Zipcar Review: Prius Patrice

Earlier this week, I had a lunchtime appointment downtown, which was going to be a pain to get to by subway both ways. Rather than reschedule or take the day off work, I picked up Zipcar's Toyota Prius "Patrice" from First Canadian Place in the morning. It was near my appointment, and I thought I would save a bunch of time by driving one way in the Zipcar, dropping it off and taking transit back to work.

Prius Patrice
What: Toyota Prius hybrid sedan
Again, didn't check the year. I will have to make a note of this for future excursions, as I'm pretty bad at it.

Generally speaking, getting into and driving the Prius is (I imagine) like getting into and piloting a space shuttle. It is spacious and comfortable, like all Zipcars, but the touch-screen multi-function control and display panel is awkward to use while driving (which you shouldn't anyway) and the LCD gauge cluster has an 80's excess, "look-what-we-can-do" feel. A regular dial gauge would have been just fine. It's also sunk into the dash (likely because of glare) and quite far behind the steering wheel. Rather than a key, the car is powered on by a large fob that sticks into the dash, and starting the car is done by simultaneously pressing down on the brake and pushing the large POWER button on the dash.

The engine starts up after a few seconds, either to charge the battery or just to warm up for smoother starts, but shuts off after a few minutes of idling. This is one of the biggest things to get used to in this car: the engine turns off when you stop. The car is capable of mild acceleration and low speed driving entirely on electric power.

City: This car is fun to drive, no question. The car has an old-style push-click type parking brake, and the shifter is nothing more than a knob where you can select "drive" or "reverse". No bells and whistles here; more on the transmission later. It feels odd to step down on the "gas" and have the car start out without the engine running, but you get used to it pretty quick. Having the engine turn on when you're moving 20km/h through the city is surprising at first, too. Although the rear window is small and has some unfortunately placed supports running across, seeing around the car is no problem at all. It handles the streetcar tracks with no problem, and moves and handles like the best economy cars in the Zipcar fleet.

I found backing up in the parking lot a bit unnerving at first, for two reasons. First, the obvious: the large hatch and small window make it odd to look around the car at the back. Second, because of the low speed involved in backing up, the car does it entirely on battery power. That wasn't difficult, just, weird. More things to get used to with this high-tech vehicle.

Freeway: Ok, it may be a car firmly within the economy car segment, but this car hauls ass. Another thing to get used to that I didn't notice at all in the city was the continuously-variable transmission (CVT), another high-tech high-efficiency addition to this vehicle. Winding into the straight merging lane on the DVP and stomping on the throttle, the engine immediately kicks up to high revs, and stays there until you let off the gas. By keeping the engine in its optimum high-power range, acceleration is both smooth and fast. None of the rev-shift-rev-shift transition of conventional geared transmissions. One more thing that might turn off some drivers, but very cool if you ask me.

Generally speaking, I like this car, and I am excited any time I get to drive it. As added incentive, since it is a hybrid and uses far less gas than conventional cars in the city, Zipcar charges a significantly reduced hourly rate to use it, although as a consequence of its popularity there is no daily rate available. Although I haven't had back-seat passengers while driving it, it seems as though four adults would fit comfortably, and there is plenty of cargo room for a car this size. And the electronic touch-screen display and high-tech gadgetry under the hood make this car score very high in geek factor.

Click these links for more information on ZipCars and the Toyota Prius.

Note: this review is a matter of my own opinion, and is not endorsed by Zipcar or Toyota. Use at your own risk.

I am in computer hell

While waiting for more operating system reinstalls, I decided to chronicle what's going on in the blog, on the one computer (out of 4-ish) that is still working acceptably well. Acceptable, in this case, means able to connect to the internet. Although at various times this morning it's also meant "recognizes the DVD-ROM", "can set host name", and "can access the hard disk without requiring a hard reset". It's been a long morning so far.

Here's where I'm at. Last night, my mythbuntu box deteriorated to the point where I couldn't play a sound file without getting occasional memory errors. So right after watching Family Guy, I started installing openSUSE back on it, using the network install. I had used openSUSE originally for the PVR setup and it was reasonably stable. I decided to try with GNOME this time.

Big mistake.

On the very first boot, as I tried to figure out the interface and find the network settings, right after entering the root password for the setup applet, first system freeze. Not even seemingly precipitated by anything. So reboot, set up the network, fantastic. Try downloading some upgrades. Fail, DNS error, can't find host. Fantastic!

Now, I've found that every time I've done a linux install on any of my computers, it seems to come alive and have a personality and attitude all its own. This case is no different. For some reason, it will save my hostname and IP address with the wired connection but not the wireless. I don't particularly want to have my laptop sitting on top of the tower all the time to get a network connection, so this is no good. So, at the moment, I am reinstalling with KDE4, since that worked for me before and I should be able to get it to work again. Right?

We'll see.

As for the laptop, Windows decided somewhat randomly that it doesn't have a DVD drive. I know it's there, I took it apart myself, and I can see the little yellow light on it every time I turn the computer on, and I was watching movies LAST NIGHT. WTF?! So this might come down to a reinstall as well. It's about due, I've had WinXP on it for almost five weeks without major system problems.

What about the others? The one that works is slow as molasses most of the time, owing to Windows and background processes and all that. Maybe also due for a reinstall. And the fourth needs a new power supply, which I have, but I'm not getting into that right now.

Really I just want to watch TV and play movies and listen to music. I know there's gotta be some kind of magic combo so that I can turn the computer on and have it work without having to open a terminal, restart processes, load drivers, or do ritual sacrifice.

Ahh, looks like I'm being prompted for something. Back to work....

Zipcar Review: Jetta Joyner

Hey, two in a row! I was somewhat pleased with the idea of doing car reviews after my last review of Matrix Manford, so I had this in the back of my mind when Tay asked if we could get a car to take her costumes and equipment up to York University for a film shoot she is working on this weekend. So yesterday morning, in the midst of the first hailstorm of the season, I set out to pick up Zipcar's Volkswagen Jetta "Joyner" from a Leslieville parking lot.

Jetta Joyner
What: Volkswagen City Jetta sedan
I still didn't think to look at the year, but it only had about 20,000 km on it so it's pretty new.

I've driven one of the Zipcar Jettas before, so I had an idea of what to expect. In particular, I was looking forward to the auto tranny with the sport setting :) Fun in downtown traffic, but what about the freeway?

City: I set out on Lakeshore just as the downpour started, and hit the streetcar tracks on Queen just before it became impossible to see. Unlike the Matrix from the last review, driving along the tracks posed no challenge whatsoever. I didn't even know the car was on the tracks, really. A few quick curb-lane passes in sport mode got me back to the apartment just in time to watch the hailstorm from inside the building.

After a brief break, Tay & I loaded up the back seat with all of her gear, then set out for York. Our street has traffic control speed humps which were no challenge for the Jetta (at a reasonable speed of course) and the drive up the rough main roads to the Don Valley Parkway was smooth and comfortable. Like some other cars in the Zipcar arsenal, the Jetta has a transmission with a selectable shifter which allows you to "shift" between gears manually, although it's not a true manual. Unlike many, it also comes with a full-automatic "sport" mode, which keeps the tranny in a lower gear and the engine running at a higher RPM. This gives better acceleration and throttle response, at the expense of fuel economy, engine noise, and a jerky feel when coasting (from engine braking). On the other hand, normal mode seemed to hunt between gears more than it should. The compromise for me was to accelerate in sport mode, then shift back to normal mode for regular driving. I was impressed by the car's drive and handling in the city.

Freeway: Our route to York took us onto the Don Valley Parkway and later the 401. I put the car into sport mode on the onramp to the DVP, and realized halfway up the ramp I was doing 80 and hadn't noticed. Freeway merging and acceleration was no problem at all, and I made a few passes before hitting the Lawrence bottleneck, yeah, even at 9am on a Saturday. I had a hard time getting the side mirrors into the right spot, and with the side windows fogged, lane changes were a bit scary. Due to a large standing puddle on the freeway from the rainstorm and a tractor-trailer collision, the drive to York was quite slow.

After dropping Tay off at York, I learned that someone had booked the car right at the end of my time, so I wasn't able to extend my reservation. I wasn't sure that I would have enough time to get back to Leslieville (I had about 25 minutes left) so the ride back was pretty much all in sport mode. That fits my style of driving pretty well, as hitting 120 on the freeway was no problem at all, fast lane changes were a breeze, and I didn't really feel nervous weaving around the Saturday morning traffic. The car cruises like a breeze and takes turns with no difficulty. I had to brake on ramps for slower traffic quite a few times. Of course, I don't recommend or endorse this kind of driving in any situation, but the Jetta drives on the freeway like it's meant to be there.

Of course I really didn't have enough time since I also had to put gas in, and even with the time constraint I don't drive like an idiot (too much), and ended up returning the car 10 minutes late anyway and getting dinged with the $35 late return fee.

Interior: I lost a bit of time at the gas station because I couldn't find the fuel cap release, and had to read the manual to find it. It's not where you would expect it to be: on the center console beside the parking brake. Those crazy Germans ....

I liked the interior, it seemed well planned. I couldn't figure out how to change the display on the fuel computer from average speed though (it increased a lot over the time I was using the car). The gauges are easy to read but not imposing on the driver's view. Although I had problems aiming the mirrors, once I had them set they were good to go. I didn't play with the radio a lot, it was already set to 107.1, although Tay checked traffic on AM680 when we hit the wall of cars on the 401.

In general, this had been a car I was waiting to try out since my last short drive in a Jetta over the winter. Joyner didn't disappoint, and this will be a car I'll be looking to reserve again.

For more information, check out Zipcar and the Volkswagen Jetta City.

Note: this review is a matter of my own opinion, and is not endorsed by Zipcar or Volkswagen. Use at your own risk.

Zipcar Review: Matrix Manford

I've been a Zipcar member for a few months, after deciding it was about time to sell my Ford Focus rather than parking it in my building uptown and insuring it for $300 a month, which didn't include any actual cost of driving. Today, while running some errands in one of the Zipcars, I thought it might be a good idea to write down what I think of the cars that I've been driving. There are a wide variety of cars available to Zipcar members, and I like to try new things, so this has been working out well.

So, here is the first of what should be a series of auto reviews, based on my experience taking out Zipcars that are available around Toronto and driving them around the city. My review is intended to be a review of the model in general but is likely to be skewed by the realities of car sharing, good or bad. Plus I have plenty of biases when it comes to driving. But anyway, here's what I think.

Matrix Manford
What: Toyota Matrix wagon (exact year and trim unknown)

Tay's out of town working a gig in Ancaster this weekend, and I had a few things to do that I probably could have easily taken transit to get to, but I felt like taking out a car. Not too many are available on short notice on Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to avoid the Civic after last time, so I set out in the Matrix wagon.

City: It had just started raining when I got in the car, so I got to experience driving in the rain right away. I was headed out Gerrard east toward Victoria Park - a route with streetcar tracks - and right away noticed that I needed to hang on with both hands, or the steering wheel turned sharply as the front wheels fell into the streetcar rails. This is the first car I've driven where I've noticed that was a problem. Otherwise, the car drove very well in the neighbourhood.

Acceleration was very strong at city speed, as I expect from a Japanese car. Suspension felt very firm with little lean in turns, but was very forgiving over rough Toronto roads. I noticed the transmission seemed to be unsure which gear to choose in the turns, but was otherwise smooth without noticeable shifting delay. Overall, I was impressed with the drive on the city streets.

Freeway: On the way back from my shopping adventure I set out on the freeway, to see if the smooth ride kept up into freeway speeds. Acceleration from the ramp to merging speed was not impressive, in fact I was concerned the car would not get up to speed if not for the downhill ramp. I later realized that the car will not downshift unless the gas pedal is pushed all the way to the floor, most likely a fuel economy feature. I actually like this - one of my criticisms of automatic transmissions is that they downshift too easily. This car can't be expected to be speedy at freeway speeds, but it does well for a 4 cylinder. I found it hard to see around the wagon's body, and more than once was surprised by a car in my blind spot on either side. As in the city, cornering was fantastic and the ride was firm but smooth.

Interior: When I had more time to check it out, I found that the interior was well designed. The gauges were nice to look at but not oppressive to the eyes or distracting. The wiper selector was opposite to what I'm used to, but not illogical, and the rear wiper made a lot of noise so I switched it off fairly quickly. There are a few compartments in the dash which don't have any particular purpose, but at least the space doesn't go to waste. Cup holders fit a large coffee nicely, an extra large would be snug and a Big Gulp is just not an option in this car. One nice touch was a tray for about 6 quarters between the steering wheel and the driver's door, right where you'd need them for tolls (if that was an issue in Toronto).

Otherwise, the car lacks the bells and whistles of some of the other Zipcar models and seems more like an economy car, and for an economy car it seems like it would be good value. Of course, being a shared car I don't know what it's worth, but I don't need to, and I suppose that's one good feature about Zipcars.

See these links for more info on Zipcars and the Toyota Matrix.

Note: this review is a matter of my own opinion, and is not endorsed by Zipcar or Toyota. Use at your own risk.

What to do when work is not possible?

Somebody forgot to put their wireless mouse in the charging cradle last night. So it's time for part 2 of the Nermal story!

In the fall of 2007 (wait, I'll say autumn, fall is too foreshadowy) we moved to Mississauga. Nermal spent a few weeks with my mother-in-law again while we carted things back and forth to our new home, and eventually Nermal came on one of the last trips. She delighted in having parquet and ceramic floors to tear around on, two flights of stairs for getting into trouble, a leather couch she wouldn't touch and a treadmill that was the best scratching post ever. She even had a basement rife with nooks for hiding out in. She never took much interest in clawing our leather sectional sofa, which I attribute to dumb luck more than anything. Instead she picked on my grandmother's antique china cabinet, my ex's treadmill, and the walls themselves.

For much the same reasons as why she lost her job in London, my ex and I began to have relationship problems, escalating to the point that we split in June. Nermal's fate was in limbo, and since it was a familiar place she went to live with my (now ex-)mother-in-law for the summer. My ex inexplicably (to me) decided she wanted nothing to do with Nermal, and from very early on it was decided that Nermal would live with me permanently, as soon as I had a place to live. I lived with a relative of a cousin, in a basement room in uptown Toronto, for most of the summer. She had three cats already, some with health problems, and it was best for Nermal not to come live there.

By August, that living arrangement started to get, well, old. There was nothing wrong with it, and I appreciated the generosity very much, but I was feeling like I should have my own space, and of course wanted to have Nermal back. In early August I learned that Alex, a student co-worker of mine, was also looking for a place, as his summer living arrangement was coming to the end of its availability at the end of the summer. I suggested that we should pool our resources and look for a place together, which I think ended up being beneficial to both of us. Although I will admit that Alex did most of the work finding a place, and it was no small task considering we started on the second week of August to find a place for September 1st. We lucked out big-time and found a big two-bedroom sub-let, connected to a subway junction, that came in just inside our budget.

Nermal joined us in mid-September, after a transfer in London made unnecessarily awkward by my ex's unplanned attendance, and a typically uneventful drive back to Toronto, which to date has been Nermal's last inter-city road trip. She took to the new surroundings cautiously at first, pacing the perimeter of the apartment (no doubt looking for an escape) and then settling on the huge 11th story window as the best place ever. She took a while to be ok with Alex (and likewise) but they eventually became buds. Alex would walk through the front door and yell "WHAT'S UP CAT?" and Nermal would run out from whatever mischief she was getting into and tangle herself up in the mat in the front hall. She even decided after a few months that it was ok to attack Al's feet instead of mine when it was 5am food time, and may have slept on his face once, if the early morning fit of swearing and fur flying was any indication.

We did have one incident where a friend of ours was over, and we were all a little sloshed and laughing and carrying on and being loud. Alex has a particularly boisterous laugh, and Nermal responded to one particular fit by launching out from under a table and giving Alex the five-claw handshake, so to speak, then ran off under another table. He survived, but that was the end of that laughing fit.

In the next part: I meet Tay, Alex gets deported, and Nermal's single-cat existence comes to an end ....

Nine lives

I occasionally have weird thoughts. Like, not serial killer weird, just unusual. A couple days ago Tay was out at a gig, and I was home alone with our three cats. We've only officially been living together for just under two weeks, so the concept of joint possession hasn't quite established yet, so I still feel like Nermal is my cat, and Tay's two cats are hers. I know that's not really the case for a variety of reasons and at any rate the cats are already over it, but moving on ....

I got to thinking, as I watched Nermal curled up under the bathmat attacking a crumpled Shoppers receipt, that she has likely had an abnormally interesting life, for a cat. She's on at least her seventh home in three years, and although I've been a fairly constant figure in that time, she and I have had a multitude of environments, partners and roommates over that time.

My ex and I decided to get a cat back in the spring of 2006, mostly a result of our varying degrees of aversion to children, also I had never not lived with multiple cats up to about a year before that. We went to Animal Control in London, and a possibly one-year-old cat slashed my ex in the face without provocation, and then poured on the cute. She came home with us about a week later. What her life was like before that time I have no idea. She was young but not a kitten, and had been picked up as a stray. Animal Control requires pets to be fixed, and rather than pay a deposit and have the operation done ourselves, the staff there put her in with a batch of cats that were going to their contract vet later in the week. We had temporarily named her after a coworker my ex was having issues with, and that got corrupted to Josie somehow. That almost stuck, because I'm a huge geek. But she was cute, so she ended up getting named after Garfield's cute sidekick. Also because I'm a huge geek.

Point of interest: in the Jim Davis comic, Nermal is in fact male. But still cute.

Nermal came to live with us on the third floor of our high-rise, and had a peaceful life of chasing string, clawing up carpet and watching the thousands of starlings that would land in the trees outside every night. When my ex had her work friends over for their Grey's Anatomy parties, she hid out with me in the bedroom. When we went away to Cuba, she lived with my ex's parents for a week, happily chasing chipmunks through the sliding patio door of their townhouse.

The conflict between my ex and her coworker continued to escalate, and in the summer of 2007 she lost her job as a direct result. We ended up making a sudden, unexpected and poorly planned move to Mississauga in the fall, ironically on our last anniversary. Nermal lived in her second home at my ex's parents townhouse for a few weeks while we got settled.

In a later post: Nermal comes to Mississauga, but not for long ....

Ein buch für alle und keinen

Is it just me, or is the "smart guy" in the Rogers wireless commercials a total douchebag?

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, Rogers Wireless has these commercials on TV around here which start off with a guy talking business with someone on a cell phone. He's made out to be an overworked subordinate type, and always seems to be scheduling a meeting with a supervisor, when he ends up in an unfortunate situation, either going into a tunnel or down an escalator, or in the latest one running out of a boardroom, always scrambling to avoid losing his signal but ultimately getting disconnected. I feel sorry for this guy. He seems to be working his ass off all the time and getting no respect, and I imagine he's seriously underpaid and working for a company with no perks, otherwise he could afford a haircut and a nice suit, not to mention a better cell plan.

Of course, every time this poor sap gets disconnected, out of nowhere comes Rogers Guy, around a corner or out of the tunnel, basically going through whatever calamity caused the first guy's phone to disconnect, except he's happily chatting away with someone on his Rogers phone which has kept its connection, depsite the tunnel or bridge or whatever. Rogers Guy is this guy in a nice suit, with a perfect haircut and beaming smile, and despite his obvious status he always seems to be having an inane one-word conversation "yep, yeah, uh-huh" with whoever is on the other line. He notices the other guy having been just disconnected, and says "hey" or something else ultimately unhelpful. In the latest commercial he doesn't let the other guy in from the rain after he runs out a locked-from-the-inside door to try to keep on his call.

To add to the effect (or the insult) every time Rogers Guy makes his appearance, the epic introduction to Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra starts playing. Ahh, marketing.

Finance tip: put 10% of your pay into a savings account

Yeah, two posts in one day. w00t

I've been hearing this little tidbit of advice, or something like it, for years. It's a great little piece of advice for the not-finance-savvy mass public. A typical high-interest savings account is a great, risk-free way to see your money grow over time, and the results of putting in a little bit regularly will really add up.

But this comes with a major caveat that most people don't hear: PAY YOUR DEBTS OFF FIRST!!

A typical high-interest savings account might pay something like 2% - 4% per year. Guaranteed term investments (GIC's) and other products might pay a percent or so better because of your term commitment. Then again, your typical credit card charges an interest rate of about 18% per year, and many retail cards charge close to 30%! Pay these off FIRST. Entirely. BEFORE you open a savings account.

Here is a simplified example. Say you have a credit card with a balance of $2000, and an interest rate of 18%. Starting in January, you have $200 free income to invest every month. You decide to pay the minimums on the credit card (3% typical) and deposit what's left in a savings account paying 4% interest. In one year, you've managed to pay down the credit card to $1,642.86, and have $1,768.32 in savings, earning $31.79 in interest for the year. Not bad, right? Until you factor in the $331.74 in interest you racked up on the credit card balance. You've lost $299.95 overall on your $2,400 investment, a net return of -12.5%.

Here's another example. Same as before, but this time you put the entire $200 into repaying the credit card. By November, the balance on the credit card is paid off completely, and you start depositing the remainder into savings. At the end of the year, you only have $220.19 in savings, but the credit card balance of zero gives you a net loss for the year of $180.47 (-7.5%).

It doesn't seem like much of a difference, and all that cash in savings looks good, right? Extended into a second year, scenario 1 returns a loss of 7.1% in year 2, whereas scenario 2 gives you a gain of 2.2%! And you'll still be paying off your credit card and losing more money under the first method.

What you have to realize is that a payment to your 18% credit card is very much like an investment in a savings account that pays 18% interest, which is much higher than any real savings account will ever be. The only difference is that instead of earning the interest, you are instead offsetting interest that you would pay otherwise.

Side note: if you continued to pay the minimum on that credit card, you would pay off the balance in October of the fourteenth year. You would have paid $1,798.88 in interest over that length of time.

Another side note: paid-off credit cards look great on a credit report, so don't close them once you've paid them off! Just cut them up so you don't rack up a huge balance again!

Her smile makes it all better

Tay suggested some time over the last month that I should probably not have posts on here about work. And she's probably right. So I won't post anything here about work. Well, maybe the occasional humorous anecdote, like that time I got my head stuck in the filing cabinet. But no more schemes for world domination.

Today finds me transcoding videos for the trailer trash party, anticipating picking up the keys to our new apartment in the Beaches, and finally starting to work out equalization settlement details with my ex. Fun times in Gregland. Or the Vectorium. Still haven't told my parents that Tay and I are moving in together, not for fear of reprisal, just because I haven't been home to use my phone to call my mom in a few straight days. And my cell got cut off and Fido refuses to send me the bill. Genius.

A lot of talk at lunch today about Twitter, so I might just hop on. Would give me one more unproductive thing to do at the office, really. One can only play so much nethack ....

Goodbye Ivanvector the Ranger...
You died in The Dungeons of Doom on dungeon level 5 with 3516 points,
and 318 pieces of gold, after 3206 moves.
Killer: magic missile
You were level 7 with a maximum of 45 hit points when you died.

299 Bloor, call control

With info from http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread_archive.asp?fid=3&threadid=1936

If you've spent any kind of time on Toronto's subway system, especially if you're a daily commuter like me, you've likely heard numbered codes being broadcast over the system's public address system. The most common of these that I've noticed is "Two-nine-nine Bloor, call control" or some variation. If you're like me, you like to know what these things mean. Or, maybe you're like me and you are easily bored, or fascinated by numbers, or something.

I was starting to think that the numbers were route codes, since the Toronto Transit Commission internally refers to the Bloor subway line as route 2. And I've heard announcements like "506 Dundas" although I later realized Dundas streetcar is route 505; 506 is the Carlton route. So today, I did some internet investigating.

As might be expected, the Toronto Transit Commission doesn't seem to make a list of these codes available online, although I suppose I could call and ask. Regular readers of my blog will know how I feel about telephones, though. At the above-linked forum, I found a list of some of the codes that are used. Although different posters offer different descriptions, they all seem to agree that 299 refers to a subway line mechanic, and 506 to a station janitor. So the "299 Bloor" announcement is a broadcast asking the subway line mechanic at Bloor station to call the control room.

Maybe it's not really useful for subway riders to know that the janitor at Dundas station has gone AWOL, but I suppose it's good to know.

By the way, according to the site, various medical emergencies are grouped together under the code "Priority One", which supposedly refers specifically to a collision with a person at track level. I doubt that the TTC would actually broadcast a Priority One over their PA though; more likely one of their flowery "we are experiencing delays" announcements.

Happy mass transiting!

Deep fried Mars bars!

No really, we actually tried it. Of course, Rocky's Beer-Batter Fish Crisp is probably not the ideal breading medium for this, but it was tasty nonetheless. Tay came up with the idea, after we were done frying up some tasty tasty fresh cod (as fresh as it comes in an area so far from the ocean) and having a whole lot of batter left over and nothing left to fry. So, a trip down to Shoppers for a Mars bar value pack and one pot of semi-boiling vegetable oil later, and we were working away on our first fried candies.

Honestly, as tasty as they were, this whole thing was probably not a good idea, what with the boiling vegetable oil in a pot and all, and not having a fire extinguisher on hand. Yay for cooking adventures!

Lime-Soaked Steak Quesadillas

As some of my friends are finding out, I'm turning into a bit of a foodie. Not the going-out-to-expensive-restaurants sort of foodie, the cheap sort. The buy-something-on-sale-and-do-something-tasty-with-it foodie. In that spirit, my girlfriend (Tay, as she has asked to be referred to in my public-ations) and I made a dinner last night that I have to share, even though I don't *really* have any followers at this point. But who knows?

As most of my creations end up being, this recipe is fairly versatile, and could use many different ingredients. Basically, everything that comes out of my kitchen has a "to-taste" element. I present our lime-soaked steak quesadillas:

• 1 pkg: a good looking but inexpensive cut of steak. We used something I don't remember (eye round maybe?) but it was $4 for a little over a pound of steak.
• 1: lime, quartered. Lime juice would work, but if you can find decent, fresh limes, the flavour is so much better. And they make a satisfying sting in all your job-related papercuts.
• some: Tabasco. I didn't measure it, a few shakes. A few more for good measure. If you don't like spicy, cut back.
• seasonings: I used fresh ground black and crushed (dried) red pepper, garlic powder, crushed chillies, and coarse-ground sea salt (a fine grind would be better). I would have liked to use cayenne pepper because I use it in everything where meat is involved, but alas, Tay didn't have any.
• veggies, diced: Tay chopped up 1 red and 1 green bell pepper, and the most local field tomato we could find (US, not terrible). If you like spicy, add in 2 or more jalapenos, or pickled hot pepper rings if you can stand the salt.
• cheese: I prefer cheddar, the older the better. Monterrey Jack is a good choice, and you can often find it with jalapeno chunks, which is what we used. Grated is best, or thin slices work. Don't use processed cheese slices. Ever.
• soft flour tortillas: We used a package of average-sized whole wheat tortillas and have lots left over.
  

Slice the steak(s) into strips of roughly uniform thickness; the length doesn't matter. Arrange the strips as best you can in a single row on a plate. Squeeze the juice from 3 of the lime quarters over the steak strips, or add lime juice until there is a moderate puddle of lime juice on the plate. Add your Tabasco to taste (me: lots), then sprinkle on your dry spices. Let this sit for as long as you can stand; 30 minutes is ideal, any longer and you should put these in the fridge. Of course, longer is better but not an option when you're hungry. Ours soaked for about 10 minutes.

While these are soaking, clean and prep your veggies. If you're using hot peppers and want an extra-special kick, clean out the jalapeno seeds and sprinkle on your steak strips. Dice the veggies up into smallish bits (what, like a half inch?) and mix up in a bowl for later.

When you're satisfied that your steak strips are ready, heat up a frying pan to fairly high heat - not quite max but close. At the same time, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. When that pan's heated up enough, dump in your steak strips, lime juice concoction and all. It's going to sizzle a lot if the pan is hot enough so be careful. Try to arrange the strips in a single layer for best results. You want these to turn out medium-well or better (very little pink) so fry for about 3-4 minutes a side. It might be easiest to flip them with a fork. After flipping, sprinkle the juice from the fourth lime quarter over the steaks. When done cooking, tilt the pan to let the juice and drippings run to one side, and remove the steak to a clean plate from the high (dry) side of the pan. When the steak strips have cooled enough to handle, cut the longer strips into roughly square size pieces using a clean, sharp knife.

Using a large baking tray or stone, place a tortilla shell flat on the surface. Fill the surface with steak, veggies, and cheese on top. Don't use too much or your quesadilla will collapse under its own weight and be hard to eat. Leave about an inch around the outside of your tortilla empty, for cheese melting. Place a second tortilla over the top. If your baking implement is not wide enough, fill only half of the tortilla and fold over on top of itself. **

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the tortilla start to brown and look almost burnt. Remove from the oven and allow to cool enough to handle. Give at least 5 minutes for the cheese to harden a bit, or you'll have difficulty cutting and eating. Cut the quesadilla into slices - a pizza cutter works great for this. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Total prep and cooking time is about an hour, with appropriate time for the steak and quesadilla to cool. If you have a helper (like the lovely Tay) and you're both hungry and impatient, these can be ready in about 30 minutes.

Our results were a flavourful steak with a nice kick, and just a hint of lime flavour. You can make your steak extra-spicy because the cheese will cover it up. We have enough veggies left over that we just might try this one again tonight.

¡Buon apetito!

** If your baking implement is still not wide enough, you need a new baking implement.

Canada Geese ftw

"Birds that caused plane to ditch in Hudson River were Canada geese"
Published in Metro News Toronto edition, 13 Feb 2009

I know it's terrible, and nearly a tragedy if not for the skill of the pilot who landed safely in the river, but it gives me an odd sense of national pride knowing that Canada geese brought down a jet.

Big ones too: apparently the engines can tolerate a smaller bird.

I can't let you do that, Dave

Automated voice recognition menu systems piss me off. I'm calling the automatic menu system because I want to hear the options available and pick one, without having to announce what I'm doing to the rest of the office. If I have to speak into the phone, I want there to be a human on the other end, so that I can speak a full sentence and have it recognized. I especially don't want to read my phone number into the phone when there's a perfectly good keypad right there.

My response to hearing a friendly computer voice say "please tell me about your problem" or something similar is to hammer the zero button repeatedly. And to continue doing so until there is a person on the other end. Or a dial tone. Either suits me just fine at that point.

It might also be fun to talk nonsense to one of them, and record that conversation. One of these times I'll start feeding it one-liners from Star Trek. I wonder how Verizon's menu system would react to being told to arm quantum torpedoes and fire at will?

I feel a Rickroll coming on ....

First Post!

Well, it's official. I've given up.

I've been a web user since the early days, back when inline images were high-tech, and graphical browsers like Netscape Navigator were a big deal. I've been coding websites since 1994, when I first learned how easy it was. I even carved out my own little piece of internet real estate, Greg's Gallery, way back in 1995. A few font tags, some scanned images (this is WAY before digital cameras were available to the masses), and a few hours uploading my pictures, and I had my own online photo gallery to share with the world. It even had a section called "updates", where I promised my loyal readers (there were never many) that "more pictures are coming! I've just been busy!"

Well, as happened with so many websites over the years, the only page that saw significant updates was the updates page, which provided more excuses and promised further updates. But I kept it open, because it's been like my little digital playground, my sandbox, where I go and tinker around with a few tags here and there, maybe even upload another picture, change the colour of a frame, try out new technology, see what happens if I do this and that, see how it looks, see what I like. I was proud of the graphical menu I made out of a picture of myself looking out over Algonquin Park. It's stayed alive on GeoCities (now Yahoo! Geocities) for 14 years. Which I declare to be impressive.

But now, I feel it's time for some kind of new outlet. In the era of digital photography, not only do I not have time to upload pictures to an FTP server, one at a time, on my crappy Rogers connection ("it's the fastest!" my ass), but now there are so many more advanced options for photo gallery sharing online. I've been doing a lot on Facebook over the last year or so, and I've tried posting Picasa photo albums on my website but never liked how they look.

So I'm giving this a try.

Yes, I'm about 10 years behind the times here, and it's truly somewhat likely that this will become another one of the "more updates coming!" projects that I mentioned, but I think I could actually do this. Just write a few lines every once in a while, or post a few images from my travels around the city, or whatever, and if there's some people out there that want to have a read, well then I'm glad to provide my little bit of content for the world to see.

What I'm about to present the world with is the rantings and ravings of an underfulfilled and overstressed accountant working for a small company stretched out over two of the world's biggest cities. Hence the current title, "The General Ledger", because really I couldn't think of anything better that made any kind of sense. Although "Admiral Amortization" has a nice ring to it. Rolls right off the tongue. But really, at some point I'll probably think of something better, or at least less generic. What you'll find here will be whatever I feel like posting. Adventures in the city, local travel, complaining about transit riders, interesting links, LOLcats, maybe a new recipe, basically my life encoded into zeros and ones, for all to decode.

And a promise to update more often!