Thursday – Call for Volunteers – Free Computer!

In the very near future, Toronto Free-Net will be making available very low cost computers packaged with TFN Internet connections and pre-configured for dial-up with a commercial version of Xandros.com Linux.

We have a lot of computers!

We need some volunteers to help to prepare to move about 20 heavy skids of computers, currently stored near Laird and Eglinton (central northeast Toronto.) If you are interested, we will need you from 9:30 am to 2pm on Thursday, Oct 19th. Lunch and transit tickets will be supplied.

Once we have these computers refurbished, each volunteer will receive one.

To volunteer, please apply by emailing execdir@torfree.net using the same subject as this message, stating any relevant experience.

Ken McCracken

Executive Director

Toronto Free-Net

Have yourself a look at this video of yesterday’s Apple Store opening at the Toronto Eaton Centre; at the end of it you may recognize the guy in the orange shirt.

Full story tomorrow!

(A parking sign on Dundas West, undoubtedly trampled to death by pedestrians…)

Each and every holiday weekend that I spend here in Toronto makes me ever more grateful that I don’t work a nine-to-five job, and that I don’t have to drive, eat or shop when the overwhelming majority of the city’s population does the same. And yet yesterday brought with it such a pleasant spring afternoon that I purposely set out to shop the crowded streets of both Chinatown and Kensington Market.

After half a block of Augusta Avenue I was ready to start throwing blind punches at anyone within arm’s length—I tallied no less than five separate occurrences where a group of people walking directly in front of me would spontaneously decide to stop and have a chat about some stupid thing in the middle of an already-congested sidewalk. This was in marked contrast to the hustle and bustle of my local Chinese supermarket, where people, shopping carts and even rolling skids of raw produce all threatened to run me over as I navigated the narrow aisles quick as I could.

At least these Chinatown shoppers moved with a purpose, and when all is said and done I think I’d rather endure their pushing and shoving than the oblivious meanderings of Kensington elite…

Houston, we have a problem…

It’s not that Burrito Boyz isn’t in every way deserving of its massive success—their halibut burrito is good enough to have weaned me from my pre-Conservatory Class slice of pizza at Mamma’s around the corner. It’s just that both of the downtown Toronto locations have become so busy at all hours of the day and night that going in and ordering something is an intimidating affair.

And forget about finding a seat to enjoy your meal; you’ll have to make do with a nearby alleyway or nightclub stoop. But the passers-by won’t mind—they’re likely on their way to Burrito Boyz too!

If you can believe it, a small crowd gathered outside a sushi joint just to watch this cat lick a discarded ice sculpture. And now that moment belongs to the ages…