TTC

So.... once again, Toronto survived the perennial TTC strike. All it takes it just 90 pissed off TTC workers to cripple an entire city. These selfish beings don't realize the ripple effects that their illegal action created. Who is going to pay for the $30 cab ride that people have to take to go to work or to a doctors appointment??? Because we don't have the luxury to go on strike and hide behind a union (which is just a mob that extorts people).

TTC workers take their job for granted and it seems that if they don't get their yearly raise and benefits then they are obligated to go on strike. Well wake up, a majority of us don't even get the same benefits as you do and we don't hold the city hostage. The yearly ticket fare increase to fuel your greed is getting ridiculous. The service is not improving, and the constant delay and malfunction of subway trains is frustrating. The perennial fare hike does not justify anything!

If you dislike your job, then QUIT! No one is forcing you to drive a bus for $58,000/yr. There is always another job somewhere. Oh wait a minute, there's no job in the world that will let you whine and refuse to work as you wish! You should be so lucky as to have a job, because most major cities have automated systems, they don't need some overweight guy sitting at the entrance watching passengers drop tokens and tickets into a manually operated fare cannister. Seriously, this guy won't be sitting there if the TTC used a smart card system. And the management are complaining about counterfeit tokens and tickets. To this day I still don't understand why can't the TTC use a smart card, which costs less and not as easily counterfeited. Everything is so inefficient in the TTC!!!!!!

I think the city should pull a Ronald Reagan vs Air Traffic Controllers in the 80's and fired everyone in the TTC organization. Clean house from top to bottom, espeically the managements and union leaders. I'm pretty sure there would be line ups of non-union applicants willing to work a late shift in the TTC organization. Another thing, a refund to Metro Pass holder is not going to suppress the anger of Torontonians. There's a lot of passengers out there that don't use a Metro Pass. If there is a class action suit against the TTC union, count me in.

A Disappointing Game

A couple of us wore Team Canada hockey jersey to work today. Everyone was hoping Canada would advance into the medal rounds by beating Russia. A bunch of us crammed into the lounge to watch the game. It was disappointing to see Canada lose 2-0. I was hoping to wear the jersey one more time this week to celebrate the gold medal win, I guess it will have to be put on hold till 2010 Vancouver.

PROCRASTINATION 101

I've just realized for the last three weeks, I've been doing my homework assignments an hour before it is due. I think it's the procrastinating "do everything last minute" ways I learned from university that got me through these couple of weeks. If it wasn't for the quick on the spot clicking of the lightbulb, I don't think I would have pull this off.

I forgot to go to class

I've been buried so deep in work for the past while that I completely forgot to go to class. It is now almost 2 weeks into the course and I just ordered my textbooks last Friday. In case you are wondering, I'm taking "Intro to Adult Education" at Seneca (the online option), the first out of five courses in the Adult Education/Training certificate.

Ok back to work. I need to fix some garbage "designed" pieces to make them printable.

Update from my trip

So it's been over a month since I got back from Asia. The upload of the photos have been slow, cuz I'm busy as hell over the last couple of weeks. I started to document my trip by writing down in detail of my daily excursion. Usually I don't write alot, even in university it was hard for me to meet the essay page quota. When I started to write my travel journal, somehow I ended up with 6 pages of single spaced 12pt Times type, and I haven't even past day 6 yet. So I may end up writing a book. In the mean time, check out my Japan photos with captions.

photos.yahoo.com/dixonfan (they are organized by date near the bottom)

First Post of 2006

Happy New Year!

Last day in Japan

Another observation:
1) if they love a product, they will spawn at least a dozen publication focusing on using the product. (Ex: I counted around twelve magazines covering the Nikon D70s digital SLR at a bookstore the other day, and most of them are in monthly circulation. How much stuff can you write about using one camera????)
2) prices of vegetables and fruit are astronomically high. When you order a meal there`s hardly any greens on your plate. It would suck to be a vegeterean in Japan, you will absolutely go broke within a month if you keep buying greens. Just stick with tofu.
3) they have way too many buttons for a toilet. Sometimes you are in such a rush that you don`t have time to figure out if you want to warm up the seat and de-odorized your stall. All you want to do is to take a dump and flush without all these jazz.

I spent most of Monday in Akihabara weaving in and out of the electronic stores. Some of the stores have really tight aisles, one wrong turn and you might poke your eyes out on the shelf hangers. If it runs on electricity, you will find it in here. (but i can`t find any power tools, I guess they are not a real DIY type of place). And it is kinda funny to see cell phones that are currently being offered in Canada displayed in the obsolete/old section in Akihabara.

This morning I got up at 4:30am and walked to the Tsukiji, where the Tokyo Central Wholesale Market is located. This is one of the biggest fish market in the world, the place is huge! It is very hard to navigate around. To see the tuna auction I had to venture deep into the market. The place where they keep the frozen tuna for auction is kinda errie. All the torpedoe shaped giant tuna are frozen, gutted and lined up like corpse in a morgue, with an icy mist hovering around their body. After the auction I walked into the middle of the market and had a sushi set for breakfast. The fish they serve are fresh from the market that same morning. The sushi shop is tiny, where you sit elbow to elbow. With a price of Y3,150 , the set comes with a fish miso soup, and a couple of sashimi and sushi. I made the mistake of biting into a bunch of salmon roe and the fish oil is still lingering in my throat.

In the end, the trip to Japan have been amazing. The country is really clean, public transits are very punctual, and people of the service industry are really nice and polite. The only complain I have is the high cost of living.

So, as I depart Japan this afternoon, I will arrive in Hong Kong this evening and continue the other half of the trip. Till next time.