poll: BBSes?

Today's photo is from the St. Lawrence Market. I decided to brave the blustery snow yesterday morning because of a craving for fresh-baked sesame bagels from St. Urbain Bakery (thanks to my friend John Chew for getting me hooked on these). Before I got to the bakery, I visited the bakery on the first floor (in the photo) and bought some mouthwateringly good sunflower spelt bread.

Stage 2 of of our move about to begin. Hudson Movers will be descending on our old place later this week to take away the rest of our apartment contents to put into storage. Jeff has been doing a ton of packing for the past while, usually after work.

I've been doing some packing, but I'm not much help because of my tendinitis. Even folding and packing clothes is tough on my tendons; as a result, I can only do a little at a time. I hate this, of course, but can't do much about it except try to be patient.

Jeff, by the way, has been incredibly patient through the whole process, and understandably is pretty exhausted by the end of the day. Many thanks to our friends Scott and Walter for helping out the other day, and to my friend Luisa for helping me with purging/packing the pantry and fridge tomorrow after she finishes work! Doing the pantry should be interesting and probably a bit scary since I haven't done a proper purge in a long time.

A short while back, my friend Harald reminded me of the "chkmef", a BBS-type message board that he had set up for friends, and that reminded me of all the hours I spent on BBSes back in the day when there were BBSes.

POLL QUESTION: Did you ever use a BBS? Which ones? My family hosted the "Bricmef" on our TRS-80 Model III. The software was written remotely by friends (a fascinating process to watch on our end), and the message board was actually where Jeff and I first "met." :-) It would be several years before we met in person, and years more after that before we became romantically involved. Go figure.

I also remember the "Micmef", hosted by my friend John Chew, also a message board for our particular group of friends at the University of Toronto. Years back, Reid and Luisa gave me some old printouts of some old Bricmef posts.

And of course I remember GEnie...does that count as a BBS?

And another poll question: How many of you HOSTED BBSes?

Apologies for the somewhat distracted and highly unedited nature of this post. Jeff and I are leaving in a few minutes for more packing/moving in a few minutes...

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handwritten

Wow, it's cold in Toronto these days. Check out this photo that my friend Harald took....

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multitasking

Thanks to those who have been patiently waiting for their custom-made LJ user icons since last year. I am still gradually working my way through the list of those who signed up. I estimate I've drawn about 70 so far; I should probably collect these and display them all somewhere for fun sometime. Feel free to add your name to the list even if there are more than 50 people listed, but read my preamble in that entry first, and be warned it may take a LONG time (esp. if you want a cartoon portrait), and I reserve the right to decide at anytime that I'm no longer doing them.

Re: yesterday's Blathering. Have to admit I was surprised at how many of you out there had no cable tv, or were purposely keeping the television off more often than not. I had figured that we (and our friends Rand and Parki) were the only mutants. :-)

One difference I'm noticing already is the quiet. Jeff and I were slipping into the tendency to leave the television on as a sort of media wallpaper while we were doing other things in the evening. I'm trying to be careful not to adopt the same habit with radio.

The pressure to multitask seems to be a growing trend. Why focus on only one thing when you can do three? Or better yet, five? Back in my Inkspot days, I used to pride myself on my multitasking abilities. Maximum use of time, I figured, 12 hours a day, weekends too! I not only could handle the juggling of all those china plates with ease, I thrived on it. If I wasn't multitasking, I was unhappy. Restless, irritable, fidgety. Read a book for pleasure? No time!

That's changed. I get far more pleasure now in focussing on one task at a time, and also value my relaxation time all that more. I've found this also affects my preferences for interacting with people; if given a choice, I'd opt for a one-on-one conversation with someone I like rather than multiple conversations in a crowd.

For me, it's part of the whole "embrace life fully" philosophy. Though it's sometimes fun to have a tasting of a zillion interesting dishes, I find it far more satisfying to decide on a one main dish and enjoy it at leisure.

Funny how everything comes down to food in the end, isn't it?

:-)

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poll: radio?

So Jeff and I are experimenting with living with no cable television.

We have nothing against tv, and we know there are some great shows currently airing. We've just found ourselves watching less and less tv over the years, with very few shows luring us enough to schedule our lives around them. Instead, we've started waiting until a particular season of an intriguing show is out on DVD, then borrowing it from a friend or video rental store.

Not nearly as exciting, I know, but I'm finding other ways to fill that time, like reading or drawing or writing or studying German or playing music or spending time with friends. We still haven't decided whether to get cable for our new house; the next month or two will be a good test to see how we fare without it.

I'm also starting to listen to the radio more, especially in the mornings as I'm working on my Market Watch column. So far I've been listening to CBC and CFRB, but I'm also exploring Web radio again. One of my favourite hosts is Andy Barrie from CBC's Metro Morning show. Andy interviewed me ages ago about Inkspot, and also has played an Urban Tapestry tune on air ("Technonerdboy").

A poll question: Do you ever listen to the radio? If so, when do you listen to it (in the car? at work? etc.) and what do you like listening to (news? music? what kind of music?). And to Toronto types: what is your favourite station and why?

Fun to read all the responses to my 300 baud modem poll yesterday in LJ and Blatherchat, by the way. One of my favourite exchanges:

Bill Sutton: "Ha. You had a SmartModem. You were lucky. When I were t'lad, we had to make do with acoustic couplers. And we were GRATEFUL."

Gary McGath: "You had acoustic couplers? When I was a boy, we had to whistle into the telephone at 20 baud!"

:-)

The doodle at the top of the page was created for Illustration Friday, a weekly drawing assignment. This week's topic: "The Seasons."

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300 baud Hayes Smartmodem

View from our window this morning. That's the CN tower in the center.

Yay, we have DSL!

Yes, I'm a spoiled technonerdgirl; I still remember how excited I was when I picked up my very first 300 baud Hayes Smartmodem at Arkon in 1981 (I think it was '81) with my friend John Chew. We immediately went to our respective homes, of course, and tested our modems by dialing each other up and typing contentless messages. :-)

A survey: How many of you others out there had a 300-baud modem?

Jeff sitting in front of his own teenage portrait at his mom's place

My next adventure was venturing up to the fitness room on the 33rd floor the other day. Geez. Gorgeous view of the city and the lake, lots of well-maintained equipment, and a HOT TUB. Best of all, no blaring televisions...each cardio station is hooked up so you can change channels without getting off the equipment, and you listen via headphones, so you don't disturb your neighbours.

Still, I opted for my iPod instead, listened to the wonderful Tolkien song CD that Allison put together for me (thanks, Allison!). Had a good run, too. Don't know about the rest of you, but I start feeling restless and crabby when I don't get enough exercise. With this workout room only a 2 minute walk away, I now have no excuse to slack off. :-)

Househunting continues. The houses are starting to blur together for me, except for one whose owners obviously liked Lord of the Rings a LOT...I've never seen so much Lord of the Rings merchandise in one place. This immediately made me feel much more warmly about the place, of course; good thing Jeff was there to remind me that the owners would be taking all the LOTR stuff with them when they moved out.

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