Life | Design. Charity. Life.

Free breakfast in high demand 0

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Daniel Francavilla

Last week, Subway food outlet locations offered free “breakfast” to those who had a coupon.Sounds great, until you realize that everyone else has the same coupon and that this free breakfast may actually cost you more in waiting time!

I’m personally not a fan of waiting in lines and totally avoided the matter. What I found surprising was the amount of business people, busy Torontonians and commuters that lined up at various Subway restaurant locations (even out the door, as the photo I took on Dundas St. near Bay shows). Really, is waiting 10, 20 even more minutes for a free breakfast sandwich worth it?

I mean, if it’s a iPhone 4 you’re waiting for, that’s a different story…

See the video clip here

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Tags: Food People Subway Time Toronto Waiting
Category Life, Photos

It’s a challenge to pause: Noise, infotoxins and stimulation-addicts 0

Posted on August 07, 2010 by Daniel Francavilla

Rarely sitting on a muskoka chair by a lake in Ontario away from the chaos of the city, I found myself reading the print version of Adbusters magazine (something I pay to receive in the mail regularly but rarely get to read through). But why not?

The article in Adbusters Whole Brain Catalogue that really jumped out talks about the Ecology of the Mind, and this new movement being born: where we can’t just sit and focus on one thing for very long at all.

“Drowning in an endless stream of connectivity”

Noise: there used to be a lot less of it (like just rain and people talking); but now it’s rush-hour roar, cell phones buzzing, loud tv commercials. There’s always noise! I was impressed how accurately the writer captured my simulation-addicted lifestyle:

“Can’t work without background music. Can’t jog without earphones. Can’t sleep without an iPhone tucked under the pillow.”

I completely agree that quiet feels foreign now. But it might be what we really need, to have a healthy mind.

Are you ever tired of receiving 3,000 + marketing messages per day? “From the moment your radio alarm sounds on the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV, micro-jolts of commercial pollution flow into your brain.”

One effect that’s really accurate is the fragmentation of our psyches: Jumpy Brain Syndrome! I definitely experience this, where constantly texting, posting links, browsing blogs, bookmarking sites, and emailing files result in “digital daze”, where Lason and White say it’s what leads to being “unable to concentrate, feeling foggy, anxious and fatigued”.

And I’m constantly online. Waiting for an elevator? in Texting friends. On the bus? Replying to emails. At an event even? Reading Twitter updates. And it’ll only get worse for future generations, if the average American teen sends 50+ texts per day and spend around 8 hours using electronic devices.

I’ll stay connected. There’s too much out there to miss. But it’s not terrible being away for a bit. In Haiti, though I did reach for where my iPhone would’ve been if I were in Canada, not having it there didn’t kill me.

Tags: Brain Connectivity Ecology iPhone Lifestyle Mind Technology Thinking Twitter
Category Life, Technology

Tourists and the G20 in Toronto 0

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Daniel Francavilla

There’s enough controversy about the G8/G20, but I found this bit too ironic.

While Toronto is preparing for the conference and spending a billion dollars (sadly that wasn’t an exaggeration), they’re also having the homeless “relocate” and asking hot dog vendors to shut down for 2 weeks.

Anyway our Prime Minister, Steven Harper, has been saying that the G20 Summit is an awesome way to showcase Toronto and promote tourism. Great! Let’s see how that’s going to happen; with all the closures!

Torontoist.com has put togther a comprehensive guide to the city during the G20, so here’s their portion on tourism, as Mr. Harper says will thrive from G20!

Tourists

Stephen Harper insists that the G20 is an opportunity to showcase Toronto to the world, which is why the city is rolling out the Welcome Wagon—er, the Salutation Sound Cannon.

If you’ve already booked your trip to Toronto and don’t belong to a governmental delegation or protest group, you might be wondering what to do this weekend. The answer? Go to Montréal.

Several key tourist attractions are closed G20 weekend. The CN Tower, which bills itself as “Canada’s most recognizable and celebrated icon,” will be closed from June 25 to the 27 due to its proximity to the Convention Centre. It will reopen on the Monday.

The Art Gallery of Ontario will also be closed, as will the Mirvish productions Mamma Mia and Rock of Ages, both at theatres on King Street Street. TheGlobe and Mailreported that the theatres will be dark the entire week of June 21 to June 27 due to security concerns, as well as concerns about ticket holders not being able to get through traffic jams and police blockages to get to the venues.

Even tours will be hard to come by. Toronto Hippo Tours is moving its operations from Front Street to the Delta Chelsea Hotel in the weeks leading up to the G20 weekend, but it expects some route alterations in the days immediately before the summit. “We’ll be closing for the actual weekend of the summit,” said PR Manager Anne Greenwood. “There’s not much we can do.”

Unpredictable traffic schedules and an inability to navigate such large portions of the downtown core have forced other tour operators to close as well. Toronto Tours won’t be operating its City or Harbour tours, and a Gray Line operator said the company hopes to be running, but can’t speculate yet on details or even whether it’s possible.

All of that, of course, is contingent on tourists being here that weekend at all. Sarkozy probably won’t be taking in the Textile Museum, but delegates from all over the world are taking up hotel rooms. The Globe thoroughly canvassed area hotels, none of which have available rooms and only a few of which have non-summit guests.

If you’re one of the lucky few to have a room, there’s another unknown variable to throw into the mix: the potential hotel workers strike. It’ll likely affect the French delegation at the Novotel most, but the threat of full-scale tourism shutdown looms large.

If the summit’s not your thing, Weir reminds us that Toronto really does have a lot to offer beyond the CN Tower. “People will discover new things about Toronto that weekend, especially the scope and breadth of the city,” he says. “With the World Cup, every neighbourhood in the city will be alive and electric and completely remarkable. People can move about the city and, while some downtown attractions are closing, others, like the ROM with Terracotta Warriors [opening June 26], are opening massive global exhibitions that weekend.”

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Tags: Canada G20 Politics Toronto
Category Life

Failed to boost my juice 0

Posted on June 08, 2010 by Daniel Francavilla

If you walk through Toronto’s Union Station, you may suddenly feel the need for some juice. Or a fruit smoothie, or even just some plain fruit juice.

Why? Because there’s posters, signs, walls and even the floor – all plastered with Booster Juice ads. The ads told me plenty of benefits of this juice oaisis. And I was actually pretty thirsty at the time. Perfect!

Only one problem: there’s NO Booster Juice anywhere in Union Station!

Clearly, that didn’t work out for Booster Juice. Kind of just confused me, and made me want a smoothie (and reminded me everywhere I looked). So, what next? Look for a place that has smoothies!

Take a look at the amount of advertising here, with Booster Juice telling me their stuff is both Awesome, and Awesome for Me; and look at the outcome in the end.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

OK now…

Oh, a JUGO Juice. Great. Actually no, not liking the raw carrots and prices right now.

Perfect, Second Cup! They (used to) offer SPC student discount of a free size upgrade. Grrrrr.
But hey, there’s cold drinks on the menu!

Leaving on the GO with a Second Cup Strawberry Fruit Chiller.
Poor Booster Juice just handed this customer off to someone else.

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Tags: Booster Juicer Fruit Juice Juice Smoothie Toronto TTC Union Station
Category Life

Babies and Mother’s Day 0

Posted on May 09, 2010 by Daniel Francavilla

via youtube.com

Who hates the idea of cute, innocent, awkward and entertaining babies. Sure, people who have had to deal babies waking them up dozens of times a night may have a different perspective.

Even still, it’s difficult to find someone who hates babies altogether. Babies are pretty cool if you get to leave them in the care of their parents.

For Mother’s Day, a really unique film about babies is being released. It’s called, of course, BABIES.

The official description says this “visually stunning new movie simultaneously follows four babies around the world – from first breath to first steps. From Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco to Tokyo, BABIES joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all.”

Happy Mother’s Day!