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the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2010.11.15

Today was hectic.

I spent part of the weekend rebuilding an old laptop for my aunt, the novelist. It's a 2005 Dell Inspiron 6000, a gift from Charlie who was given the thing by a friend. While not exactly modern (or attractive) it certainly does seem to be a workhorse, and as it's replacing an antique Toshiba from 1995 with a badly cracked case and a tiny 10" screen (love the 10" 4:3 screen, personally!) I'm sure that my aunt will see a big improvement in usability. But I decided that it was too much to lug back to the city and left it at my mum's place. I also left behind the laptop's original HDD, which I'd promise to return to Charlie.

I had a 14:00 appointment in the city and had quite a few things to do before that. I'd boarded the bus in St. Catharines at 07:50 and of course paid the driver upon boarding. Which is a good thing, because with the new pay-card system I've now accidentally boarded the train a few times without paying. Never on purpose, but simply because the system is so permissive--you don't have to show a ticket or swipe a touch card as you enter. But not today. Not only did I buy my ticket, I put $50 on my card at Biurlington station.

And it was just as well, because two transit security guys swept the train looking for tickets! A lucky break.

Arriving at Union Station at 10:10, I was amazed to learn that Toronto's largest train station doesn't have any coin lockers. So I wound uyp lugging my bag up to city hall, where I had my first item.

But at city hall I was similarly stymied in my assumptions. In this case, it turns out that you can't walk into city hall in Toronto and speak to someone about services offered by the city. The security personnel referred me to a phone which I used to contact a help line. They, in turn, referred me to the city's website! The security folk also put me onto a location for coin lockers, so I went to the city's bus stop and spent $4 for a locker not once but twice thanks to messing up the instructions.

Then I went to see The Chako at Salon Liberte. She told me some news I wasn't keen to hear: my hair's thinned a lot this year (probably due to stress) and I need to adopt a new style of cut if I want to avoid the pathetic sweeping combover look. Rats. So be it.

After that I pigged down a quick lunch, then headed to the inner city's computer store district to look for an external floppy drive for my aunt's PC. This time, I found success.

Then I had a call from my contact at the shop I've been interviewing with, and he asked me to come in thirty minutes early for a pre-game huddle. That then led to an interview with the president, and another with the VP of product development. Two and a half hours culminated in an offer. I start tomorrow on a short contract, and then start the real deal in the new year. Much to my surprise and delight, I'll be working with a favourite boss of days gone by, and in a very promising startup.

Which would make this my eighth or something.

At the end of the day as I arrived in Oakville, I found the HDD that I was supposed to give to Charlie. it had been in my bad the whole time. Dang!

rand()m quote

They that can give up liberty to obtain a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor safety.

—Benjamin Franklin