Posted on
January 20th, 2010
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10 Comments
Lately I’ve managed to walk home from work roughly every other day. I should stress roughly. You know, it’s cold outside, and once the sun drops and the wind-friendly intersections get going, plunking down three bucks to get there in warmth actually seems worth it to avoid all that. So not every day is walking day.
But, just as I start to think how hard we have it, an unconscious decision is made (if it was conscious I’d tell you who made it), to once again flip through the Toronto Archives, to remind me that I’m just being a whiny little bitch.
Maybe it’s because life was simple then that the frosty elements didn’t bother people so much. Maybe the people were simple.
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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures
Posted on
October 22nd, 2009
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3 Comments
I think that I may be having a mid-life crisis. May be.
The thing is, I’m not sure if it’s technically mid-life at thirty-five. Also, doesn’t that usually come during the marriage? And I have absolutely no wish to buy a flashy sports car, get hair plugs, or date younger women. Well, maybe that last part. But basically, I’m not exhibiting the standard signs of a crisis. Except maybe uncertainty about my job. No, my vocation; my calling.
This morning, waiting for the streetcar, I looked up at a window washer and seriously thought, “Could I do that?”
I think the main problem is that programming’s just not fun anymore. I’m not talking about sidebar widgets, but the everyday working-for-the-man kind of stuff. On a broader scale, I know that working for money always involves working-for-the-man. The man has projects and ideas about how he wants those projects to act/look/feel/sound/touch/react/sparkle/etc. Sometimes, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about all those ideas. Sometimes they’re not really even ideas, just innuendo.
As I usually do in my darker moments, I found solace in the Toronto Archives. They revealed that my situation isn’t unique. That others have suffered as I have. That I am not alone:
Gah! That even looks like the office where I work!
Look at them, slaving away for that jerk back there, flipping through filthy mags and abusing himself. And back then, shackles came off only after the shift was finished, and the boss could fire you for anything!
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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures
Posted on
October 8th, 2009
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1 Comment
Well now I’ve gone and done it. I’ve brazenly ripped off yet another set of photos from the Toronto Archives.
That’s what happens when I’m knackered and I’ve spent most of the night swooping around the financial district in Street View instead of posting! Oh well, if you’ll forgive a few sentences that don’t quite seem to make sense, we’ll be able get through this.
Man, I wish Google never came out with Street View. Between every few words … I manage to travel another couple of blocks.
It’s been thirty minutes since my last sentence!
Back in the olden days they wouldn’t have had these frivolous time wasters. The men with their genitals exposed to the raw atmosphere had enough to occupy their time.
The Royal Alex isn’t one of those locations that’s changed much. Guys are still freezing their nuts off out there.
The next random location — just because it happens to be a few steps down the street doesn’t mean it’s not random! — the next random location I decided on for comparison was the Elephant and Castle across the street from Roy Thomson Hall. In this case, there was a world of difference between then and now.
I figured I’d include something in the picture that I could match to something in the archives. Luckily, I was right. It’s the black building in the above photo that stands in the spot where the building below stood.
Hahaha! What the hell was that?! No one’s getting drunk in that podunk town!
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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures
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