8tracks

I have re-entered the streaming music scene. I have come to the conclusion that you still need to own music that you want to have available to you "forever". Streaming music sites like Google Play Music and Apple Music don't have everything you want and (as I discovered to my horror) their collections change over time. Apple Music and its lack of transparency with my purchased collection in iTunes was particularly annoying. I have gone to managing my own music in iTunes and using Google Play Music service to sample new things to see if I am interested enough to buy them.

None of that gives me the ability to share playlists with my friends, except by burning a CD for them (very old fashioned!). My daughter put me on to the streaming service, 8tracks, which fills this gap. You upload your own music in playlists that are available for others to play from their server. There are some restrictions on what you can upload but I haven't hit any yet (for example, they prevent you from having too many tracks from any one album or any recording artist on a playlist). It seems like they are keeping it legal and so may stand the test of time. You don't get to see what is on the playlist before you start - it just shows you one song at a time. I don't know what the quality of the playlists on 8tracks is yet as a way to find good new music, but the sharing with your friends aspect seems good.

I have one playlist up now if you want to check it out. Unlike the other things I am using, the free version seems quite useable: https://8tracks.com/brian-wetton

Britannia Community Centre Solstice Festival

I volunteered this weekend setting up a Britannia Community Centre event, a Solstice party. I like volunteering. It makes me feel useful, I get to meet new people, and I enjoy being wanted for my ability to lift and carry heavy things rather than anything intellectual.

I went to the event, with my adult daughter. Bands played (I liked the creaking planks), there was coffee, tea, and cookies. The venue was nicely decorated (I helped to decorate, but I only get intellectually that decorations help make an event successful). I should say that it was all free - a community building event. Maybe one day I will actually understand how to build community but at least I can lift and move things around for those that do.

Embroidery Sun Finished

Here is the finished design. I hadn't done this on purpose, but it is just finished for the Summer Solstice. I am wearing it tonight to a Solstice party at Britannia Community Centre. It is an event I volunteered to help set up, and will help to take it down after it is done.  My next project will either be a set of moons and stars, or a dragon (tried that once before but it didn't turn out well). 

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

This year I achieved the lowest echelon of frequent flyer status with Air Canada (copper? no, "prestige 25K"). I do some travelling for work, to conferences and to collaborate on projects, but not that much, and always with the cheapest fares since I am travelling at the tax-payers' expense. I have only achieved "status" twice in my life. This time, I must have been pushed over the top by the trips to Barcelona and Beijing last year. My prestige status gives me free checked bags - pretty nice. I also had some optional rewards and I chose to get four tickets into the maple leaf lounges. The last time I had reached status I also picked this option, but always forgot to bring the tickets when I travelled. This year, I finally got a chance to enter the lounge, in Toronto terminal 1, D gate area.

I have been keen to see what these are like, and I am an enthusiastic guy with a good imagination. So, it didn't quite live up to my completely unreasonable expectations of hot and cold running gin, and beautiful heiresses just dying to get to know me better. There was a mediocre self-serve breakfast. Wine did arrive eventually but it was eleven in the morning, and I decided that was too early even for me. I have to say that the area was quite nice (except for the quite grotty carpet) with very comfortable seating groups, widely spaced, and lots of windows with a nice view. There was good coffee. It was very quiet, a really calming area of refuge to the stress of travelling. While not as good as my imagination, I really did see the appeal. I will happily use my remaining three tickets this year if I can. 

Toronto experience June 2016

I have visited Toronto many times over the years for work, and even lived here for a year 92-93. People from the West of Canada have a knee-jerk negative reaction to Toronto. I think there is some jealousy mixed in with some more honest reaction to the smug superiority that many TO residents have. Being here this last week, though, I am reminded of how interesting a city it is. I could see myself living here without hardship. Part of it could just be that I have found restaurants I really like (both the food and the vibe). I am in the Holiday Inn just North of the UofT campus on Bloor. I found Daddyo's Salad and Pasta restaurant just South of here on Spadina:

Inside is exactly as you imagine looking at the outside. It has pasta, salad, and wine. What more could you want? Just a few blocks away on Bloor just West of Spadina is Greg's Ice Cream, with really high quality stock. I have had chocolate (I always try out a new place with a "basic" flavour) and last night after pasta I had star anise ice cream - excellent. 

The conference ended a day early. It was billed as Monday-Friday but when the schedule appeared it ended on Thursday. Maybe this was a clever plan to trick people into not leaving before the last session. Anyway, today was a "free" day in TO. I walked around my old haunts here, after going to breakfast at Over Easy. Another great place, helped that I was sitting outside on the patio on a great day, with time on my hands. 

I could live in this neighbourhood happily, but my plans to lose weight would have to be abandoned. Saw a high rise building I liked the look of:

Embroidery sun (continued)

So have moved on to Toronto, for a conference this week, then back home to Vancouver finally on Saturday. Still working on my embroidery project in the evenings after the conference talks and as much networking as I can muster (not much tonight, but tomorrow is the conference banquet). I have the basic ideas for filling in the areas now. The square chain stitch (the orange border) is rated by my book as "easy" but I am finding it difficult. I will add my yellow beads in somewhere when I get home and can dig out a small needle. No luck finding one in the shops near my hotel here in Toronto. Doesn't anyone sew anymore?

Michigan embroidery project

I had in mind an embroidery project to do while I was here, as a way to keep the creative hobby juices flowing. Of course, I ended up starting only in the last week. I am working on a large sun design on the back of a T shirt. I have the outlines finished, shown below. Still to do are filling in the shapes. I have a book of embroidery stitches, will use this as an excuse to try out some of the space filling and border stitches. I also have some small yellow beads I wanted to incorporate, but I only brought embroidery needles and they are too big to fit through the beads to sew them on. I'll see if I can find a needle at a local store when I am in Toronto next week.

Xmen Apocalypse was quite enjoayble

I enjoyed Xmen Apocalypse quite a lot. I saw it last weekend at the fancy theatre in Okemos, MI. I had hoped to see one more movie here at that theatre before I left for Toronto, but the two new shows this week were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a lame-looking romantic comedy that I don't remember the name of.

Anyway, Xmen Apocalypse was really quite enjoyable. There were cameos by many recognizable characters from the comics (Archangel, Psylocke - actually played appropriately by a mixed race actress, Storm, Wolverine and others). It was a basically a "young team coming together" story with a bunch of extra fun. Let me spoil the ending: the villain with almost godlike powers was destroyed with teamwork. The origin details for Apocalypse don't match the ones from the comic, but those are really too convoluted for a movie plot, so I though this could be forgiven. In general, it gave the feeling for many of the characters from the comics even if all the details were not quite right.

I thought it was a much better movie than the recent Captain America one, although the critics rate them the opposite way. It could be just that the Xmen are the only superhero group I am somewhat invested in.