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

I made a note that lunch would consist of jerk chicken, and headed off to meet with the Air Canada, Design Exchange, the Jewish Tribune, and a handful of others, and find out all the details of what exactly I’d won.

On my way back, I was chatting with the very friendly staff selling the Carribbean food, and said how I hadn’t seen them before, that I knew they’d been in another location. I told her that I’d only chanced on it because I had to attend a meeting on Bay. She said “Well, it must be your lucky day!”

Yes. In so many ways.

I was talking to some people at the DX after the presentation, and we were talking about how I reacted when I heard that I’d won. Jerry from the Israel Government Tourist Office was describing how I didn’t remember entering. His co-worker described a story where one person entered an aunt’s name and she won, not knowing she’d been entered at all, and she refused to open the door when they showed up to give her a big surprise.

Also, it sounds like Air Canada may be able to work with us on setting up an itinerary through Europe, so we might be able to do Toronto -> Israel -> Netherlands if we play our cards right. They sound really open to anything they can do to actually make this happen.

Trip and surprise jerk chicken roti. Good day so far.

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.

For an organization that’s trying to get people out of their cars and onto public transit based on an appeal to how environmental they are, you’d think that this would be reflected in how their employees behave with company property. If it’s too warm or too cold out, and they need to take their break? There’s a nicely conditioned Starbucks right around next door, and there’s a handful of small restaurants and coffee shops nearby as well.

The City of Toronto has an anti-idling bylaw, which they enforce only sporadically, it would seem; not unlike the parking bylaws.

I’ve sent emails and images in the past inquiring about the TTC’s stance on NON-BUSES idling for lengthy periods in the station bus loops. Previously it was during cold weather, when I was informed that the TTC and the City don’t take any action on long idling vehicles if the temperature could be considered cold.

Today, it’s 26 degrees with a nice cool breeze blowing through the station’s bus loop… a breeze that brings with it the stink of vehicle exhaust.

Does the TTC endorse TTC maintenance vans being used in this fashion?

The man in the passenger side of the van (VAN 518, by the way), yelled at me when I took a picture of the van with my cell phone. I couldn’t hear anything he said over the sound of the van’s engine; the only distinct word was “picture.”

I’m guessing that leaving the cool interior of an air-conditioned van wasn’t on the agenda, because he didn’t repeat his question, and just closed the door. He continued to glare out the window as I posted to twitter.

http://twitter.com/xinit0/status/18944253834

http://twitter.com/xinit0/status/18944384900

Previous complaints about sleeping and idling TTC workers

There’s some law of trolling that ensures that the top comment, the one that you can’t avoid seeing right there under the video, scream out the most insanely stupid bullshit possible.

Such was the comment from (I’m guessing) twelve year old Qu33NzNYC187 who is quite the expert on Canada.

Why does everyone hate canada is
#1. you guys think your the best
#2. you guys never come up with anything original (america jr.) Dont even make cars.
#3. nothing special up there
#4. girls aren’t even that bad to brag
#5. not even a country (british territory)
#6. health care sucks up there cause all the good doctors go to america(bigger pay)
#7. toronto has no night life(as iv heard)
#8. peter griffin said so…
I know theres a big list why america sucks but i dont care im from new york city

I shouldn’t read, let alone respond to YouTube comments;l these people make Twitter evangelist @JoeCienkowski look like brain trusts. I couldn’t help myself; I mean, if you’ve never been somewhere, and know nothing about it, how can you have an opinion?

@Qu33NzNYC187 Yes, and in Canada they have education that teaches us how to write in full, coherent sentences.
1. You’re
2. So many things wrong with that. Besides, how’s GM doing?
3. That’s exactly what we want you to think. We don’t want you to visit. Not Americans; you specifically.
4. I really have no idea what that says – did you write in in English, run it through google translate into another language and back?
5. Yes, a country with a real constitution, real money, and a real government. That’s like saying New York isn’t really a city, it’s a Dutch colony.
6. I can see any GP right now, anywhere I like, and get treated just fine.
7. See my answer to #3 earlier.
8. Cartoon characters don’t run our lives in Canada.

I was surprised a long layover on this flight search at tripadvisor – 16 hours in Reykjavik? I actually know somebody there, so I could even leave the airport with that…

Wait a minute.

Leaves Toronto at 9:10 pm on the 12th of October, and arrives in Iceland at 7:25 am on… the FOURTEENTH?

Departs that evening at 11:40 pm and GOES BACK IN TIME to land 12 hours earlier in London.

Regardless, I’m not hurting for things to do and see in the second half of the year.

June 16-20

Toronto’s NXNE event sounds absolutely insane this year, with some seriously large names, and a whole heap of small names that I’ve been wanting to see. We have Iggy & The Stooges and X, both playing free concerts at Yonge and Dundas; both the subject of documentaries playing in the film part of the festival. There are dozens of other bands that I have heard of that I must try to fit into my schedule, and hundreds more that will likely fill in the empty spaces. Mudhoney, Zola Jesus, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, The Pack A.D., Japandroids, 222s, so much more…

The film lineup isn’t fully published yet, but from what is listed already, I’m going to have trouble enough fitting them all in. From the latest NXNE press release;

NXNE Film is thrilled to present the Canadian premiere of Search and Destroy: Iggy Pop and The Stooges’ Raw Power. This documentary spotlights the making of the 1973 seminal rock album, Raw Power.

Suck – This film is a Rock’n’roll vampire spoof, a wild ride down a highway to hell, with a killer cast including Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, and Dave Foley.

X: The Unheard Music – One of the most important bands to ever emerge from Los Angeles, X changed the face of punk music with their raw, vibrant, original style. We see the band at its peak in this legendary film, hammering out a powerful story with a striking, visionary style accompanied by unforgettable music.

Do It Again – Geoff Edgers, a newspaper reporter, decides to take a most improbable leap. He sets out to find the still-surviving members of the long dormant British rock band, the Kinks (“You Really Got Me,” “Lola” and “Come Dancing”), to convince them to reunite.

Year of the Carnivore – Sook Yin Lee’s new film about a girl with an unrequited crush on a boy who thinks she’s bad in bed, so she goes out to get more ‘experience’.

July 6-13

Heading to Las Vegas in the middle of the summer to hide from the desert inside the South Point Casino, far south of the Strip. The outside won’t matter anyway – it’s James Randi’s The Amazing Meeting 8, aka TAM 8. A couple thousand attendees, along with skeptics, entertainers, and scientists; Richard Dawkins, James Randi, Penn & Teller, Michael Goudeau, Adam Savage, D.J. Grothe, Simon Singh, Jamy Ian Swiss, Banachek, Massimo Pigliucci, Karen Stollznow, Richard Saunders, Roy Zimmerman, and a lot more. I won’t need to leave the hotel for the entire weekend.

September 1-7

Atlanta for Dragon*Con 2010. We have a table in the dealers’ hall that moves a fair chunk of handmade chain mail (Binarysoul Designs), but the real reason that we started going was for the wide spectrum of events; sci-fi and fantasy fandom is the base that Dragon*Con was built on, but that’s expanded to include EFF, Music, an Indie Film Festival, Science, Pseudoscience, Skepticism, Podcasting, and plenty more.

Aubrey de Grey, Margaret Downey, Barbara A. Drescher, Brian Dunning, Dr. Pamela Gay, Kevin R. Grazier, George Hrab, Jennifer Ouellette, Benjamin Radford, James Randi, Adam Savage

There are some seriously crazy guests too… psychic trance channeling woo.

October 14-19

My original plan was to go to Amsterdam or London (or any of a handful of other countries) to see Einstürzende Neubauten play a pair of 30th Anniversary shows. London, it turns out, has won this hands down, as this very same weekend is when the second UK Amazing meeting; TAM London. A full day of 8am-6pm of science, skepticism, and geekiness, and then an evening with some of the best music ever performed that includes power tools. I may not be able to sleep the whole weekend. I have my ticket for TAM purchased, and a cheap hotel near Paddington station booked. Now just need to find airfare and wait on ticket information for the Neubauten shows…

During the day on the 16th and 17th, it’s TAM London at the Hilton London Metropole with appearances by Richard Dawkins, Alan Moore, Graham Linehan, Andy Nyman, James Randi, Robin Ince, Adam Rutherford, Susan Blackmore, Cory Doctorow, DJ Grothe, PZ Myers, Richard Wiseman, Melinda Gebbie, Marcus Chown, Tim Minchin, Gia Milinovich, Simon Singh, Rebecca Watson, David Allen Green aka Jack of Kent, Tracey Brown, and Karen James. Oh yes, and Stephen Fry; one way or the other (“While Stephen is hoping to join us in person, in the event of a scheduling conflict we will endeavour to find a creative technological solution.”).

The Neubauten events are described on their site as “more than just a single concert event during the anniversary tour. The band is planning to make a guest performance on an additional day, presenting the audience with a mixed program of the Einstürzende Neubauten, films, solo shows, guests and friends. More specifically, the band will play a great concert on the first night, while the second night will be divided into 3-part program. It’ll begin with films and installations. Afterwards the band will play a further, but much shorter concert in which the Neubauten will present material that has never been played live, hasn’t been played live for a long time, or never in this form.”

Going to be humming that all day.