Since I’m rarely in Toronto and rarely in Toronto for more than a couple of days, I often miss my good and wonderful Torontonian friends.

However, in December, I get to stay a few more days, which I hope to be jam-packed with adventure. Or barring that, hugs and smiles.

I propose that we sally forth on Boxing Day and take over some establishment. An establishment, that perhaps serves food and drink?

Loons
416 Roncesvalles Ave.
26 December 2008 at 19h

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I’m leaving in about an hour for Toronto and will be there until 28 Dec. Torontonian friends, I’d love to see you again.

girl_tm and I are also leaving for Paris on 29 Dec until 2 Jan. Parisian friends, I haven’t seen you in a very long time and it’d be lovely to get in touch again.

To show how small the world is, we’ll be staying in a Parisian apartment, swapped with someone I met the night before he left Montréal for the City of Lights. And this apartment swap was arranged through the miracle of the Internet. For all of its scariness, it sure is helpful!

My friend, Janina, recently pondered who you are on the Internet.

Back in the old days, when you could actually write down the names of all the people on the Internet, people simply used their real names, in abbreviated form: ken, gls, dmr, rms, etc. After all, wasn’t the whole point of a world-wide telecommunications network to put people in touch with each other? And if everyone on the Internet was someone you knew or were going to know, it made sense to use real names. That way, you could be found.

Then, the Internet got a whole lot bigger and a whole lot stranger. People started using pseudonyms called handles or nicks, which provided some degree of anonymity. These became commonplace and became the norm. Especially when you consider that using your real name becomes impractical when there are hundreds of Davids or Muhammeds or Lees in the world.

As people joined the Internet, they still wanted to find each other. So social networks are all the rage now. LiveJournal, MySpace, and Facebook all exist so that you can find and track the people around you. With Facebook, you’re even forced to use your real name, to make it easier for people to connect. There is, however, a compromise to be made. Because you post information about yourself on-line, people you barely know can find out where you live, who you hang out with, and what you’re doing.

This is nothing new, though. We used to live this way, not so long ago, when most people lived in small, rural towns. After all, the neighbours talked! There would also be gossips who’d keep track of when you were coming or going, and with whom you went with. Nobody in their right mind would assume that they could keep bad behaviour under wraps, you always had to keep up your reputation. And when someone new moved into town, they were watched carefully until the rest of the townsfolk accepted them. This, of course, was a good thing.

This whole assumption that most people didn’t know about you came with the great migration to cities, kicked off by the industrial revolution. Now there were so many people flooding in that it was impossible to know everyone you met on the street. That brought a big social problem, because now you had to trust complete strangers. Imagine how stressful that must have been! No wonder the biggest problem in industrial London was the Gin Craze, a collective booze-up that lasted until a generation of people had figured out what city life was like.

Now we have to opposite problem: people having lived all their lives protected by anonymity having to come to terms with it being stripped away. If someone wants to find out about you, they can. Be it with Google or Facebook or Twitter, you have to accept that there are traces of you that anyone can see. And that’s got to be pretty stressful too.

So what can we do about it? Friends-locking posts and privacy settings come to mind, but at best these provide a false sense of security. Remember the controversy surrounding LJfind, when people’s friends-locked posts started showing up in public? And now, every few weeks, someone discovers that a Facebook application is leaking their data. But even if you’re really careful on websites, they are still software are written by programmers. As a programmer myself, I can assure you that we make mistakes, and those mistakes include a simple typo that resets your privacy settings. Oops!

If technology can’t help us, then what? The opposite approach is to be wary of the Internet. You can delete your Facebook account, avoid using GMail, and never use your real name on-line. Sadly, the network effect is working against you here, because other people aren’t doing the same. This year, quite a few people have joined Facebook because they weren’t getting invited to parties and stopped hearing from their friends! Social networks have brought social change, just because it’s so much easier to do the things you want to do, when you’re using Facebook.

OK, what if you just like to stay at home and invite friends over? Well, are you comfortable with party pictures appearing on Flickr? Or birthday wishes posted on Blogger? Well, you can ask your friends not to post anything about you on-line at all. But that doesn’t matter, because organisations are busy putting up their own records on-line. Like the Canadian Tax Court records, which include wonderful tidbits about income, marital status, and other information that’s become public record.

Going down this route is getting more and more unproductive. It seems like these days, if you want to stay truly anonymous, you have to build yourself a shack in the wilderness and isolate yourself from the world. But still, someone can impersonate you on-line with a fake profile, if you’re not watching out for that. So you still have to create your own profile from your wilderness retreat, just to keep the identity thieves at bay.

Remember those rural towns I wrote about? Well, they lived life in a way that we’re going to have to go back to. No longer can you assume that you can say whatever you want or do whatever you want and be lost in a crowd. You’re going to be aware of every camera pointed your way and every blog-post with your name in it. Basically, you can’t just assume your reputation, you have to manage it.

Your public image is going to be one of the most important bits of you in the future. Potential employers and potential friends are bound to do a little reference checking with Google. What if the police start using the Internet for investigations? Or schools for background checks? And your on-line presence is so very difficult to eliminate. People used to call it keeping up appearances, nowadays we’d refer to it as personal branding.

Now I’m not saying that we all have to become full-time professional bloggers. But what you can do, nay should do, is maintain a profile on the Internet that reflects who you want to be seen as. Reserve an account for yourself on the big social networks, put up information that’s relevant and appropriate, and do periodic Google searches on yourself to make sure you’re not being misrepresented.

Maybe some day, in the future, we’ll all be more understanding about youthful indiscretions on-line. But for now, your first impression will be your Google ranking, so you’d best make the most of it.

The Akoha Away Team is flying home from San Francisco now. They did an amazing job at TechCrunch50, where they got on stage to present our amazing project. This great experiment is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life!

If you missed it, you can watch the talk on-line. Or you can read about us in CNET News, The Montreal Gazette, or The Washington Post.

Akoha is our take on paying it forward, the idea that you can make the world a better place by doing small acts of kindness, one little bit at a time. We play a game where you help your friends, family, and strangers every day. As you play, you get to see how your own actions affect the lives of others, as your generosity is played forward. It’s really cool to watch a mission you’ve played travel from place to place, city to city, passed along by a chain of like-minded Akohans.

It doesn’t just affect your own little circle of friends. We work with partners to effect change in big ways. Our first partner is Room to Read, who will help us build a library in Nepal when we reach our first goal of 25,000 acts of kindness. These guys build and stock libraries for schoolchildren in poor parts of the world, giving the gift of education so that kids can climb their way out of poverty.

In the short time that Akoha’s been played, I’ve already seen more smiles amongst my friends. It’s fun to play Akoha, to see people’s faces light up when you do something nice! And after a while, you start seeing more and more ways to help others.

If you bump into me on the street, ask me about Akoha. Or, go to our website at www.akoha.com and register for our beta list. We’re starting small, but we’ll send you a free Akoha Starter Kit as soon as we can.

I’m looking forward to playing it forward with all of you!

Every year, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal holds a dance party to raise some funds.

This year, it was a masquerade. I couldn’t help but snap a few photos before we left for the party.

Pianist
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
By the piano
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Adoration
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

November was just a whirlwind of activity. I was so busy that I barely had enough time to sleep, much less sort through photographs and write in my journal.

So here's an executive summary, brought to you by my photographic memory. That is to say, my photo albums.

Manhole cover
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I started the month by flying to Sunnydale, California. I spent a week at the Googleplex working on Ubuntu during the day.

Drinking
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

My nights were filled with activity as well. I saw old friends, like Peter, and made new ones too.

Donations
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

The next week was spent in San Francisco. maradydd took me to a Dorkbot. Fun!

Mark Shuttleworth
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Again, the days were filled with work for Canonical. (I took many wonderfully embarassing photographs of my co-workers.)

Mini camera
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

And again, my evenings were also very adventurous.

Skating
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I managed to meet lovely people like Rachel, and Sorrel, and Erica, and Sophy. It's strange, but not that strange, how they all are connected to ioerror somehow.

Laughing squid
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I finally got introduced to Scott Beale at the Laughing Squid party. I managed to convince Marc and Etienne to come along, and I think they liked it. But really, how could they not? There was a steam car, the Photoboof, kettle corn, robots, dancing girls, columns of fire, strange bicycles, art cars, and LEGO.

Decorations
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I returned to Canada where I attempted to collapse, but failed. gorbash_dragon reminded me just how festive this time of year really is.

Pouring
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

This began a whole lot of socializing with my long lost friends. So I went to a diluvienne's tea party.

Len
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

And callmepavlov's Munchkin party.

5th anniversary party
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Expozine, which isn't a party at all. But they threw one afterwards.

Eric Dorland
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

And ze_dinosaur's farewell party.

Two-dalla party
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

My final event of the month was a blast. denkizero invited me to a launch party, where everything was two dollars, although bad puns cost extra. There was a fashion show, a marching band, an iPod battle (with real iPods), some television interviews, some drinking, some socializing, and a few time-outs.

Whew.

I met wlach today for a spot of coffee. He was in the neighbourhood and rang me up. How could I refuse?

As we were chatting, the topic of reciprocity came up. You know, where I do you a favour and then you return it some day? Paying someone back for a good turn (or a bad one) is something that's rather ingrained in our culture. And it's fairly reliable, if you can account for each transaction. Tit-for-tat is one of the most successful exchange strategies out there. Just ask bramcohen.

But it doesn't fully capitalize on the network effect. You can only tap into the network of people for who owe you a favour. But those people might not be poised to help you. Instead, I advocate another model.

On Saturday, I found a camera case sitting on a bench along St-Denis. Inside was a digital camera and a wallet. Using my well-developed deductive skills, I ascertained the identity of the owner, whom I shall call X. Using my well-developed "stalking" skills, I got in contact with X who came by and picked up the bag. X was very, very thankful. In return, I asked that X offer random, spontaneous help to people who seemed deserving.

With any luck, my deed will pop into mind the next time X wants to brush off someone or walk past something. After all, everybody is really busy. When I first came across this concept, I had no idea that it had a name. But some people have called it paying it forward. Which is a rather apt name. Ironically, this concept only became popular after a large, multinational conglomerate made a film about it.

I figure that since the world of people that I know is very small, and that I'm well connected with others, it's only a matter of time before my little quantum of niceness gets back to me. If I keep on pumping niceness into the system, and others do the same, my small efforts will multiply. After all, the amount of good I can do is limited to how much time I have and the people I know. But my network of friends is much, much larger.

The only problem is that of leeches. People who only take and don't give to the system. That's where being judgemental comes in. When you notice that some folks never seem to help their friends, or to help you, then you have to fall back to tit-for-tat. And spread the news that this person is a leech, so that your friends do the same. This quickly shuts down the drain on your collective kindness, while still allowing you to be a decent human being.

Of course, I paid for wlach's coffee. He's a good friend, after all.

Streetcar
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I used to think that I was a simple man with simple wants. My university professors told me, "Simon, once you get out in the Real World, you won't want to come back to school." But I thought that this was silly.

But having disposable income makes me do increasingly erratic things. For instance, I had the most extravagant bunch this Sunday. It was not a particularly fancy meal, but the circumstances surrounding it were quite excessive.

It started with a simple trip to Toronto to see my folks. And a plan emerged: a completely ludicrous plan. I got up at dawn, got dressed, and failed to eat anything. Then I started Dad's gorgeous burgundy old-school Cadillac and drove downtown.

It was early Sunday morning, so Bathurst was clear of traffic and I just glided south. When I got to Graduate House, I just picked a convenient place to park. I arrived a little early, so I took a couple of photographs in that wonderful early light. University of Toronto's campus is really peaceful, sometimes. I started getting impatient, so I wondered if I could break into the building. As I was climbing inside, I noticed Neela walking out, so I abandoned my criminal activities, and met up with her.

Truck
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Neela is my oldest friend with whom I actually keep in touch. This is particularly ironic, because she has no telephone, no Internet, and doesn't even check her mailbox. She is, I'm afraid, completely unreachable. Which is why I had to show up on her doorstep.

I drove the car onto the QEW and we started cruising west. It's surprising how well I drive, since I almost never do. Also surprising is that I managed to find the freeway without getting lost. I'm sure that I'm just tempting fate by writing such things.

Along the way, Neela and I got caught up with each others' lives. We arrived in Hamilton in record time. There, we pulled up to Cindy's apartment building and we broke inside. We had to do this because she deemed her apartment too messy to take visitors, so she wouldn't let us up, but that's only because she was holding herself to absurdly high standards. We knocked on her door until she opened it and then gave her a birthday cake.

After it was put in the fridge, we went downstairs and got into Cindy's car. It's far cuter and smaller than a full-sized Cadillac, which really is more practical for driving about. We drove to a chain restaurant that specializes in breakfast and discovered that there was a twenty-minute wait. Unsatisfied, we walked across the street to a "Sports Bar and Family Restaurant."

It was surprisingly good. Plus, the service was charming and friendly. Neela and I made sure Cindy didn't pay.

After an hour of conversation, we went back to Cindy's place for a bit of cake. Then, she gave me a map and sent us on our way. Unfortunately for Cindy, she is brilliant, responsible, and a doctor. Which meant that she had to be in the emergency room for her Sunday shift.

Cathedral
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Driving to another city just for brunch? Decadent? You bet!

To justify travelling all this way, Neela and I did a bit of walking about the downtown. Hamilton is a sleepy city and a factory town. You can see the smokestacks lining the harbour-front. The factories are still there, just like the old days when shipping was how goods were… shipped. We passed a lot of closed shopfronts. Like many Ontarian cities, Hamilton just doesn't have the economy to keep its businesses running.

When we drove into the city, a huge building had caught our eye. Cindy suggested that we see Dundurn Castle, which was actually more a museum and slightly disappointing. However, we found that behind the cockpit was an interesting trail. It led down and down into a large ravine that was full of old tires and discarded beer bottles. When we got to the bottom, we saw a train yard behind a barbed wire fence. Being brilliant explorers, we soon found the hole that must have been there. We did a bit of climbing on the trains and were generally amused by the graffiti.

Soon, we were tired of this, and decided to go searching for the elegant building we saw before. It turned out to be a really massive cathedral. We tried to convince people to let us in, because we didn't have time to wait for evening service. Disappointed that we weren't able to see the stained glass, we nevertheless amused ourselves by admiring the architecture.

Then it was time to go.

I had a busy, busy weekend.

There was the show I went to on Friday night, which was good beyond compare. I shall have to write about it soon, after I get the photographs off my camera.

On Saturday, I showed up to the Ile-Perrot Community Centre where I cooked for a small group of 50 people. It was the first anniversary of the Baronial Investiture. There were lots of people that I had met last year, and had to meet again. I need to show up more often, if I'm to remember their names. I did, however, remember Anoriel who is still incredibly adorable. Unlike last year, though, she's also incredibly mobile!

I was in the kitchen with Amrey, who provided lunch, and Diane, who was Head Cook. My contribution to the meal was tweaking all of the dishes as they came out. This is a good way of getting fed while everyone else is waiting. I had a lot of fun in the kitchen, which convinced me that I should organise a feast of my own some day. Plus, I'd get to control a kitchen, which would be a novel experience.

Afterwards, the ever-resourceful Alix swept in and started cleaning up. She was the most awesome and prepared cleanup crew, ever. Not only did she have equipment, she also brought containers and bags for people to pack up leftovers. I cleaned up my knife and cutting board, packed away my things, and bid everyone thanks and goodnight.

Then I went to the grocery store. After all, I had a car. I bought as many things as I could remember to and got most of them upstairs to the apartment. My fridge was very full, after that.

Happy 25.0825
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

On Sunday morning, I returned the car and made a little detour to the liquor store. With my loot, I returned home and started cleaning. It was at this time that joenotcharles and vierge_en_trop showed up. I left the broom in a corner, gave them hugs, and dashed into the kitchen to put out some snacks.

People arrived fast and frequently after that. My apartment saw apenwarr, azrhey, auzure_skies, baprime, cloquewerk, cpirate, Christine, drkeys, evildrgo, gorbash_dragon, grimmwire, kyotto, messiahdivine, mricon, mynatt, peaceful_dragon, pphaneuf, ppatters, swestrup, taxlady, wlach, ze_dinosaur, and zkzkz. You see, not everyone I know is on LiveJournal. But I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

The place was so full of good cheer that we must have kept the neighbours up. I was wondering if the party would spill into the bedrooms, but no. It appears that my living-dining room is good high-density parties. Which reminds me, Avery brought the most geeky cake ever. He had "Happy 25.0825" written on it which was very awesome. What was more awesome is that the lady writing this message knew what he meant. She had done some actuarial science.

Pesto Pizza
Originally uploaded by mricon.

Kyotto got to work out some of her frustrations by punching down some dough. Which I made into pizzas, until I ran out of flour. But no matter, they seemed to turn out reasonably well. Except for the last one, which had to be made into a deformed calzone.

Before they left, Gorbash and Konstantin did an excellent job with the dishes. And since everyone had to get up in the morning, people left at quite a reasonable hour. I was happily tired after that, so I just went to sleep.

This morning, I surveyed the damage and swept all the corn meal off the floor. Then I walked around watering my plants, as I do in the mornings, and noticed a new one. Hurray for surprise gifts!

I had been boiling water on the stove all day, because I have no hot water at home. Sometimes, I turn on the hot water tap by accident and the faucet just gurgles. I boiled hot water for a shave, hot water for the dishes, hot water for a sponge bath. I didn't know how cold taking a sponge bath is!

I never want to be bedridden.

So I want to thank Jeff and Angie for their wonderful, beautiful generosity in letting me use their huge clawfoot bathtub tonight. Although I did not bring along any bubble-bath, I sat in it for a hour and floated in the lap of luxury. You know how, when floating in the bathtub, you can turn on the hot water with your toes? I still remember how to do that!

I had forgotten how useful baths were to my creative mind. I actually came up with really good ideas on how to make a software-based music player behave sanely. I talked with Jeff for a while about them, and led us on a little Socratic discussion about how he and Angie would use this hypothetical software.

I really need to turn these decisions into code.

I also want to thank Jim for teaching me how to cook a meal with only one pot. Without him, I'd be even further behind in acting as my situation demands.