I signed a lease for a condo right in the heart of downtown Toronto today; I’m super glad I ended up waiting things out until I found a place that both felt right and was the right financial decision. Moving on to the next chapter of my life is incredibly bittersweet, but at least it’s made a bit easier going back to where I feel most at home in Toronto.
Category: Aside
I’m really struggling with the decision of whether to rent a place that is cheaper, but lacking in direct sunlight, but that has lots of space, versus paying significantly more a month for a place with lots of natural light. I almost made the decision to get a cheaper location today but just felt almost disastrously upset about what I was about to do. I’ve still got two months before I’m officially homeless; I’m going to keep on hunting around.
Saw my first potential condo rental; it was terrific save for a bathroom that had serious water damage to the ceiling (probably from flooding or leaks above the unit) and a bathroom shower that needed to be burned with fire and entirely replaced. Hopefully the next one is more suitable.
I reconnected with the realtor I relied on last time I was on the Toronto housing market and am, again, amazed at how fast, efficient, and helpful he is. A good realtor is definitely worth their weight in gold when renting in Toronto these days.
Aggregate IQ executives came to answer questions before a Canadian parliamentary committee. Then they had the misfortune of dealing with a well-connected British Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham:
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, MPs pressed Silvester and Massingham on their company’s work during the Brexit referendum, for which they are currently under investigation in the UK over possible violations of campaign spending limits. Under questioning from Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Silvester and Massingham insisted they had fully cooperated with the UK information commissioner Elizabeth Denham. But as another committee member, Liberal MP Frank Baylis, took over the questioning, Erskine-Smith received a text message on his phone from Denham which contradicted the pair’s testimony.
Erskine-Smith handed his phone to Baylis, who read the text aloud. “AIQ refused to answer her specific questions relating to data usage during the referendum campaign, to the point that the UK is considering taking further legal action to secure the information she needs,” Denham’s message said.
Silvester replied that he had been truthful in all his answers and said he would be keen to follow up with Denham if she had more questions.
It’s definitely a bold move to inform parliamentarians, operating in a friendly but foreign jurisdiction, that they’re being misled by one of their witnesses. So long as such communications don’t overstep boundaries — such as enabling a government official to engage in a public witchhunt of a given person or group — these sorts of communications seem essential when dealing with groups which have spread themselves across multiple jurisdictions and are demonstrably behaving untruthfully.
Not going to lie: it was a pain in the butt to get this badge. I don’t often hit double my targeted caloric burn in a day, so I was doing a lot of extra, and longer, bouts of exercise.
Once again I’m hunting for a place to live in downtown Toronto. And, once more, depressed at just how expensive it is to rent in this city.
While I wasn’t expecting to have cat sitting duties this week, it’s definitely nice that I’ll be checking in on one of my favourite felines a few times a day. I’ll get to enjoy most of the benefits of cat ownership with few of the downsides (i.e. fur on everything, being woken up at 5am, etc.).
It’s heartbreaking to know that someone has decided to harm, and potentially have killed, so many people who were just minding their business in my city.
On the one hand I feel foolish for not realizing until now that A Perfect Circle is fronted by Maynard James Keenan (Tool’s frontman). On the other hand it explains why I’ve always enjoyed A Perfect Circle’s albums so much.
Related: Eat the Elephant is a really terrific album that I’ve been listening to almost non-stop since it came out on Friday.
Excited Pixels 