morose code

Flickr limits you to only three groups? That's lame. I might as well not upload any more shots.

My Ikea lamp.

I've decided to close my blog for the time being. Quite frankly, my heart isn't in it right now. It seems like everything going on in my life is either not worth writing about or probably shouldn't be the kind of stuff to allow the entire world to see. Besides, Fark does the one link posts much better than I ever did.

Today's forecast is -43 with windchill. Here's the previously shown Alexandra Bridge, frozen last year.

Inside after the jump.

When I was having lunch last week, I saw this curious little fellow and gave him some bread:

There's a little park set in between some buildings down the street from my old apartment. Even though it's just off from the Market, it's still a nice place to sit down all by yourself and have a quiet lunch. This balcony is just a facade on the back of a building:

The view from my balcony at night:

Taken the night of the eclipse. Even though it's blurry, I like how the lights of the suburbs are overpowered by the downtown core.

I tried to carve my pumpkin to look like Jack Skellington, but unfortunately it was a bit too round shaped to look like a skull. I'm still proud of how it turned out, especially with the effort I put into the teeth.

Thanks to my clock radio, I woke up to the encouraging news that it was snowing today. I stumbled out of my bedroom and saw this delightful sight from the living room:

Just kidding. That's actually late last November. The snow has started to fall, though.

Photos of a decaying Toronto. From Boing Boing.

Today was my day off, so I decided to head downtown with my camera and wander though the Market. Whenever I'm feeling pissed off or grumpy, I like to walk around there, and be reminded of a happier time when I was living in a posh apartment in a cool part of town by my self with very little responsibilities. An hour or so down there never fails to recharge my spiritual batteries and leave me in a better mood.

Everything went off without a hitch. The stag was held in this guy's garage. BJ had managed to round up an actual ball and chain that we padlocked to Aaron's ankle. For a dollar, you could shorten the chain by one link. In hindsight, we should have raised the price to make the fun last longer as one guy immediately put down $40 to shorten the entire length. I forgot his name, but it was his garage and he had a dog named Timmy so I'll just call him that.

A street performer in Montreal getting a warm embrace from Steph. He's the kind of busker that would stand as still as a statue with his arms out, waiting until someone approached and gave him a hug. As soon as anyone dropped some change into his hat, though, he sprung into action. I can't imagine the kind of dedication it takes to stand in the sun all day not moving an inch unless someone approached and dropped some money in my hat. Well, actually I can. It'd probably be a lot.

Ram talking on his cellphone in Montreal:

For lunch we had pizza at some classy looking pizzeria. In addition to having fine Italian food, I had my first tasting of escargot. It was delicious.

I'm enjoying a fine pint of Stella, as seen by Ram:

I like this photo Ram took of me with my camera a lot. It might be my awesome blue shirt with the crazy cufflinks, or maybe because Stella is some mighty fine beer.

The Centennial Flame, formerly known as the Eternal Flame, on Parliament Hill at night. Surrounding the fountain that holds the flame are the crests of all the Provinces in the Canadian dominion, in the order that they joined the Confederacy.

A little known fact about the flame is that, until recently, the coins that tourists toss into the fountain fund research that helps those with disabilities. An amendment in 2002 now splits the funding between the research and paying for the federal gun registry.

Not including Canada Day, the two times I've been to the Hill at night I've been approached by security and asked what I was doing there. I guess in the dark I looked brown or something.

I was hoping to get my roll of Montreal film developed before someone else started posting duplicates, but it looks like I had no such luck (personally, I like mine better although the building in Ram's looks very nice lit up by the reflected fountain lights. At least when he took his he did it from a different angle).

This shot of the fountain is actually stitched together from two different photos that both were a little off. I'm glad I decided to take the second safety shot now, especially since it was the last frame on my roll.

Martha has also posted some pictures from the Great Ottawa/Montreal roadtrip of 2004.

Part of the city of Montreal, as seen from the passenger side of Carvill's car as we drove in on the highway. Driving in Montreal was a big mistake as no one there has actually taken any kind of lessons. Cars jam the intersections giving no regard for red traffic lights like they're evacuating the city due to zombie infestation. While we were there we saw a bus enter the intersection on a red, stop to let another such driver by, then pull a u-turn. At one point we decided to go with the flow and followed some 20 or so cars driving in the incoming traffic lane. After the first day we left the car at the Longueuil Metro station which seemed to make Carvill much more relaxed.

MetaFilter has a very interesting post about an abandoned Japanese island. For a while I've been collecting Infiltration-style links and this post managed to steal all of them (bastards) except for Sleepy City.

I took this one before my Canadian Literature group on the final day of class last Spring. During my time at Carleton, I would sit at the bank of the canal there and read when the weather was cooperative enough. The bridge was originally a barely used train line that ended up somewhere in Hull, and recently it's been put to use by the O-Train, Ottawa's answer to a subway going from nowhere to nowhere, with the only useful stop being campus. What the question was in the first place to leave us with it I'm still not certain.

As it is now, it stops just short of the South Keys and airport terminals and ends up just far enough away from central downtown to not really serve anyone other than a few Carleton students well. There's been talk of extending the service route to both Hull and the airport, which would certainly be an improvement. The trains themselves are very nice, though. State of the art and with very comfy seats, I can't say the half dozen trips I've taken on it weren't better than taking the bus.

The Mackenzie King bridge and surrounding area, as seen from the parallel Avenue Laurier bridge. During the winter, the canal below freezes and for a few weeks is opened up to allow skaters access to the world's longest skating rink. Come summer amphibious buses will sail up and down it for the tourists while joggers and rollerbladers pass them on the pedestrian trail.

On the left you can just make out the Peace Tower of Parliament Hill rising from behind the trees, while centre-right is the famous Chateau Laurier. When this was taken two years ago, the roof of the Laurier was being changed from the rusted green copper to clean brown. Parliament Hill has since undergone the same "improvement," making both buildings a lot drabber and less distinguished in my view.

As seen previously, the Alexandra Bridge is one of many that connects downtown Ottawa to it's sister city Hull. Spanning the Ottawa river, about halfway across it gives you a magnificent view of both cities' skylines, including the rear of the Parliament buildings that looks almost unrecognizable thanks to the large library that remains hidden from the front.

I found the bridge interesting because half of it is a huge metal spinal cavity where cars to zoom along at crazy speeds. Right next to it is the pedestrian walkway made entirely out of wood that terminates in some concrete bunkers in the river. It's wide enough to be divided in two much like the street so that summertime rollerbladers and bikers aren't constantly running into the joggers and other walkers.

I took this photo a summer or two ago when I went up to the Hill to do some touristy stuff. I'd been meaning to do that while living in Ottawa, but never got around to it even after being there for three years.

Three photos from around Ottawa.

Art Crimes and Bombing Science: photo galleries of graffiti from around the world.