New Year's Eve 2007

December 31, 2007 - Is it just me, or did 2007 go by rather quickly? Here I am, writing my annual "year-in-review" post and it still doesn't strike me that in a few years, we'll be welcoming 2008. In yet anothertwist, I am staying home yet again tonight, not because I have no plans, but because I have a massive cold. Boo.

Anyway, let's look back at 2007 and see if I have accomplished everything that I set out to do around this time last year (taken from last year's post):

1. Move on from all that has happened in '06, learn from what happened, work on my own issues and enjoy '07 as a fresh start (that's a mouthful right there).
- Done, that actually didn't take too long...

2. Be a better friend and make better effort to (re)connect with friends.
- Well, I'd like to think I accomplished that, but that's for my friends to decide I guess.

3. Take a class (cooking class anyone?).
- I took an architecture class with B for a few weeks in the summer, does that count?

4. Start running again/go back to the gym.
- err

5. Learn to use my camera better/take more pictures.
- I do use my camera a lot more now than before, and I won third at the Markham Fair Photography Contest! yay!

6. Write an article for the Planners Journal.
- I didn't write an article for the OPPI Journal, but my paper on greenbelts as a planning tool was published in the Journal of Environmental Policy Planning

7. Go skiing in January/February.
- still waiting to do that

8. Buy Wii for my birthday.
- bought one even before my birthday!

9. Get a new cell phone - hopefully soon :S
- got a new one this summer

10. Be a bit more generous to myself (and to others too) - aka stop being so cheap felix!!!
- I think I bought more stuff for myself this past year than in the past three years combined

11. Go to work earlier (and not work so late?).
- there were days when I was at work before 8:30, so that should count

12. Travel whenever I can.
- went to NYC, Vegas, LA and San Diego this year, not too bad all things considered...

That's not too bad - 10 out 12. As for 2008, once I've figured out what I want to accomplish this upcoming year, I will blog about that. 2008 though, looks to be a year filled with many exciting and scary changes (my condo!).

Here's to 2008!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

December 24, 2007 - What a difference a year makes eh? Last year, I was quite miserable around this time of the year. This year, things couldn't be better =)

I guess I have been good this year. Thanks Santa.

Toronto to Tokyo? Transfer at Shanghai

December 19, 2007 - Check out this "metro map of the world", based on London's Tube/Subway system. Very neat eh? The map contains the names of all the cities in the world that have urban rail systems, including subways, LRTs and heavy rail.

The map is designed by Mark Ovenden, author of the book Transit Maps of the World, which features (you guessed it!) transit maps of a number of large cities in the world (my copy should be arriving any day now). The map here is part of the an e-card that served as promotional material for the book and is not for sale - though I wonder how difficult it would be to print this out as a map.

Not that it has to do with anything, but the guy is also gay. In this interview, he explained why many gay men are fascinated by subways:

"I would have though the sight of great pounding machines thrusting into deep passages would be just the kind of thing that would appeal (to gay men)."

errr, okay sure :)

Snowbound

December 16, 2007 - It's being billed as the biggest snowstorm in 60 years! And it's still snowing here today - I can't see anything outside my window but white! Too bad the storm didn't happen on a weekday, or work would've been canceled for sure.

Having said that, I'm not looking forward to shoveling the driveway. Why am I up here in Markham instead of my warm cozy apartment at Yonge & Eglinton?

The ski resorts must be thrilled with the storm though! This could turn out to be one of the best ski seasons ever.

I guess winter is officially here. Only 5 more months to go until spring...

Subway Hell and Triathlon: Horror Commuting Stories?

December 13, 2007 - In case you missed it, here's the rest of the Toronto Star series on commuting in different parts of the world:

- London's Subway Commuting Hell
- Beijing - the Triathlon of Commutes
- Running a Gauntlet in Jerusalem
- Hellish Journey around Holy City

Some random thoughts:

- From my own personal experience, congestion on the London Tube is worse than on our Yonge subway line, though this is the result of the pricey congestion charge that the Mayor of London has imposed on the the city (for those of you who don't know, you have to pay a fee every time you drive your car into the central district of London). Obviously it is working, but only because the congestion charge was combined with large scale investments in public transit.

- The triathlon of commutes in Beijing is interesting in the sense that commuters use a variety of modes to commute. They don't just drive all the way from home to work - they drive, use transit, and then bike. Isn't that what we're trying to encourage here as well?

- I don't know how relevant the two Jerusalem stories are, mainly because the political situation in the Middle East strongly affects the way people travel. I thought this series is about people who are "choice-commuters", not because they have to due to political restrictions.

With the exception of the last article, everyone that was profiled in this series made the conscious decision to live far away from work. As I mentioned previously, that is their lifestyle choice and I don't really feel sorry for them. If they don't want to bitch about waking up at 5 am to avoid traffic, or missing their children's hockey games and music nights, then simply don't live so far from work. Is it just plain obvious?

I think if the Star really wants to do a series on "commuting horror stories", they should focus on people who have no choice but to commute. How about a story on that single mother with two children who live in Malvern but have to commute to Etobicoke for work? or newly arrived immigrants who live with their extended family in Brampton and must rely on transit to get to work in Vaughan or Newmarket? or that poor university student who must live at home in Markham because OSAP wouldn't cover rent nor residence fee in downtown Toronto? I think these make much more compelling stories than middle/upper-class commuters that drive their SUVs across town and complain about too much traffic.

Think You Have It Bad? Try a 240-km Commute

December 8, 2007 - Most of the people I know that live in the suburbs complain about their commute to school and to work. Whether you take transit or drive, we all acknowledge that congestion in Toronto has gotten much worse over the past couple of years. But is the commute in Toronto THAT bad? The Star hopes to answer that question by examining the commute in other parts of the world - staring with Washington D.C.

Here some of the points made in the article that I found interesting:

70 per cent of McDonald's restaurants now open at 5 a.m. and the company has suggested the rest of its franchisees follow suit. Fast-food lunch meals grew less than one per cent in this country between 2001 and 2006, but the country's $40 billion (U.S.) fast-food breakfast market is expected to jump as much as 5 per cent this year alone.

Why do otherwise sane people put up with this every day? "When I drive back and look over the mountains, I literally breathe a sigh of relief,'' says Forrester. "That is why I do this. Everyday.''
When he and colleague studied why Americans are sleeping less they found, to their surprise, that the extra waking hours were not spent on leisure, in front of the television or with family, but sitting in the car.

To give you some perspective, a 240 km roundtrip commute is like driving to and from Queen's Park in downtown Toronto to Waterloo. To most of us, that would be a crazy commute, though I do know people who does that everyday as well. To give you further perspective, my commute from my Markham house to work is about 60 km round-trip. But that's on transit though (that's YRT bus, Viva, Subway, walk/streetcar), and I complain about it already.

My opinion is that for many people, moving to the suburbs and exburbs is a lifestyle choice. Like most decisions, it comes with pros and cons. If you decide to move far away from your workplace, you should know it would take you a long time to commute each day (and also, it would cost you more in terms of gas/transit). So why bitch about it? If you don't want to commute so far, then suck it up and move back to the city (or get a new job closer to home like that lady interviewed in the article). Of course, there's also that argument that some people cannot afford to live in the city - but that's an entirely different story. It appears this series on commuting that the Star is doing focuses on people who commute by choice.

This article on Washington DC also doesn't mention the role of commuter trains, which I believe is a much bigger phenomenon in the States than here in Southern Ontario. The article portrays driving as the only way to commute in the States, which I know is not entirely true, even in car-friendly places like Los Angeles. Would be interesting if they have a follow-up article on people who commute on transit to work.

And that fast food breakfast industry sounds like a money-making venture eh? does anyone want to open a Timmy's with me?

Lesson learned: Always Check Your Ticket

December 3, 2007 - I am finally back home from California and I can honestly say that I am glad to be back. As much as I had great time in CA, towards the end of the trip, I felt it was time to go home. Of course, in regular "it could only happen to Felix" fashion, I ran into a bit of trouble coming home - and here's the story.

At 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, the day that I was supposed to fly back to Toronto, I decided, out of the blue, to go online and change my seat for the returned flight. I logged onto the Air Canada website and quickly found out my reservation no longer exists. I figured AC must have made an error, so I called them and asked why I couldn't see my reservation online. The agent did a bit of research and told me that they have no records of my reservation either! I started to freak out of course, explaining to them that I have my itinerary with me and I have all the information written down. I was asked to double check the dates on the ticket and that was when I said: crap (well, I said more than that, but you get the point).

Apparently, stupid me booked my return flight for the SAME DATE as my departure flight. As in, my ticket says I'm flying from Toronto to Las Vegas on Nov 24th, and then returning from Los Angeles to Toronto, also on the 24th. I have no idea how I made such a huge error and how the system also didn't catch it. Anyway, I tried to rebook the flight, but because I'm now technically buying a new ticket, the Saturday night flight to Toronto would cost me an additional $800. There was no way I was going to pay $800 to fly home - not when my round-trip ticket was only $470. So I opted to stay in California for an additional night and fly home Sunday (I only had to pay $42 for the Sunday flight) while I waved bye to my friends.

My last night in California was spent inside a huge hotel room by the airport. Because I didn't have the car, I couldn't exactly wander around town. I kept watching the Weather Network to learn more about the huge snowstorm back in Toronto. On Sunday, my flight was further delayed because of the storm. We didn't manage to take off until early afternoon - more than 2 hours behind schedule. The airport and the plane was pretty packed - I got one of those crappy middle seats on an old plane (with no personal tv!!). This was of course after I got pulled aside at security checkpoint at the airport for "a more thorough search" of my carry-on and shoes. Not that I was complaining, I was just happy to come home.

So now I'm back home. What's with this cold weather? I miss the sun, the palm trees, and the 20+ degrees weather in California already.