James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

[Norm]

Toronto - Day 2 (Saturday), Part 1

So why did we go to Toronto for a long weekend? Our aim was the Infinity Mirrors, which was in Seattle when we were out there but the lines were too long so we never got in. After D did some research on it, she found that it would be in Toronto in the spring, so we talked about it and decided to make a weekend out of it. In the end, we became AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) members, got the tickets, and centered an entire 3 day weekend around a 2 hour window of time when we could see the exhibit. In one sense this sounds maybe a little impulsive and crazy. On the other hand, this is what life is all about. Living. Making excuses to do things. Then doing them.

F it, you only live once.

We started the day at Eggspectation, which is a Canadian brunch chain we've been to before. But they make good food and the timing worked out. Self-indulgent picture of the tourist wearing the t-shirt he wore on his last vacation (Universal):

We headed over to the AGO and did a little browsing before the 12:30 start time. I will give you some facts on the artist then show you the pics from D:

* Her name: Yayoi Kusama
* She had a stint in NYC where she did a lot of street art, and had what seems like a love/hate relationship with Andy Warhol
* She checked herself into a mental asylum in 1977 and has lived there ever since, working on her art in a studio across the street
* She admits that her art is an expression of her psychosis
* Much of this art was a way of working out her fear of sex
* The exhibit is a series of 7 rooms you go into with only 1-2 other people, for 20-30 seconds at a time

Now some pictures:

These are essentially all penis representations:

Eventually she moved into electricity:

Outside this ball (which we are inside) is a room full of massive balls:

This was a box where we got to look in together. An older piece:

More electricity:

I think we may have missed a room or at least I forget what it was. The 7th room we were not allowed to take pics of. The last room starts as a white room at the start of the exhibit and the patrons add stickers. We got stickers but it looks like you would expect - lots of stickers.

In all the exhibit was totally worth it, and likewise, the trip was totally worth it. My feet/legs were tired from the day before so it was a long day of standing. I find that standing actually ends up being more painful than just walking. By the end I was definitely tired.

I also find this kind of modern art, along with the Chihuly stuff we saw in Seattle, much more enjoyable than some of the junk that passes for modern art these days. I simply do not find a bathroom sink on a wall that impressive. Likewise, I do not find a big green dot on a white background especially motivating. Some of the art we end up seeing is barely a step above a subset of the landfill. Yes I know that's the point but if I wanted garbage I would just go to the Arthur Kill Landfill.

Anyway, speaking of Warhol, there was also this at the AGO:

We also spent some time in the gallery proper (see above) but you're not here to see all of those pics, since the focus of this visit was the Infinity Mirrors. This was part 1 of the day. We had 2 more stops, coming up shortly...

 

[Norm]

Toronto - Day 2 (Saturday), Part 2

After the exhibit we blew some time at a food court sitting around then made our way to dinner right at 5:00. We found a Japanese place that is non-sushi and non-Hibachi based. Unfortunately everything at home is pretty much only sushi or hibachi. 2 years ago we had an amazing Japanese meal in Toronto and we've been talking about it since. Commence the food orgy pics.

We got a fixed menu and they just poured out the dishes...

Greens & black sesame:

Raw salmon, so good -

A version of salad, with shredded beef. Yummy again -

A version of what I was specifically looking for. Not amazing, but I guess it scratched the itch:

Yeah, essentially fried chicken -

Short ribs -

Stuffed oysters, so so good -

Cod, though we later found out this is not actually cod that we know -

The bimbap bowl, crispy rice -

Dinner was good. If you ever go to Toronto, let me know and I'll tell you where it is. If you generally do not get Japanese outside of the standard NJ options, I would recommend going into the city and trying to find something like this. Solid, and expands what Japanese food means.

After dinner we went back to the hotel for an hour and change, then headed up the street a few blocks and hit a show which is on the Toronto version of "off Broadway" or "on Yonge" in this case. It was called Fun Home, which was short for Funeral Home.

The show was good, and it was one of these mid-range shows that we both enjoy a lot. While we do enjoy the small shows of the local theaters, and it is obvious that the ON Broadway shows are awesome, we both like the in between which this was an example of (like the Billy Elliot show we saw in Chicago). I think it is the combination that you get the small show feel, but the almost-production of the big time. It's this perfect balance of the 2 sides.

The show itself was good, really solid.

I was going to explain it, but there's more info about the whole history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_Home

After the show we walked back to the hotel, with a quick stop at Second Cup for a butter tart (D) and a salted chocolate chip cookie (me).

Day 2 in the books. Another excellent say in Toronto.

 

[Santapez]

-The one thing I wish I saw was that exhibit. We didn't even have the option of getting tickets as it was sold out when we were at the art museum.
-You mentioned me & Joy on the podcast probably didn't have the food aspect to have as a backup when we were visiting Toronto, but that wasn't really true. We had some great food up there. I can even say Eggspectation is a pretty decent breakfast (I had it in Montreal two separate times) but I got some amazing braised pork belly omellettes in Markham and found a great breakfast place hidden in downtown Toronto. The Asian fusion we had out in Markham was actually top notch too, loved the short ribs
. Korean beef noodle soup place was bullshit. It was cheap italian spaghetti in a mild broth.
-Second cup we were near had Tiramisu. Came back to next day to order it, they were out. So I have mixed feelings about that place.
-You guys should have taken a little bit of time to go to Joyride 150.

 

[Norm]

Toronto - Day 3 (Sunday)

Slept like a brick, it was awesome. Got up, showered, then went back to Karen & Jordan's house for brunch. They did it up right for us:

We really did not have any plans for the day so we decided to hang out with them for a while. With the 2 kids, they bounce back & forth with naps and while the older one was going down, we took a walk with Karen & the youngest to the park then the dessert shop down the road. This was our last food stop for the trip.

Specialty is macaroons:

We walked around a little bit and decided to just pick up some Canadian candy for the kids and head to the airport. As I mentioned in the Friday post, Porter lets you mix & match so they put us on the next flight, the 3:25. Hopped on the plane and ate our bounty from the last stop.

These were amazing, really.

Flight was nothing of note, other than having to sit on the runway for 30 minutes after we landed. Whatever, we ended up getting home almost 3 hours early. Given that we had no plans, that's all well and good. Plus D has to work tonight and I have to blog a bunch, do an expense report, and move some code into prod later.

So I have been on this coffee cup mission lately. I want to start collecting different cups when I go on these trips but I am very picky about the cups I get. I really dislike the oddly-shaped mugs for the most part. We also have plenty of white or black mugs. So I have been on the lookout for green, purple, and red mugs. Imagine my surprise when I saw this at the gift shop at the AGO after the Infinity Mirrors yesterday.

This is my first cup of tea with my new mug:

Ok that is all. Sorry for the landslide but I did not have a ton of free time to write this weekend.

 

[jmanic]

Today I drove to @seanrunnette and we did a podcast with Andrew of Jalapeno. His mom had laid out pastries for us to eat before the recording. It was cute.

Pictured this when I read that

 

[jmanic]

As luck would have it, I'm looking to find a new home for some coffee mugs. At least one is green, and the others have colors as well.
If they have to be from your travels, you could Uber out to our joint, and we'll make some pork belly macaroons and you'd get souvenir mugs.
Warning: they are funny shaped, but they have proper balance. (Criteria B in selecting a mug)

 

[Patrick]

We are doing a family trip to Toronto in August,
Note taking in-progress.

i'm picturing @Kaleidopete making a hand-held bicycle infinity mirror concept piece?

 

[MissJR]

so i am disappointed that we missed that art exhibit. it looks really cool. at least we did get to go to AGO tho and there was some stuff i really liked there.

i think we kind of did toronto a little backwards. we actually stayed a little outside and drove into the city and really didn't have too much of a plan.

overall:

• parking is hellz expensive (even with the canadian "discount")
• those rat bastards and their sneaky 407 express highway. (i'm still waiting for the bill)
• good food even if we're not "foodies" (i liked Inspire... wish i had room to try their dessert)
• horrible drivers. (i think my car was dinged like half a dozen times in the parking lots)
• JoyRide was fun

 

[Red Mosquito]

Looks like a good time was had. Thanks for allowing me to live vicariously, the Mrs. and I are dreaming of going somewhere one of these days, I think my daughter is just about old enough to make a short trip possible. Until now the tales of Jimmy John's and real Japanese food shall have to hold me over.

BTW I had never heard of Jimmy John's until this thread, but I am now seeing commercials for them.

 

[huffster]

After all those food pictures, I need a snack.

 

[Norm]

Today was a normal day at the box factory, until it wasn't. I'm not sure that my box factory is a normal box factory any more. Some of that is my own doing. Some of that is circumstances, which of course is due to my life choices, which at the end of the day means it is my own doing. We all make choices in life. These choices are triggers, which cascade into other things in life. Sometimes this is as simple as eating a Kit Kat and having the shits the next day. Other times, it might be more substantial. None of this means anything. It is merely a rambling introduction to this day's blog. I have not had a Kit Kat in a long time.

And so we begin the first day of, what I think, is 14 days at home. Ha ha, I wonder if that will last.

I will give you a sample of the kind of thing I deal with some days. I sent a message to the PM from Seattle last night, expressing that Monday at 6pm was not going to work because it, kind of, you know, is a shitty time to put a weekly meeting. This morning, almost like clock work, the PM from the shitty org we are contracting with sent his rage email about me contacting the PM from the other org. I figured this was going to happen. But I needed to express that the time they setup was pretty bad in terms of what people on the East Coast would expect. And since the people setting up the meetings are not scheduling my time properly, I needed to let the other org know that I'm not available. Given that I am architecting this project, I feel it is somewhat important.

This is my daily nonsense. Side note: the Seattle org is considering firing the shitty contracting org and asking us to run the project.

Anyway, work was work, calls were made. On another note, we booted the 2 PMs entirely from the Minnesota go-live support because they are so incompetent that everyone is sick of them. So I am now running the project entirely and the PM is doing what she does best: nothing.

Then it was almost 3:00 and @KenS showed up. He said he found my house by following my Strava feed but I think that's BS because he did not end up on Watopia Island. Then @seanrunnette showed up and we drank espresso and recorded a ~2 hour podcast. For those of you who listen, are these getting too long? We then drank more espresso.

Then @Kirt forced me to ride CR from the house because he demanded to know what the conditions are like. I mean they are pretty much fine. But I would give it like 2 more days to dry out. Tomorrow should do wonders to help. By Thursday the chain gang should be ready to rip each other's balls off and it should be good.

Speaking of tomorrow, the weather looks splendid. I think it's about time to take the road bike off the Swiffer.

If you are still reading - tell me 1 thing about your work that drives you f'ing nuts.

 

[Magic]

When people email me at work, and then call a minute later to make sure I got their email so I can answer them faster. I usually wait until the end of the day to respond when they do this.

 

[Patrick]

one of the biggest f-them issues when programming (analytical programming) was analysts (who interpreted the results) and project managers
deciding which problems were easy to code, and which would be more challenging. I wouldn't be invited to the meetings,
cause I was a contractor, and i guess i couldn't be trusted with the secret of what they were doing with the results.

 

[JDurk]

If you are still reading - tell me 1 thing about your work that drives you f'ing nuts.

When things are looking good and you're questioned in a way to make it seem like you did something wrong. Just happened yesterday and also about 2 weeks ago, both times with the general manager. We've gotten very busy, with a lot of work for a customer that prior to '17, had no relationship for over 30yrs and way before my time with the company. Our competitors screwing up forced them to starting communicating with us again.

2wks ago
GM: "Can you look at this costing report and make sure you didn't forget anything? We made too much money."
Me: "That's a good thing, right?"

Yesterday
GM: "Just making sure the job quantity is correct, the purchasing order report has a lot of parts on it."
Me: "I'm the engineer, not the salesman."

 

[rottin']

This may happen in personal life once in a while, but happens almost daily with work colleagues: When I call them, they pick up the phone and say "Can I call you back in a minute? I can't talk now" or something to that. Don't pick up the phone!!...I can pretty much deduce that if you don't pick up the phone that either a) you can't talk at the present time or b) don't want to talk to me. Both of which are fine. I have even been in the room when said person (I'm sitting next to said person) does it to other people on phone when we are in a meeting...shows terrible cell phone etiquette to those present in the room as well.

 

[shrpshtr325]

If you are still reading - tell me 1 thing about your work that drives you f'ing nuts.

Manufacturing Project Team lead: I need to check on that, but im sure it will be done by X
Me: It wasnt even on a machine yet yesterday afternoon, how is that going to happen?
Manufacturing PTL: Im pretty sure it was on a machine on my way over here this morning

Later
Me: *On MFG floor, part is still block of raw metal NOT on a machine* 😡

 

[Patrick]

This may happen in personal life once in a while, but happens almost daily with work colleagues: When I call them, they pick up the phone and say "Can I call you back in a minute? I can't talk now" or something to that. Don't pick up the phone!!...I can pretty much deduce that if you don't pick up the phone that either a) you can't talk at the present time or b) don't want to talk to me. Both of which are fine. I have even been in the room when said person (I'm sitting next to said person) does it to other people on phone when we are in a meeting...shows terrible cell phone etiquette to those present in the room as well.

voice mail left:
"call me back, i have that information you wanted"

said information being 5 less words than the message that was just left.....

 

[The Kalmyk]

That person in the office with the us vs them mentality. Contentious and unapproachable at times. You get what you pay for I guess.


Otherwise the work is great.

 

[stb222]

When people schedule meetings that start between the following times: 8:00-8:30, 11:30-12:00, 1:00-1:30, 4:30-5:00.

I understand sometimes you need to squeeze a meeting in but just because your day sucks doesn’t mean you need to mess up other peoples days. We had a new guy start that would always do 1:00 meetings and I would just decline them. He seems to have stopped.

 

[shrpshtr325]

any meetings that reach between the 11-1 span seem to be against the culture here, that is when everyone takes lunch. (and when i get my daily ride in)

we still have an occasional idiot that tries to schedule meetings from say 10-1130, or 1230-2, i also decline those.