Things I Learned From A Week In Toronto:

• U of T is massive
• The homeless are less pushy than people think
• Some of them have a sense of humour (one street kid's sign read "Need money for pizza and beer", another read "Need money for pot"). I give them credit for being honest
• Eaton's Centre is horribly designed
• River City Sports is no longer in the Eaton's Centre
• The World's Biggest Bookstore should update it's name
• You can't get anywhere without walking though one of those covered sidewalks used for construction projects
• The hockey hall of fame seems smaller nine years later
• You can't weave in and out of pedestrian traffic like you can in Windsor, there's just too many people
• Eaton's Centre has the same number of CD stores as Devonshire Mall
• One of those stores is HMV...there is another one about half a block away
• Sam the Record Man rules all
• Edwin's "Another Spin Around The Sun" CD does not exist anywhere in downtown Toronto.
• Every restaurant and bar has at least 8 types of beer on tap, and one is always Keith's
• Thai food is good
• Thai food service is not
• You can spend 4 hours at a Thai restaurant without ordering more than two rounds of drinks
• Waitresses with braces serving me Thai Spicy Noodles are sexy
• When walking in Toronto, one must always watch out for vomit on the sidewalk
• Starbucks are everywhere
• I was in 5 different Starbucks in 8 days
• I saw 2 Tim Horton's during this time
• Big box stores don't exist, they are crammed into downtown shops
• So are fast food places and basically everything else
• Union station is very cool
• Mr Greenjeans has decent food and mediocre service
• Thai Palace has great food and poor service
• The three different pubs I went to had great food, great beer, and great service
• "Salad King" is the name of a Thai restaurant
• When you put four long rows of tables into a hall and seat everyone for a banquet, everyone at the table will draw immediate comparisons to the "Harry Potter" movies.
• Chapels with lots of direct sunlight and no curtains are not good places to hold presentations
• Average people in Toronto are no different than anywhere else
• When you want service, however, these same people become much less friendly
• VIA Rail seats passengers at Union Station in the following order:
• Families and handicapped
• People sitting in the waiting area
• People waiting in line at the gate
• Rye and Gingers at the Delta Chelsea Hotel bar cost about 6 bucks.
• I spent 24 bucks at the Delta Chelsea Hotel bar on Tuesday night.
• IAMG and organized cannot be used in the same sentence without heads exploding
• Professors are as geeky as the rest of us once you get them out of the classroom and into a bar
• Owning a car in Toronto serves no purpose when car traffic moves the same speed as the pedestrian traffic
• Free lunch is good
• Free continental breakfast is better
• Brian Trottier, a former 50 goal scorer in the NHL, shot 1 for 8 at the target shooting game at the hockey hall of fame
• I should not be allowed into the hockey hall of fame gift shop with money

New Team Canada Jerseys

I haven't made up my mind yet. They're pretty simple looking, I'd like a stripe around the waist to fill it out. The technology behind them is very cool. There's tons more ventilation, and they supposedly cut air resistance by 15% since they're so tight fitting. The people at Nike modeled it after Lance Armstrong's cycling jersey.

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What a great day.

These next three weeks are shaping up to be awesome. Once I've got my exams done and my thesis paper finished by the middle of next week, I get to go to Toronto for a week at no cost to me. Once I get back it'll be a nice week of relaxation before hitting the books hard for grad school.

Also, today was my last day at Kelsey's! No more dishes, no more poly bags, no more day dots, no more trail mix, no more feta...I could go on, but I won't,

And, to top it all off, we're only 16 days away from a new OLP album! Even though I've heard parts of 6 of the songs plus the new single, I'm still uber excited.

BoreIS

So I gave my presentation about BoreIS today (BoreIS is the software I've written for my thesis project, for those that don't know).

It went rather well. I was nervous, and my mouth was really dry by the end, but I got through it unscathed. I stumbled once or twice, but other than that it went well. I also forgot to discuss a couple things, but that's okay since it ended up as a 19 minute presentation, and I had 20 minutes. I was at my best answering questions afterward, as I usually am. Now the fun begins, because I have to give this presentation again in a couple weeks in Toronto at the IAMG conference. Except there I only have 15 minutes including questions, whereas today it took me 19 minutes just for the presentation, no questions. So I've got some trimming to do. I have to say though, considering this was the first time I've given a presentation with no notes at all I did pretty darn well.

Of course when I typically give a presentation for a class I just have a basic knowledge of the subject, and if I stray from my notes I lose my place. However, this is a project that I've built from the ground up for the last eight months, so I can ad-lib a little more and just talk about the slides.

It's quite the load off though, now I can concentrate on scrambling to get the rest of my course work done.