign if you wish. If you do not wish to sign at this point, there would be no obligation to you to maintain the relationship with the agent. But if you do sign, you at least have done your research and should be comfortable with the agent.

After signing the agreement Roy gave us a great time house hunting. We learned about what foreclosure houses looked like and the pitfalls behind them, how as first time homebuyers we probably want to stay away from houses that are currently rented to tenants and that you need a deposit of ten thousand or so before putting down an offer. We had a good time visiting prospective houses either giving them a thumbs up or thumbs down and giving reasons why. Roy quickly learned what we were looking for and had suggestions of where further to look.

Roy was always willing to answer stupid first time home buyer questions and still enjoys hearing about the trials and tribulations of owning a house.

Finding a good Realtor is very important as they will assist you in making one of the biggest purchases of your life, a home to live in. Thus, I was glad to have Roy assist me in this as he was very knowlegable, patient and professional with my wife and I.

Free Slurpee!

2011-04-07T17:54:00.000-04:00

Yes that title is right. Today I got myself a free Slurpee! How? By signing up for their e-mail newsletter. So here are the details.

1. Click here to be taken to the sign up spot.

2. Fill in the detials required and click "submit". Suggestion: For deals, draws and newsletters from companies I suggest having a seperate e-mail address. That way if they sell the e-mail address or somehow a spammer gets a hold of it all spam will be sent to this account.

3. Slurpee.ca will send a confirmation e-mail to your account. Note: This took about ten minutes to arrive in my Hotmail.com account, so be patient!

4. Click on the confirmation link in the supplied e-mail to confirm your Slurpee.ca e-mail account adress.

5. A confirmation screen at Slurpee.ca will appear. Close this window and double check your e-mail.

6. You should have one coupon for a free 828 ml Slurpee.

7. Print the entire e-mail and take the coupon to your local 7-Eleven and collect your free Slurpee!

Warning! Coupon expires at the end of April 2011.

All Star Wings & Ribs

2011-04-04T08:56:00.001-04:00

On Friday evening my wife and I went out for dinner to All Star Wings & Ribs. This restaurant had moved from Yonge Street & Elgin Mills Road West to it's current location on Yonge Street in the former East Side Marios Richmond Hill location (10520 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill).

We arrived around six p.m. and were duly informed that their credit and debit machines were down. I inquired with the lady at the front if they still accepted cash around these parts. She smiled and said yes and led us to our seats.

We perused the menu for a couple of minutes trying to figure out which wings to eat and what side dish we wanted. After perusing the menu and deciding the flavours we wanted we had one question: hot many pieces or weight, aproximately, does each amount of wings have? At All Star Wings & Ribs you order your flavour of chicken wings you need to give the amount of chicken wings you want in "Single," "Double," "30 Wings," "50 wings," and up. But how many wings are there in a "Single" or "Double". Turns out there is 10 wings in a single. So we were ready to order.

The Order: 2 Single orders: 1 Italiano and 1 Honey Honey with onion rings on the side and a Pepsi and Glass of water.

The wings took about twenty to twenty five minutes to show up. While waiting we noticed all the televisions were down (i.e. no feed for television) and the place had about ten tables occupied as it was still early. The waitress apologized profusely for some reason for the food taking so long saying it was a crazy day.

When waiting for the food to come I finished my Pepsi and the waitress promised to have it refilled. She disappeared and didn't bring back the refill for ten minutes. She later apologized. But really, there was more than enough waitresses walking around the restaurant looking

The Italiano wings were tasty except in some cases were a little dry at times. Is this from slight overcooking? The taste though more than made up for this oversight. The Honey Honey wings were much more juicier tasting and seemed to have more meat on the bones. They were also slightly more tangy too.

When we were finished the waitress came by and inquired if we would like anything else. We asked for the bill and she dissapeared but quickly returned with the bill. Apparently the cash registers were down as well as received a handwritten bill in blue pen instead of the usual machine receipt. It really was a crazy day! We paid the bill and left our waitress a tip.

Overall the crew at All Star Wings & Ribs did a pretty good job considering most of the technology (i.e. televisions and cash registers) were not working properly, yet the place seemed to running as normal with cheery wait staff and decent food. We will definately be returning again to see how well they do when everything is back up and running.

YRT/VIVA Still waiting for the Bus

2011-03-31T15:03:00.002-04:00

VIVA Bus Map at Golf Links Drive stop in March 2009

York Region Transit (YRT) has made a habit of launching ideas to improve the system or make current operations more efficient. Unfortunately, there is a whole history of the Region of York's public transportation agency promising things at certain time points and then not launching these ideas in the time period promised. What's even more frustrating to the ridership and the taxpayers that support the system through their fares and property taxes is that YRT fails to communicate the delays, the issues and the new timelines in an effective manner. YRT is now celebrating it's tenth anniversary in existance and it's customers and taxpayers are waiting for updates on a number of items.

The earliest promised item came in 2007 from then YRT General Manager, Don Gordon. Yorkregion.com reported in June 2007 that YRT was working on getting VIVA buses outfitted with wireless internet. Gordon said then:

“We are in the process of negotiating with our advertising firm,” Mr. Gordon said. “Part of our contract with them includes the implementation of SMS text messaging throughout the network and Wi-Fi on the Viva buses.” - Yorkregion.com Article.

Fast forward to 2011, and there is still no wireless internet on the VIVA buses across the system and no indication it is coming soon. The advertising firm that operates electronic screens on the VIVA buses was forced to turn off the screens for much of late 2009 and 2010 due to technical issues. My sources tell me the rumour is that these screens may have had issues with the wiring that may cause a fire hazard. As well many of the screens, before they were turned off, showed incorrect information in terms of current weather conditions and old stale news. Even now many of these screens have had issues with error messages popping up within Windows XP environment. This may have slowed down the wireless roll out, but again, YRT has refused to provide an update on this announcement.

Back in early 2010 as the January snow was blowing around new maps went up at all the VIVA stops with the usual fake photography (that ironically is duplicated at many McDonald's) that showed a map with a future routing of the VIVA Orange from York University to Downsview Station. The routing supposedly uses the new TTC busway from York University to Downsview Station. The map also was labelled the prospective route as coming in 2010. Those maps quietly dissappeared as the seasons changed and the fake photography was changed from winter pictures to more spring/summer pictures. With the change the "coming in 2010" quietly disappeared but the future routing remained. The VIVA Orange still operates from York University to Downsview Station along the same routing since it's inception (from York down Keele Street and around the backroads in the industrial area to Sheppard Avenue and onto to Downsview Station).

Yorkregion.com reported back in January 2011 that the VIVA Orange routing was delayed because YRT needed to negotiate subleases with Imperial Oil, York University and the Province of Ontario to use the busway. Meanwhile the TTC has the leases and has been operating their buses along the busway for at least a year. Of course there was nothing said as to why YRT didn't inquire with the TTC to negotiate a shared sublease with each company or government agency so both services could operate along the busway. This cost VIVA services precious time by being stuck in traffic on Keele Street while the TTC buses breezed by on their own dedicated lanes and saving seven minutes travel time one way.

What is even more infurirating is that, according to the Yorkregion.com article, in 2007 the Region of York put aside $100,000 to go towards the busway and constructing the newly required VIVA Stations. The main question now is where is that money and how much of that money has already been spent, and how much longer until the VIVA Orange is using the full extent of the promised busway?

According to the same article, the VIVA Orange should be able to use the new busway this spring. Well the first day of spring has come and gone yet the VIVA Orange is still operating by it's own routing. As well there has not been an announcement yet of the new routing or any indication that the new VIVA Stations along the busway have been constructed. Again York Region taxpayers and YRT customers are left scratching their heads as to when this promised improvement to service will arrive.

In the Winter edition of the YRT My Transit Newsletter, YRT promises a new website coming in early 2011 along with "a new look, improved functionality and a few cutting-edge surprises..." yet here we are at the end of March 2011 and the old website is still up and being updated. So where is the "new look, improved functionality and a few cutting-edge surprises"? There was no update in the February 2011 newsletter either. What's humourus is most of the VIVA buses have yet to change over the newsletter from the Winter to the February edition and thus, the message of "website coming soon in early 2011" is still staring at customers right from the front page. You would think that YRT would quietly make the whole idea of a new website quietly dissappear like the maps for the VIVA Orange routing and the promise of wireless internet. But, then again, there may be hope as the old YRT.ca website is still showing "New Website Coming soon check back for details. At least that graffic hides the fact the gurus at YRT missed yet another promised self imposed deadline of early 2011 as there is mention of that. Yet, taxpayers and riders are still wondering when the promise of a new website will come to fruition.

Recently York Region Transit (YRT) has delayed the launch of the Presto Card on it's system from Monday March 28th to some unknown date. Yorkregion.com reports that the Region of York's Transportation Department, which YRT is under, refuses to comment on why the delay. This is despite a report to the Region's Transportation comittee's March 2nd meeting from the transportation department making no mention of a delay and that March 28th was the target date. As well there was no mention of the Presto delay in the Region of York's council minutes for March 24, 2011. One would think that an update to government officials on why delayed roll out would be required as there is signicant amount of the regional and provincial money being invested. But politicians, YRT Customers and taxpayers are left without answers even after a news reporter asked questions.

This week, none of the VIVA Stations that I passed by in Richmond Hill had the Presto machines activated and operational. YRT's website, http://www.yrt.ca/, only says that "Presto is Coming Soon" with no reference as to when. The February 2011 edition of YRT's My Transit newsletter gives some details on how the Presto Card will work but no details as to when Presto will be rolled out in York Region. YRT and the Region of York seem to be keeping the new timelines of the roll out of the Presto card under raps. There is probably a good reason why the roll out is "HUSH! HUSH!" as there probably is some bugs in the system that still need to be worked out or YRT is running behind on rolling out the machines to the stations. Nonetheless clear communication on the timelines of Presto being rolled out to YRT needs to be done soon.

YRT has a great reputation for unveiling new and innovative products. The VIVA rapid transit system has finally worked out most of its startup issues and YRT/VIVA bus arrival times are easily accessible via the web, phoning in ,VIVA stations and all terminals. But there have been some promises that seem to have been wished quietly away by YRT. It seems the riders and taxpayers of YRT services that are waiting for the above promises are going to be "waiting for the bus" on these issues for quite sometime.

No Earth Hour for Me!

2011-03-25T15:23:00.000-04:00

I believe the Earth doesn't deserve one hour a year, I believe it deserves something more everyday.

The above is an excerpt from my blog posting from last year at this time. I still believe it even after I moved from Aurora to Richmond Hill.

VIVA Bus at Bernard Station in Richmond Hill.
Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

I watch intently from my new perch in Richmond Hill as single occupant gas guzzling cars and trucks sitting on Yonge Street going nowhere during rush hours and Saturdays. I watch the traffic lights change and pedestrians are forced to walk around these car drivers who are so oblivious that the pedestrian is taking life into their own hands by just crossing the street. The car drivers sit there waiting for an opening in traffic to make their turn totally ignoring the pedestrian crossing the street. At any moment a pedestrian could be struck. The worst offenders are the ones making the right hand turns and inching out bit by bit so far that they start to obstruct the VIVA bus stop lanes. Then these same drivers sit their dumbfounded why a sixty foot big blue bus comes roaring within inches of their front bumper into the lane they are beginning to obstruct. Drivers are oblivious to this as they sit in their cars idling away and spewing exhaust from their tailpipes. But the very next day, all of the above repeats itself. The same care drivers are not just oblivious to pedestrians and large buses, but what their constant single occupant vehicle idling does to the environment.

These same drivers will probably participate in Earth Hour on Saturday by turning out the lights and unplugging their obnoxiously big televisions and dusting off a few board games that were last used at this time last year. These same people will, once 9:30 P.M. comes around, put it all away until next year and fire up their lights and return to their obliviousness to pedestrians, buses and the effect their lifestyle has on the environment and fellow human beings.

A tree in San Juan, Puerto Rico

What these people fail to see is the environment needs them to rethink their lives on a daily basis. Earth Hour is more a symbolism of what the Earth really needs at this point. Adding to the travesty of Earth Hour is the Town of Aurora's promise for every pledge a resident makes to plant a single measely tree in their name. One single measly tree and an hour without power. The earth still needs more than this and needed it last year, this year and years into the future. The earth needs more than mere symbolism towards it. The earth needs humans to change.

I will not be lighting up candles or sitting in the dark on Saturday night this year again. I will be living my life normally doing whatever I wish. Possibly watching a movie on DVD with my wife or going for an evening walk to see all the houses darkened. But I will not go out of my way to tip my hat towards Earth Hour. Is it because I don't care about the environment? Is it because I don't wish to inconvenience myself in the name of the environment? No, it is because I already do quite a bit for the environment.

I concentrate on a daily basis as to how I can lower my impact on the environment. After moving into my new home June 2010 I began to take a look of where I could make changes:

Where the budget and proper supplies of lightbulbs exist, I've begun to change my light bulbs over from the GU10 halogen to the LED lighting. I've tried first converting over to the GU10 to the Noma GU10 bulb but found these lacking. These light bulbs are the perfect size to fit in the fixture and look nice astecically. However, they take forever to warm up and don't provide the same brightness as even an GU10 halogen bulb. I've tried converting over to the Philips LED equivalents but Home Depot can barely keep them in stock. So when quantities and the budget provide, I pick these up and hopefully by the end of this year I should have all of my GU10 sockets switched over.

I turn power bar to my Nintendo WII, DVD player and television off when they are not required. This helps to reduce the "phantom power" that the Nintendo Wii, the DVD player and the television have when not in use and, suposedly, turned off.

For heating I have the furnace on a programmable thermastat so it comes on before I come home and goes off when I leave for the day. We also reprogrammed it during our vacation so that it went down to twelve degrees celcius and held the temperature there indoors. That was so the furnace didn't have to heat the house as much when no one was there and so the water pipes didn't freeze and burst. As well we ensure the blinds are open during the day to catch the warm sun when needed and closed when not needed. During the summer we very rarely turn on our air conditioner and spend a lot of time in our cool furnished basement. As well, I recently finished a project of insulating drafty electrical wall plugs and light switches in my house. In the future I will be looking at adding insulation and weatherstripping wherever possible to further reduce the heating bill. The only down side of all this is the savings on my heating bill. Enbridge keeps estimating the bill to high and every three months or so requires a phone call with an actual reading. Since moving in we have had twice had a credit on our gas bill because Enbridge hasn't estimated the reading correctly. The last one at the beginning of the month was Enbridge overestimating our consumption by 200 cubic metres over what we actually used. Thus, the above methods have produced significant savings as well as the environment.

When going to the store I bring at least one of the cornicopia reusable canvas bags so I don't get a plastic bag. If I happen to forget a canvas bag I ensure the plastic bag I do bring home is used as a trash can liner. This also has translated into savings as my wallet as most stores now are charging five cents per shopping bag.

As well we have increased our use of our recycling as well as were introduced to the Green Bin for compostables. At our old apartment we didn't have recylcing or Green Bin available to us. This has changed immensly and instead of one garbage bag per week going to the dump we have one garbage bag every two weeks along with a full blue box and a medium full Green Bin. Although, there are some changes coming to the Green Bin that I don't necessarily agree with which will force me to re-evaluate using this in terms of a cost perspective.

Why do I continously look for ways to improve my house and my life in this manner? Mainly because savings are gradually realized as well as:

I believe the Earth doesn't deserve one hour a year, I believe it deserves something more everyday.

York's Bad Move with the Green Bin

2011-03-24T13:47:00.003-04:00

Recently the Region of York has decided to implement a new process for it's Green Bin programme. As Yorkregion.com reports, York Region has passed a by-law that requires Green Bin items no longer be placed in plastic bags (e.g. plastic garbage bags, plastic shopping bags, etc.) but can be put in compostable bags only.
The region has apparently launched a education campaign valued at around $357,000. I clicked on the link from the scrolling menu under "News and Information" and the page gives a listing of acceptable compostable bags. But these compostable, as pointed out in the Yorkregion.com article, are more expensive overall than regular shopping bags. Regular shopping bags are normally sold at No Frills for five cents or given away for free with purchase at Wal-Mart. Whereas the compostable bags listed are believed to be about fifty cents a piece. At fifty cents a piece per bag per week that is a significant increase in costs to take part in the green bin programme for the average home owner. To add insult to injury the Region of York will not sell the compostable bags themselves. So what exactly is the $357,000 educational campaign going towards? Probably just merely high priced help to create the york.ca webpage and advertisement in the local newspapers. Really the only benefit of the campaign is the local Metroland community newspapers.

Added to the problem is that "biodegrable bags" will not be accepted either. Great, this totally confuses people as they must now check the list of approved bags before buying them during their grocery trips instead of picking up a box of bags that seems environmentally friendly. Apparently" biodegrable bags" are not environmentally friendly enough for the programme as they do not break down fast enough. So, if an average weekly grocery trips are anything like what I go through, most residents will purchase the wrong bags. Next, the resident will use one and have their wrist slapped by either facing a fine for infraction of the by-law or non-pickup of the green bin materials or, most likely, the local municipality's collection agents will simply pickup the green bin without knowing it is the incorrect bag. Things brings up an important question: Once the bags are removed from the box and used in the green bin, how are collectors supposed to know if a resident is using a biodegradeable bag as opposed to a compostable bag?

What the Region should do is team up with the local municipalities. Most of the local municipalities (e.g. Aurora, Richmond Hill, etc.) already take out full page advertisements on a weekly basis to promote local events and council happenings. There could be a blurb placed in these advertisments about the change to compostable bags and contact information if residents have questions or concerns. As of right now the Town of Richmond Hill has yet to notify it's residents using this method. As well local municipal website should be used to also promote the change with a link to the region's website for a list of acceptable bags. Further, the region and partnered municipalities should be purchasing a vast number of compostable bags from a supplier and making them economically viable to residents. These bags could then be sold through libraries, town halls and leisure complexes similar to how the region's York Region Transit fare media is sold. This would make the bags easy to find at an affordable price.

Currently, response to the bags have been negative from residents so far. On Yorkregion.com's article there are two negative responses as well as a letter to the editor on the subject. If the comments provided are anything like what the response will be to the introduction to the compostable bags only by all residents, the Region and local municipalities are going to be in trouble. Most people will probably just forget to put out the green bin and start placing their compostables in with their regular garbage. This of course would be step backwards but the Region of York is not really making the programme that easy with this little tweek. The region needs to revisit this switch as the main issues arising are differences in cost between bags. In times of great economic strife like York is experiencing, governments are looking for efficiencies and words like "revenue neutral". Why then would it encourage this move that is far from "revenue neutral" and the efficiencies not fully explained? The Region of York needs to answer this question and hopefully not spend an additional $357,000 on educating us on how.

A Spirited Time at Spirits Bar & Grill

2011-03-21T08:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday my brother, his wife, my sister, my wife and myself headed down to the Bloor & Yonge area for some Indian food. However, our favourite Indian restaurant is closed on Sundays. So we headed down Hayden Street to the corner of Church Street and Hayden street to Spirits Bar & Grill (642 Church Street, Toronto).

Our party of five entered and was seated immediately. Of course it was pretty immediate as there were only two other tables occupied and a few at the bar on Sunday evening.

We oggled the menus for a little while after ordering drinks. The waitress checked in a non-rush style periodically to see if we had decided on what we wanted to order. Eventually we did and placed our order.

The Order: 3 Spirits Burgers (Half a pound of grilled certified Angus Beef, served on a classic burger bun topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a Strubb's pickle) with sides of fries, 1 pound of chicken wings, 1 Veggie burger with a side of fries, 3 glasses of water with lemon, 1 Pepsi and 1 7 Up.

The meal took about twenty minutes to arrive from the kitchen. Everything arrived at perfect temperature. The Spirit burgers arrived with the lettuce, tomato red onion and pickle on it. The ketchup and mustard came in bottles to be added by the eater. Once this was done it was time to dig into the burger. The burger was deliciously juicy yet well grilled. The only problem was the ketchup and mustard dripping from the burger which made things a little messy. This really was my own fault as these are the toppings the eater adds themselves from the bottles brought to the table by the waitress.

The fries were quite good as well. They were potato skin fries fried to perfection. There could have been a little more in quantity but they tasted good nonetheless.

My brother and his wife split a Spirit Burger and a pound of wings together and seemed to enjoy them.

My sister, as the comment below notes, enjoyed the Veggie burger immensley.

Then the bill came. My brother had 3 7 Ups and I had 2 Pepsis. Each one of them was individually charged for instead of free refills. So this got a little pricey as each glass of fountain pop was around two dollars a piece. With the exception of this little tid bit of contention we had a good time.

Overall Spirits Bar & Grill is a good place to eat. Just watch how much you drink as it can get pricey especially in terms of what you get in terms of soda pop. Otherwise dig in and enjoy the bar food.

Is it "Pho Xe Lua" or "Xe Lua? WHO CARES!

2011-03-19T16:08:00.002-04:00

Last night my wife and I headed down to what we call "Pho Xe Lua" (180 Steeles Avenue West, Vaughan) for some good old fashioned Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup).

A couple of years ago my wife showed me this place she had been for lunch a few times with her work colleagues. I wasn't really happy with it overall at the time. The food was good but the optics of the place seemed a little questionable for a suburban restaurant. It used to be you walked in the front door to be greated by a server who asked how many in your party. The server asked this question while, in the background, the area where they collect the dirty dishes was completly visible.

A month later after the first trip we returned to try the place again to see if it truly was this bad or if the optics were just bad that day. To our chagrin the place was closed for renovations. We let another month go by before venturing back. We were quite impressed with the new wood finishes on the booths and tables as well as the new modern atmosphere. Since the renovations Pho Xe Lua has become a regular place on our visit list.

But try to find this place under "Pho Xe Lua" and you're stuck. Urbanspoon.com, where I cross post my reviews from this blog, didn't have a listing under "Pho Xe Lua". I merely thought this place hadn't been found yet. That was until my wife and I had a double date with my brother and his wife who said there was another location downton. So later I looked up "Pho Xe Lua" and came up with a review on Blogto.com that called it "Xe Lua" without the word "Pho" in it. Blogto reviewed a downtown location and not the Vaughan location on Steeles Avenue that I normally go to. Thus, I tried "Xe Lua" in Urbanspoon.com and came up with at least four locations spread out across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I still call the place "Pho Xe Lua" as that is what is on the door in their logo. But you know, "tomato, tomato, let's call the whole thing off". That is because they serve great food, so who really cares what the place is called?

So on this yesterday my wife and I entered and were seated immediately in a booth which is usually one of the more popular places to be seated. We were handed a menu, a checklist and golf pencil to order. This ordering method I've found is quite common at Asian restaurants (it was used as the ordering method when I recently had dumplings with my brother, his wife,my wife and myself). We flagged down a passing waiter, (again something different in Asian restaurants every server that walks by is your wait person) and handed it to him.

The Order: #108 - Pho with rare beef noodles and meatballs, #102 Phone with rare beef and tripe and gobs of tea to wash it all down.

Within ten minutes the Pho dishes arrived along with the traditional bean sprouts. The pho was excellent. The rare beef was of good quality and easy to pick up with my intermediate "chopstickery". I enjoyed the noodles and the beef meatballs (also using my "chopstickery").

Aside: This is the place where I learned to use chopsticks. Ever tried to pick up a round meatball with chopsticks? It isn't as easy as one would think, especially over a bowl of Pho with beef broth that can splash.

The tea was of good quality and not the watered down tea you get sometimes from some Asian restaurants trying to skimp.

The price was also pretty good with the entire meal costing about eighteen dollars including taxes.

Overall Pho Xe Lua is an excellent place for Pho and other Vietnamese food. I thoroughly enjoy it everytime we go.

The Order:

And now a Movie!

2011-03-17T17:50:00.000-04:00

I've completed editing, uploading and fussing with the photos I took of San Juan, Puerto Rico from the cruise I went on in January of this year.

Earlier today I've aspent about two hours at the local library uploading the video. Now I've just finished twenty minutes worth of searching around and choosing music for the video.

I hope you enjoy a better Picasa Slide Show (than last time) uploaded to YouTube with some tunage!

Election Fever: Vaughan

2011-03-17T14:03:00.000-04:00

Back in February I pointed out that Ontarians have had Election Fever. But Ontario is not the worst hit by election fever at all. Compared to the entire province of Ontario which has had three elections, sections of the City of Vaughan in Ontario will have had four elections in just barely more than a year.

As this article points out, sections of the City of Vaughan will have an election every 3.5 months in about a years time. Residents of the riding of Vaughan have been through a recent municipal election and are due for a provincial election in October 2011 as well as a now expected federal election sometime in 2011 whenever the current Conservative government falls. Add to this the resignation of Liberal MP for Vaughan, Maurizio Bevilacqua, which caused a By-Election soon after last years Municipal Election. Bevilacqua resigned his seat in order to successfully run for the position of Mayor of Vaughan.

With typical election campaigns averaging sixty to ninety days in length residents of Vaughan typically go through one election campaign, get a fifteen to thirty day breather before having their dinners interrupted by knocks on the door and/or phone calls from their campaigning candidates. I would imagine that this would cause a lot of people to either unplug their phone or hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on their front door nobs for a little well deserved rest and relaxation.

Another issue with the frequent elections is voter apathy. The "heck I just went to polls" mentality sets in. This is derived from voters forgetting to vote because they just did for another election. As well voters just may become apathetic and tune out the issues as they are now tired of hearing the problems and/or solutions for their communities and wish to tune it all out. This is especially the case in Vaughan where the frequency in the elections is so high and the controversy over the politics at the municipal level and the high profile personality of Julian Fantino in the recent federal by-election would leave any voter a little fatigued.

So please have some sympathy for the voters in the City of Vaughan as turnout at the polls drops. They will have been through a large political circus in little over a years time. You would get apathatic too if you had four elections in just over a year.

WIN WIN = Free showing = WIN for me!

2011-03-15T10:29:00.001-04:00

Last Friday my wife found a free movie preview on the Smart Canucks forum for a screening on Monday for the new movie "WIN WIN" which opens this coming Friday in theatres. I pounced on the free tickets via Gofobo.com

So last night we headed down to the the Silver City theatre (8771 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) with our free movie passes in hand to arrive at 6:30 P.M. for the 7:30 P.M. screening. We arrived early to prevent dissapointment of not being able to get in like the last time my wife and I visited a movie preview. We handed our passes in and were given tickets! But we had to wait in line as the theatre hadn't opened yet.

Eventually we were let into the theatre and we got decent aisle seats. The movie overall was pretty good. I won't give away the plot but the above trailer provides the general idea. Overall the movie was funny yet compelling to watch. The only downfall for the movie is it really didn't have any big name actors in it. This is probably the reason why the movie hasn't yet received a lot of reviews or acclaim.

But overall it didn't really matter if the movie was good or not, we got to see it for FREE!

Dumplings!

2011-03-14T09:40:00.002-04:00

Yesterday for dinner my wife and I joined my brother and his wife for dumplings in Chinatown at Mother's Dumplings (421 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario).

I was excited about going on a Sunday afternoon as it provided a day out in downtown Toronto and to have something that I really hadn't experienced much of before. DUMPLINGS!

One of the best things about Toronto on a weekend is that a family day pass for the TTC can be used by two adults for only $10.00! This is equivalent for a two way trip for two adults using tokens. So we decided to pick up the Day Pass and spend some of the afternoon wandering downtown Toronto. We left our place and arrived at Yonge & Bloor for about 3:00 P.M. and wandered down Yonge Street to College Street to visit the Winners. We then returned to the subway and scotted over to St. Andrew Station (King Street & Spadina) and walked over to the Moutain Equipment Co-op to see if they had any spring jackets on sale. Unfortunately they did not at this time.

We ventured along King Street and up Spadina Avenue through Chinatown to meet my brother and his wife at Mother Dumplings for dinner at 5:00 P.M. We were quickly seated and handed menues.

Now normally I know right away what I want to order in a restaurant as I'm quite familiar with the food choices. But in new atmospheres like a Dumpling Restaurant I'm a little stuck. Mainly for two reasons:

1. I do not know what is good to eat.

2. I dislike seafood that includes crab, shrimp and lobster.

So with that out of the way I normally did what I normally do in an Asian restaurant where I haven't really had what is on the menu, take a look at the ingredients that I like and hope for the best.    In this instance I chose some pork dumplings and others chose other kinds of dumplings that I have no clue what they were. So.....

The Order: A vast quantity of dumplings that I have no idea what is in them washed down with copious amounts of tea.

The food took a little while to show up. But that is mainly because each dumpling is made by hand in the kitchen and cooked either fried or boiled.   But eventually they do hit the table.

The first round of Dumplings we had four different plates. However, one plate had dumplings that were a little frozen inside. Um...don't they check these things for temperature before serving? Apparently they missed this plate and it went back to the kitchen. With that hiccup out of the way the rest of the meal was pretty good.

I enjoyed my time here using chopsticks to try different dumplings. My brother and "the wives" were great at explaining what each dumpling had in it before I tried it.

As for whether I liked dumplings and this restaurant? I like dumplings and would gladly try this restaurant again as well as others so I could have a better comparision.   So for a first time dumpling taster I had a great time and can't wait to return!

The Aurora Museum with a Little Culture

2011-03-11T11:00:00.001-05:00

Church Street School

Growing up in Aurora two of my favourite places was the Aurora Public Library and the Aurora Museum.

The library was a favourite place for finding a terriffic book to read, being read to by Mrs. Baxter "the story lady" and a film once a week. Of course I had to drag myself upstairs and trail my mother looking for a good book. This last part seemed, according to my little five year old brain, to take FOREVER! There were lots of books Mom, surely the one I hand to you from the second shelf from the bottom would be an excellent read and you don't have to keep looking. Heck, these books stink anyway, they have no pictures! Such is life of a five year old at the library for his weekly visit with his Mom. The library grew and moved across the parking lot to it's current location, a nice bright airy and bigger facility.

The Aurora Museum was located at the former Church Street School which was Aurora's first public school building. In fact the building's claim to fame is it was the public school of Lester B. Pearson who was Canada's Nobel Peace Prize winning Prime Minister. I still remember visiting the Aurora Museum as a both a school kid and being brought there by my parents. As a school kid I remember climbing the long carpeted stairs to the second floor to see what "Ms. Stuart" had for us to do in terms of history, games and crafts.

A few years ago the Aurora Museum at Church Street School was packed up and moved to Hillary House for safekeeping. The Aurora Museum and Church Street School were going under renovation for a little "TLC" and new features. After three years of closure the results have been magnificent. The building today looks better than it ever did before with hardwood floors throughout, the old tin ceiling restored and the old blackboards uncovered. There was even a climate controlled artifact storage area for the history of Aurora to be stored and displayed. This place was a work of art!

This Historical Plaque of Church Street School

But there is one thing missing. The Museum. Where is it? Well it left in boxes to Hillary House for proper storage and it has yet to fully come back. Sure there are a few large artifacts in the basement and on display in a few display cases in the building, but the vast majority of the collection is still in boxes hidden away I presume at the new Aurora Cultural Centre (i.e. Church Street School) and Hillary House. Some of the items may have made into the climate controlled area but these items are obviously behind glass and are hard to see if they are in fact in there.   But there really isn't any museum at the Old Church Street School to speak about. There is no long climb up the stairs to see what Ms. Stuart, or whoever her replacement is following Ms. Stuart's retirement, had dreamt up using Aurora's artifacts. All we have now in the old museum space is a grand piano and a wide open room mainly used for an indoor farmers market. I have nothing against the piano or farmers market being there, a lot of people enjoy these activities, but the museum portion is missing.

Aurora Councillor Evelyn Buck shares the history of the transformation in a recent blog posting. In the posting she describes how the original idea for a Heritage and Cultural Centre came about. The Aurora Historical Society raised money to complete the transformation but found it didn't have enough money or the volunteers to complete the project. So the Town of Aurora took it over. Grants were acquired in the name that a museum would be there and the project moved forward with grand schemes of climate controlled rooms for artifacts, displays created, cultural events taken place and a full update and restoration would be undertaken. It took about three years for the project to be completed. But somewhere the Museum component seems to have gone missing.

Over at the AuroraCitizen Blog there is a posting with currently 40 comments about what people think should happen at the Aurora Cultural Centre in terms of a Museum component. There is lots of opinions for and against the Cultural Centre hosting the Museum. Arguments that the Cultural Centre is drawing lots of people as is and should be left alone. Arguments against that the current building is being subsidized by Aurora taxpayers for the exclusive use of "Artsy Fartsy" types and their bretheren. There is even people pointing to the "Novita Report" saying the current Cultural Centre is striving to live up to it's mandate. Lots of debate and valid ideas.

On another note, the Council of the Town of Aurora is currently dealing with a large property tax rate hike to the tune of close to eight percent and requests from a variety of places for even more money. Everyone from the Jazz Festival to the Historical Society is requesting funds from the Town of Aurora for various things. The Historical Society has requested a second curator be hired to assist the first curator with putting on displays. This request for funds and the currently projected high property tax increase has lead to a debate over where the museum in the Cultural Centre is and how to best use the money already available.

The Aurora Museum belongs at the Cultural Centre on the second floor where it had it's home before the renovation. The Museum was packed up and stored in order to renovate the facility. The old Victorian school room that used to be on the second floor could see a revival with the original blackboards and old tin ceiling to be available. That would truly bring the "Heritage" of the building as a school back to life in one room. It would also be a great resource for school children to see how old school rooms looked like and used. Another room on that second floor could be used to provide historical displays as well as possible research space for people interested in researching the history of Aurora. These activities were similar to what used to happen at the Aurora Museum before the renovation. But now they could occur in a newly refurbished space. That was the original intent, I believe, that the Aurora Historical Society had when they started fundraising for the renovations of Church Street School.

As for the Cultural Centre component? There is lots of space in the building for both the Museum and the Cultural Centre to be together. Overall including the basement there are three floors that could house museum uses, programme uses, storage uses and administrative space.

Two rooms on the second floor should be used for regular museum operations. As well perhaps a third space would be a shared room of travelling paintings and museum displays could be created. The Grand Piano could be relocated from the second floor onto the first floor where current cultural classes are held. This room would be a multi-purpose place for programs to be held in the arts, lectures, readings and children's activities. The offices of the Cultural centre currently on the first floor would remain where they are as they are already installed.   The basement area is still available for some storage like the current larger artifacts of the museum (i.e. an old horsedrawn sleigh) and other uses. Overall there is lots of space in Church Street School that both the current Cultural Centre and the Museum could be housed and coexist together.

As for budget worries, The Town of Aurora, as the Aurora Banner article states, is providing $340,000 over four years and another $143,000 in operating costs to the Cultural Centre plus a $50,000 grant to the Aurora Historical Society for a Curator. This should be enough money for both the Cultural Centre and the Historical Society to house a museum at the Church Street School location and for a some programming at the Hillary House. Town Council should, thus, deny the request for additional funds from the Historical Society for a second Curator and reply that perhaps the Historical Society should investigate partnering with the Cultural Centre for this purpose.

If something doesn't come about after a year of negotiation, perhaps the Town should dissolve the Cultural Centre board and take over operations of the Cultural Centre itself.   Next the town would negotiate with the Historical Society itself over an agreement that would see $50,000 for a Curator to be used by the Aurora Historical Society and a portion of the Cultural Centre funds to be used as well for an Aurora Museum Curator at the Church Street School location. The Church Street School Curator would be responsible for utilizing the Historical Society's artifacts to present displays and provide programming to school groups at the Church Street School. The use of the artifacts would be a condition to the Historical Society in return for rent on storage and housing of these artifacts.  Of course Historical Society and Cultural Centre volunteers would be more than welcome to take part in the operations of the buiding.

The Museum and Culture Centre should be together. That was the original intent of the council motion put forward by then Councillor Ron Wallace and seconded by Councillor Evelyn Buck to start the process for a "Heritage & Cultural Centre" to be created at Church Street School. Together the Museum and Cultural Centre would provide ample space for both history and culture to coexist together and yet still be a destination to draw more and more people to downtown Aurora. This partnership as well would create an interesting building again where I could point to as being a "favourite place" again.

Characters at the Library

2011-03-09T11:30:00.002-05:00

The past couple of weeks I've spent ample amount of time at the Richmond Hill Public Library system for a variety of things. While at the libraries I've noticed some interesting characters who just don't understand what the library is used for because they have no idea the rules and expectations of the library environment.

The first is no food in the library except at the coffee shop. This means you shouldn't bring your Swiss Chalet take out and hang out in the magazine area. It also doesn't matter if you are homeless looking and have a McDonald's bag to go with your finished chicken bones, No food means NO FOOD!

In the quiet study area of the library where there are tables for people to work on their laptops, read quietly, and complete homework. There are explicit signs on the tables of the expectations which included no talking and no cell phone use. Yet we have people yapping away on their cell phones and attempting great feats of oratory that would make Winston Churchill seem like a whiny five year old. There are places for talking, try outside on Yonge Street on a soap box! The library is for quiet reading and writing, a place to contemplate life to oneself and not with anyone else! It is also not a place for necking either. If you need to do this with what I presume to be your significant other than you perhaps you should book a room at the Summit Motel, I hear their rates are real cheap! Oh, and necking in the stacks isn't an option either, cross that off the list. But koodos to you guys for even finding where the library is.

People who just don't understand the concept of equal space for everyone. While sitting at the quiet study area take a gander at the entire area. See what the space is like and where people are sitting. You know, get the lay of the land. That will prevent you from sitting down right next to me even though there are another ten more chairs available for your sitting pleasure that are all the same as the one right next to me.

What has ever happened to library etiquette? It is really simple really, libraries are quiet places for reading, taking notes and writing. Some libraries, like the Aurora Public Library, have rooms available for group work, this is where small group discussion can take place. Otherwise please keep your mouth shut or whisper only if you absolutely need to but this shouldn't be longer than "honey, I'll be over there in fiction section." That's all people, there is no more to a library, no eating, drinking or having debates worthy of the House of Commons. It's simple really, reading, writing and arithmatic, that's all a library is used for nothing else.

Happy International Women's Day!

2011-03-08T10:55:00.000-05:00

Today is International Women's day! Perhaps I should be writing this post tomorrow after today is over. But then the point and context might be missed.

Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Women's Day. This day is to celebrate everything that women have been through and struggle to attain in societies around the world. Everything from equal pay, jobs, equality, education, sharing of responsibilities in the home and so much more. Women have lots to celebrate.

Lets also remember there are other days and months of recognition throughout the year. There is Father's Day, Mother's Day, Black History month and others that I cannot remember right now. There seems to be a day or month to celebrate everything unless you are a white man without any children. Now why is that?

With 365 days in a typical year there has to be a day, just a day, not a month or week, for the average caucasion male without any children? Perhaps the day could be made for all men worldwide to show the struggles in this day in age that we must endure.

Recently there have been reports out that boys tend have a lower reading levels than girls in the public school system. As well, women are now holding more spots in universities than men. Should this issue not be recognized in a "menism" movement similar to the feminist movement that helped to bring about "International Women's Day"?

What about all the accomplishments in history that men have accomplished in traditional women's roles like nursing and teaching. Women seem to take great pride in showing how women have climbed into more "male dominated roles" in the workplace and society in general. Everything from the first female Canadian Senator to the first female doctor to practice medicine in Canada. These are indeed great accomplishments for women everywhere and should not be downplayed but aplauded. But shouldn't men also be encouraged and applauded to investigate and take on historically women's roles in occupations and society? There should be at least a day to celebrate this.

Of course biology may prevent men from taking on all of women's roles. Men obviously have yet to sucessfully give birth and provided natural sustanence to a natural baby. But after a period of time men are able to take over the caregiving role of father to a child. A true partnership between the couple who brought the child into world could then be given. Fathers should be recognized for taking on the role of caregiver while there wives return to work after giving birth to their child. Perhaps this should be celebrated on a "Men's Day".

There is lots to celebrate about men in this world. There is lots to celebrate about women in this world. Why not have one day for each to celebrate and encourage men and women to strive to be anything they can be. That, of course, would mean true equality between women and men.

A Movie! A Real Life Movie!

2011-03-07T10:41:00.001-05:00

This Friday I frittered away less than an hour trying out the movie feature in the Picasa picture software. I didn't read the instructions (Read: I'm a man and, as the old saying goes,"real men don't read instructions") and just hit the "Movie" button to see what would happen. Up popped a text screen with the folder's title and a photo I had previously selected with a four second movie premade.

I returned to the folder I was working on, selected all the photos and hit the "Movie" button again. There before me was a complete slideshow movie. I fumbled around a bit with the "Transition" function and came up with my first movie using the photos I took at Grand Turk while I was on vacation on the cruise in January 2011.

I uploaded the movie to Youtube and the mucked around with the "Audioswap" feature (Read: added some cool jazz music) within Youtube and the below is the result:

IIn the future I will probably play around with the photo sized I used as several times I've noticed the pictures aren't quite big enough when panned around int his format. So hopefully in the future I can fine tune the movie.

But none the less it wasn't a bad first attempt.

How a Wild Wing Reno = The Expensive Big Mackie with a side of Poor Service at McDonald's

2011-03-04T19:20:00.001-05:00

Previously I mentioned that we were looking to go to a Wild Wing location (11 Disera Drive, Vaughan, Ontario ) for dinner but couldn't find the location on the main Wild Wing website.

I met my wife at Promenade Mall after work and walked across the street to the Wild Wing location. However, the storefront was dark and nobody was in the place.

There was a sign on the front window that said "Under Renovation." This seemed a little weird considering the location is less than two years old and has been open before. Could there have been something stupid done that required the location to close to renovate in less than two years? I doubt it unless there was some crazy management overseeing the design, construction and operation of this Wild Wing when it opened. Something just doesn't add up here.

So we headed across the street to TNT Supermarket for my wife to pick up some Sushi and I to McDonald's at the Food Court (Promenade Mall, 1 Promenade Circle, Vaughan, Ontario)

There was a small line of three people in front of me. It took the cashier over five minutes to even take my order which was a little frustrating since the two guys in front of me only wanted two small coffees (which are FREE until March 6th this week!) and a muffin. However at this location there isn't much manouverability for the cashier to move back and forth as the aisle behind the counter is a little constricted due to the way this Food Court front was constructed. So she had to push her way past her coworker to get to the other side and return back. But eventually she got to me.

The Order: A Big Mac Meal (1 Big Mac Sandwich, Medium Fries and a Coke)

Of course after waiting the five minutes by the time she retreived the Coke, again having to push her way to the other side of Food Court front and back, the fries were all gone and she needed to wait for new ones to be fried. Normally all of this wouldn't disturb me but the price for a Big Mac Meal has risen dramatically (my receipt shows $7.79 including taxes) so a little service would be in order and, as per the Promenade Mall Directory, McDonald's is supposed to be "fast food" not verging on "medium food" proportions.

Finally the fries were ready and one of the cashier's coworkers put them in a container and on hold. The cashier though asked the cook for another Big Mac. I interupted saying I needed a Medium fries. The cashier apologized, corrected the cook and got my fries quickly. She had to get them quickly though, the friers were basically right next to her barely a step away.

I sat down with my wife after ten minutes of lining up, ordering and waiting for the food. I quickly demolished my meal. It really wasn't anything special or notable except the fries were fresh. But they had better be considering they just came out the frier.

The price of $7.79 seemed a little over the top for the meal as well for the portion size I got. So I doubt I will be returning to McDonald's until I receive some new coupons in the mail for a "Two Can Dine for $8.99" or something similar because, quite frankly, the price to meal ratio just isn't worth it.

Overall, this trip ended in dissapointment and showed how a Wild Wing reno equals an expensive Big Mac Meal with a side of poor service at McDonald's.

Does this place exist? An adventure on the Wild Wing Side

2011-03-04T08:51:00.001-05:00

This afternoon I will meet my wife to go out to dinner tonight. We had been to a Wild Wing in Newmarket a while back as well as one in Toronto with my brother, sister and Alice. So I thought let's try it again for tonights meal.

I scoured the internet on Thursday for a location to suggest to my wife to meet at and found one near her work from the Wild Wing Restaurant Locator.

My wife returned home from work yesterday and said there was an more convenient location near Promenade Mall. I checked on Google Maps and found the location at 11 Disera Drive, Vaughan, Ontario complete with Google Street View and a couple of reviews so this place either currently exists or recently shut down.

The only way to know for sure is to visit and check it out. Oh the adventure!

Saving some CHA.......CHING!

2011-03-03T14:24:00.001-05:00

At my new home I have found small drafts coming through the light switch near the front door. I could feel cold air coming in and the face plate was colder than than the wall above it. As a new home owner I hate to see my money going out the door...er...faceplate for no return except to heat the outside, use up more energy and hurt the environment.

And if there is one thing my Mom ever taught me growing up in a Canadian winter it was "close the door, we don't heat the outside!" I would imagine she would say the same thing about losing heat through light switches.

But how to solve the problem? In this day in age if there is a problem one only has to "Google it" to see if there is a solution.

Below is one of the responses I received to my Google query.

So I set off to my local Home Depot recently and picked up a pack of these babies. My pack was $4.99 plus tax and came with enough insulation pieces to cover three light switches and seven wall plugs.

I watched the video again, called my wife and off we went to save the world from drafts from my house...er...save my house from a cold Canadian winter draft.

The only thing we did differently from the video was to turn the power off to the light switch (REMEMBER SAFETY FIRST!) and then on the with the task. A quick off with the plate via the new drill, slap two insulation pieces in there and replace the plate. A couple of whirs later with the drill and I was king of the handmen in this house and a Earth saver extraordinaire.

Overpaid for KFC & Taco Bell

2011-02-28T10:57:00.001-05:00

On Saturday evening my wife and I headed down to Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Taco Bell (7028 Yonge Street, Vaughan, Ontario). This location is a shared counter serving both KFC chicken and Taco Bell products.

We hadn't been to either a Taco Bell or KFC for quite sometime so we thought we would give it a try.

We entered around 5:00 P.M. on Saturday to a small, yet manageable, line and had our order taken within five minutes. But the fun part is getting from the front door to the cashier to type in your order. You go through the usual que line similar to that of the bank. However, at this location the front of the line ends where you pick up your order, yet you want to be at the other end of the counter. So there is quite often jockeying for position in order to get from the wrong end of the counter to the cashier while others are going the other way to pick up the orders. Really it isn't a very orderly process but we did somehow end up ordering.

The Order: two hardshell tacos, fries, pepsi and a Caramel Apple Empanada and a two piece chicken with fries, cole slaw and a Pepsi.

The tacos were the usual hardshell tacos I remembered as teen growing up in Aurora. The tacos are normally $0.99 each and are packed with ground beef, lettuce and cheese. Pretty good substitute for a simple hamburger.

The fries were dissapointing as they were the usual KFC fries and not the Taco Bell fries I remembed from yesteryear. The package size was smaller than a small fries at your local McDonald's. The fries were also not very tasty and semi cold.

The Caramel Apple Empanada was better. It tasted like a mexican version of the McDonald's apple pie except it hasn't been warmed.

My wife had the two piece chicken meal. It looked sad looking in terms of portion size. There was two smallish pieces of KFC chicken with a thimble full of neon green cole slaw. Really for over seven bucks it was a dissapointing amount of portions.

We left feeling a little dejected that we still hadn't found a good fried chicken place in the Toronto area (Church's chicken in Vancouver is awesome!). We definately will not return for a long time.