Globe Bistro

Although the front room was completely empty (I was later assured that this front room is just the overspill room and that they like to put their patrons in the back - which was nicer - and even on the second level), I got a really good vibe from this place as soon as I took my seat at the table.
Globe Bistro is one of those restaurants that does the local thing and it was lovely. I'm a sucker for good plating and good service, so Globe had more points going for them. Okay, so the service was good, but it wasn't exceptional. But good is still better than mediocre.
The food was nice. I think all of it was good, but it wasn't mind blowing. The elk was actually quite tasty, and the tobacco smoked beef tasted, well, porky. I was told that my porky reference should actually be an association to bacon and those smoked hams from my youth. The appetizers and dessert were also good, but again not anything special.
It was also pointed out to me that the space used to be a bowling alley and they they repurposed the lanes for flooring. In fact, many other patrons were noticing it was they walked by our table, pointing out the arrows by their feet.
Anyway, I thought that the restaurant was quite nice. Decent price point for the food, ambiance and service that you get. Like I said, I had a good feeling about this place right from the get go. I would definitely go back.

Price point: mid-range
Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Would return again: yes

Moncler F/W 2010

I saw something that reminded me of this show. I know it's old, and for some reason, I thought that I had already posted it, but I guess not? Anyway, it's a great show. Still on my bucket list - attend a fashion show.

Centro

Centro is a well-known, high-ish end restaurant. I quite liked the ambiance of the place. Comfy chairs, not too dark lighting, high ceilings and some cool features. My first impression of the restaurant led me to believe that I would enjoy this meal. The food was decent, but I wasn't particularly impressed with what I had. Maybe my expectations were too high? I don't think so, though. The service had potential, and I don't know if it was because we had a big table and our waiter knew that it was for a special occasion, but I found it a little excessive. I've experienced European service, and while at times it seemed excessive, it didn't completely annoy me. This service did. In Europe, it was very frequent, but it always seemed to have a purpose. Here, it didn't. Or at least the timing was off. I felt like I was told things that I really didn't care about, or at completely the wrong time. Since my expectations of this place were high, I would think that even with our big table, everyone would be served at the same time. I do remember one instance that all of our plates didn't come out at the same time, which surprised me. I hope I'm not sounding too critical, but something about the service, was off. But not all the time. At times, I though it was okay. I guess I'll go back to my original sentiment in that it had potential.
And it's a shame because, like I said, I had a good first impression of the place.

Price point: mid-high
Ambiance: 5/5
Food: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Would return again: yes

Luma

Back in September, I had said that I would start doing quick reviews of restaurants that I dined at. Oops. Forgot to follow through.
So this review will be brief, as I think many future reviews will be (if I remember to even do them). Maybe these reviews will be more for my own reference for future dining purposes.

Luma is a newish restaurant in the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It's part of the Oliver & Bonacini family of restaurants and I would assume, by looking at the price point, that it's supposed to be on the nicer end of the spectrum. I'm a sucker for good service and well plated food, so it was a mixed experience for me. Service was NOT good. Our table was forgotten about on a couple occasions, and we had to get some of the heads of service involved, when I don't think they were supposed to be. I'm hoping that their involvement would highlight that someone else on their team is slacking off, but I don't know if that message will get through. The service was saved by someone on loan from Canoe. He was great and made sure that we felt like we were being well looked after.
The plating was nice. I thought they paid attention to how the food looked, and on the taste side, I wasn't too disappointed. The scallop sashimi was light, refreshing and flavourful. The tuna tartare was also tasty. I quite liked my tagliatelle, and it was much more filling than I had expected. The dessert was also quite nice - my opera cake was forgettable, but the buttered popcorn ice cream tasted better than it sounds and the chocolate Pop Rocks it was served on top of were super fun.
So yeah - I guess the food was nice...but the service was very disappointing.

Price point: mid-range
Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Service: 2/5
Would return again: yes

Happy holidays

At this time of year, a lot of people settle in front of the TV to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, Home Alone, Love Actually, or The Sound of Music.
I watched Requiem for a Dream. Ha.
I've had a borrowed copy of the DVD in my possession for three years and have had really good intentions to watch the film, but I don't tend to be in the right mood to watch this kind of movie. Not to say that the holidays put me in the mood to watch this kind of film, but I figured that I would probably never be in the right mood, so on a quiet night in, I just decided to go for it.
It's an interesting movie. Probably not my favorite that I've ever seen, but it's interesting. I thought it started sort of slowly, but I think this is a movie that the more you think about it or watch it, you'd be able to get more out of it. And of course, the soundtrack is amazing. Amazing enough that a bazillion ice dance teams skated to its soundtrack during last year's Olympic season.

Also - Happy Holidays, folks!

A little lost

I'm thinking that I shouldn't have left my September-September framework to get a January-January agenda (albeit a classic Moleskine one). There are a bunch of events in the New Year already piling up, and I have nowhere to make note of them. I need to get organized. I need a new agenda. I need to be less picky in buying one. I'm feeling a little flummoxed.

A lovely laptop cover

Anyone need a 15inch laptop cover? Canvasco has this beauty. Hop Kanada!

Some things never change

A blast from my 4-year old past:
"You were about as tall as my knee and you always had a big smile for everyone. I think you found life pretty delightful back then."

Conflict resolution

Overheard in a school office:
"Are you happy with this being a, 'Say you're sorry, end of story' kind of situation?"
"Yes, sir."

Shaken to the core

I'm not the best at dealing with my emotions. I'm not the best at explaining what's going on when I feel something. Like, seriously feel something.
While watching Waiting for Superman, I started crying. I was pretty confused about it because I don't think of myself as a crier. I thought through my emotions, and I think that I understand why I responded that way. Nonetheless, I was shocked how I reacted to my feelings.
It happened again. I just got an e-mail that shook me to my core. I love it, maybe more than your average person, when things connect. When you find out the world is small and you feel like there's too much of a coincidence of what's happens in life. So that part of the e-mail was great, but then I started reading into the subtext of the e-mail and again I was surprised at how strongly I was reacting. When things get really personal. When thing really hit at what you're passionate about. I guess that's when you react in surprising (or maybe extreme?) ways. At least, that's how it seems to be for me.
As I've said, there are some things that I need to pursue.

"School board considers paying needy students"

There's an article in the Toronto Star that talks about an idea that has the TDSB paying "needy" students for things including good grades, attendance at school, involvement in programs.
From skimming the comments on the webpage (I haven't looked at the Twitter page that they referred to), it seems as though people are bashing the idea. I, however, I can come up with both pros and cons to the proposal, but there's not enough information to really make an informed decision. I would like to learn more about it.
I also hope that in the future I will directly be involved with policy, institutional, systematic, or similar kinds of changes. That would be so exciting.

"Gifted"...in the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is doing a series about giftedness. Here are the articles thus far.
When I'm passionate about something, I find it hard to articulate my thoughts about it...which probably isn't good for my profession. Also, I need to pursue this area in more depth. I have to.

Definitely not the norm

I was sitting beside a Kindergarten student during afternoon snack-time. She turned to me and asked for my help. She couldn't open her bottle of San Pellegrino on her own.

Les ailes d'Hermes

This website by Hermes is quite cute. Some videos are better than others. I quite like the fingers skateboarding.

Freitag's new Hazzard

I'm liking the new Hazzard backpack by Freitag.

A disappointing workshop

This afternoon, I attended a workshop about networking. It was a complete disappointment. It's not necessarily that I had high expectations, but it's a topic that I think is very important and something that I want to learn more about, improve upon and think that it will be integral in my future.
It was such a horrible workshop. The presenter seemed too confident, too much of an entrepreneur, I was pretty disgusted. I don't feel as though I learned anything from the presentation other than confirming some of my feelings about networking being kind of sleazy. I know it's an important part of life, but I still like to think of it as something that can come from a genuine place. If you think that's naive, too bad. I truly believe that it can be done without that dark side coming out.
The presentation was horribly done. Instead of learning any valuable skills, I felt like a commodity, only there to trade information with others in the room. One could argue that our networking was valuable to our future, but it was ridiculously superficial.
It was a 2.5 hour workshop, and two hours were spent finding out about everyone's career interests one at a time. We learned about all of the wonderful contacts that our presenter could provide for us, and were constantly reminded of the value of LinkedIn (I'm not sure how I feel about this). After a 10 minute break, the final 20 minutes were spent going through a powerpoint presentation in which we learned of all the successes of our presenter and in the last four minutes (seriously) we finally learned some basic networking ideas. I had a conversation with the presenter during the break. She had asked me who she could introduce me to so that I could get closer to my goals, and I honestly couldn't think of anyone, nor was I sure that I wanted to be (at this point, I was already disillusioned by her 2 hour ramblings about who she knew and how she'd be able to introduce us to all of them). It was almost as if her actions backfired, and I didn't even want to be associated to her. As opposed to me wanting to get into her network so that there would be a reciprocal payoff, I wanted to stay as far away as possible.
It was like she thought the only reason I wanted to be there was to get introduced to some important person that may advance my career. Although I'm apparently a green link (sequential thinker, list maker, summarizer, quick witted, don't like wasting time, visual, know what I expect from things, make a beeline for my target - I guess I did learn something, however, it wasn't made clear what the point of this knowledge was...I mean, I already know what I am), I wanted to learn more about the process rather than get just a name out of the workshop. I told her this, and although she kept saying "what can I do to help you", I got no help other than being reminded of mundane etiquette that everyone in my world knows. I was told about all of the wonderful things that I do, which doesn't seem helpful, because I do them already, so why bother telling me about it. Whether they are conscious or unconscious things, I do them, so tell me about the things that I don't do. When asked what I wanted to learn about (this was done in another round-about way that talked about things that I already knew about), we both agreed that it wouldn't be helpful to learn about obvious basics (that she proceeded to outline and explain in great detail - this woman is so ridiculously ineffective!), so I proceeded to tell her that sometimes you don't know what you don't know so you can't articulate exactly what you want to learn. I think it's her responsibility as the 'expert' to be able to provide us with that next step and be able to tell us (from her prolific experience) what more we need to learn. Is this where I'm supposed to toot my own horn and admit that I'm lucky that I've had a variety of experiences and opportunities to learn and develop the skills that were being (but I really don't think were) presented in this workshop and since I already have the skills and knowledge about all this stuff, that's why I felt do annoyed by the sub-par performance?
Ugh. I was so annoyed. I wanted to get up and leave.
The write-up about the workshop was completely misleading. Instead of learning about networking, I wasted 2.5 hours of my life and felt sorry for all the rest of the people who were subject to the presenter's wrath. I have no doubt that she's successful, but she does it in a way that is completely different than I would ever do. I may never be a millionaire like she is, but I much more comfortable in the way that I view life and other people. Sometimes workshops are ridiculous. I wonder if I'm more judgmental of presenters because of the field that I'm in. And I feel like my rant isn't really explaining the situation. If only I was more eloquent. Maybe I should attend a workshop about that.

Schooled by a Kindergartener

I was reading a Scooby-Doo book to a wee Kindergarten student this morning and had some trouble. You see, it was a learn-to-read kind of book that had pictures in place of many words. I had to get my new friend to tell me who all the characters were. I hid my lack of Scooby-knowledge by encouraging her to help me read by saying all of the words that were pictures. Rather quickly she got tired of this and said, "Can you just read the book for me?" Yes darling...now that you've told me who Fred, Velma and whoever that other girl's name is, yes, I'll read the book for you. I had to get her to remind me about Fred and that other girl's name a couple more times. Obviously, the names didn't stick.
I, clearly, missed out on some classic TV as a child. And this child of the 21st century, knew more about the stars of my childhood than I did. How strange.
It was mighty fun being in an elementary school again. I listened to the barely audible morning announcements over the tinny PA system, sat in a chair so that my knees were almost hitting my chin, sat on the rug for storytime, squished 6 bodies onto a loveseat, got told that I was pretty, you know, all the good stuff.
Education is a wonderful thing.

Trivial dilemmas

May hair seemed to be a great length a month ago. Now, it's too long. The dilemma is that I decided awhile back that the next time I cut my hair, I want to cut off a significant amount. It's long enough to donate to an organization that can turn it into a wig for cancer patients, so that's the goal. I've already decided the style of cut that I'm going to get, but I don't really want to have that style until warmer weather rolls around. That's not for months. Also, I want to give my blunt bangs more exposure. This new 'do has gotten some interesting reactions. Anyway, I thought that I could last until the spring, but my hair is entering 'too long' zone. I don't want to wear my hair up for the next couple of months, so I'm getting antsy. I could just trim my hair, but I'm concerned that they'll chop it too short. Actually, I just don't know where to go for a decent trim. I visit hairdressers for cuts, not trims. Another annoyance is that static-y hair season is upon us. Woe is me.

Life goes on...

...at warp speed!
It's been a busy busy run, but I've enjoyed it. I've been overwhelmed at times, but everything's gone pretty well (I think).
I'm taking a break from marking, which I haven't done in a while. It's time consuming, but I'm enjoying the process and finding out more about my students. Some of them have come up with really great ideas that I will most likely borrow.
I recently got to ride around in a stretch limo. My first in many years. I was at a competition and the company was a sponsor, so we got transported around in style. It was funny. Definitely not normal. I wonder what the skaters thought when they saw us all piling out of the vehicle. Maybe it'll encourage some of them to join our ranks?
Back to marking I go. Just a couple more assignments to get through and then I'm out the door to go furniture shopping. 10 months in this place and the living room is still bare. It takes time.

Head in the clouds

There's a lot going on right now. The beginning of the year (I can't believe that we're already a month in) is pretty hectic. New classes, new routine, new commitments, etc. I'm really happy with everything that's going on, but I'm pretty overwhelmed. There's a couple big deadlines coming up and I'm feeling the stress. I keep telling myself that it'll calm down a bit in November, but I don't know if that's actually true. Things seem to happen and I don't really get as much of a break as I need. And I have a pretty big, semi-self-imposed deadline on December 1st that will keep me in check for November anyhow. Or at least, I hope it does.
Today was a long day. A pretty consistently busy day. I got things accomplished, but I still feel like there's lots to do. I desperately wanted to take a nap, but I pushed through and continued to work until the time for my reward for surviving the day came.
I was so dazed by life and everything that's going on that I almost went the wrong direction on the escalator. If I didn't have the habit of putting my hand on the railing before stepping on, I would have been toast. It took a couple seconds for me to register that my hand was moving toward me rather than away for me to clue in that I probably wasn't supposed to be using that particular escalator. I must have looked like a complete do-do (and I recall no understanding how someone could get so close to the escalator before realizing that it was going the opposite way - could they not see the stairs and railing moving the wrong way, the people coming at you instead of away from).
It was a first.
Luckily, me plan to end the note on a high worked. Docsoup FTW! I was a little concerned that I would fall asleep during the screening, but I didn't even get bored or wonder when the movie would be over. It was great.
Sons of Perdition was a great documentary. I'm so exhausted right now, that I don't feel like writing a synopsis of the film, but basically it follows a couple boys who left the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints in Colorado City, Utah. I learned about something I know very little about, and was thoroughly confused about their culture. It's obviously a different way of life, but add on top of that a different mentality. I wasn't able to understand it all. I'm now making mental connections to my studies about cultural theory and ethnography. It's pretty fascinating, and just the other day, I flipped past Sister Wives. Well timed, my Hot Doc friends.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the documentary, and filmakers Jennilyn Merten and Tyler Measom were on hand for a frank Q&A.
I was rejuvenated from watching the film, and happily walked to do an errand before heading home. The weather outside was lovely. I think I had enough energy in me to walk home. But instead, I hopped on the 510 and promptly started to let my mind go until now when I am getting rather close to turning into a pumpkin. And so, I shall end my post.