Ambulance driver falls under the spell of a vampire race car.
Vampire car’s previous driver dies.
Ambulance driver becomes vampire car’s new driver.
Her former co-worker and random Guy Who Knows The Secret Of Vampire Engine try to rescue her.
Dead driver’s sister shows up and has sex with new driver’s former co-worker for some reason I’m unclear on.
Creepy mother in wheel chair watches….

It felt a bit like there was a missing reel at the end of the film, too… it just ended at a seemingly arbitrary spot.

I think I need to watch it again… here’s the whole thing on Youtube (without subtitles) – searching for the Czech name ‘Upír z Feratu’ seems more successful than searching for its English name.

I go to the page for a film; say PINA at http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2012/3600000411

I want to buy a ticket, and now they have super handy “add to cart” buttons right there!

I’d like to see it at 12:45 on Tuesday please!

I thought I clicked on 12:45 on Tuesday for PINA. I didn’t say anything about CARNAGE…

I hope that this is just an oversight, as I would like to be able to buy tickets directly from the front page without having to click through the show and time twice.

Layout issues in commonly used browsers (Chrome, IE 8, Firefox on Windows all behave similarly) – maybe I need to access from a Blackberry due to some unusual new sponsorship agreement?

So, in case there’s ever a need to start a bus tour of places I grew up, listed in roughly chronological order. I’m not sure on where Alford Ave and Vista Village fit in. I know we lived in Vista Village while building the place on Rogers, but I think we lived there one other time…

Abbott Close Duplex… #9 or #13?

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16 Anderson Close

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70 McCullough Crescent

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30 Rogers Crescent

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80 Crawford Street

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39 Alford Ave #69

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Vista Village – I think we lived here twice, renting while building houses…?

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Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
Medium Raw – Anthony Bourdain
The Invisible Gorilla – Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
I Drink For A Reason – David Cross
Outliers (The Story of Success) – Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
What The Dog Saw (and other adventures) – Malcolm Gladwell
Hitch 22 – Christopher Hitchens
The Drunkard’s Walk (How Randomness Rules Out Lives) – Leonard Mlodinow
Packing For Mars – Mary Roach
The Mind’s Eye – Oliver Sacks
The Bedwetter – Sarah Silverman

I’m in the middle of a couple of those still, and have a stack of others in the queue. I enjoyed the Gladwell books; long overdue reads. I also quite liked the Bourdain books, though now they make me a bit twitchy about eating in restaurants. I think my favorites are Drunkard’s Walk and Invisible Gorilla though – they offer some really interesting thoughts on how much we can do as individuals. Really good trio to be had with Oliver Sacks’ book, which brings in stories of both the frailty and the amazing resilience of the human brain.

I’m nearing the end of my first year of membership with the AGO. I’m member #XXXXXX, and will be considering renewal in the spring.

We’ve just returned home from a spectacularly packed Maharaja exhibit, and have made a point that we will have to return to spend more time with that one before it leaves. We were poking around in the gift shop at the end of our visit

I was disappointed to see a pair of Deepak Chopra DVDs featured prominently along with other India-themed books.

There are surely better media products that could be offered that would reflect the wealth of art and history India has to offer than that of a self-help guru who is known for making up his philosophy out of whole cloth. What he is doing is hardly art, reflects badly on all involved, and can do harm.

If there was a special exhibit on Italian Renaissance sculptors, would the gift shop feature the Italian American films of Sylvester Stallone and books about Mafia families?

Please, reconsider stocking products from Chopra.

* http://www.skepdic.com/chopra.html
* ROM hosting Chopra

I anticipate your response.

I’m adding a couple newlines to his screed for readability.

Kook:

Here we go…did I say kill? Just be knowing of what is going into the system. Also, that aint the only link. Tons of ‘em. Like I said, this wasn’t fringe weirdos-this is people who deal in medical science, and many media outlets carried it. With of course, warnings that these are the carriers being used.

Kind of wondering where you’re getting the interesting idea that mercury isn’t toxic – neurological disorders come with the territory. Mad hatters, back in the days of hats, who used mercury in their hat making. Hence the phrase “Mad as a hatter.”

I could go on, but screw that. I’ll state thusly: most big corporations don’t give a shit about the little guy. This isn’t a fucking conspiracy, there’s no shadowy smokey rooms with Cancer Man making kill everyone plans. It’s simply the way bidness is done, like the way BP doesn’t give a rat’s ass about humans, or animals. They care about the profit. I never give to conspiracy what can be described as simple greed.

Me:

Are you a hatter by any chance?

You can apply directly at the links below if you don’t know me. I might be able get your resume on the desk of the hiring manager for any of the following roles if you think you’re a good fit. Comment or email me if you have any questions.

121793, Senior Program/Project Manager – Capital Markets ; Toronto, Ontario; July 23^rd, 2010

Finance & Operations

122556, Project Manager (Capital Markets); July 2^nd 2010; Toronto Ontario

Enterprise Risk IT

291957, Development Manager, Trading Credit Risk IT; Toronto, Ontario; May 11, 2010

291722, Senior Business Analyst, Trading Credit Risk Applications; Toronto, Ontario; May 7, 2010

123540, Business Systems Analyst – (Market and Trading Credit Risk system experience) Valuation Services, Toronto, Ontario; July 22, 2010

123539, Technical Systems Analyst (C++, Windows, Linux) – Valuation Services; July 22, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

123538, Sr. Tech. Systems Analyst (Java, Windows, Linux, Scheduling software/AutoSys) -Valuation Services; July 22, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

122365, Sr. Technical Systems Analyst – Risk Watch/Razor (Batch Processing/Unix/Java/Korn Shell/RDBMS); June 28, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

120178, Technical Analyst -FX Global Credit Application (C/C++, UNIX); May 14, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

Strategic Data Services

123388, Business Systems Analyst – BI (Business Intelligence) – Capital Markets; July 20, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

123386, BI Developer – Oracle/Cognos/Microsoft (Capital Markets); July 20, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

123247, Cognos Developer – Capital Markets Technology; July 16, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

123190, Technical Systems Analyst – Capital Markets (Java/J2EE/JMS/XML/FLEX/ActionScript/Unix/SQL/SDLC); July 15, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

123384, BI Architect – Capital Markets; July 20, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

Core Frameworks

293173, Business Process Management (BPM) Specialist – Capital Markets Technology; Toronto, Ontario; May 21, 2010

290364, Core Frameworks Microsoft Developer; London, England, April 27, 2010

123390, Senior BPM Business Analyst – Pega Systems Architect (Capital Markets Technology); July 20, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

122779; Core Frameworks Project Manager; July 8, 2010; New York, New York

120576; Business Process Management (BPM) Quality Assurance Lead – Capital Markets Technology; May 21, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

120575; Business Process Management (BPM) Specialist – Capital Markets Technology; May 21, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

Global Application Services, Operations, Risk and Finance Technology

294557, Application and System Support Analyst – (Market & Credit Trading Risk) After Hours support required (2 positions); Toronto, Ontario; June 4 2010

293795, Technical Systems Analyst (Application & System Support using SQL Server/Linux ) 2 positions ;Toronto, Ontario; May 28 2010

123631, Release Management lab and rollout co-ordinator, Toronto, Ontario, July 23, 2010

123541, Associate Director, Application Services – Finance, Toronto, Ontario, July 21, 2010

123039; Incident and Problem Service Manager; July 13, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

123940; Associate Director, Core Internal Services; July 29, 2010l; Toronto, Ontario

123945; Manager, Supporting Products and Core Frameworks; July 29, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

RBCCM Operations, Risk and Finance Technology Project Control Office

123619, Associate Director, Finance Analysis & Reporting, Toronto, Ontario, July 23, 2010

123305, Reporting Analyst – Capital Markets; June 21, 2010; Toronto, Ontario

One Contest Prize will be awarded consisting of one pair of “positive air” direct round trip economy class tickets with departure from Toronto courtesy of Air Canada to Tel Aviv, plus 7 nights deluxe accommodations comprised of four (4) nights at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv and three (3) nights at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem courtesy of Peerless Travel & Cruises in collaboration with the Israel Government Tourist Office-Canada. The approximate retail value of the prize is $8,500 CAD.

I searched for a random weekday in August on the hotel websites, and the Carlton Tel Aviv‘s prices START at $332 US. Inbal Hotel comes up at $355 US to start. I’ve stayed in pricey hotels in the US before, but nothing compared to this.

Poking around TravelWiki and learning to haggle for the markets…

The apartments are fine, if a little poorly maintained, and the neighbourhood is alright; very nice mix of people from all over, and you couldn’t be much closer to downtown for the price. We don’t have bedbugs, and we’ve only seen a couple roaches. It’s a nice, convenient location in St. Jamestown.

This is a huge building, of 32 floors, with about 20 apartments per floor, and an average of say 4 or so people per suite (likely a low estimate). That’s about 2500 people here. If everyone in the building needs to enter AND exit the building only once per day, 2500 round-trips on the elevator, with about 10 people at a time. 500 elevator trips; 250 up, and 250 down.

That’s a tough job when there are four working elevators.

Today there was only one working elevator.

When there’s only one, we’re dealing with a real problem here, with dozens of people waiting in the lobby, people cutting line, people with huge strollers and mountain bikes, who are taking up more space in the elevators, reducing that 10 person load down to 5 or 6 people. It’s not pretty.

It’s bad enough that the fire service elevator has been completely broken for months. You know, the elevator that the fire crew can use to lift all that heavy equipment up to the 30th floor should there be a fire? Yeah, that’s the one that’s been broken for months.

Today, there’s a second elevator that’s broken down, allegedly they’re servicing it, but when I got upstairs, there’s no sign of elevator crew. The super mentioned that someone was trapped in that elevator for some time today, and that it was being repaired; this makes two elevators that are completely powered down.

A third elevator has something of a tendency to stick on a floor with its door open. Where was it stuck tonight? Floor 31.

This left one elevator, and a sea of people trying to get home. At five o’clock in the evening.

This last elevator, when I did cram onto it with about 12 other people, appears to have no ventilation whatsoever. No fan, no air movement; nothing. Just a claustrophobic, humid little sauna.

To add to the amusement, super gets off at 31 to take a look at the stuck elevator, and someone gets off on 32. My floor’s button is pushed (PH – 32 floors, but no 13th floor because people are weird), but after the doors close from 32, the panel resets, and the elevator starts heading down. It’s gets to 28 before I can stop it; I have to get off and walk up those 5 floors. Not a problem, but a nice crowning touch to the day.

My real concern is that something bad is going to happen – there’s going to be a fight over elevators that is going to turn ugly, someone is going to need a paramedic who can’t get to them, or the building is going to burn because firefighters can’t do anything to stop it.

They’ve contracted an elevator firm to fully replace the elevator system; cars, electronics, motors, etc, but they’re not even going to START until August or October (I don’t remember – it was a month that started with that long A sound). How long does it take to fully replace an elevator? I don’t imagine it happens quickly, but it needs to start immediately; it’s years over due, and people are going to get hurt.

I’m trying not to mention my attempt to rally support around a first Toronto Skepticamp in 2010 in everything I write or post online today. At least part of me wants to remain calm; part of me wants to drag people to the cause now now now! I’m trying to remain calm, as I’m not the only one that will be involved in this, and there’s plenty to be done, and a fair amount of time to accomplish it all. Maybe part of this desire to do everything is part of justifying me not doing a presentation? That said, I might even tip toe into the shallows of presenting, as I have a couple ideas that might develop further; if not for TOskepticamp 2010, maybe the one in 2011…

I happened to meet Reed Esau during a break between sessions at Atlanta’s Dragon*Con 2008(?). He referred to a work-in-progress paper that he had written called “Raising Our Game” (PDF), and gave me an early copy to read. That’s when the light went on in my head; this was something that I could DO, rather than blog into the darkness or sit here as a relatively passive observer once a year while other people did things. Reed presented the Game Raising Skepticamp paper as a response to Daniel Loxton’s own paper proposing the question “Where do we go from here?” (PDF). Reed’s paper offered a tangible solution for real, grassroots skeptical action.

Personal commitments didn’t facilitate my doing anything about this at the time, other than promote the idea to others. Jump ahead to July 2010, and it’s the day before things kicked off at TAM8 in Las Vegas. I was standing in the lobby of the hotel (I was waiting to meet up with a new acquaintance that was going to visit Lee’s Discount Liquor – how could you NOT go visit a place with a name like that?) and someone walked up and greeted me by name – I turn around, and there’s Reed Esau again. We talked a bit and headed on our separate touristy missions. I didn’t have much opportunity to talk with him after that – I’m not sure if we saw each other at all after that coincidental run-in, honestly.

Reed’s appearance was enough to remind me of Skepticamp again. That’s the moment, waiting on a ride to a discount liquor store, that I decided that Toronto needed to have this event happen, and if it had to be, I’d make it happen. I’m relatively new to Toronto, so there’s going to have to be a lot of collaboration with this, but it’s going to happen.

I’ve been telling people upset at the costs involved in attending TAM events in Las Vegas, the UK, Australia; telling them to suck it up and organize their own damned event for free, and let everyone attend if they think it’s so easy. They argue that the information needs to be free, and that the conferences should be open to everyone – well, they can be if you care enough. I’m taking my own advice with this; there is value-add for the TAM events is the big name speakers, and I’ll continue to attend, but this is something different – this is more outreach and activism than the big conferences can be; both have a place.

This, in the year where I finally have the freedom to not only attend The Amazing Meeting, but also Dragon*Con (after a year’s absence) AND London for their second TAM; THIS is the year I need to make Skepticamp Toronto happen? Yeah, I’ll need help with this (Organizing a Skepticamp Event)

Interested in helping? Check the papers above, or the links below, or just sign up now and list your (optional) presentation topic. If you’re stuck for a topic, take a look at Skepticamp session ideas, or take a read through the compiled WHAT DO I DO NEXT? edited by Daniel Loxton. Or recruit someone else that you know has something to offer, and have them sign up for an amazing session.

Also check out a shorter piece on the history of Skepticamps are I Am A Grassroots Skeptic: Reed Esau.

Sign up, bring a friend, give a talk.