ColinTheRobot.com

Earlier this week I celebrated my 25th birthday.  It’s been many years since I was genuinely excited about recognizing the passage of yet another year of my life, as it seems somewhat arbitrary to me to make a big deal of one day that has no meaning for most people.  This is due in part to the fact that mine is overshadowed greatly by the birth of a more notable figure, Jesus, or the commercialized mockery of his birthday anyway.  That’s not to say that I dislike Christmas, I just prefer the family/friends getting together aspect a lot more than the shopping/gift giving part of it.  Perhaps now more than ever it would be appropriate to embrace the somewhat controversial alternate …Read more »

It turns out that Hallowe’en was only the midpoint in the ordeal with my scooter, which I’m relieved to say is now finally finished a full month after I thought it already was. The cheque is in the bank and the ownership is miles away. So now it’s finally time to shave my beard, which by coincidence I started growing around the time of the incident (Thanksgiving weekend if I’m not mistaken). At some point along the way I decided not to shave it until everything was sorted out with the insurance company, as I foolishly thought it was almost done every week for the past five weeks, give or take a week. So to everyone who wondered why I was walking around looking like I’d been living …Read more »

Although not technically a holiday anymore, Hallowe’en is one of my favourite days of the year. I associate so many memories, and a general feeling of mystery and spirituality with this day.  It saddens me to see what appears to be a general decline in overall interest in the day.  It seems like there are fewer and fewer houses in my neighborhood decorated for All Hollows’ Eve each year, and this downturn extends to kids trick-or-treating as well.  How children could lose interest in free candy is an idea beyond comprehension.  One can only hope that this is just a slump, and not the beginning of Halloween’s demise. …Read more »

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been asked by family and friends who aren’t from Toronto if I feel safe living here, and I have invariably answered yes. Although I still feel safe, I have never felt so alienated by the city I have come to know and love. Sometime between arriving home from work on Wednesday night (October 10th) and when I was awoken by a knock on my door from the superintendent of my buiding, my scooter was vandalized quite extensively. The motivation (or seeming lack there of) for the crime is what bothers me the most. I’m not sure whether this was a calculated revenge against me, or just a completely random act of violence. I filed a report …Read more »

Just a reminder to everyone living in Ontario that today is election day, and also referendum day. In addition to electing new representatives in provincial legislature, today’s ballot will also decide whether the province stays with the current electoral system (First-Past-the-Post) or moves to mixed member proportional system, which combines a First-Past-the-Post system and a Proportional Representation system. The new system would require two votes, one to elect a “Local Member” (same as the old system), and one to elect “List Members” who make up the difference to make representation in legislature proportional to how the population voted.

Last week (October 4th 2007) marked the 50th anniversary since the launch of Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth. With it’s successful launch, the Soviet Union ushered in the Space Age. More info is available on NASA’s website here (or just type ’sputnik’ into your favourite search engine). …Read more »

The end of August has finally passed, bringing with it the end of the busiest and most stressful month of the summer. It also happens to mark two years at my present job and three years living in my current aparment. And yet with seemingly so much stability, it feels as though things are moving and changing at an even greater pace that normal. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’m completely burned out from the marathon of work this month, of which I spent only two days away from the job. Now for some much needed rest and relaxation time to regain my sanity and health before the grind of the fall semester begins.

Thanks to a long list of cuts announced by city hall in Toronto at noon today, residents of Toronto can now look forward to “a lot more litter on the streets, a lot less garbage being picked up, dirtier streets, a lot more potholes, bigger snow pile-ups before your street is cleaned off and longer waits to pay for your parking tickets or your tax bill”. In an attempt to balance their books, $34 million was cut from city’s operating budget for the rest of 2007. Carried over to next year the cuts total just $83 million, which barely offsets the expected deficit in the operating budget of $575 million.

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