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So, as seen in the previously posted video, today I made a brief exploration into the Underdark. I visited three different cave entrances. I did not get very far, partly because I was confused as to the actual access point to the Nexus Cave. The Nexus Cave is a 335-meter-long cave system, and there are two spots large enough for a person to enter. It contains sizable deposits of glittering pyrite, chambers large enough for 10 people to stand up, and waterfalls. I didn't see any of that, alas.


The first is the Nexus Cave Window. This was the spot where I did my video intros. I assumed it was just a little self-contained cave, with a "window" to the larger Nexus Cave. There was indeed a little passage leading off the chamber, which I poked my flashlight into.

( Tunnels and Trolls )

After dropping Erin off at work, I drove to Mount Nemo and hiked for an hour. I'm trying get in some aerobic exercise. I still work out a couple of times a week, but I've otherwise been sitting in the house. Mount Nemo is a very cool spot, with 1000 year old cedars, and a lookout point across a plain of farmland toward Rattlesnake Point and Nassagaweya Canyon.


If you squint, you can also see Toronto rising like some sort of legendary citadel out of the brown haze of smog. According to Google Maps, the CN Tower (the largest tower) is 46.15 kilometres (26.68 miles) as the crow flies from the spot where I took that photo.

( More Photos Below )

_{City Hall}

I like Stratford. It's an odd sort of town, lost in time in some ways. It's not linked to any highway, and there is daily passenger train service to the 19th century railway station. It is home to some flourishing local industries - a luggage factory and a ball-bearing manufacturer. It has three regular newspapers for 30,000 people. While there are big box stores on the outskirts, there are thriving local groceries and restaurants and bookstores. They even have an indepedent multiplex with tiny 80-seat theatres, showing first run movies.

It is a farming centre, yet also a cultural centre thanks to the annual Shakespeare festival. The festival drives the city and attracts tourists from around the world. It keeps the economy afloat and allows Stratford to remain in its odd little time warp. And yet, it has not gentrified it past recognition. Scanning the real estate ads, we saw Victorian homes with 6 bedrooms for sale for under $200K. An entire hotel and tavern downtown was selling for $250K.

But, it has created a kind of core of rich Liberal intellectual businesses, surrounded by the trappings of a prosperous rural Canadian centre. You can go into one of a dozen bookstores, or buy a ultilikilt, and get served by a bespectacled woman with elaborate Sanskirt tattoos. Or, you can sit in a diner with Mennonites.

It was warm and humid on Monday, when we arrived, but the temperature dropped dramatically. On Tuesday morning, we went outside around 10 AM and it was only 11 C. I thought it was wonderful, though it did necessitate a quick trip to get velvetpage a cheap sweater. Also I... um... had forgotten to pack a pair of shoes. I'd been wearing shorts and sandals on Monday, and arose on Tuesday to put on my fancy theatre-goin' duds, and realized I'd left my shoes at home.



And now, (more) photos!
( Read more... )

I believe I have earned my two days of vacation next week. I'd intended to leave work early today, after an unplanned extended lunch with new friend kores_rabbit and long-time acquaintance Jonathan Lavallee (who has an LJ, but I can't remember his username!) We were all free at the same time, and decided to meet. Alas, the evil forces of capitalism conspired against me, so I just barely had time to run out, wolf down something healthy, and jog back to work.


Yes.... healthy. "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." (Proverbs 26:11)


kores_rabbit! Calling Jonathan.


My lunch buddies!

Also - to those in fear for my arteries - I got a small poutine.

Despite a great deal of work, I've still managed to go out on a couple of lunchtime rambles with commanderteddog in the last couple of weeks. Last week, we combined a visit to the new "Wave Pier" and some kind of pet museum that was next door.


The Natrel-Bot has returned to the placid waters of Natrel-Pond. Quite sensible, really. Everyone knows you get a heatsink bonus when firing weapons while partially submerged.


The Wave Pier. Also know as "Wheelchair Deathramp" and "The Place Where 'No Skateboards' Signs Are Especially Useless".


This is an icon waiting to happen.

( More photos below! )

It was bright, warm day and April, and the clocks were striking thirteen...

commanderteddog works very close to my office. Typically, this means we go for walks and lunch once a week or so. However, in the interests of budget and health, we have devised a list of Toronto places within 2 kilometres of our respective offices. Instead of meeting for lunch, we'll walk to one of these places, getting in a good ramble and saving money.

Today, we went to the Artificial Beach.


Glorious, isn't it?

( More pics below! )

Lovely weather today, so commanderteddog and I went wandering. She works a couple of blocks from my office, so such peregrinations are often convenient. When we met, there was some kind of event brewing along Yonge Street. This turned out to be a Tamil Tiger protest against the Sri Lankan government.


I know practically nothing about this conflict, other than it's the sort of long-term and deeply entrenched argument that sends most people fleeing for the comparatively simple moral conumdrums of the occupation of Palestine. The Wiki entry seems to paint the Tigers in a pretty dire light. The protest was well-organized, though. The line of people extended more than a kilometer along the street, yet blocked no traffic or storefronts. I wish I'd brought the good camera, instead of just my cell phone, as I could've gotten some impressive photos.


We ducked into the Dundas Square, where I bought a keydrive and some food, then jogged over to the Ryerson Campus where we ate at the same picnic table on which I used to eat take-out fries and study Microeconomics in 1994.




On the way back, we wondered about the upside down ziggurat building near Ryerson.


And noted that the Toronto Police Mounted Units were hiding out in a side street off Yonge, no doubt waiting for the demonstration to turn ugly.

When I was in high school, the city of Hamilton and the town of Stoney Creek were still clearly divided by a narrow strip of scrubland, vacant lots, orchards, and one or two farms. They have since grown into one another, though a large forested park, the site of a battle in the War of 1812, still serves as a demarcation point.

My best friend, Bill, used to host RPG sessions at his house in Stoney Creek. His house was an odd sort of adobe split level, built on a low hill that ran into the side of the Hamilton Mountain. His neighbourhood was about 100 feet over the surrounding terrain, accessible only via two very steep hills. We sometimes referred to it as "Minas Tirith" because it had white walls, and a curious little non-functional courtyard entrance that reminded us of a fortress. North Hamilton, with its fire belching steel mills, was clearly Mordor.


This structure, which rises out of the trees between the two cities, was Cirith Ungol. When we saw it, we knew we were getting close to Minas Tirith. No, the geography and directions are not specifically equivalent to Middle Earth. Never mind that. It's actually a monument to the Battle of Stoney Creek, and an extremely cool one at that.

There was also a 1960s Catholic church, as we got closer, with a bell tower that reminded us of Isengard.

The East End, where we lived, was generally considered something akin to Hobbiton. Gage Park was the Old Forest. Dundas (the valley town west of Hamilton) was Rivendell, a fact which I'm sure pleases the majority of my current D&D group, who live there.

Today is Family Day in Ontario. While velvetpage was cooking some meals to put in the freezer, I took the girls out sight seeing.

( A giant globe, Devil's Punchbowl, a cross, and more )

So, when I was in high school, I'd go to Model Parliament in Toronto, at Queen's Park. This is the gloriously Victorian tract of land that houses the Ontario Legislature, the provincial parliament. At that time, the legislature building was entirely open, and indeed entire rooms were dedicated to public edification.

There were leather wingback chairs in the main lobby, and you could sit amongst all that dark carved wood, under the towering potrait of Sir Isaac Brock, Yankee-Smasher-in-Chief and Friend to Children. You could use the same urinal as the premier. You could strut about the hushed and carpeted halls under the painted gaze of dead monarchs, premiers, and vice-regents. Heck, you could pretend to be the Assistant Undersecretary to the Minister of Information, or even MPP for the riding of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. I know I did.

My first year there, we were received at a formal reception by no less a person than Her Majesty's own representative in Ontario, Lieutenant-Governor Lincoln M. Alexander. Announced upon entrance, even, by a middle-aged army officer in full dress uniform and white gloves, and escorted into the (vice)regal presence, who expressed interest in the fact that I lived in Hamilton, and wished that I would please enjoy the hors d'oeuvres. They had cheesy pastries, if I recall correctly.

Today, ol' Linc has a freeway named after him, and about ten million elementary schools.

Later, in university, I'd be sent to Queen's Park on journalistic errands, generally to get sound-bites or talk to protesters. The buildings were still largely free and open, though anyone carrying a placard had trouble getting inside without an escort. I recall one protest I covered, wherein a gang of folks protesting the closure of "TCAT," "The Creative Centre for Art Therapy," actually got violent.

So, today it was a gloriously sunny day, and several degrees warmer than it has been. So commanderteddog and I directed ourselves to Queen's Park, in the hopes of getting to explore. However, it seems post 9/11 security concerns have made the legislature all but inaccessible to anyone save guided tour groups. Even the public cafeteria requires sign-ins and ID and a rather pushy guard kept wanting to know our reason for wanting to eat there, particularly. So we left.

I'm actually mildly angered by this. While I would not expect to be allowed to tromp around in offices and look through filing cabinets, the legislature building was designed as a public space. I sort of resent the idea that I would not be allowed to visit on my own recognizance.


Happily, the area around the building offered us some other amusements. The cannon she's sticking her arm in was taken from a burned French warship in the 1760s.


We also saw some cannons captured from the Tsar's army during the Siege of Sevastopol.


Plus, I was able to demonstrate to Teddog that the front steps of the legislature building were used for the cover of Rush's "Moving Pictures" album.


And that was my day.


Also, I worked.

So, I see everybody doing this dragon egg thing, yeah, so I wanted to do it too. I went out and looked for a dragon egg at lunch. It took HOURS. Finally, I found one on the sidewalk up near Eglinton in Toronto.



I clicked it for ages, but nothing happened. This game sucks.