The Brainroast

It’s been quite a while since we last made our own dinner. From the day our baby arrived, our dinners have always been prepared by either Kathy’s mother or some random cook in a restaurant we go to/buy take-out from.

I’ve long been wanting to do something to ease this dire situation. So I volunteered to cook on Saturday, something I haven’t done in months, so we can be on our own for dinner. I suggested pasta and got the nod from Kathy.

So, off to the local supermarket for ingredients. I was totally improvising – thinking that I’ve had enough pasta to know what to buy. Brought home some onion, celery, brown mushrooms, some Alfredo sauce (which is just a premix of cream, cheese, and a small amount of garlic). Then I looked for recipes that make use of these ingredients plus whatever I could salvage from the kitchen.

It’s when Finagle striked: the search returned no suitable match. Well, big deal – let’s combine the results here and there, and create my own Lobster Spaghetti recipe. It’s more fun this way, anyway!

Combining recipes to improvise your new one is so easy that anyone who can hold a spoon can do without any effort. I think as soon as our kid can handle chopsticks, we’ll teach her to do it.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• around 700 g of lobster, shell included. You can use as much or as little as you like, substitute with scallops or crabs or shrimps or crayfish, really.
• 300 g of mushroom
• 1 yellow onion
• 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• 20 ml of dry cooking wine. I used rice wine as my cooking booze as there wasn’t cooking wine in hand. It worked.
• 200 ml of cream and some Parmesan cheese. I cheated and used some Alfredo sauce in place. It worked.
• 500 g of spaghetti (use only made-in-Italy ones. According to Kathy, they’re the best)
• salt to taste. Bonus if you use truffle salt.
• garlic to taste (those added in the pre-made sauce was insufficient to my taste)
• basil and/or rosemary to taste. I used both.
• liberal amount of black pepper – we like it spicy!
• parsley to sprinkle

Steps:

1. Clean, slice and dice all the veggies.
2. Clean and boil the lobster. No need to kill it first – just put it into boiling water head-down. Nobody has proven that a lobster will suffer less pain if it’s killed by physical means before we make it swim.
3. After 20 minutes, scoop out the boiled critter and discard much of the water, leaving only as much as needed to cook the pasta. This way, we save some time because the water is already hot, and the pasta will taste better because it has the lobster umami.
4. Add half of the olive oil (it prevents our pasta from sticking to the pot) and as much or as little salt as you please to the hot lobster water. Let boil and add pasta. Cook and drain.
5. Heat up a frying pan and pour the remaining olive oil to the warm pan. Wait for it to get hot, then pour all the basil/garlic/rosemary/black pepper/mushroom/onion/celery into it. Turn and mix repeatedly. Add your choice of cooking booze.
6. Now that the lobster has cooled down a bit, it’s a good time to de-shell it. Dice the meat to any size you fancy. Or remove and marvel at the quantity and quality of tomalley or roes of a May-harvest Atlantic lobster. Just don’t spend too much time.
7. When you think the mix has been sufficiently cooked, add the seafood and the sauce, mix and stir thoroughly.
8. Add sauce to pasta, sprinkle with parsley

Verdict:

Got an 8 out of 10 from Kathy. She suggested I use less Rosemary, dice the onion to smaller bits, and pre-mix the spaghetti with the sauce before serving. Overall it’s a thumbs-up considering she’s an expert in culinary arts. (well, at least compared to me!)

A small step that I took, a giant step towards our sorely missed dinner independence.

Some pics for you photo addicts:

Living lobster:

Swimming lobster:

Cooked lobster and lobster soup:

Top row – Alfredo sauce, spice/herb mix, extra virgin olive oil, rice wine.
Bottom row – onion, celery, mushroom, spaghetti:

The stirfry:

Lobster meat:

Lobster tomalley and roes:

Sauce, almost ready:

End product:

My Windows Mobile experience

Since the mid 90s, a mobile device of some sort has always been part of my life – from an ancient Apple Newton MessagePad 110 to the mountains of Blackberries I used to use at work at my previous employer RIM, to the latest in MS Windows Mobile phone. Yet I’ve never felt impelled to write about any of them, until now.

In 2007, going through my Crackberry withdrawal, I spent USD $420 on an HTC “Vox” (Dopod C500) Windows Mobile Smartphone in Hong Kong. 3G networks did not exist in Ontario back then, so I was opting for an EDGE phone, in the spirit of not spending money on unused features. Also, coming from a Blackberry at the time, a real keyboard with tactile feedback was a must, so I chose this phone because it’s among the handful of EDGE-only smart phones with a hardware keyboard. On specifications-alone the Vox looked plenty good. The CNet review was downright astonishing.

Little did I know, that my years at RIM spent with various incarnations of the Blackberry made me a mobile phone snob – in the first two months of owning this new phone I swore by it (while trying to figure out ways to work around numerous annoyances), but by the third, I swore at it – which was unfortunately already too late because I couldn’t sell the phone at even 1/2 of the original price. The processor was slow, the home screen required an ugly hack just to display the day of week, flapping rubber lids that could never stay closed, battery life gradually dwindled to minutes when EDGE was used, a light sensor that made the screen dimmer under sunlight (which is totally backwards), a keyboard that always skipped the first key that was typed and delayed half a second for every subsequent keypress, a crappy browser, buggy sync, the keyboard “rails” that also functioned as an extremely efficient dirt magnet – I can go on and on – its only redeeming quality seemed to be the availability of Opera Mini – this application singlehandedly gave me the resolve to not spend, and possibly waste, another pile of cash on a phone. “Give it two years, at least wait for 3G”, I kept telling myself.

It turned out, for a snob, I could tolerate a lot of phone torture. I’m either extremely patient or masochistic, or both.

Mini-review of the HTC Magic

Two years came and went, HSDPA finally arrives in Canada, and I had an Android-powered phone squarely in my cross-hair. Although my faith in HTC waned during my Vox ownership, the newer HTC hardware seemed to be okay, so why not give it another chance. A trip to Pacific Mall landed me a SIM unlocked, contract-free, Rogers-branded HTC Magic, for quite steep a discount at CAD $400, tax-included (thanks Danny!). To put things in perspective, it’s cheaper than the Vox, the phone that has inflicted excruciating misery upon my well-being for the past two years.

The HTC Magic is the second Android phone. Its touch screen interface some say is an iPhone wannabe, and I don’t dispute that. What I like is its tight integration with Google’s services, and its open architecture with a Linux kernel and a development kit that runs on the JDK. It’s essentially a breeding ground for a hacker community. Not to mention universal rave reviews (this time, real phone review sites instead of CNet are consulted).

Feature-wise, it has all the usual features standard on 2009 phones, and more: touch screen, camera, WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, Compass (having a compass is very important, as it allows applications that does Augmented Reality, such as Google Streetview and Layar), and a central application repository, a la Apple’s AppStore – only less Draconian.

Although it does not have a hardware keyboard, it does not seem a necessity anymore. My Blackberry withdrawal was complete. Perhaps I should thank my horrid HTC Vox experience for a speedy withdrawal. Anyhow, software keyboards nowadays can give tactile feedbacks via vibrations, which work sufficiently well enough. I can live without no-look typing and the shortcut keys.

In actual use, it reminds me a lot of my previous handhelds – mostly features that I’m fond of. Palm III’s navigability and form factor (and Dopewars and Bejeweled!!), Blackberry’s push-based email, HP 200LX’s RPN graphing calculator that I can install from an app, and a normal phone’s battery life.

Here are a few screenshots of the HTC Magic after minimal customization (mainly involving screen widgets and application launchers):

(before you ask why I installed the Tube map, I believe it should be on everyone’s handheld just in case, even for those who don’t visit London frequently)

After owning the new phone for a month, I’ve learnt about its quirks and annoyances – relatively very minor compared to those of the Vox, mind you. Maybe it doesn’t have a standard headphone jack and does not support sending iCalendar invitations, but I don’t listen to music on phones much and can always use the browser to send invites. It does not yet work with Flash (some consider it a blessing!), but it has just been included Android 2.0 and the rumour is it’ll be backported.

Overall, I have difficulty finding fault with the Magic. There are some, but I’ve worked around them through installing a custom ROM, which as a bonus also delivers various enhancements. Read on.

Obtaining “root” access (or “Quirks, and an easy way to fix ’em”)

Around a third of my time spent of a “smart” mobile device revolves around one application – the “Notepad”, regardless whether it was the Newton, the Palm, the Blackberry or the Windows Mobile phone. (the HP LX was an exception as I used its Lotus-123 as a glorified notepad). It follows quite naturally that good text input is an important functionality. Unfortunately, auto-correct is integral to text input with a software keyboard, it’s the nature of the beast.

Often, I need to enter unusual words or acronyms into my notes and the Magic unfailingly insists on adding them to the dictionary, which is bad because over time, the dictionary will be full of words that are only meaningful the first time they were used, making auto-correct inefficient. Adding insult to the injury, the user dictionary can only be emptied but not modified. Simply asinine.

It turned out it’s not Android’s keyboard that’s at fault but rather, it’s HTC’s custom software. To fix this, I decided to obtain “root access” to the phone so that I can perform deeper customizations impossible on a stock phone – such as replacing HTC’s software keyboard with Google’s.

After setting up the Android SDK and following these very simple instructions on xda-developers’s Android forum, I obtained root access. I played around with the “rooted” Magic by performing the following customizations previous impossible:

1. Remove all Roger’s applications rubbish (“Home”, “My Account”, “Ringback”, “Ringtone”, “Shop”)
2. Add a Silent.mp3 ring tone to the phone (which does not play anything) to silent the spammers and the fax machines (without root access, custom tones can only be put on an SD card)
3. Sym-link the phone’s start-up sound effect to Silent.mp3, so the phone can be turned on in stealth
4. Enable the root prompt on the device
5. Download an application to adjust CPU frequency to achieve better performance and battery life
6. Enable Android Market for paid applications

All seemed to work well, and completed within 30 minutes. I was ready to perform the ultimate customization: flashing to a “community-enhanced” Google stock ROM “Ion” with the Android keyboard, that cherry-picks desirable HTC features. After a bit of research, the Ion Hofo ROM appeared to fit the bill.

Custom ROM

After wiping of my user data plus about 10 minutes, my Magic was running the enhanced Ion ROM! I was flabbergasted by how smoothly it went, how well all the hardware worked, and very pleasantly surprised by some unanticipated enhancements. In short, it’s everything in a mobile phone that I wanted, and then some.

• Android keyboard and a customizable auto-correct dictionary! Yay.
• Multi-touch zooming/unzooming in browser!
• The camera app now can geo-tag the pictures!
• Google Voice search. Although its practical value is yet to be seen, it’s very fun to use!
• A myriad of languages instead of only English and French. It’s more for resale value than anything.
• HTC features – QuickOffice, Exchange sync, PDF viewer, boot logo, even its keyboard that I dislike – but it can be switched off, and may come in handy.
• HTC Hero ring tones!
• Android Market Enabler included!
• Slicker icons!
• A built-in widget to toggle Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Wireless Sync, and screen brightness!
• The built-in Google apps (e.g Gmail, Gtalk, Calendar, camera) expose a lot more settings in their customization menus!
• ip-table-enabled kernel to support tethering with the Wifi tethering application already included! (but with a phone this good, I doubt I’ll tether much unless I have to use a full keyboard)

Despite all these new features, the Ion ROM made the phone run both faster and with a longer battery life, thanks to some smart CPU frequency management. Kudos to the hackers who created this piece of telecommunication art.

Downsides:

1. Camera seems to only operate under auto white balance. It mostly works okay so it’s what I can live with, especially when I get geo-tagging in return.
2. Lost the ability to “Use only 3G networks”, but I haven’t run into a situation where the phone would revert to 2G on its own, so who needs that?
3. The default Rogers Access Point setting is erased so there’s no wireless data. I panicked for a minute, did a quick search and then entered the following to make everything work again:

Name: Rogers
APN: rogers-core-appl1.apn
MMSC: http://mms.gprs.rogers.com
MMS Proxy: 10.128.1.69
MMS port: 80
MCC: 302
MNC: 72

Here are some screenshots taken with the Android SDK after installing the community Ion ROM. They look very similar to the “before” shots because it’s the way I arrange my launchers and widgets and after all, Roger’s ROM is just a customization bastardisation of the original Ion ROM made by HTC.

Note the Microphone button on the Search Widget. It’s for Voice Search:

I’m very pleased with the phone now and it should keep any phone buying urge at bay for at least the next 3 years. You read it here.

Going through bag after bag is an unavoidable chore for anyone who uses a camera with non-negligible heft. After going through 3-4 camera bags, I think I’ve finally found an all-round match.

The Optexes

When I bought my first digital camera in 2001 (a venerable HP 912) from Future Shop, I was also sold a “matching” camera bag like every unwitting consumer. It was an Optex camera bag. Not exactly cheap for what it offered – the capacity/bulk ratio was too low, access wasn’t convenient, uncomfortable, and as a bonus looked ugly as hell. Used it for the trip to New England and Europe – then I made it stay at its rightful place, in the closet, to hold other underused equipments ever since.

My second digicam bag was an Optex belt-mounted pouch that’s just enough to hold my then A80 in 2004, a few extra memory cards and AA batteries. Perfect for its purpose as an all-in-one pouch for a small compact – albeit slightly bulky. Extremely convenient. Used it for the trip to Portugal and Spain, although later sold together with the camera. Wouldn’t hesitate to get a similar bag if the need ever arises again.

Sling bag by Roots

The transition to a DSLR finally arrived in 2004 and of course together with it came another bag. Roots sling bag which to this day I’m pretty contend with, being able to hold a DSLR body, 2 small zooms and a small flash (or 2 larger zooms, no flash) batteries, lens pen and a few filters.

It works pretty well as a run-around bag if I know in advance the lens choice with the condition that this choice also happens to be small. Made it a snap to engage the camera by just swinging it around. Works well for trips where the hotel room is usually nearby and not a lot of personal items are needed on the go. Brought it to California, Yosemite and Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc.

Tamrac Adventure backpack

Most other times however, I need to pack more than just photographic equipments. The search began again and the Tamrac Adventure 6 did the job marvellously. Holds a DSLR body, 2 small zooms (or a small zoom plus a small flash), 2 small primes, lens pen, some filters, extra batteries and memory cards, lens cloth, plus on one occasion an engagement ring.

The non-photographic compartment can hold my passport, a small book (passport-sized Japanese detective novel), handkerchiefs, a pack of tissue paper, titbit in a ziplock bag, a cap or two, a sunglasses case plus some odd items I must have missed. I could use it to hold an additional small zoom if I don’t need to bring as much personal items. The sides hold 2 small bottles of water. You’ve guessed it – it’s the main walking bag and I used this over the years for trips to Vienna, Maldives, Japan and then to Patagonia, each of these trips only needed a limited selection of lenses. It at least looks sufficiently compact for what it can hold, and I expect it to continue to be my main all-purpose bag for a while.

Crumpler Keystone

My odyssey for bags could have ended here, if the DSLR body or the lenses didn’t get bigger, or if I lived in the ideal world where the lens choice is always small and known. Then came this trip to Hong Kong for a dear cousin’s wedding where I were to document the entire day, plus a short walking/hiking trip around the city, on top of preparing to take some random shots I’ve fancied for a while.

So I needed a bag to store mostly photographic equipments, but with a large selection of lenses. It needs to be reasonably secure (cannot be opened from your back for the peace of mind), not too big and make me look like an astronaut on the moon. Bonus if it can hold a small computer.

The search narrowed down to LowePro Flipside 400 AW, Think Tank Urban Disguise 35, and Crumpler Keystone. The Think Tank was quickly eliminated as I found shoulder bags to be not very comfortable for long walks – it has a harness that converts it to a backpack, but then I also found it too rigid and with a low capacity/bulk ratio. Then the Flipside 400 was also eliminated because of its astronaut look – at the same time the Crumpler was on sale at 25% off at Henry’s, so I drove there and picked up the last one left in store.

The recommended configuration is a DSLR body, 3-4 lenses, one accessory and a 12" laptop. Here’s what I put in: K-7 body with neck strap, AF-540FGZ flash, DA10-17, DA*16-50/2.8, DA*50-135/2.8, FA50/1.4, FA35/2, DA40/2.8, Vivitar 2xMFTC, spare Li-Ion and AA batteries, hand strap, Pelican memory card case, some filters, lens pen, Joe Demb Flip-It, sunglasses case, AND a 9" Netbook. I also managed to stuff in an extra CD in one occasion. The strap it has on the outside for my tripod is a pleasant bonus. Although I still cannot fit in all my lenses, this is enough configuration for most shootings. It only needs a side net to store a bottle of water to be perfect. Here’s a picture of the Keystone in all its glory, with contents (low camera phone image quality)

Crumpler also claims that its bags “don’t scream camera bags” thus are more secure. Might be true a few years back, but with almost all camera stores selling them these days it can hardly be the case. More, if I were a thief and saw you holding a camera that remotely looks like a DSLR, I’d assume your bag was full of expensive lenses and accessories regardless of its shape and form.

All in all except for the first Optex, these bags are all highly recommended, each fulfils a different purpose. I think my journey for bags will end here – I cannot imagine at this moment that I’d venture beyond what they can do. :)

Almost all films I’ve watched in the last decade were watched on some sort of aircraft for a myriad of reasons – because I got too lazy to go to the theatres, or too cheap to buy pay-per-views, or going to a theatre is one of Kathy’s migraine triggers, and so forth.

Good thing is, since 4 or 5 years ago I was no longer force-fed whatever the plane was playing – there are always a tonne or two on-demand movies to choose from – as a result the first 15 minutes or so is inevitably spent on browsing the menu. (well there are web sites, but I consider zipping through the channels part of the fun…)

Still remember watching 15 or so movies on my last two trips, both on Continental, mostly superhero ones – all the X-Mens, IronMan, Hulk, Hancock, Gandhi (okay, not a superhero nor a recent film, but arguably close on the first count)… All were great. Maybe it’s just my genre. I still remember there’s a total of over 200 to choose from – I could easily go non-stop for 30 minutes just to read the synopses.

This time I was on Air Canada and its selections seems meager in comparison. Scratch that. Meager is an understatement – it’s downright lacking. So I “only” watched 5 for the round trip:

Hangover (2009)

Extreme pointless fun. Must watch.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

This is a joke. 80’s style action film with ubiquitous explosion. Crappy brainless plot, no character development. Utter waste of 2 hours.

The Green Mile (1999)

I missed this when it was out – but after 10 years it’s still miles ahead of a lot of 2009 flicks.

Angels and Demons (2009)

Don’t know about the novel, but the film is underwhelming at least compared to its predecessor. Trivial plays of symbolism, scant plot and an ending that anyone can anticipate way ahead.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Action-packed with a fitting plot. Again, maybe it’s just my genre.

Apart from movies, there are things I always do during flights:

1. Bring a book. Just in case all the films are like Terminator Salvation. Plus, I can always read at my own pace.
2. Or bring a computer. Your own film, music, things to read or to do.
3. On an aisle seat, always look for the hidden button that lets you lift the aisle-side armrest. Very convenient and there’s always one if you look close enough.
4. Put on the seat belt so it clicks, but only “fasten” it loosely – it’s there to pull you backwards and downwards. Downwards I can understand just in case of a sudden descent but a loosely-fastened belt can do the job – and you only need to be pulled backwards in case of sudden deceleration or if the plane is making a nose-dive. I doubt in these situations a tightly fastened belt is going to make any difference, anyway.
5. Whatever you do, DO NOT SING!! Your ticket entitles you to a seat and the “airspace” that belongs to the seat – anything beyond that, please show your other ticket. Music to your ears is noise and intrusion to mine. (yes, someone sat beside me today sang non-stop)

Seeing this is a nice sunny day, we and our neighbour decided to seal our driveway with some acrylic sealer I bought last year (but didn’t find the chance to put on). It supposedly will protect the asphalt against UV and weather damage.

However, halfway through the application, the bottle went dry (lesson learnt: NEVER believe the advertised coverage area!!) and I had to pick up another bottle. Well, bad luck never come in ones. The same type of sealant seemed to have gone out of production and couldn’t be found in any major stores nearby. So I tried to match the descriptions on my old bottle. These are the hints:

“acrylic”, “matte black finish”, “wet before application”, “apply 2 coats”, “dry in about one hour”.

And came up with this: Black Knight Asphalt Rejuvenator

At $50, it’s not exactly cheap (about twice the price of “Airport Pro” sealers). But acrylic-based sealers are less smelly, dry faster, and don’t look shiny (in my observation, shiny surfaces attract bird droppings). So it looks good in my book.

These are the pics: (K-7, DA* 16-50)

Before:

After:

With summer rapidly approaching, young specimens of Weeping Japanese Maples are getting more difficult to find. So we decided to try an alternative: air layering a branch of a Bloodgood Japanese Maple from Kathy’s parents.

These are the instructions I followed. They use Acer Palmatum (Japanese Maple) as an example. Perfect: Layering Techniques

Tools:

• Bubble Wrap
• Peat Moss
• Root Stimulant
• Twist ties
• Some tapes

Steps:

1. soak peat moss
2. remove a ring of bark, ideally under a new branch
3. apply root stimulant to wound
4. fixate bubble wrap around wound with twist ties
5. insert soaked peat moss at the top
6. strengthen with tapes

Immediate result:

Let’s see how it turns out in a few months.

With the paintjob on the wall redone, we decide it’s time to add some pizzaz to the living room – the lowest hanging fruits at the time seem to be these unsightly temporary paper curtains (1 of 2 shown).

We have some Flyn Ofelia from Ikea that I originally wanted to hang on the wall but ultimately Kathy thought it’d fit the curtain hole better.

In the Ikea showroom, the Flyn Ofelia seems to be somewhat restricted in its usage – as side-scrolling pieces of curtain panel fabric sold separately with relatively expensive curtain panel accessories – rings, clips, rails, adding up to more than the fabric itself. Plus a side-scrolling system is unsuitable for the shape of our windows. This marks the beginning of our first Ikea hack.

After some exploration we come across the Isdans plain roller blinds. Extremely cheap, easy to install, fits our windows perfectly and with a width identical to the Flyn.

At this point the direction of the hack becomes very clear: sew the Flyn on top of the Isdan to create a unique roller blind.

1. Cut the Flyn fabric so it slightly extends beyond the Isdan at both ends.
2. Line the fabric up with the blind and sew on the two sides temporarily to fix the alignments. Make sure these temporary stitches are easy to remove.
3. Fold and then sew the Flyn fabric over the back at the lower end of the blind. Leave a little space of about 2 cm in diameter.
4. Roll the Flyn fabric over the top end of the blind and adhere it to the rod with some glue. My favourite is the Shoe Goo, a silicone-based adhesive. In theory any silicone-based, transparent glue should do the job.
5. When the glue is set and cured, remove the temporary stitches on the sides.
6. Do NOT permanently sew the fabric on the two sides of the blind.

The reason why the two sides must not be sewn, is because the attached fabric rolls at a higher rate than the blind itself due to it being always slightly further from the centre of the rod – sewing them together may seem fine at first, but as you roll them up sewn, it’ll turn into a mess of wrinkles and ridges.

This picture illustrates how it should look at the bottom of the blind. Note the absence of stitches (it has stitch holes, yes, we screwed up once :)

The final result (showing 1 of 2). A quick “morning after” inspection confirms that it diffuses sunlight to the ambience far better than the temporary blinds did, while also providing more privacy.

Not bad for $25 per (as of now, one-of-a-kind) blind still with an entire piece of fabric left over, eh?

Finally, soft blues and whites go pretty well with browns, you can quote us on that.

Granted it does not look like a cookie-cutter reply, but they evade my most serious concern.
Anyway, this has been dragged on for far longer than I like. Next up you’ll see something more exciting. :)

November 14, 2008
Fax: (416) 869-1662

Reference No: 2008010974
Mr. Michael Lam
Dear Mr. Lam:
Thank you for your comments about the changes to recent boarding procedures at Richmond Hill GO.
Earlier this year, we lengthened Richmond Hill trains to ten cars; however, the platform at Richmond Hill GO is only eight cars long. While extending the platform to accommodate ten cars would be the ideal solution, we face major restrictions due to the bridge on the south end and curvature of the track at the north end. As a result, Bombardier had a second Customer Service Ambassador on board the trains for training purposes who would monitor the boarding and prevent the off-platform doors from opening.

With Bombardier’s takeover of Conductor and Assistant Conductor positions, effective October 27th, we no longer have this second person available to assist with door operations. Subsequently, it was necessary to change the door operation to protect the safety of our passengers. Thus the reason for the five door procedure initiation. Overwhelming complaints from customers surfaced regarding the five car procedure, and in the interest of customer satisfaction, a new operating procedure was established and implemented (announcements made on all trains) and eight car boarding was reinstated as of Thursday October 30th.

The revised agreement was reached by both CN and Bombardier and the procedure implemented was as follows: The train stops at the south end of the platform dropping the Commuter Train Operator on the platform. The train then pulls ahead to its normal stopping location, the operator is now able to operate the doors from the eighth car, which allows cars one through eight to open, previously only one through five due to the reduced crew member. The Customer Service Ambassador remains at the accessible car to address the lowering and raising of the disabled ramp.

Admittedly, this procedure has a tendency to delay the trains arrival minimally while the operator is being dropped off on the platform, (approximately a minute) but it was chosen as the best possible procedure to address the reduction in crew.

As with all new procedure implementation, fine tuning is required and necessary adjustments made. Complaints regarding the process are forwarded to Rail Operations to address. Recently, our Supervisor in Rail Operations followed up with Bombardier as a result of your email to ensure all crews are following proper procedures. As GO Transit continues to evaluate its service, input from passengers is both essential and welcomed. We appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns, and, we thank you for your patience and continued support.

Sincerely,
Jill Lamont
Customer Service Representative
GO Transit

Signs of poor customer understanding start pouring in, to the point that I’m starting to lose my cool. Just spent another 15 minutes during lunch for another “feedback”. Am I bitching too much?

Hello,

I have been a GO rider for 3 years and I, like many more fellow
passengers I see every evening, am quite (to put it mildly) aggravated
by the latest of what seems to be a series of new policies aimed at
making our trip home less safe and more inconvenient.

First there was the dangerous and unnecessary 5-car-door measure that
the explanation of having one less customer service ambassador just
could not justify, and when we thought that nightmare was over, we had
seen nothing yet:

Now it seems some of the cars just open one out of two doors at
Richmond Hill. A GO employee needs to press the open button from the
outside, get in, and 30 seconds later the other door would open.

No announcement, no justification, not even an excuse.

Half of the customers in the car trapped in front of a door that would
not open, and today, I guarantee you that you’ll see all of them
jammed at the door that will open first. It also makes one wonder
about things that would happen if the door-tender isn’t there. Would
everyone be trapped?

What is so wrong about having both of the doors open automatically, at
the same time, like the way it has been working for years a mere 3
weeks ago?

This sort of management was simply inconceivable during the days GO
Trains were run by CN staff and if anything, I can now understand why
those who long for the return of CN management are growing in numbers:
at this rate, I can perfectly foresee GO Transit’s service level
running off some certain precipice in the near future.

I expect and look forward to receiving a prompt reply on:

1. the justification of this new affront to our convenience and safety, which is more serious than the 5-car-door fiasco, and

2. steps that will be taken to ensure that future measures of this kind will come with justifications that are communicated clearly to GO customers when the measures are announced, not after we ask for them.

Thank you.

I always hear about the nice theory that insignificant things can be done to make positive impacts proportionally larger than the effort you put in.

Well, that occurred to me, at least it’s what I want to believe.

In a morning about 2 months ago, among some 40 other people, we were at the Langstaff GO station waiting for the Southbound bus to Union station, that shares this bus stop with a significantly less popular line, let’s call it the Eastbound line.

That morning, the Eastbound bus arrived at the bus stop first to pick up its petty 6 or 7 passengers, with our Southbound bus following immediately behind. Normally, you’d think the Southbound bus would wait for a few seconds before the bus in front has left, then creeps up and opens its door at the front of the line-up.

Well, by now you may have guessed it. For some funny reason the bus driver, in his infinite wisdom, decided that 10 seconds was too long to wait and proceeded to open the bus door right then, right there at the end of the line-up.

The result? People who arrived at the bus stop first got to board the bus last – the line-up was effectively reversed. The driver? Acted as if nothing had happened while all passengers were sent onto mental whirls, and for the elders and children who arrived first, physical torments, too.

I noted the bus number and spent my first minute at work looking on the GO Transit web site for some mean to spend the next 5 lambasting submitting my comments. I arrived at this form with precisely 3 clicks from GO Transit’s home page.

I specifically asked them to respond with specific measures to prevent future incidences.

Honestly I did not expect them to reply at all but something amazing happened after 3 weeks.

August 8, 2008
Fax: (416) 869-1662

Reference No: 2008007058
Dear Michael:
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the Richmond Hill GO Bus service on July 15, 2008.
We apologize for the delay in responding. Please be assured that every attempt is made to board from the front of the line.

Orderly boarding is sometimes challenging due to other buses sharing the same stops, vehicular traffic and passengers boarding with special needs, etc.
Unfortunately our bus drivers are also under time constraints and attempt to move people as quickly and safely as possible. We can assure you that every effort is made to accommodate our passengers’ needs and improve the level of convenience and comfort on our system.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to enforce common courtesy, and we must rely on our customers to show their fellow commuters respect and consideration.
We have taken steps towards increasing passenger awareness via “GO News” (the GO Transit newsletter publication), commuter etiquette posters, and periodic advertisements in the Metro and 24 Hours newspapers.

Our Bus Operations department has reviewed your concerns about lack of seating on this service and has instructed the driver to use a larger bus, seating 57 passengers as opposed to a 49.
Hopefully this will alleviate some of the capacity concerns until a permanent increase in the service is scheduled.
Your comments regarding this issue have been forwarded to supervisory personnel in our Bus Operations department for their review.

We appreciate you taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention.

Sincerely,Andrea Corken
Customer Service Representative
Please direct all e-mail enquiries to publicrelations@gotransit.com

Indeed, around the same time I notice the bus has become larger and the Southbound bus now somehow always arrives first. Kudos!!

That made my day, and my 6 minutes’ loss of productivity at work totally worth it. GO Transit’s customer service probably has restored some of my long lost faith in public transits – well, at least it’s what I want to believe.