Well, they are certainly coming along. But they are being rented out to students and I thought they were listed as being ready to move into by September 1. Which is only a week away. They don’t look like they’re a week away from having people living in them. So I don’t know how that works. I hope they don’t try to finish them in a rush. A man in a rush makes mistakes.

Just after posting on the fallen soldiers I went for my morning walk and came across this sorry sight. Toppled bins is one thing, but not if they’re out in the road. Luckily it was early and I was able to pull this comrade up onto the curb. Not good!

After the truck has finished emptying them, the bins aren’t always put back down neatly. Sometimes, like on this street, they fall over. But they will rise again!

Over at Alex on Film I recently had two comments that appeared on my review of Escape Room that I suspected were not written by an actual human being:

Spot-on analysis. The room designs looked interesting on the surface, but the puzzle solutions felt far-fetched and the alternate/cliffhanger endings were definitely disappointing. It’s a shame it didn’t push the boundaries of the genre further.

Great analysis. I completely agree that Escape Room relies heavily on familiar ‘Game of Death’ tropes seen in films like Cube and Saw. While the premise is intriguing, the contrived character conflicts and weak, open-ended conclusion definitely hold it back from standing out in the genre.

The tip-off, of course, is that both these comments were posted together at the same time. Plus the fact that the email attached was just a random collection of letters at a gmail address. Also, the website they linked to was a professional football betting site.

Still, the reason I bring this up is that either one of these comments I would have allowed through and probably even responded to on its own. They are well expressed and do respond directly to the points I was making in my review, even using some of my own language (like calling this the “Game of Death” genre). Gone are the days of trash spam like “Best free pharmaceuticals!” and “Free pr0n!” This is good stuff.  I assume it’s being produced by AI. AI that has actually “read” my reviews!

Still, it is spam. And as spam gets better, both in how its written and how its targeted, I feel like it’s going to get harder and harder to identify. This will lead to a “death of the Internet” situation where nobody will even know that the zombie apocalypse has happened until it’s already run its course.

Some little person got quite creative with their sidewalk chalk. Spelling your name and jumping on your favourite colour sound like fun. Not sure what the Dino Stomp is.

Well, not really my backyard. My backyard is basically this deck. But if you extended this picture out to the right you’d see the side of my house. This is the backyard of the house adjacent to mine. As you can tell, it’s seen better days. It’s been abandoned for the last ten years, after the previous owner, a lady who lived there alone until the age of 93, moved on. The guy (or group) who bought it seem to have no idea what to do with it. So it just falls apart.

I’m sure it will be torn down eventually, which is a shame because back in the day this was a really funky, stylish house. That backyard was such a peaceful little oasis in the city. On the left of the picture is the indoor swimming pool. And glass walls were everywhere, because the family who built the place were the owners of a local window company. Now most of the windows have been smashed by kids and boarded up.

Oh well, at least it’s quiet. And makes for a nice, moody picture. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

Got some windows in. And some doors. Roofs done, and one is already shingled. I guess they’re on schedule. Here’s a pic from a few weeks ago. I’ll probably do a post with all of them together whenever they’re finished.

Do not adjust your monitor. There were no filters used on this picture I took at 11 am while out for a walk on an otherwise sunny day. This is what the sky looks like. In fact, I think it’s even oranger now.

There are wildfires now raging through northern Ontario and apparently Toronto has the worst air quality in the world today, which I find kind of hard to believe but somebody professional-sounding said it.

These conditions are supposed to last through tomorrow. Then the worst of the smoke will have been sent to our good neighbours to the south.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Binstagrammed post. Almost two years. But I was walking through the blissfully deserted university campus last week and saw all these troopers lined up behind the University Centre building and couldn’t resist taking their picture.

Then, right after I put my phone away, I was walking past and I heard thumping noises coming from inside a couple of them. It actually scared the heck out of me. It sounded like somebody was locked in there! Then squirrels came popping out. It’s not that the lids weren’t fastened, but several of the bins had holes chewed right through them. It’s amazing what animals will do to get to the good stuff. And green bins, for organic waste, definitely have the good stuff.

So I was looking to buy a postcard recently. My first stop was the Dollar Store, where you can usually pick up a lot of cheap cards. Alas, there was no rack for postcards. So I asked the woman working there, who I would have put in her early 30s, if they had any postcards. She looked at me blankly. I asked again and she shook her head, not saying anything, apparently in some confusion. Then she said that they sold envelopes for cards. I told her that postcards don’t go in envelopes. This seemed to confuse her even more and I don’t think she knew what I was talking about. But I chatted with her for a while anyway and left without thinking any more of it.

My next stop was a drug store that also has a post office desk in it. I asked the woman running the place (another thirty-something) if they had any postcards. She didn’t understand me so I repeated “Postcards?” I got another blank look. I honestly thought I wasn’t speaking clearly enough, as I do tend to mumble a bit. So I leaned in closer and said “Post. Cards.” She leaned back away from me (I can be a bit intimidating) with a look of nervous confusion on her face. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said. I said “Postcards. They’re like pictures . . . that you mail.” She still looked at me with a total lack of understanding. She honestly had no idea what I was talking about.

I realize people don’t mail postcards that much anymore, but still this was a bit surprising. Two youngish people who didn’t have a clue what a postcard was? The times they are a-changing.