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I got off work around 1 PM today, and did a lot of walking around Toronto, snapping pics with my new cell phone. I visited old haunts and places I've not been since my days as an eager cub reporter at the Ryersonian (*FLASH* Whattascoop!) a decade ago.

Snapping pics is all the cell phone is good for, right now. It won't activate. Nor will

velvetpage's phone. The customer service people were sytmied by the problem, and passed it on to their tech support department, who should call us tomorrow.

Also, while the cell phone camera is better in most ways than the little $4.99 camera I was using earlier this week, the lens and CCD thingie are not very good. All the photos have terrible murky colours.

Anyway, on with the photo walking tour of Toronto! Complete with anecdotes.

This is my big jowly mug. I'm on the train, very early in the morning. You can tell it's very early, because I haven't put my head on my briefcase and fallen asleep.

This is the basement of the building in which my office is currently (until next Friday) located. Yay, basement!

Looking east on King West, towards the ranks of trendy cafes, bistros, the theatre district, Roy Thompson Hall, and downtown.

"City TV... EVERYWHERE!" I started by heading north to Queen West, site of the City TV building (or whatever they call it, now) and several cool stores. I once spent several months researching an article about the history of Queen West for the newspaper, The Kensington Drum, at the request of Jack Layton. It's changed a lot since then.

I will not make jokes about "Santa CLAWS" or anything like that. Shop window of the Silver Snail on Queen West. The Snail was once the great Mecca of my rare solo trips to Toronto as a high-school student. I'd go to Toronto twice a year on multi-day trips with the Gifted Students Program, to attend the World Affairs Conference at Upper Canada College in winter, and Model Parliament in early summer. Each time I went, I'd sneak away for most for a day to hit Grey Region, Bakka Books, and the Silver Snail, and spend every penny I had.

I was introduced to this little nerdly strip by a pretty blonde girl with thick glasses at the first Model Parliament I attended, in 1989. We were both NDP MPPs, and she saw me reading a Terry Prachett book, and asked if I wanted to see where I could buy more. We spent the entire afternoon together. At one point, as we walked, she held my hand for a few seconds. She was frighteningly intelligent, as well as an older woman - she was in grade 11. I never got her last name. Her first name, I think, was Diane. In that dim pre-net era, there was no chance of looking her up afterward.

This picture is boring, but the store isn't. It's Active Surplus, your #1 destination for Soviet computers, vacuum tubes, discount geiger counters, and enormous pieces of unidentifiable hardware! I am pleased to report that the robot gorilla is still extant, though no longer waving a friendly paw at customers.

The east wall of the City TV (or whatever it's called now) building.

This is Sir Adam Beck. One day, he will be the hero of an RPG I want to write. His statue is on University Avenue, just south of the Boer War Memorial. Technology and Imperialism glorified in one short block!

Toronto City Hall, as seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I used to tip my hat to the Winston Churchhill monument.

The old Toronto City Hall, which is still in use for... something or other. It has gargoyles and is old, and is therefore haunted.

Speaking of old - founded 1670! Every Canadian knows that The Hudson's Bay Company (The Bay) is the oldest (and therefore best) department store in the universe. And, P.S., it owned most of the country for a couple of centuries. I mean, owned it aside from all the Natives.

The Bay has put out an animated Christmas display in their Queen Street windows for... well, for a darn long time.

The giant Crystal Wish Christmas tree in the Eaton's Centre. This photo also gives a hint of the volume of traffic - you can see three or four levels, and they're all packed with shoppers. The cell camera, alas, cannot recreate the tree. It was amazing.

Yonge Street, now, and a giant bronze(ish) statue of Freddy Mercury. The monument, I suspect, would not have displeased him.

The place is bigger "in person." Yonge and Dundas. I took this photo because, when I was at university, this huge Bladerunneresque block of ads and metal-clad parking was the world's ugliest concrete park, and a very very wornout block of stores. The change is remarkable. Good? I dunno. But remarkable.

Here we are on the campus of dear old RPU, Ryerson Polytechnic University, my beloved alma mater. Well, where I got my BA, at least. This is the southern shore of "Lake Devo," the fountain/art installation in the middle of campus.

Jorgenson Hall, I believe. This one was the more Soviet Bloc of the two towers. The other one has (some) windows! The interior of the Jorgenson complex is all exposed ductwork and textured concrete and broken windows, or at least it was in 1994. The escalators seldom worked, and the basement halls reminded me strongly of the RPG Paranoia. It was here that I first got on the Internet, in stinking hot computer labs that smelled strongly of dirty socks and rusty radiators.

Sir Egerston Ryerson. He invented school. No, really, he did. The namesake of Ryerson University.

Walking on a bit, I came to the Roger's Communication Centre, where I had most of my core classes. I stopped in there for a bathroom break - the first time I've been in that building in a decade. Everything was terribly familiar and weird. I felt like a student for a little while, and suddenly remembered the awful anxious dreams I used to have (until about five years ago), wherein I'd be searching for my mail folder in the Journalism Student Lounge, never able to find it, and knowing it contained a terribly important message.

However, I did not take any photos, and instead turned south down Church Street.

Yes, Church Street! So named for its many churches, but now much more famous for an entirely different reason!

Walking south on Church. Everyone wave at

anidada!

Church and Front. This is where I'll be working as of January. No, not the coffee shop - somewhere in the top two floors.

I'll be about 200 feet away from this building, the ersatz Flatiron!

"Tonight only! Hari Seldon and the Psychohistorians!"

Walking west on Front toward Union Station. Some buildings!

Still westward ho! On the left is high-end shops, straight ahead is the CN Tower, all 1850 feet of it.

The Hockey Hall of Fame!

Entering Union Station. It's an impressive structure. The trains are in the basement! Sorta...

Before boarding the train, I have to collect my monthly Middle Passage from the TAS.

FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE ON MY FRIEND'S LIST WILL UNDERSTAND THAT JOKE!

Total distance of walk: 8 KMs!