Blog

Bedless in Toronto

August 24, 2007 14:54 +0000  |  Blogger Moving 1

About 5years ago, two strange men came to my house, gave me a piece of paper and walked off with all of my worldly possessions. Yesterday morning, it happened again.

I'm officially bedless. The movers showed up yesterday, picked up nearly everything I had and loaded it into a tiny corner of their truck (I don't have much stuff). In exchange, I received a little piece of paper with a couple signatures and a promise that it'll arrive in Kelowna in "about ten days". From now until sometime late in November, I'll be living out of my backpack -- a prospect that's both kinda scary and exciting.

Melanie has offered to put me up 'till I leave, so I'll be sleeping there 'till I head to Europe. She's also playing host to my noisy server for which I'm very greatful as it hosts this site, my email and will be the staging area for image uploads while I'm shooting on my trip.

On an unrelated note, I believe I've patched my site to compensate for Internet Exploder's shortcomings as well as a hole I found in my commenter that failed to moderate posts. So if you see any new problems with the layout, or have trouble commenting, please let me know.

Free Stuff!

August 14, 2007 18:22 +0000  |  Moving 1

As mentioned in my previous post, I have a bunch of things to get rid of, mostly stuff that's too expensive to ship given it's weight vs. re-purchase cost. Along with that, I also have a big box of electronic goodies of which some are in working condition, and others simply need to be disposed of safely. I'll list both here and if you're interested in any of it, leave a comment or contact me directly.

Cheap Stuff

  • Programmable air conditioner (remote, timer etc.) $100
  • Countertop dishwasher (my beloved) $100

Free Stuff

  • Dishes, cutlery etc.
  • 15" CRT monitor
  • A really big desk. Heavy but sturdy if you leave it alone
  • Anything else you might have in mind and I'm cool with parting with
  • Working Electronics:
    • SCSI1 scanner
    • PS2 keyboard
    • Serial Mouse
    • PS2 Mouse
    • Computer speakers
    • Mountains of cabling (RCA, Coaxial, IDE, etc. etc.)
    • AMD K6 Aptiva
    • Pentium II (hosted this site for 3years)
  • Non-working Electronics:
    • Multiple PS2 keyboards
    • Ergonomic keyboard
    • Miscelaneous computer stuffos that currently escape my memory

Dan's Torontonian Exodous Checklist

August 12, 2007 22:43 +0000  |  Moving 5

If I don't make a list, it'll never get done:

  • Get online access to my Visa
  • Cancel my Metropass membership
  • Cancel my Bullfrogpower contract
  • Forward my mail
  • Renew my driver's license
  • Pack
  • Confirm pickup of stuff
  • Cart away my electronic stuff in an environmentally-friendly way (ideas anyone?)
  • Bring passport info to travel agent
  • Check what kind of visa info I need for Korea
  • Buy train tickets
  • Plan a "Last Supper"

In Preparation of a Torontonian Exodous

July 22, 2007 16:14 +0000  |  Blogger Geek Stuff Imager Melanie Money Moving Riptown 'Round-the-World The Toronto Public Space Committee Travel 2

I've not been posting a lot lately, mostly because I'm just stupid-busy. I'd forgotten what an incredible hassle it was to move my life 4349.9 kilometres away in the first place and doing it again is generally un-fun.

For starters, the cost of moving is ridiculous. Most moving companies will only accept a minimum of 1000lbs (they charge by weight, not time), and since I live in a bachelor, that's typically an aweful lot of extra space. On top of that, I have to pay for storage (since I'll be in Europe for a couple months before getting to Vancouver) and insurance, and movers. My latest quote was $2429.54!

Clearly, I have to keep looking, but time is running short.

Once I have a mover, I need a moving day, and since I'm not likely to leave Toronto 'till September 11th (yes, you read right, it is the cheapest day to fly), I could be living at Melanie's out of a suitcase for nearly a month.

Then there's the flight itself, I've been working with a travel agent and the routing is insane. I want to visit these places:

  • Stockholm
  • Berlin
  • Amsterdam
  • Geneva
  • Prague
  • Rome/Vatican City
  • Seoul

So one would imagine that the cheapest (and most efficient) option would be:

  • Toronto » Stockholm
  • Rome » Seoul
  • Seoul » Vancouver

But sadly, because of the way the airlines work, not only do I have to use Frankfurt as my entrance & exit for Europe, and route my Seoul trip through Singapore, but in order to get home, I have to fly back through Europe!

  • Toronto » Frankfurt
  • Frankfurt » Singapore
  • Singapore » Seoul
  • Seoul » Singapore
  • Singapore » Frankfurt
  • Frankfurt » Vancouver

This trip is about $3500. I can't be the only one that thinks this is insane. Obviously, I can get a direct Seoul » Vancouver flight, but that costs roughly $600 more and a RoundTheWorld pass is nearly $5000.

I may still take the more direct route, if only because it means I'm not in transit for 26hours on my last leg, not to mention the environmental implications of adding so many more kilometres to my trip. I'll also be buying carbon credits, but somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better about it all.

I'm also leaving my life in Toronto, of which Melanie is a big part. She's going through a rough spot in her life lately, and sometimes I feel like I'm not helping enough because of all of these other complications, not to mention the fact that I'm likely to make it worse when I leave. Even though we both knew this was coming the day we met, it doesn't make things any easier.

I have responsibilities as coordinator for the Camaras in Public Spaces campaign of the TPSC. I have yet to find a suitable replacement. We have a big event coming up for August, but someone will have to be here in October to field questions from the press when the pilot project is over and the one I had in mind to replace me doesn't appear interested. Stephen has expressed interest, but he's always got so much on his plate, I wanted to bring in some fresh blood to run the show, but I'm not sure who that would be at the moment.

Then there's my job. I don't have one lined up in Vancouver just yet, though my current boss has been kind enough to look into available positions with Riptown's Vancouver office. Whether there's a spot for me there or not, I'm not too worried about finding work in what I understand to be a competitive market, but that spectre of joblessness is still pretty scary.

Lastly, I've started re-coding my site using the new techniques I've been learning at my current job. The new site (still in development) will use a true MVC system and include nifty stuff like Ajax and JQuery as well as a Modified Preorder Tree Traversal algorithm for storing the hierarchical sorting structures in my Imager. This is mostly in preparation for when I'm in Europe and want to remote-blog and upload images -- I want the site to be better equipped.

So that's all for now. Wish me luck I suppose. If my heart & brain don't implode from the pressure, those of you reading this from Vancouver should see me in a few months.

Officially Leaving

June 29, 2007 15:04 +0000  |  Moving 7

I gave my notice today to my landlord. I'll be checking out of Toronto by September 1st.

Why am I scared?

My Last Birthday Party in Toronto

June 25, 2007 04:49 +0000  |  Friends Moving 3

I had a lovely night tonight out with a good cross-section of my friends here in The Big Smoke. People I know from the real world, or meatspace activities like TEV or The TPSC were there, as well as a bunch of the people I've met online. And most importantly, they all got along (and even mingled!) very well. It's a nice social experiment I like to do every year and I'm all warm and fuzzy-like on the results of this evening. Thank you to everyone who could come out.

As the title says, this will be my last June 25th in this city -- unless for some reason I decide to do a birthday on a Toronto vacation in the future. I'm not sure how I feel about it all really. It's a hell of a thing to partition your social life on opposite sides of a country this size... There's not one way you can put it all together in the end. Somehow, regardless of what you do, you'll be away from people you care about... forever. I just hope lots of them come to visit (or move!) out West.