Category: Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

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Geek Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

One Web Day

One Web Day logo

Today, September 22nd, is One Web Day, the day on which we celebrate the awesomeness of the web and try to make it even better! As the One Web Day folks put it, think of it as “Earth Day for the Internet”.

Here in Accordion City, we’re having One Web Day Toronto, where there’ll be many independent events as well as a big one tonight at Cafe Taste (1330 Queen St West, at Brock) from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.. It will feature:

  • Talks by Us Now, Little Geeks, the Mozilla Foundation and my old company, the good guys of domains, Tucows!
  • Free wine, snacks, buttons and t-shirts
  • The “I Love the Web” poster wall to which you can add your own art
  • A used computer drop-off organized by Tucows and Little Geeks
  • General celebration of the World Wide Web, which we know and love (and without which I wouldn’t be me)

If you can make it, drop by Cafe Taste and celebrate the web, and if not, make sure you celebrate it wherever you are.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

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Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Don’t Forget About FailCamp Toronto 3 – Tuesday, Sept. 29!

failcamp_toronto_3

FailCamp Toronto 3 is 10 days away! Come join us in our “celebration of fail”. We’ll share stories about the times when things went pear-shaped, got SNAFUed, or just plain failed — and just as important, the lessons we learned from them. And unlike many failures, FailCamp’s admission is free.

For more details about FailCamp, see the FailCamp registration page or this earlier article.

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Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Kanye West Wants You to Go to FailCamp!

failcamp_kanye

That’s right, you want to join FailCamp Toronto 3, the celebration of FAIL taking place on Tuesday, September 29th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre! Take it from Kanye, you don’t want to miss this event. For more details, see the FailCamp event page and my earlier article on FailCamp Toronto 3.

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Geek Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

FailCamp Toronto 3: September 29th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre

FailCamp Toronto 3 / Tuesday, September 29, 2009 / Metro Toronto Convention Centre

That’s right, we’re holding another FailCamp in Toronto! Mark Tuesday, September 29th on your calendar and be prepared to share you best/worst stories of FAIL, impress the judges in our “Panel of Fail” and win big prizes!

Here’s what the event is all about, as taken directly from FailCamp Toronto 3’s event page:

The pictures of Sean Connery in his ridiculous costume from Zardoz can only mean one thing: it’s time for another FailCamp!

FailCamp is a celebration of failure. It’s about sharing your tales of epic fail and the lessons you learned from them. It’s about learning not to view failure as defeat, but as a learning opportunity and stepping stone to success. It’s about taking away the fear of failure and learning to take a chance, think big and achieve what you thought you couldn’t.

We’ll start with some stories of historical failure: some you’ve read in the history books, and some culled from our own personal histories — the wisdom of fail through the ages. Then we’ll turn the microphone on you, inviting you to share your greatest stories of failure, challenging you to entertain the audience and even win prizes if our "Panel of Fail" deems your failure or the lessons derived from it to be the best of the bunch. The more embarassing, hilarious and educational your story, the better! Where else can you win big by losing big?

Joey deVilla (Microsoft, DemoCamp, accordion trouble-making) and John Bristowe (Microsoft) will host the event, encouraging you to confess your failures while sharing their own. FailCamp alumni Meghann Millard (Unspace, RubyFringe, FutureRuby) and Justin Kozuch (Refresh Events) and others will be the Panel of Fail whom you must impress in order to win prizes.

FailCamp takes place on Tuesday, September 29th at 7:00 p.m. at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (255 Front Street West, between John and Simcoe Streets). Admission is free — all you have to do is register to attend, and make sure you bring your best story of fail! It’ll be full of win!

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Play Slice of Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Slice of Life: A Giant Cheque from HoHOTo

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the HoHOTo party and last week, I posted a “Slice of Life” photo from it. Here’s another, more important photo from HoHOTo: the giant cheque displaying the amount of money that was raised for the Daily Bread Food Bank: $10,500. Nicely done, folks!

hohoto_cheque

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It Happened to Me Slice of Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Slice of Life: Deep-Fried Oreos at the CNE

cnePhoto of the Canadian National Exhibition courtesy of Wikipedia.

Yesterday, the Ginger Ninja and I went to the Canadian National Exhibition (a.k.a. “The CNE” and “The Ex”, Accordion City’s annual fair featuring shows, rides, shopping and amusements. According to Wikipedia, it’s the largest fair in Canada and the fourth largest in North America.

Part of the fun of going to the Ex is the junk food, and they’ve got that stuff in spades. There are few foods that can’t be made better by deep-frying. Even Oreos, which are pretty good as they are, benefit from being covered in batter and then dunked into a vat of hot oil. We ordered some deep-fried Oreos; here’s what they looked like:

deep-fried_oreos_1

The batter becomes a crispy shell, while the heat of deep-frying turns the Oreo into a gooey, tasty mess of chocolate and cream.

deep-fried_oreos_2

Wendy liked them more than she expected she would, and more than the deep-fried Twix bars I ordered later.

I’m hitting the gym later today.

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Life Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Accordion City is Big Mac City

Here, courtesy of the Economist, is a chart showing how long it takes for a workers in various cities all over the world, earning the average net wage to earn the price of a Big Mac in their respective cities. Note that Accordion City – sometimes referred to as “Toronto” – is one of the three best places for a Big Mac aficionado to live, since it takes us only 12 minutes to earn two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions, pickles on an sesame seed bun:

Economist graph: "Working time needed to buy a Big Mac"

The Economist’s Big Mac Index was introduced by the magazine in 1986 (the year I started reading it, coincidentally) as a way to make it easier to visualize the differences among different countries economies, in terms of wages and purchasing power. Using Big Macs as an economic yardstick was a clever choice; they’re the same everywhere and available in many countries when it was first published 23 years ago, and McDonald’s has set up in more countries since then (remember, 1986 was before glasnost).

The index isn’t without its flaws. For starters, McDonald’s is perceived differently in different countries. Here in Canada, as with the U.S., it’s a cheap, working-class restaurant, while in other countries, eating there is considerably more expensive and exotic than having the local fare. However, there aren’t too many other products that are available worldwide that are made with local materials and yet universally uniform.

As for actually eating Big Macs: I used to love them as a teenager, but it’s been ages since I had one. Sometime in my late 20s, I noticed that eating just one made me feel nauseated. I suppose it might be because they changed the recipe, but I strongly suspect the real change was in me; I no longer had the same metabolism. I’m happy to spend a little money on a burger and not feel like hurling.