Archive for 2011

The Distillery theorem

Posted on May 10th, 2011 3 Comments

Art + Alcohol = The Distillery District

I mean, how else do you explain things like this?

distllery district, gooderham and worts, public art, statue, toronto, city, life, blog

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Banking can be THIS comfortable

Posted on May 10th, 2011 2 Comments

And here I am walking all the way home like a sucker. What the hell am I paying all those service fees for?!

atm, homeless, bum, td canada trust, toronto, city, life, blog

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

We’s not ig’nant

Posted on May 9th, 2011 4 Comments

Sarah and I did some casual, Sunday afternoon, stroll-y type shopping at the Cherry Street T&T yesterday. It was my intention to give her a taste (yes, pun included), of my years in Taiwan — at least in terms of product selection. We were missing the traditionally oppressive humidity and funky odours known as “authentic street cuisine”, but with its hordes of English-less products, mystery ingredients (on the labels we could read), and unintentionally hilarious packaging, I feel pretty satisfied with the authenticity of the store. And to top off a fully immersive experience, you should always walk out feeling a little more ignorant than when you came in — mission accomplished! Well, maybe ignorant isn’t the exact word, but I’m sure you get the gist.

naive, shampoo, t&t, supermarket, toronto, city, life, blog

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Saturday, just strollin’…

Posted on May 7th, 2011 4 Comments

…the wide open boulevards of our fair city this pleasant afternoon with my girl.

may 21, 2011, doomsday, yonge street, dundas street, intersection, crowd, toronto, city, life, blog … Continue Reading

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Make like a tree and lease

Posted on April 29th, 2011 Be the first to comment

This is why hatchbacks are generally a bad idea. If you currently own one, consider selling it or trading it in before something like this happens:

high winds, accident, branch, tree, broken, smashed, toronto, city, life, blog

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Midweek moist

Posted on April 28th, 2011 Be the first to comment

Toronto’s version of the storms that have been ravaging the U.S.: brief, pleasant, politically correct; 100% Canadian.

rain, weather, storm, skyline, toronto, city, life, blog

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Just when you think it’s safe to go out again…

Posted on April 18th, 2011 Be the first to comment

indoors, shopping mall, hdr, toronto, city, life … Continue Reading

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

The interwebs police is on the case!

Posted on April 13th, 2011 2 Comments

I received a funny email this morning:

Hi,
There is an Internet Webpage that has my address showing right under the Webpage. Could you please remove my address from seemingly being associated with the wall collapsing as I want to put my property up for sale.

My address is XXXXXXXXXXXX

I guess the cache has to have the content removed according to Google, and then the Google crawler can delete it from the Internet. If you Google my address, you’ll be able to more clearly see what I mean. I do thank you and appreciate it if you could do this.
Please email me back.
Sincerely,
S

What S is referring to is an old post on AllVoices that shows the wall collapse above the old Salad King location on Yonge and Gould; entirely unrelated to her address except that AllVoices, at some point in the past, included a “related” video that mentioned her address at the bottom of the page (along with numerous other links which, I guess, are now tainted).

I replied:

Hello S,

The cached page you sent me below has the address mentioned in a completely separate video link (“Video Source: xml. truveo.com”) – which is neither edited, controlled nor maintained by me (nor does it even appear below my post any longer – have a look at the non-cached version). I suggest you contact Google and AllVoices with this issue and inquire why these two pieces of information are being conflated in the search results; if it’s happening here, chances are very good you’ll see it again with some other random post.

My photos make no mention of your address either directly or indirectly  and I furthermore have no control over Google’s cached pages or how AllVoices chooses to combine what they deem to be related content on their pages. And, to be quite blunt, I’m not in the habit of removing things just because some third-party site may incidentally decide to include them alongside something else that may affect your resale. To put it into perspective, my name appears in the search results along with a millinery and a high school in Thunder Bay — should I ask them to remove their sites because they might be misleading when I go looking for a job? After all, I don’t live in Thunder Bay and I’ve never made a hat in my life, yet these appear right next to my name in Google’s search results.

Should potential buyers express reservations based on the link you sent me, feel free to refer them to http://www.google.ca/search?q=interwebs+for+n00bs

Best of luck,
Patrick

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay

Leaving the hovel

Posted on March 30th, 2011 Be the first to comment

Dang … almost forgot I had a blog and a camera! I totally blame winter for my shut-in-edness and lack of motivation. TIME FOR REVENGE!!

toronto harbour commission, sunset, sculpture, art, toronto, city, life, blog

… Continue Reading

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Smooth, baby…smooth

Posted on March 7th, 2011 2 Comments

Gazing out the window while chatting on the phone this afternoon (i.e. trying to look busy), I spotted this guy smoothing out the concrete of the new George Brown College building next door.

I dunno what this contraption is called but the sharp, spinning, metal blades just scream fun and hijinx, don’t you think?

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Videos