Random thought exchange

After our trip to Quebec City and researching and eating the best French Toast I’ve ever eaten – sorry mom – at Panache, I decided to embark on a mission to find the best in Toronto.

Panache French Toast

My research led me to School in Liberty Village. I ordered the Crunchy French Toast. After waiting for what seemed to be hours (likely about 25-30-minutes), and watching the staff bring delicious food out to other customers, the food arrived.

First off, there were two pieces on the plate, and after further examination each piece was actually two-slices of loaf chalah together. It had a slight citrus taste and had what appeared to be fried Rice Crispy bits on it. It was very good, but I highly doubt it’s the best in the city!

If Panache is the benchmark, being a 9.5/10 (I need to leave room for someone to one-up Panache), then School’s Crispy French Toast was about a 7.5/10. My apologies to Brad Moore, executive chef at School, but the dish needs something more. Maybe some fresh cream or fruit slices with it. Also, machine cut chalah? Really? Your chef’s couldn’t muster the effort to hand cut?

What made Panache better? Well, for starters, they use brioche. Then amazing local maple syrup, chopped almonds, and fresh local strawberries and orange slices. I would say that the 9-hour drive just for the French Toast is worth it!

Onward and upward…

Anywhere you suggest that I try next?

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Wow! What a tremendous show of support for such a great cause. Because of your donations, my original goal was completely destroyed! I’ve surpassed the original $500 goal, and upped it to $750. Well, that $750 goal has come and gone, and now I’ve set a new goal, and I’m hoping that those of you who have not yet donated can help me hit the $1000 mark!

$1000 will…

• teach 25 families how to save a life with CPR;
• teach 30 classrooms of children the foundation for heart-healthy living with the HeartSmart Kids program;
• administer 2 Automated External Defibrillator training courses that could save lives; or
• equip a doctor with a blood pressure monitor to help keep patients healthy.

Please have your donation completed on this Sunday (June 5) as I’m doing the ride on June 6.

To sponsor me, please visit: http://davidpisarek.com/bigbike/

(This page is a redirect that will forward you to the secure donation page)

If you’ve already donated, I just want you to know how much I appreciate it. Those of you who have not donated, it’s not too late. In either event, please pass this on to everyone you know.

Remember, donations over $10 will receive a tax receipt.

Thank you so much for your amazing response!

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Let me start off by saying that I don’t care what anyone’s political views are. That’s not what this post is about.

This evening on CBC was the much talked about, seemingly annual, political debate. The Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, and Quebecois parties were represented. As ruled by the courts, the Green party was not allowed to participate – I don’t want to get side-tracked by the reasoning behind that.

Over the two-hours there were six questions asked by Canadian citizens to the politicians, approximately 20-minutes given to each question. Two candidates were pitted head-to-head against one another, and then the other two candidates were allowed to give their side.

I thought the format was really good, but I’m less than impressed with the responses.

Overall, I feel less enchanted by the whole political process. None of the candidates seemed to have “won” the debate, heck it seems like none of the questions were even answered.

I think that I have less respect for the candidates. Not one of them, in my opinion, did anything memorable. It was all political jabs at one another. More of the same, but this time televised with all of them in the same room. Sure, they reiterated what’s been covered by the media for the last few years and more-so in the last couple of weeks – so for those people who haven’t paid attention to the media it might be seen as “insightful”.

I have a sour taste in my mouth. Is this what our citizenship wants as leaders? People who are relatively petty? People who cannot work together?

I’m not suggesting for a moment that we need politicians to sing Kumbya. I understand the need for debate and getting alternative views on the table. But tonight appeared to solely be verbal spew. Nothing to take to heart.

Leaves me with one question – why bother with the debates at all?

Want to post a comment? Visit my blog.

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I want to take this time to reflect on the past year.

May this upcoming year be filled with joy, happiness, love, health and properity – not specifically in that order.  :-)

Last year I took the time to make a great word cloud based on the keywords used to get to my website. I decided to do the same this year. So here it is…

David Pisarek's website word cloud for 2010

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It doesn’t matter who Rosalee or I voted for. That’s not the point of this article.

The situation

No, this has nothing to do with Jersey-shore characters.

Back in 2007 we received the keys to our brand new house in the brand new sub-division we bought in. We officially moved into the house in mid-January 2008, and shortly afterwards we both updated our addresses for our passports (they needed renewal anyways), OHIP and Driver’s Licenses.

We both knew about the By-Election that’s happening today – from media coverage, mass mailings we’ve received and all of the phone calls from the various candidates offices asking for our support.

Earlier today I had a thought – I wondered why we hadn’t received a voters registration card or any details in the mail, so I went to this page to lookup where to vote.

Once Rosalee came home, we both headed over to the venue. Immediately we were greeted by a gentleman who asked if he could assist. We told him that we never received a card in the mail. He pointed out a booth to his right for us to walk over to.  We went to the booth, and gave our driver’s licenses. The lady flipped through her binder, and found Rosalee’s name, but it had the wrong address. It had an address that’s one street behind ours – but it had the right house number and the right postal code! I don’t get it! From everything that I can find, our postal code is valid for only even numbers on our street, and odd numbers on the street behind us.

When she went to look-up my name, I wasn’t in the book at all. My cousins are – they moved into the area within the last year, and we’ve been here nearly three.

How can the municipalities have our details right and not the fed’s? We received all the information for the municipal election without any problem. There is absolutely no reason why I wasn’t on the federal list for today’s vote.

My opinion on the solution

There needs to be a unified connection and communication between database systems and storage procedures. Once someone updates or applies their address for a vehicle registration, health card, driver’s license, tax submission, marriage license, etc it needs to trigger other updates to happen. The government MUST start a system to gather census details, and merge it with the appropriate areas. Yes, that’s a very high-level overview as to how the systems should run, and yes, there are a lot of technical details and processes that would have to be ironed out. And yes, it will cost some serious cash to make it happen. but it’s a one-time deal. Once the system is up and running, it should catch nearly all of the changes, and make for a more customer-focused experience for all Canadians.

Conclusion

No system is perfect. There will always be someone who has a strange exception and won’t be put through.

The time to start on it is now. The population growth is increasing at such a rate and the cost of services are increasing, it only makes logical and financial sense to get started on it now.

Want to know how the electorial race is going? Visit the Elections Canada website for preliminary results.

Follow-up

What do you think?
Can the government get something like this going?
Should they invest the money to get it going?

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Apple launched their iPhone 4 in Canada on July 30, despite the apparent “antenna-gate” issue. I’ve been very excited and couldn’t wait to get my hands on one to try it out and use. I currently have an iPhone 3G 16GB, and I love it, now that I’ve been able to speed it up with the iOS 4.0.1 update – hint, disable some of the areas that spotlight searches in.

The problems

1. I was at work on launch day, so I was unable to be one of the people drawn in so much by the marketing that I was camping out at the Apple stores;
2. The local Rogers stores only received 3-5 units of the 32GB version;
3. Apple was (and still is) selling unlocked iPhone 4′s, as well as performing hardware upgrades for those folks who are on Rogers, Fido, Bell, and Telus;
4. Apple had technical issues with connecting to the Rogers/Fido systems to perform hardware upgrades (HUP). This delay lead to the Apple store taking up to 2 hours to activate a phone – this was only an issue if you were HUPing, unlocked iPhones were processed in minutes;
5. Rogers is not letting their customers HUP online or over the phone. They’re directing all customers to go in to a Rogers location or Apple store, despite their competition allowing the aforementioned methods; and
6. Apple seems to be hoarding the iPhones for their sale. Smart move from a financial standpoint, as they seemingly don’t have to give a cut to the carriers for their part in the sale. It also allows them to up-sell AppleCare warranty, and possibly get additional sales on peripherals, computers, etc, etc.

Is antenna-gate a real issue in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)?

From the few chosen ones whom I’ve spoken with that have obtained the holy grail of cell phones, is NO. They’re able to get the “bars” to go from 4 or 5 down to 2 by strangling the phone with a “death grip” without a case or “bumper” on the phone, so I’m not worried. Once I get my hands on my very own, I’ll be able to test and know for sure. I’ll provide an update at that time.

Rumor has it, that majority of the problems in the USA are due to the poor quality of the AT&T network.

Why do I want one, and why 32GB?

1. I’m getting awfully close to filling my 16GB. The only reason it’s not full, is that I haven’t loaded all my music, and yes, there’s some that I’d like to listen to that I don’t have on there;
2. With 720p HD video, I’d like to not be worried about not being able to record what I want when I want – HD video requires a lot more space than regular video – not that my 3G can do video natively, a 3rd party app is needed;
3. 5MP camera – ok, I have a high-end DSLR for real photos, but if I’m out somewhere and want to take a picture, it’s nice to know I have a bunch of space for it;
4. Apps! There are some apps that run as fast as molasses, even on OS 3.x.  The new processor is going to make them run amazingly; and
5. Retina display! Wow, once you see it in person…  that’s all I can say.

Rumors

There’s a rumor circulating the Internet that Apple is going to release a CDMA version (no, that won’t work on the Rogers network, as they’re GSM) that’s going to have a metal rear face to the phone, and the antenna is going to be linked in to that, instead of part of the ring around the edge of the iPhone 4.  For the sake of calling it something, I’m going to dub it iPhone 4.1.  According to the rumor, it’s due to be released in Q1 2011, that’s just 5-months away. But as I mentioned earlier, in the GTA the antenna “issue” seems to be null.

Perhaps this is why there’s a delay in the white iPhone 4. Maybe Apple is holding off for version 4.1.

In the press conference Steve Jobs hosted at the Apple HQ on July 16, Steve mentions that they will re-evaluate the antenna issue towards the end of September.  That might fall right in line with an announcement about an updated revision to the hardware.

Conclusion – for now

I’ve already renegotiated my plan with Rogers for the next 3-years. I’m getting an amazing deal and awesome features. I don’t mind locking in for 3-years, as it will save me about $500 on the phone just based on retail vs. HUP pricing. As long as Rogers keeps their existing coverage and quality of service (QOS) I’m more than happy.

Now all I need is to get my hands on a iPhone 4 32GB. Anyone have any leads?

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Is this perhaps the worst leak out there? There’s a video on YouTube with what appears to be an Apple Tablet, despite the name on the top of it as TimeInc.

Perhaps this is one of the video demos from today’s Apple release?

You be the judge!

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