KeriBlog

Cars, Security & a Peek into my Life

Beast Mode All Day

Auto. Writing. Machine. Love the beast mode feeling.

And after I hit publish that’s it for work till Monday. Look at me learning to have a more balanced life.

Now look how Canadian I look.

Look so Canadian

All I want to do this weekend is manual labour, really.

I like it because it’s so opposite of what I do… scrub sweep polish, see results instantly. Because you could blog yourself into oblivion.

Measure 10 times, buy 1 time.

And I’m going to mess around with this, it’s an OBDII port reader.

And take the Chrysler 200 for a destination-less drive.

Like this.

First flowers of the new house! This week’s flowers.

Thank you K xo, and for driving so far too.

But right now, I’m going to drink beers with the boys. I’ll toast you.

Have a great weekend, TTY Monday.

 

 

Watch Out for the Window Reflection

Windows act like giant mirrors at night.

You can’t tell by this photo, but his screen was crystal clear.  I went along on his digital camera shopping trip during my Happy Meal.

Then the most Canadian thing happened.

He left his gear, and went outside to smoke, he’s the *

(although I love the Canadian-ness above, leaving your laptop unattended is a terrible idea. Even if you think you’re close enough to react in time, you’re not.)

 

 

The Rarest Books in Canada

Finally made it inside. It’s been on my list every year during ‘Doors Open Toronto’, and 4 years later, tada!

It’s the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, inside the University of Toronto.

6 floors housing 700,000 books and 3,000 metres of manuscripts. It’s the largest collection of rare books and manuscripts in Canada.

Some of their best books:

  • Darwin’s proof copy of ‘On the Origin of Spiecies’
  • Egyptian manuscript fragments
  • An original copy of Shakespeare’s ‘First Folio‘ (one book containing all his plays)

How it works:

You tell them what you’d like to read, and they retrieve it for you (only librarians go into the shelves, the “stacks”).

You’ll meet up in the ‘Reading Room’, and be under constant supervision.

I asked them: do I wear gloves when handling the books?

Nope, and I quote, “We are a library, not a museum”. I like that.

I worked in a library for years. I had the dewey decimal system memorized to 5 places. 

I have a Books category here on KeriBlog.

Here’s the best part: people like us, normal public non-university people, can come and read the books.

Website: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
Twitter: @Fisher_Library
Address: 120 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A5
Hours: Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm

Here’s their catalogue.

 

 

Cut Through the Mall to See the Tree

Beautiful.

In late November and December, whenever possible, I cut through the Eaton Centre to walk past the Swarovski tree.

It’s 7 stories tall, covered in crystals, and it spins.

The bows and red balls are new this year.  I’m curious to know the reaction, usually it’s only crystals. Being a minimalist, I like the latter.

I also like their sunglasses, which I didn’t even know that they make sunglasses, learned that a few weeks ago at an event.

Oh hi hi.

(I dedicate this gif to Allison )

At that same event I met Christine in real life… in 2009 we’d both entered a contest to win a trip to the Olympics.

At that time, she was a student and I was ‘The Canadian Explorer’.  Then out of school and tada, she’s working for a top PR firm, nicely done missy!!

The Contest: they were looking for mobile explorers (I know come ON), so you had to create an original video showcasing your blogging and social media skills, and the 5 entries with the most votes were sent to cover Vancouver 2010.

This was my entry.

Remember when we all had Olympic fever?  The excitement and camaraderie and patriotism?  Awesome.

And remember when Canada threw ‘The Party Olympics’ while SIMULTANEOUSLY winning more Gold medals in the history of all time?

GO CANADA GO!!

 

 

 

Keri
PS – I won the contest, here’s the proof, and yet I didn’t.  That day, I declared contests dead to me.