Picasa 3.5

I spent most of tonight playing around with Picasa 3.5, which may not be particularly new but is "new to me" tonight. I mentioned in a previous post that I was considering opening up a Flickr account, hoping that I'd be able to put up higher quality pictures than, say, on Blogger, or more specifically Facebook. So now I'm playing with the BlogThis! function in Picasa.

BlogThis! is not a new feature, I remember it being included even in very early versions of Google's photo library software. I've just never used it.

The picture in the start of this article was on my hard drive. It's a photo I took of the Toronto skyline from the Leslie Spit. Tay & I rode out one afternoon early in the summer, not long after I brought my bike here from my parents' basement in London. Picasa tells me the details of the camera that was used to take the picture, either my Pentax Optio 330GS or my mom's Fuji Finepix that I happened to have at the time. The problem is I can't tell right now since Picasa's blog editing window is open on top of everything. Of course I can easily go back and edit the post afterwards, but that wouldn't really be a fair review. I will add some comments after posting and finding out how it looks.

For me, this editor is pretty bare. It does have all of the features of the web-based Blogger editing tools, but it's a lot less pretty. Basically just a box with rich text tools. I'd like to be able to add a caption to the thumbnail, or do anything other than just drag it around, really. Or add another photo. Well, let's see how it looks.

**

Well, I wasn't too keen on having yet another login to another site, especially when I found out that Flickr is run by Yahoo, the same people that are shutting down my website next month.  I don't like all these different logins, and having another e-mail account I'll never check.  But then again I was going to have to use a different account for Picasa Web Albums anyway (long story, work related).  What sold me on Flickr is its camera directory, which showcases photos done by other photographers with a particular camera.  So I can click on the Pentax Optio 330GS, and instantly see what's possible with my little wonder.

Now I just need sunsets, mountains, and funky-looking trees!

See my first Flickr uploads at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanvector.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Tay & I have been trying to eat what's in our fridge and cupboards over the last few weeks.  It's sort of like rotation in the produce department, except most of what we have doesn't go bad.  On the last trip to Price Chopper I picked up a value pack of steaks at 50% off, and thought for a change that baked potato would be a good accompaniment.  I brought home some good-sized baking potatoes with the steaks, and figured we could put something together out of what we had in the fridge.  Of course, I often start cooking without having any real plan, so just after the potatoes went in the oven Tay suggested we make twice baked potatoes.  For which we had almost none of the ingredients and Tay ended up running down the street to the Valu Mart as I prepped the steaks, defeating the purpose of not buying an entire meal and eating what we have.

Anyway, this is basically what happened:

Tay's Twice Baked Potatoes (makes 4 medium potatoes)

Ingredients (approximate as always):

• 4 russet baking potatoes - size 90 or whatever is commonly available on the market
• cooking oil - enough to dip potatoes in (1 tbsp ish)
• salt - I used coarse ground sea salt, dunno how much
• 2-3 green onions or 4-6 stalks chives, diced (dried chives would do)
• 1/2 cup (or so) butter or margarine - we used a salt-free margarine
• sour cream - 250g tub
• bacon bits (Tay bought strips of bacon to cook because it was cheaper)
• cheddar (or your favourite kind of) cheese, enough for 2-3 strips per potato, or shredded

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Wash potatoes and scrub with a potato brush, or gently with a scrub pad being careful not to remove too much of the skin - you'll want thick skins.  Pierce each potato deeply with a fork a half dozen times to let steam out during cooking.  Pour the cooking oil into a shallow bowl, and roll the washed potatoes in the oil.  You can use your fingers to spread oil all over the skin of the potatoes, then put the oiled potatoes on a plate.  Sprinkle and try to cover evenly with the salt.  Place the potatoes in the oven directly on the rack, and put a baking dish or drip tray on the rack underneath to catch drippings from the potatoes, or your smallish Beach apartment is going to fill with smoke awful quick.  Trust me.  Bake the potatoes for an hour to an hour and a half, until the skin appears wrinkled and golden.

The long baking time gives you ample time to dice your onions/chives, prep your steak or other meat, or if you prefer, get drunk.  It also gives you ample time to send your girlfriend to the grocery store because you don't have any of the ingredients you need, and then to cook the bacon if you choose to go that route.

When the potatoes are baked, remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack until they are cool enough to handle.  Be careful, potatoes hold heat really well!  When they are cool enough, or if you're brave enough to do this with oven mitts, use a sharp knife to cut a slit along the length of each potato from end to end, and squeeze at the ends to open them.  Use a spoon to scoop out the inside of the potatoes into a mixing bowl, and save the empty shells for the next step.

To the mixing bowl with the potatoes, add the margarine and let it melt from the heat of the potato, then fold in the sour cream and onions/chives.  Mix well!  Tay used my grandma's electric stand mixer, because she loves to use it for everything but it really gets the job done.  Use a spoon to stuff the empty potato shells with the mixture in the bowl.  You should have enough to fill each potato shell enough for them to be just overflowing.

I cut the potatoes just a bit too far and the shells didn't hold up when I re-stuffed the potatoes, so we needed a tray with high sides (like this 8x8 cake pan) to finish baking.  Add the bacon bits to the potatoes, and cover with the sliced or shredded cheese.  If you are going to use a pan like this, I recommend greasing the sides.  I didn't, and the potatoes took some effort to get out of the pan after re-baking.

Return the potatoes to the oven for another 10-15 minutes to cook the potato stuffing and melt the cheese.  As an added touch, I broiled for about 5 minutes to brown the cheese, as seen in the picture.  Ignore the dirty pans and messy stove, that is not part of the recipe.

These can be served with more sour cream on the side if you prefer, although we just ate them as-is.  I was really impressed with Tay's suggestion, and the way they turned out.  As an accompaniment to a decent-size steak, one potato would serve one person.  However, it was a good thing we made four, because the discount steaks turned out really REALLY tough, enough that we ended up throwing them out when even the cats weren't interested.

Happy baking!  And remember, put the batteries back in the smoke detector when you're done.

Labour Day Cruising Around Toronto

This weekend, the last long weekend of a somewhat lousy summer (weather-wise), I wanted to make sure I got out on my bike at least once.  With Tay working Saturday and Monday, I thought that Sunday would be a good day for us to get out together and cruise along the waterfront, and maybe go out to the Toronto Islands while the Air Show was going on.  We ended up running some errands in the car on Sunday though, and we were both tired when we came home, so Monday ended up being my bike day.

I set out in the late morning, as I usually do with no particular destination in mind.  I biked along the Martin Goodman Trail from the east end near me, along the Lakeshore direct route between Leslie and Cherry streets, and back to the path along Queen's Quay downtown.  At Lower Yonge Street I contemplated heading out to the islands on my own, but thought I'd save that for the next time I head out with Tay (she's never been!)

Traffic west of Yonge was getting intense, due to the CNE going on and the Air Show about to start.  Lots of cars and bikes on the road, but everyone was behaving well.  I left Queen's Quay at the west end and rode along the path towards the CNE grounds and past Ontario Place, dodging wayward pedestrians all the way.  I suppose people can be forgiven for wandering randomly around the path, but when someone comes up behind you ringing a bell, yes, I expect you at least take notice, and move over if possible.  This problem doesn't affect only cyclists on the path.  I came across a diminutive woman jogging along, literally yelling and screaming profanities at people who were ignoring her and stepping in front of her as she tried to pass.  Pedestrian vs. pedestrian violence?  Further along, where the MGT was detoured to make way for more car parking, there were actually street meat vendors set up ON THE PATH.  I really gave up at that point and decided to bike on the grass wherever there was open space.

After getting by the detour and coming back to Lakeshore, I was surprised by one of the US Navy F/A-18 Blue Angels doing a fly-by, and just about fell off my bike.  A few minutes later I left the path again to ride to the shore, and stopped for a bit to take in the show.  I stopped and took some pics (not of the air show) and then continued on to the Humber River bridge, where I stopped for more photos.  I continued on into Etobicoke and realized I didn't really know where I was when I ended up in someone's gated parking lot somehow and had to turn back.  A little ways further on Lakeshore and I recognized the Mimico neighbourhood, and decided that I was far enough west for today.

I rode up Royal York Road to the Queensway to start my return trip via downtown.  Since it was a holiday there was practially no traffic, and the lack of bike lanes on the Queensway wasn't a problem for the most part.  I had a hiccup at the Kingsway interchange and Humber River bridge - there is a path off to the south of the roadway that it turns out does not cross the river, and after about 30 minutes of exploring I determined that the only way to get where I wanted to go was to continue along the edge of the Queensway roadway under the Kingsway overpass, and due to lack of visibility and high speed limits I elected to ride (illegally) on the sidewalk for about 100m.  Bike lanes start on the Queensway one block east of here, and I really don't see what the problem is with continuing them west - there is plenty of road.

At the Queen/King/Roncesvalles intersection I had to weave through some slow-moving traffic to get into the lane I needed to be in to continue on Queen Street.  This would have been plenty dangerous if the cars weren't completely stopped because of CNE traffic.  The Blue Angels were doing more flyovers as I continued through Parkdale.  Under the Queen/Dufferin rail crossing, which is under construction, I was treated to a horn from a driver who had plenty of room to pass, and I was already riding as far over as I could get without kneeing concrete.  Said driver sped off without further incident, and I'm happy to report this was the only vehicle confrontation I had on the entire trip.

I stopped for lunch at Queen & Spadina, for a bit of a recharge, and to think about my route home.  I noted the narrow shoulder painted onto Spadina, and surmised that it couldn't possibly be a bike path - the width is less than my handlebars!  I rode west to Bay and north to Gerrard.  I stopped for the red light at Gerrard & Jarvis, where a crossing pedestrian turned and said "good job, buddy" and I have no idea what that meant.I expected that I would turn south to the bike lanes on Dundas at some point east of the Don Valley, but I continued on all the way to Greenwood which is my usual turn south to Queen anyway.  Traffic in the Beach was crazy as usual, and I stopped at Endz to pick up a new pair of shorts before riding the rest of the way home.

After trying to plot the route on Google Maps (which won't let you make a route on bike paths in Toronto), I figure I rode about 42km in about three and a half hours, which is a pretty good pace for me.

I found that cars passing me tend to move into the next lane to do so when possible, or else pass me slowly, which is nice.  If I'm in a situation where a car wouldn't have room to pass I either wait or take the middle of the lane, depending on traffic.  The few times I had a car turning right in front of me caused problems, because it's my habit to slow down and wait and this seems to confuse the drivers making the turns, as they start turning but then stop (blocking my path) as they wait for me to pass, and then I have to ride into the crosswalk.

In general, Toronto has a long way to go to make its thoroughfares more bicycle-friendly.  Bike routes that don't connect to other bike routes are useless, and a path that leads into someone's gated private parking is just ridiculous.  That being said, I will continue to ride for leisure and exercise, but it'll be a long time before I consider riding to work in rush hour traffic, given the complete lack of infrastructure north of the Beach.

We are not at war

I've been working on a blog post for a few days relating my experiences cycling in Toronto.  Back in the spring, I brought my bike to the city from my parents' basement (where it had been since I was about 16) and I've been out & about with it quite a bit, mostly around my area, but also along the Waterfront and even downtown on a few occasions.  Likely owing to my lack of exposure and the time of the week that I ride, I have not experienced what many drivers and cyclists have referred to as a war on cars/drivers/bicycles/cyclists.  The target of the supposed "war" changes depending on who is talking, but the reference is to the perceived general hostility between drivers and bicyclists in the city.  In my opinion, the characterization of an ongoing "war" is likely the result of a few bad examples leading to broad stereotypes of drivers' and cyclists' behaviour, and is largely political.

The truth is that my experience both riding and driving in the city has been overwhelmingly pleasant.  I have not witnessed this hostility, neither in my car nor on my bike.  I was about to present my own opinion to the blogosphere, that the characterization of an ongoing "war" on our streets was going to lead to unnecessary emotion and violence on our roads.

On Monday night, this happened.  Witnesses suggest an apparently minor altercation at a downtown stoplight between a cyclist and a driver escalated to violence, leading to the driver speeding away with the cyclist hanging on and being dragged for several blocks, and ending in a young man's tragic and senseless death.  Not even 24 hours later, the internets are full of rhetoric and conjecture, people supposing what happened and who should be blamed, and groups on both "sides" of the "conflict" politicizing the tragedy to support their causes, which aren't limited to greater regulation of bicycle couriers, installation of bike lanes on Bloor Street, and more strict laws and stiff penalties for drivers and cyclists, for example.

Let's be very clear here.  This was no accident.  This is not a situation that a bike lane would have prevented.  Although it may have been sparked by a collision, this was a brutal fight between two grown men.  Regardless of the fact that they were on a bicycle and in a car, both men could have reacted differently, and both men didn't.  My fear is that characterizing this incident as driver vs. cyclist violence will result in more of that sort of violence, and we certainly don't need any more of it.  I believe that this incident, while certainly tragic, is random and isolated, and not part of a greater systemic failure.


My sincere condolences go out to the family of the young man killed in Monday's bizarre incident.