Madison Heights, Michigan; Benton Harbor, Michigan; Mount Pleasant, Iowa; Salina, Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa; Rock Island, Illinois; Windsor, Ontario; Scarborough, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario
168 Asian Mart: Michigan evening for Chinese groceries before driving to Iowa in the morning. Korean-style rice grown in the U.S. is something we don’t see back home. The vegetables and sauces are much the same as everywhere. (168 Asian Mart, John R Road, Madison Heights, Michigan) 20160502Asian Grille Buffet: Changing pattern from Midwest Chinese restaurants to buffets, driving westbound across Michigan towards Iowa. On last trip westbound, found price at buffet same or lower than custom orders for lunch. Trading off on driving, expecting food coma. (Asian Grill Buffet, Benton Harbor, Michigan) 20160503Jefferson Street, Mount Pleasant, Iowa: Quiet Tuesday evening in town with population less than 9000 in Iowa. Over dinner in local Chinese restaurant, discussed conveniences not available, e.g. no taxis, so farmers drive tractors if a car isn’t available. Drove through campus of Iowa Wesleyan University, less than 600 students on 60 acres. (Jefferson Street, Mount Pleasant, Iowa) 20160504Salina, Iowa: Family dog watching out picture window onto rolling landscape of fields and roads in farm country. Temperature has swung from winter to summer within 3 days, rush to planting will be underway with forecasts for clear weather. (Salina, Iowa) 20160405Salina, Iowa: Warm and dry May day scheduled for planting on the farm. We went to the field to learn about agriculture in practice. Terrain was rolling hills, so the six row planter was steered according to the way water will flow on the ground. Moving around a little dirt surfaced a green bean buried under a little soil. We’re just tourists from the city. (Salina, Iowa) 20160506
Six row planter in Iowa: Learned about how soybeans are put into the ground with a John Deere six row planter. Smaller tractors can follow the contour of the landscape, whereas the larger 30-row planters would have problems turning around. This machinery is less computerized, relying on the experience of the farmer to a greater degree. (Salina, Iowa) 20160506
North Market Square: Saturday family lunch, with leftovers to take home. Time squeezed between 5K run in morning, and art class in the afternoon, around university final exam schedule. Spring weather now holding constant. (North Market Square, E. College Street, Iowa City, Iowa) 20160507Jumer’s Casino: Rest stop at casino just west of the Mississippi, on our way eastbound from Iowa on I-280. Didn’t want to show ID to enter, so don’t know if there’s more than slot machines. (Jumer’s Casino, Rock Island, Illinois) 20160510Que Huong: Dinner late, car failed after 10 hour drive east from Iowa. Pulled off highway in Plymouth County, Michigan, and drove to Clawson on local streets for more than an hour. Will take minivan in for diagnosis tomorrow. Vehicle is 13 years old, may or may not be at end of life. (Que Huong, Madison Heights, Michigan) 20160510Automaxx Windsor: Temporary plates installed for a test drive of a 2014 Mazda 5. We said we would drive the 2003 MPV we bought in 2007 until it died. We drove this morning from 14 Mile Road Troy not on freeways down to Detroit at 20-30mph, and through the tunnel back to Windsor. DY still wants a vehicle that will seat 5 to 6 people, so the Mazda 5 is the small alternative to the massive minivan or SUV alternatives. (Automaxx Windsor, Fontainebleau neighbourhood, east Windsor, Ontario) 20160511Automaxx Windsor: Diana waves goodbye to the minivan that we’ve had since 2007, through four sons learning to drive, with dents and scratches from inexperienced drivers. We transferred our suitcases and travel gear from the MPV into a smaller Mazda5, to continue our journey from Iowa east to Toronto. We removed practically everything from the vehicle destined for the scrap yard. The 4.5 hour drive home taught us the difference in visibility on a shorter car, since we’ve been driving taller minivans since the early 1990s. (Automaxx Windsor, Fontainbleau neighbourhood, east Windsor, Ontario) 20160511Shirin Kebab House: Meeting over Turkish pide and veal-lamb doner wrap in casual suburban diner. Ground beef pide is cheeseless recipe, and this is one of three places in the city serving it. Neighbourhood clientele includes toddlers. (Shirin Kebab House, Golden Mile, Scarborough, Ontario) 20160513Gerrard Square northeast footpath: Found pedestrian route south of rail tracks, north of parking garage at east end of parking structure. Biking south on Jones Avenue, turned westbound into parking laneway, crossed Galt Avenue to discover shortcut to shopping mall. These laneways have no house entries, so no name. (Gerrard Square northeast footpath, west of Galt Avenue, Riverdale, Ontario) 20160514DMZ at Ryerson U.: Meetup @BluemixGarage @RyersonDMZ with @AndrewSafranko presenting on IBM Innovation Incubator in Toronto. As I’m an IBM graduate, I’m not the usual target audience. Casual event to see how the company is changing (and not changed). (DMZ at Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario) 20160516Dinner for systems thinking: Informal gathering, visiting guest anticipating Systems Thinking Ontario tomorrow night. Experimental fish soup with fuzzy melon and enoki mushrooms, then Chinese beef stew with daikon. Conversation shifted to American politics, then organization of system communities. (Riverside neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario) 20150517
Systems Thinking Ontario:Judith Rosen describing Anticipatory Systems Theory, being alive as Metabolism and Repair, complexity and the modeling relation, and refreshing on the Aristotelian four causes. Deep thinking covering a lot of territory in less than 2 hours. A return visit when university is in session is called for. (Systems Thinking Ontario, Lambert Lounge, OCAD University, 100 McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20160518
Pivotal Toronto: Minimum Viable Platform (not Product), says @caseywest @pivotal @cloudnativefdn road show, should put ensure on Viable, not on Minimum. Earlier cited Gartner projection that by 2020, 75% of application development of digital businesses will be built, not bought. Said Amazon declares releasing changes every 11 seconds, but thinks it could be every second. (Pivotal, Toronto Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20160520Pine Hills Cemetery: Lighting hell money and incense on visiting mom’s gravesite, adjacent to the annual Lowkong clan convening at the monument. Dad had visited earlier on the anniversary, by himself. Only 3 of us in Toronto this weekend, we all continued on to Mount Pleasant to see both grandparents, afterwards. (Pine Hills Cemetery, Scarborough, Ontario) 20160522Open Gallery, OCADU: xFutures reception by @OCADU_SFI master’s students, opening day of exhibition of major research projects on display for 2 weeks. Topics of research from design school are interesting. Posters on curved window wall block the view of TTC streetcars turning around on the McCaul Loop cut into the Village by the Grange. (Open Gallery, 49 McCaul Street, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario) 20160526Portland Energy Centre: Inside @PortlandsEnergy @Doors_OpenTO tour, three intake structures take water from the ship channel to the north, at a rate so slow that fish can easily swim away. Water is cleaned and cooled for output to the south that flows past the Cherry Beach swimming area. (Portland Energy Centre, Unwin Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20160528TTC Leslie Barns: Maintenance pit @TTCLeslieBarns @Doors_OpenTO under streetcar. Facilities are well lit and brightly coloured, seems like a good working environment. Outside, rode around tracks with tight curves, then streetcar drove through washing and sanding stations. (TTC Leslie Barns, Lake Shore Boulevard East, Toronto, Ontario) 20160528Young Centre: Play reading of @NormanYeung Theory @Soulpepper Tiger-Bamboo Festival @YoungCentre RBC Studio. Storyline carried mostly by words, with actors rising from chairs and raising reading stands. Story of university lecturer using social media outside of academic institution hits close to home, but I don’t teach film studies. (Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Tank House Lane, Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario) 20160528Backyard barbeque: Grilling chuanr chicken + lemongrass pork for Memorial Day weekend, which isn’t really a holiday weekend north of the border. Seasonings made by hand. Barbeque needed maintenance, with a new replacement part. (Riverside district, Toronto, Ontario) 20160529BrightLane: Gitflow + Drupal introduction by @nafes15 for @DrupalTO monthly meeting. Some came to learn about Git, some came to catch up on Drupal. Could use Git for a centralized workflow, but networked workflows allow Feature branches that don’t impact the main branch with conflicts; and/or GitFlow with multiple branches, e.g. production and development. (BrightLane, Long Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20160530
Tommy Thompson Park: Pedestrian bridge between Cell C and Embayment C open on an early Tuesday evening. Fisherman each trying a variety of lures, no success while I was there. The spit is rather long for a walk, it’s good for a leisurely bike ride. (Tommy Thompson Park , Toronto, Ontario) 20160531
