Distractions, reflections

David Ing, at large … Sometimes, my mind wanders

2006/10/06 A return to Palisades

An exhausting week for me, as I went bicoastal. Strangely enough, it’s cheaper to fly Los Angeles to Newark plus New York Laguardia to Toronto, than to fly Toronto to Los Angeles. I wouldn’t recommend it as a regular activity, though.

I was scheduled for the SSME Summit at IBM Palisades, and missed the first evening. Minna and Taina had flown in from Finland, and had visited at NJIT for a few days. During the meeting, I saw Ian online, and sent an impromptu message to see if he was available for lunch.

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This was a reunion, of sorts, because Ian and Minna used to come over to Palisades with DLH for our “salon” discussions, where we were learning from each other on a wide variety of research subjects.
It was a bit strange to be back at Palisades, because this was almost exactly five years since I had really spent any time there. I was teaching a class when the planes hit the World Trade Center on 9/11 in 2001, and then attendance for corporate training fell off a cliff.

A lot of the waiters and waitresses in the dining room still remember me, though. For the better part of three years, I must have been there almost every other week.

2006/10/03 Unglamourous Hollywood

I’ve coincidentally had two back-to-back consulting gigs in the Los Angeles area. People tend to romanticize Hollywood, but I tend to see the more mundane. No movie stars for me, just more office buildings with views like this.

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Actually, the picture is informative, because studio sound stages take a fair bid of space, and the mountains in the back tend to soak up a lot of the traffic noise from freeways.

Admittedly, the weather is nicer than Toronto. I have been seeing Ben and his family on these visits, but not on every trip, because it would take at least an hour in rush hour traffic to get over to his place, and they have the usual dual-career-plus-kids commitments that we all do.

2006/09/18 Seeing friends in Claremont, California

Since I’m back on the road again, I can try to take advantage of seeing people that I wouldn’t otherwise meet in my regular life. In this case, I was near Pomona, and I had heard that Lynn was coming in from Hawaii. She, Todd and Len suggested that we might meet in nearby Claremont

Lynn thought that Len should think about the office for his next career away from the university, so we stopped by an office for rent on the main street in Claremont.

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Claremont seems like a nice little California town, with a main street rather than the typical suburban mall.

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Most people may not have hear of Claremont, but it’s rather famous for business readers as Peter Drucker’s home base.

We decided to have Chinese food for dinner, and I got back to the hotel almost early enough to stay in Eastern Time.

2006/09/16 Free concert on Dundas Square

Living in Toronto has it benefits. As the prime urban center in Canada, it gets amenities such as touring musicians. At the same time, the city doesn’t approach the size of New York or Shanghai, so it’s easy to get around.

With the opening of a new retail store at Yonge and Dundas — part of the new Ryerson University campus — there was a “free” concert. I biked over, and there was a large crowd all the way across to the Toronto Eaton Centre. As the crowd thinned, I got a bit closer, but the sound was still better than the view. Can you see?
20060916_DundasSquare.jpg Continue reading2006/09/16 Free concert on Dundas Square

2006/09/10 Family dinner in North York

Since Jeanne, Lisa and Nicole came to town, both sides of her family got together for dinner.

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We met up in North York … and this seems to be the new favourite restaurant where we meet for dinner.

2006/09/03 Kauppatori, Helsinki

For the second week of my two week stay in Helsinki, the first apartment hotel was full, so I was booked at another location over by the ferry docks, and kauppatori — the market square. Minna drove over, to help me move from one apartment to the other.

On the Sunday, the market hall (main building) at the kauppatori was closed, but the stalls outside on the market square were still open for business. Since the apartment hotel had cooking facilities, I bought a few vegetables for dinner.

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Minna and I shopped around for lunch. The best alternative (given my aversion to shrimp and dairy products) was a salmon paella. (As I do with Diana, I gave Minna my olives).

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There’s lots of tourist-type opportunities for shopping in the outdoor stalls, but mainly, Minna was just fooling around.

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Minna actually pointed out some watercolors by a local painter. She thought that they would be good when she gets a bonus cheque!

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