I’ve been to Blowfish before, but not before I started blogging. Located on the Northeast corner of King and Bathurst, it’s in an old bank building. Inside is an extremely modern interior that’s very white and nicely lighted.

The bar has a very wide selection of Sake – probably the largest collection I’ve seen since I’ve been to Nami many years ago. I ordered my high-maintenance-gin-martini and it was served perfectly. My friend ordered a “mountain man” chilled sake.

We ordered many dishes for dinner and shared between the five of us. The standouts that I recall was the soft-shell crab rolls and the miso-marinated black cod. I found the menu almost too large, with many many items to choose from, it was hard to select what we all wanted. Still, we managed and all were quite happy with the meal and drinks. Blowfish is recommended.

Blowfish
668 King St. West
416-860-0606

LIGHTS is a local area singer/songwriter. My friend introduced me to her through this YouTube video. This simple video was not meant as a full music video, just a sample of her and her work. Still, it provides a nice rooftop view of Toronto – it was shot on a rooftop of a condo.

Being the pop music luddite I am, I’ve never heard of her before but her music was used on an Old Navy ad (which I haven’t seen) and used on the show Instant Star. Joshua Jackson’s new movie, “One Week”, at 2008 Toronto Film Festival also features one of her tracks.

The Telegraph counted down the 100 ugliest cars. The Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne cracked the top 20. So did the Hummer and PT Cruiser. However, top honors goes to: The Pontiac Aztek. And I agree. If GM is looking at it’s navel right now wondering how things got so wrong, they can look at the Aztek and attribute that over $2000 of their workers’ health plans were riding on each sale of this car. They had the strategy right – create a crossover; but every part of the execution was wrong.

Sorry everyone, but the D90 post-whoring continues as I am evaluating this camera for my next purchase. I found a nice set of test shots at various ISO’s that I was interested in to compare it’s low light performance. They’re at Imaging Resource here.

The Toronto Star ran a nice article about how locals usually skip the tourist traps in the city. I was curious how many I have been to so I went through the list of venues

Getting a caricature: No
Wayne Gretzky’s restaurant: Yes
Toronto Hippo Tours: No
Town & Country Buffet: No
The Bata Shoe Museum: No
Captain John’s restaurant: No
Medieval Times: No
Honest Ed’s: No
CN Tower: Yes (last year was my first time)
Swimming in Lake Ontario: No (at least, not in Toronto)
Nicholby’s Sports & Souvenirs: No
Allan Gardens: No
A rickshaw ride: No
A `Haunted’ tour of Toronto: No
Casa Loma: No

Looks like the $30/6 GB plan has been extended until the end of September instead of the end of August. The plan requires a 3 year data plan commitment and a breakage fee if you end it early.

However, the Globe and Mail has said that after the plan ends, there will be new data plans available:

$25 for 500 MB
$30 for 1 GB
$50 for 2 GB
$60 for 3 GB
$80 for 8 GB
$100 for unlimited data

The plans will include 3 months of unlimited data so they know how much data is used. Moreover people can upgrade or downgrade their plan without penalty and data charges are capped at $100 a month, meaning no more $13,000 phone bills (thanks Bell Canada).

I’m not sure if these plans require 3 year contracts like the current plan, but with Rogers always bet on the worst-case scenario for consumers.

I saw this quote scribbled on the board at Cumbrae’s. It’s so perfectly true:

All the things I really like are either immoral, illegal or fattening.

- Alexander Woollcott

Henry’s is allowing pre-orders on their website at $1119.99 body only and $1449.99 for the body with 18-105 VR lens. The price is the same at Vistek.

Not bad, the dollar is about 0.95 today and I see it listed for about $1000 body only in the US – making it about 7% premium.

iOptOut is a Canadian-based website run by Michael Giest. It allows Canadians to tell companies not to solicit them for information by signing up. Moreover, the CRTC has ruled that iOptOut.ca Requests “Valid and Should be Honoured”.

The Canadian Marketing Association also has a Do Not Contact Service.

All these are set up because of delays over the official government Do Not Call List

I signed up a while ago and just got my email confirmation:

This message confirms that iOptOut.ca sent a message at Wed Aug 27 05:16:55 2008 requesting that the following organizations may/may not contact you by telephone or e-mail:

Allowed to call:
-

Not Allowed to call:
- Green Party of Canada
- Green Party of Ontario
- TD Canada Trust
- Advitek
- Air Canada
- Alberta Liberal Party
- Amtelecom
- Antima Group, The
- Bank of Montreal
- Barrie Examiner
- BBM Canada
- BC SPCA
- Bell Canada
- Belleville Intelligencer
- Brantford Expositor
- Brick, The
- Bristol Omnifacts Research
- British Columbia Libertarian Party
- Calgary Herald
- Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
- Canadian Cancer Society (British Columbia)
- Canadian Cancer Society (Ontario)
- Canadian Cancer Society (Prince Edward Island)
- Canadian Cancer Society (Yukon)
- Canadian Diabetes Association
- Canadian Feed the Children
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
- Canadian North Airlines
- Canadian Red Cross
- Canadian Western Bank
- Capital One Canada
- Central Mountain Air
- Chapters/Indigo Books
- Chatham Daily News
- Childrens Emergency Foundation
- Childrens Health Foundation
- Chronicle Herald
- Columbia House Canada
- Compas
- Conservative Party of Canada
- Consumer Contact
- Cornwall Standard Freeholder
- Crop
- Edmonton Journal
- Ekos
- Environics Research Group
- Fido Solutions
- First Nations Bank of Canada
- Forum Research
- Gallup Canada
- Gemma Communications
- Globe and Mail, The
- GoalLine Solutions
- Green Party of Alberta
- Green Party of Manitoba
- Greenpeace Canada
- Guelph Mercury
- Hamilton Spectator
- Heart and Stroke Foundation
- Ipsos Canada
- J.D. Power and Associates
- Kingston Whig-Standard
- La Presse
- La Tribune
- La Voix de l\\\’Est
- Lang Research
- Le Droit
- Le Nouvelliste
- Le Quotidien
- Le Soleil
- Leger Marketing
- Liberal Party of Canada
- Libertarian Party of Canada
- Lindsay Daily Post
- Matrix Research
- MD Analytics
- Médecins Sans Frontières Canada
- Montreal Gazette
- Mountain Equipment Co-Op
- Mountain West Research Center
- Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
- Mustel Group
- National Post
- New Democratic Party of British Columbia
- New Democratic Party of Canada
- New Democratic Party of Nova Scotia
- New Democratic Party of Ontario
- Niagara Falls Review
- Norsask Consumer Interviewing Services
- North Bay Nugget
- Northumberland Today
- NRG Research Group
- Orillia Packet & Times
- Ottawa Citizen
- Ottawa Sun
- Owen Sound Sun Times
- Pembroke Daily Observer
- Peterborough Examiner
- Pollara
- Prince George Citizen
- R.A. Malatest & Associates
- Regina Leader-Post
- Rogers
- Sarnia Observer
- Saskatchewan Party
- Sault Star
- Save the Children Canada
- Seaside Communications
- Shaw Communications
- SOM
- Source Cable
- St. Catharines Standard
- Sudbury Star
- Teleperformance Canada
- Telus Mobility
- Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal
- Timmins Daily Press
- Toronto Star
- UNICEF Canada
- Vancouver Province
- Videotron
- Welland Tribune
- Yukon Liberal Party
- The Record (Kitchener/Waterloo)
- Scotiabank
- BC Blind Sports and Recreation Association

Please retain a copy of this message for your records.

Sincerely,

The iOptOut.ca Team

Next week, starting September 1st. Everytime someone in Toronto goes to renew their plates, they will be hit with the new $60 vehicle tax. It only is for personal vehicles and but it does affect motorcycles ($30).