Todd "tva" V.'s Profile

Great stop on the way home and for the fact that New Order is playing off the Tecnics at the front of the bar is fantastic.

I understand the food I good. Can't vouch, but if their culinary eye is astute as their tequila list, we're good!

I had purchased products from CSC before, so I thought , "Hey, I'll give their service department a try."  Shop local, support local biz, etc etc and so on.  I needed a fan replaced on my laptop and when I called they said it would take approximately 2-5 days.  That sounded reasonable.

So, now it's been 15 days and I'm still without a laptop.  Using my skills called "math", this sounded bad.

Over the course I had also lost two contracts because I would need said laptop to do the work.  So, I tried talking to a manager about this.  Left three messages asking for the manager to call me back.  My phone remained silent.  On a whim I called again, got put on hold to God-awful hold music, and the manager finally got tracked down.  Gosh, I hope everything was okay.  I explained that I had lost revenue, I'm still without my laptop, and in talking to him, this all seemed to be working within well-defined business parameters.  I explained that I was without a laptop for two weeks and isn't this slightly unacceptable?  He seemed to think not.  This is a standard service call, in his eyes.  So I asked, "So there's absolutely nothing you can do for me at this point?  No dropping the cost of the parts, no reimbursement for the diagnostic, no discount at all."

"No."

So, congrats, CSC.  You have won.  Your prize?  I'll never darken your door again.  I still don't have my laptop.

Airports are a magical place in that there is a constant flow of people coming and going to exotic places.  When you're like me and have a 7 hour layover, you need a place to find wifi, beer, and work.  Step forward, Cheers.

Looking nothing like its Boston relative (http://www.yelp.com/bi...), the place allows you to kill much time.  As I currently am.  I arrived at 8:30am and asked if they did breakfast.  Came the reply, "we do eggs, bacon, homefries, and toast".  Sounds like breakfast to me.  For airport food, it's pretty good.

The staff are fantastic, as they helped me find an outlet for my laptop and kept the coffee coming.  Definitely worth the "I-feel-guilty-for-sitting-here-for-hours" overtip I gave.  Definitely gets you ready for the eventual stop in Lethbridge.  Is that technically an "exotic location"?

I will be honest, I truly do not know what to make of Stratengers.  It's a dive bar, but has a good run of beers on tap.  You'd worry about eating there, but they have a fantastic wood-burning stove out front.  I'm lost.

When I first hit Stratengers, it was to interview a friend of mine for my podcast.  When we were looking for a place in Leslieville that would be quiet, he suggested a place he'd been to before, Stratengers.  Having never been and truly just looking for a quiet place to record, I accepted the invite.  As soon as I walked in, I found myself surrounded by original 80s-style furnishings, some fairly run-down fixtures, and staff so friendly and helpful, it became confusing.  We found the upstairs patio and set up there for the next two hours to the sideways looks of the locals in for their daily post-work (or mid-afternoon as the case may be) pint.

My friend ordered food and as we mocked him for ordering anything from here for fear that you'd collapse from something, up came a fantastically prepared calzone that silenced our ridicule.  When we left the place it was then that we noticed the wood burning oven where pizzas and calzones are prepared.  Truly a shock to the system.

So, yes, it's a dive bar but with some polished elements to it.  I'd wonder what the place was like in the 80s when assumedly the upstairs dining area and table space below would be packed with people waiting for a slice.  Stratengers Trivia Tidbit:  It is the local of Canadian music icon Nash the Slash.  Check out the display on the way to the washroom.

I knew this place as Shoeless Joe's some time ago, so when it closed, I assumed with the construction on the exterior that the entire building was going to be razed in order to provide Toronto with another block of o-so-needed condominiums.  Next thing I know, Stix & Stones arrived with a sandwich board outside inviting you in.

Keen to try out the new digs, I found a day that had a decent hockey game on and assumed they would carry over the sporting theme.  With a name like Stix & Stones, you'd expect a pool lounge and sports bar.  Well, they've got a pool table, and TVs that show sports in a surrounding that is more an attempt at urban chic than cozy sports bar or pool hall.  It's nice enough, but not what is expected, considering the main door still has the old Shoeless Joe baseball bat door handles welcoming you in.  The construction outside pretty much hides the restaurant from plain view, so they're already are kind of behind the eight ball.

The menu is wide and has usual pub faves.  If the nachos are an indicator, food will have high and low points.  The array of multi-coloured chips and the amount of toppings were great, presented in a long stylish plate different from most other nacho platings.  Sadly the chicken on the chicken nachos seemed to be obviously pre-cooked and rubbery.

The tap list is really limited for a bar and you find yourself resorting to the next best thing unless you like what they have on offer.  Service, though friendly, was really lax for the few clients they had.  Sad to say but the nachos are indicative of the place as a whole.  Stylish, but with some poor elements that are hard to ignore.

One of the newest places in Toronto to go see comedy, this place lives up to both ends of its handle.  It is a beautiful bar, and a great place to see comedy.  Found in the up and coming neighbourhood of Ossington and Bloor, Comedy Bar is a below street level lounge, restaurant, and place where comedy and improv abound.

Began as a brainchild of the team that brought Toronto "Sunday Night Live", Comedy Bar was erected to provide a dedicated performance space to sketch, improv, and sometimes stand-up in the same vein as Second City (http://www.yelp.ca/biz...) and the Bad Dog (http://www.yelp.ca/biz...), providing comedy seven days a week.  The comedy theatre itself is a small long room akin to many improv rooms designed to pack people close together and close to the stage to engage in an intimate setting.  It totally works.

Comedy Bar also provides a sit-down bar and a lounge as well with dark tones, leather couches, and a fireplace (remote controlled, but a fire place nonetheless).  A fantastic place to sit down and enjoy a drink before or after a performance.  The menu is fantastic as well with surprisingly tasty food for a comedy shop.  Normally comedy food is not funny but laughable.  This is not the case here.  You'll have as much fun as a team of monkeys performing "Spamalot!"

This place really grew into my esteem when they got in a CIBC bank machine.  Yahoo.  No two dollar hits every time I need cash.  But there's more to this place than a place you can get money if you happen to bank at CIBC.  This place has helped out in times of grocery need.

The Kitchen Table is a small grocery store that is packed to the point of discomfort with merchandise, using every available space possible to store groceries, household items, and snacks.  I've used this place several times when I'm in the middle of cooking something and realize that I'm out of, I don't know, tomatoes.  A quick jaunt down to the KT and all is good.  The prices are a bit more expensive than you'd find at regular larger grocery stores, but that is to be expected.  This is a matter of convenience and necessity.  You do pay for the privilege.

The congestion at the cash registers can be a bit much as the queue can get congested as it snakes past the meat coolers and into the back of the store, but there's not much you can do.  There's only so much space, and they've used most of it.

Yes, it's a convenience store, but it's an independently-run convenience store, is in my neighbourhood, and is open 24 hours.  Busy Bee has been a bacon-saver for me for some time now.

Once at 11:00pm I realized that I needed a blank CD to load some files onto for the next day.  With everything else closed, I took my last shot with Busy Bee.  They were open and the only question they had in response to my blank CD request is "how many you need?"  Definitely what you want to hear.  It's a large store with a wide range of merchandise that will help you out in those emergency times of need.  The staff are efficient in their manner and will help where they can.  It does have the tired look of a place that is open 24 hours, but you'd be exhausted to, if you worked around the clock.

Just when you thought that the only place to buy toys was a deliberately clumsily spelt big box store, the Toy Space comes around.  Being in the neighbourhood and all, it's a handy place to get to, and has a ton of fun stuff for younger kids.

The space is a decent size and is crammed with toys and activities that are great for children.  Most to all of the stuff here leans towards the educational without leaving behind the fun element.  Fun is the key and you get the sense that this is the main credo for the store.

If you bring a child in, you'll easily lose a good chunk of the day and will probably leave lighter of pocket once all the wanted items are purchased.  Keep in mind as well that they also serve ice cream.  What's not to love?

As soon as iPods came to Toronto, everyone it seemed got one.  And after about six months, people complained about the fact that the batteries seemed to go dead after a few charges and recharges.  Taking it back to Apple at that point became ludicrously expensive and people soon found it was almost cheaper to buy a new one.  Very clever, Apple.

However, walking about one day with a depleted battery in my old school iPod, I happened across http://iRepair.ca.  Figuring, what have I got to lose, I brought the iPod in for repair.  The staff here are friendly, knowledgeable, and are able to run several diagnostics on your iPod or iPhone to figure out the problem.  Within minutes they come up with a diagnosis and a solution.  Repairs are done while you wait and are definitely reasonable considering in most cases, Apple's answer is "buy a new one".  They have a large range of replacement batteries that do not cost an arm and a leg.  If ever in need, make sure this place is the first port of call.