sketches of the mind

Interesting engineering.

Theo Jansen also featured on the TED Speakers lineup.

The post title refers to the name of the game for Improv Everywhere’s Toronto Subway Dance Party last Saturday. My friend Nicole and I had rushed to join in on the action but due to my misreading the instructions (boo!) we ended up at Bloor subway (the end point) at the wrong time! Consequently this caused us to also miss our ferry to Toronto Island that day but that’s another story.

So this is what went down:

I really love the concepts Improv Everywhere and newmindspace come up with. I’m considering heading to New York City for NMS’s third annual NYC Pillow Fight on March 22nd. Now that would be a thumping good time (pun intended)!

Oh and for those interested, here are the actual instructions for the subway dance party:

We’ll meet near the monument in Queens Park North. If anyone is unsure of what we’re doing you can ask me there.

Here are the basic plans:

All meet between 12:45 to 1:00 near the monument. At 1:00 we’ll make our way to the subway. After we pass Queens Park, I’ll begin dancing. Join in whenever you want, when we hit Union, this needs to be the peak of the dance party. after that, every couple of stops one or two people need to dance off the train and just keep dancing until the train starts moving again. When we hit Bloor-Yonge everyone needs to just stop dancing, and walk off the train like nothing happened.

We need one or two people to film/take pictures.

Requirements:
Subway fare
Earphones (music if you want something to dance to)
Bag or something to hide a camera in (if you’re filming, we only need one or two people filming, and like)
Camera (if you’re filming or taking pictures)

Try not to laugh while dancing, also, try not to make it look like this was planned.

If someone asks you if this was planned (during or after the event) just say something like, “No, I just saw everyone else dancing and wanted to join” or, “I’m really passionate about my music”. Everyones welcome to sing along to whatever they’re listening to.

Lesson learnt - read the damn instructions properly next time.

I’m a big fan of creative, contemporary architectural design. I’m often attracted to unusual and striking buildings and public spaces.

That brings me to Ned Kanh’s portfolio. Simply amazing.

One thing that puts Canada behind many other countries is the extremely high mobile rates available to consumers. I quickly realized that something was amiss when within the first month of activating my wireless (mobile) Rogers pay-as-you-go SIM card I had used up all of the credit that I had purchased. I had assumed that there would be enough credit to last me at least three months, if not six!

What I discovered was that not only was I being charged per minute for my outbound calls but I was also being charged for incoming calls! What a joke. This concept was completely foreign to me as I didn’t have anything like this on any plan that I was on in Sydney.

I complained about the situation to my friend Emery, a true Torontonian, and he was quick to point me to the following chart:

At first glance the chart looked potentially fabricated, like somebody was taking the piss out of the Canadian mobile data industry and exaggerating the figures. Experience however tells me that it may be closer to the truth than I had originally thought.

Rogers, Fido (also owned by Rogers) and to a lesser extent Bell certainly have the market in their grips. “Oligopoly” some would call it.

On a positive (more positive than otherwise) note Rogers has two attractive plans for saving on mobile rates - the $1 a Day Unlimited Evenings & Weekends Plan and the 1¢ Evenings & Weekends Plan. For more info on these refer here. As always be careful to read the fine print. I’ve decided to stick with my All Day plan simply because it’s unlikely that I’ll be forcing people to call me after 8pm, which is where I’d get most benefit/savings from those plans. I may have to think about it further.

Related reading
- Canada Worse than 3rd World Countries when it comes to Mobile Data Access
- Canadian Mobile Rates and the effect

So I guess I’m a day late posting this but then again it probably makes sense. My opinion on Valentine’s Day hasn’t changed much since last year. First let’s start with some e-cards that really sum up Valentine’s Day nicely.

Do people even know why they celebrate Valentine’s or how it came to be? I suspect a lot of people don’t. They just simply buy into the commercialism and the lazy way of being romantic. I’ll go into this further later.

As per Wikipedia:

Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14. In North America and Europe, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Some of the valentine symbols include red roses, love knots, and love birds.

So here are my thoughts on this wonderfully unoriginal and far too commercial celebration:

For those in relationships currently, every day should be valentine’s day. You don’t need one specific day of the year to spend time with your significant other, and you sure as hell don’t need to buy into the commercialism.

How about some originality? You can pick any day(s) of the year to be your V-day. Who says it has to be feb 14th every year? (of course if you hooked up on February 14th that’s different)

So one day/night you say to your partner, “hey Mar 27th is our V-day this year. Let’s book a hotel, dinner, show, etc and do something special. How’s that sound?”

How about special little anniversary days, like the day you first met, the first date, etc. How about re-living it right down to the same place you ate, what you wore (if you still have it and it fits), play the same music you listened that time in the car, where you went, etc?

Now those days have significance to you, which makes it unique and special. Even more special if he/she remembers right (and you happened to forget)?

Now wouldn’t that be more special?

Whilst we’re on the topic, here are some of my fave romantic movies:

A Walk To Remember
Before Sunrise (and too a lesser extent the sequel Before Sunset)
Lost In Translation (in it’s own kind of weird romantic way)
Serendipity
The Wedding Singer
Hitch
Never Been Kissed
The Lake House (Hollywood version not the original Korean because the endings are quite different).
Oh and how could I forget… “You had me at hello”… Jerry Macguire.

So anyways, I didn’t spend V-day alone this year. Well technically it wasn’t a romantic affair either. I just had a nice dinner at Hard Rock Cafe with a friend.

Alright people, don’t forget a more significant day is coming up on March 14th. That’s right, it’s Steak and Blowjob day!

By the way, here’s another classic ecard from someecards.com: