Two Wet Ducks

Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.Two Wet Ducks

Tommy Thompson Park, otherwise known as the Leslie Street Spit, has a bird sanctuary just minutes from downtown Toronto.

The New Spain

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.
The New Spain

Lost in a sea of debris, perhaps the last remaining book from the World’s Biggest Bookstore lays atop demolition debris. An icon of print in Toronto has fallen to the prospect of what else – condos.

Originally slated for 4 or 5 restaurants along Edward St. in place of the iconic bookstore, reports have now surfaced that the property will be home to a condo development in the 30+ floor range.

Book Review – The Art of Social Media

If there is one book to give you the essential tips on use and etiquette across the social media spectrum, it is The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick. It is a comprehensive guide of simple changes that anyone can make to be successful at any social media campaign.

Paying it forward really works. 

Be interesting, relevant and respectful and it will pay back in dividends. Tips on posting from both creating and curating content, as well as sources for inspiration and how to monitor response.

It is a good read and the suggestions are easy to implement. 

I made my first changes after reading the first few pages. Although this book is full of tips and tricks for each platform, both Guy and Peg admit that these are relevant and work now but to keep in mind that eventually  “the platforms change how their sites work” and as a result you need to constantly experiment. 

 What impressed me the most was the advice that they offer on developing your own overall strategy for social media. They both lead by example.

This book is a definite must-have for anyone engaging in social media. I evaluated an advance ebook copy that expires, complete with over 100 links, and now that it has been released I am definitely adding it to my must-have list. Worth every penny.

 

About the Authors

Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online design service, and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple and special advisor to the CEO of the Motorola business unit of Google. His many acclaimed books include The Art of the Start and Enchantment.
Almost ten million followers served daily.

 
Peg Fitzpatrick is a social media strategist and popular blogger writing on her own website and across the web. Peg has spearheaded successful social-media campaigns for Motorola, Audi, Google, and Virgin as well as having been a brand ambassador for Kimpton Hotels. The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users is her first book.
Almost 700,000 followers if she stands on her tippy toes.

Bent – Susur Lee’s newest “boutique” restaurant

In the Susur Lee family of restaurants, Bent, located at 777 Dundas Street West at Markham Street in Toronto, is Lee’s newest “boutique” restaurant representing a slightly new direction. His sons have joined the management team.

The occasion was a friend’s 40th birthday and dinner was a set menu of flavourful selections that really did tickle the tastebuds. Every mouthful was an experience unto itself. The presentation was impeccable and the staff were attentive and knowledgable about the menu.

The starter was a fusion of cocktail and appetizer… The Oyster Saki Shot

Presented in a small wooden box with dovetail joinery, the shot was packed in mini ice pellets.

Stir before eating / drinking.

Very tasty.

We then moved on to a serving of black pepper salmon and two very different ceviches, the first a spicy Peruvian and the second an Octopus with corn salsa. So tantalizing that I forgot to snap a few pics.

So caught up in the food experience thus far, I also did not manage a pic of the scallop or the Braised Short Ribs that followed.

I did manage to regain my focus through some really good conversation and snap a pic of the Rack of Lamb.

The empty serving dishes from the short ribs are still in view.

Still very tasty, I think I enjoyed the short ribs more.

 

Finally, dessert was an interesting combination of flavours of chocolate and hazelnut. Rather than go for the spoon, part of the experience is eating it in one shot.

 

 

Overall, a very enjoyable evening. The food was amazing and being part of the special occasion with some new-found friends made it that much more enjoyable. A definite must for a return visit. Thanks for inviting us Mike!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Windows XP Support and Older PCs

In case you missed it, Microsoft has discontinued support for a few of their staples, namely Windows XP, Office 2003 and a few others. As of yesterday, you are no longer supported for these products, and if you decided to go with Microsoft Security Essentials for virus protection, count that one in there too. Even though Security Essentials will still update its virus database, it will also tell you that your PC is at risk due to the now unsupported operating system.

Microsoft suggests upgrading to at least Windows 8 and offers a free utility for download to check if your system can run Windows 8. If your system is an older system and cannot run Windows 8, their suggestion, in a round about sort of way, GET WITH THE TIMES AND BUY A NEW SYSTEM!

For most photographers, it is not as easy as that though. With potentially thousands invested in editing software, Microsoft is basically telling you to turn around and spend thousands again just because they discontinued support for something that works just fine, especially on older PCs.

Caribbean Sunset

Easy Bathroom Shower Head Replacement

Here is a quick and easy shower upgrade that won’t break the bank.

We had this hand-held Water Pik that just needed a little TLC. This is a nice 2 for 1 upgrade. The current shower head in the main bathroom just needs descaling and will be cleaned and moved to the basement bathroom to replace a regular cheap plastic shower head.

 
 

Step 1: Remove the existing shower head and clean the pipe threads. To descale the old shower head just place in some white vinegar and allow to soak over night.

Step 2: Install new shower head. With this particular shower head, there is no need for plumbers tape. Following the installation instructions, the diverter valve gets threaded on first. Then, thread the rain shower head on, and then attach the hose and hang the hand piece.

 

Total installation time was less than 5 minutes.

Stay tuned for the next stage of our bathroom renovation.

Tracking Fundraising Progress in Tableau

Tracking my fundraising progress compared to the previous two years for the 2014 Ride to Conquer Cancer.

Building this dashboard was pretty straight forward. The Ride to Conquer Cancer fundraising portal allows for downloading the list of donations as a CSV file. I created a worksheet for each year selecting the donation date field and specifying a set date range for the X-axis. I added tick marks for the first of every month and also added a reference line for January 1.

For the Y-axis, I selected the donation amount and created a running total to track overall donation levels and then added a reference line of $2500 which represents the minimum each rider must raise in order to participate in the 200km Ride to Conquer Cancer from Toronto to Niagara Falls. This allows me to quickly see how my fundraising is going compared to the target amount.

Repeating this process for each of the previous two years as well, I then created a dashboard containing the three worksheets vertically stacked. Since the X-axis is a fixed date range, all three worksheets then line up and I can easily compare my fundraising progress against the same time for the previous years.

In the above image, the current 2014 Ride Donations at January 10th is at $1000 whereas in 2013 by the same point it was just under $2000 and in 2012 I had already met the minimum fundraising objective of $2500.

Tableau has enabled me to quickly assess my fundraising progress at a glance without any heavy number crunching or programming and in just a few steps.

Please help The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre with a donation and help me reach my goal to participate. http://www.conquercancer.ca/site/TR/Events/Toronto2014?px=2859954&pg=personal&fr_id=1513

Thank you.

Mountain Lake – Minden, Ontario

Late October morning about an hour after sunrise. After a rainy evening the night before, a thin layer of ice covered everything and a faint thin low layer of fog rolled across the lake as the sun desperately tried to make its presence known to the day through the clouds.

Don’t you find that it is getting harder and harder to get up in the morning? As Halloween approaches, the morning sunrise has been getting later. At this time of year, it is still dark at 7am when my alarm clock goes. Only a few months ago, the sunlight shining through the window often woke me up before the alarm clock went off.

2 Wheels on 4

While on a drive through downtown Toronto, we came across this sight. Immediately, my interest was peaked… not only because of the car and the bike, but more so because of the unique bike mount that was being employed to secure the bike, at highway speed, to a sports car without the use of load bars.

The bike mount uses suction cups. One for the rear wheel secured to the roof, and a separate “T” using three suction cups with a fork mount and secured to the rear window. I could see that there was no wavering and appeared to be quite secure.

It does present a very good alternative to traditional racks, especially if a rack is either undesirable or unpractical.