jcm's blog

Photo: Niagra Falls, Canada.

I went to Niagra Falls with ajh, having left Dan in Toronto to catch a train. We met up later in the afternoon and drove all night down through Upstate New York and in to Massachusetts. The border crossing in to the US was somewhat interesting. I have never before visited the Continental United States so I had the experience of being photographed and fingerprinted by the immigration people as I filled in two forms (I managed to ruin the first one by filling in a box one line out of phase).

We’re staying at a reasonable Hotel, just around the corner from the conference centre in downtown Boston. New England so far reminds me just a little of the Old England accross the pond. New York State has an Indian reservation on the border, and is filled with elevation changes that make your ears pop. Our faithful driver has thus far driven over 2000km.

I got some sleep after we arrived and later had more greasy food and coffee before visiting the first day of LinuxWorld.

Jon.

Photo: A view of Toronto from atop the CN Tower.

Met up with ajh at SB and drove to Kingston. Had food. Picked up Dan too. We then drove to Toronto and stayed here over night last night. Did the tourist thing at the CN Tower today.

Jon.

Photo: Night geocaching with mlord.

I got up a bit late after a night out, and then did the coffee and lunch thing eventually. I went accross to the Elgin Street Diner, expecting okish food for the price, but was not expecting to have the best milkshake I’ve ever tasted and a sandwich to rival all club sandwiches. Seriously worth visiting for the food, so thanks to #oclug for the advice on luncheon location.

Wrapped up a bit warmer and went back out to meet mlord at Canal One. We did about 5 caches in all this evening, including the one rather uncunningly documented in the photo above (I didn’t upload that image to the geocaching.com website). I think Mark’s workshop is the kind of place I could have a lot of fun. Had supper, and a cheesecake to sing songs about (back at Mark’s place with Jane. Thanks folks). Had coffee, not necessarily in the order herein described. Talked a bit about Linuxy stuff, binary magic 8 balls, cat stuff, and potential advertures to be had in somewhat more sunny weather.

I was playing with maps.google.com the other day. Interesting stuff, though dijkstra might have been a little dissappointed in this:

Just don’t try getting directions to next door.

Jon.

Photos (from left to right): Winterlude on the Canal, Ice Sculptures in a nearby park.

Finally uploaded some photos. Met more Linux people in the area, had food, did stuff. Tonight I hope to meet up with Mark Lord for some late night geocaching (but he asked for my shoesize so I guess there might be more to it than I think…). ajh agreed to come with us to Toronto and Boston so I think we now have three going down by car.

I went to the NAC (National Arts Centre) last night. Wow. Pinchas Zuerman lead the performance of an evening of Beethoven, but Yuja Wang really stole the whole show – this pianist is absolutely amazingly brilliant, and also only 17 years old. Quite apart from her youth, she’s probably the best pianist I have ever seen in any context.

Ended up in The Bulldog Pub, a cheesy bar-cum-club, for GGW. It was snowing lightly as I headed back afterwards.

Jon.

Random update. Still no photos uploaded just yet but will look in to that at some point.

Saturday

The band are Shaydid. I saw them again on Saturday night and exchanged details with some girls who are going to help me get hold of a CD.

Got really annoyed with the boots I had been wearing.

Sunday

I went for a walk along the canal, up to Dow’s Lake. Tried searching for the Canal Two geocache but couldn’t get an accurate signal on my GPS and didn’t want to look too suspicious so decided to leave it until another day. Had some more Beavertails and tried various food in the Byward Market. Watched some of the superbowl 39 in the evening (the Half Time show was a lot calmer this year for somewhat obvious reasons) with some guys who are studying politics at UoO. Met another bunch of people I had seen when skating – went to Barrymores with them afterwards.

Monday

Met up with Gav from Transgaming for some Mexican just off the Byward Market. Cactus tastes pretty interesting. Had coffee. Went to MEC with ajh and bought some replacement boots. Had food, went to see Rwanda Hotel and was amazed at how little I had known about the conflict or the disgusting level of treatment they seem to have received from the British and other governments around the world (the Canadian government at least provided a number of the UN peacekeeping force left in the country and they don’t have an army the size of a certain irritant neighbour to throw out on a whim).

Jon.

This is a quick update until I have chance to upload more photos and write a fuller entry.

Went skating on the Rideau Skateway yesterday morning. It’s cool. Had some Beavertails and entertained some girls with my cute accent. Later walked along the edge of the skateway to get a feel for its size – I don’t think I truly have appreciated that just yet. My skating is quite terrible but at least I’ve gotten better at not falling over horribly – just need to work on the side to side motion for propelling myself along. Fortunately, the weather is absolutely gorgeous at the moment and the sun is shining in the sky like it’s spring.

Went to downtown, left a copy of LU&D in with SB and then went over to the Aulde Dubliner for a GOSLING meeting. The Bytown Market area is a pretty cool place. Met mcr at the meeting and did a GPG signing for good measure.

Went to the Heart and Crown last night, had a few beers and met a bunch of people too. A live act, phonetically sounded “Shayded” (but I don’t have the correct spelling for their website), were playing – they’re an absolutely fantastic bunch of talented musicians from the Maritime province of Prince Edward Island.

I think my Canadian geography and understanding is improving as I can now name more provinces and have a basic understanding of the layout of the country – helped by visiting the Museum of Canadian Civilisation the other evening. One of the guys at the meet last night is going cycling across Canada. That would be really cool – though it’s a long way to Vancouver from here (and costs more to fly to than London, England (United Kingdom) – maybe as much as twice as much if going par avion).

Jon.

Photo: The park area overlooking the Rideau Locks opposite to Parliament Hill, Ottawa.

Got up a bit later today, although I still woke up around 07:30ish. Had a shower eventually and got downstairs around 09:30 for some breakfast and coffee with Laura Drepper and her brother Dave (the kind folks who run the Rideau Inn and genuinely seem to put their best effort in to having a successful business). Used their connectivity despite there being an open wifi network reported by my laptop, because I figured it was better to be a good boy .

Went to a Second Cup across the street and got in to a conversation with a local resident who seemed too interested in me, and since I did not feel the same, I had to tactfully leave instead. Fortuately Hannah called anyway and when I rang her back we had a brief chat about their house plans. Cool. Scary but fun nonetheless. I don’t think I’m ready to buy a house since I scarcely know where I will want to end up living – well I know where I want to live now (Ottawa for a while would be quite nice) but it’s making that happen which would turn out to be somewhat more complex.

Tried looking for the cache on top of the Rideau Centre (it must be in the rooftop garden) but the snow on the roof was a little hindering to finding the container and the co-ordinates were fluctuating slightly as my GPS tried to lock on to my location. The guesthouse is around 3303 miles away from my home in Reading, UK. Closer than I thought.

Went downtown, had a non-meeting with Linux Studio after they got the times slightly mixed up and we then missed eachother. We are trying it again tomorrow if it works out. Had lunch in the Marché in the Rideau Centre again, although I hope to be at the Bytown Market for lunch tomorrow – especially if I swing by the folks at TG and SB for some coffee and a quick update on the ins and out of Linux Gaming. Hopefully that’ll be quite interesting to me since I’m not a hardcore gamer by nature.

The Chapters “Internet” access terminals are misslabelled – in the UK I might be able to get them to change the name because it’s really only limited web and not untrusted downloads or similar stuff. No mindterm available at that moment and I’m not inclined to bother too much about that now in case they also block certain applets. I note that the service allows free use of the Chapters website (as you might expect it to do so in this kind of situation) but they cunningly break all usability by not allowing the evil popup windows or whatever the website wants to do. LKD still not on the shelves so I’m guessing it hasn’t come in yet – or some very keen person bought it as soon as it did and managed to annoy me in the process .

Went to the Canadian National Gallery and the Museum of Canadian Civilisation (as I noted on #nott earlier on tonight – the same in the US would be an oxymoron these days, I am looking forward to visiting Boston but doubt it compares to anywhere else on the same level. For your amusment and general interest, the USian stupid laws on immigration assume all visitors will want to stay – the irony. I should watch what the evil bastard said in the State of the Union address earlier on whenever – then we look out for the much more interesting videos parodying and sponsorted by online prezel gift services). The latter is over in Gatineau (formerly Hull), which is part of Quebec and over Victoria Bridge (verify that). I am inspired to investigate ways I might ultimately live here for a while at some point. Did you know about the sheer scale of the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway – an immediate benefit of the early Confederation)? did ya?

Had some pizza in the Earl of Sussex and am using the wifi again. I didn’t eat here last night, and the wifi is convenient so I don’t mind being in the same place again. I am planning to Pop in to the GOSLING Ottawa meeting tomorrow afternoon to see where that is going to, thanks to the heads up on #oclug from mcr (also wanted to meet him for some coffee too since he’s doing some work I have an interest in. Found out about FUDcon and registered my interest. We can hopefully go along for at least a few hours on the 18th.

Jon.