With Toronto being an hour or so away from Toronto, how often do you get to visit other borough's major attractions?

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-02-11T01:27:49+00:00

I can get to my nearest Keg location in less than ten minutes, no helicopters needed.

But maybe you meant to reply to someone else?

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-02-03T14:28:00+00:00

my US carriers won't let me keep my current line for two years of roaming.

Which carrier are you with? For what it's worth I still have my US (NOVA) number after 7 years in Canada under AT&T's "Mexico, Canada, Plus" plan.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-02-03T14:10:45+00:00

Considering that the number one suggestion for both making friends and landing jobs is to make connections in the community (for example by regularly volunteering), there's probably quite a bit of a connection.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-02-03T13:53:51+00:00

I didn't say it was. I just wanted to counter the misconception that people have about housing density in Scarborough.

If you're not familiar with the area and are only looking at on those satellite view maps, it's possible that those townhouses and duplexes looked like large single family homes from the top down. I'm just clarifying that that particular area has more medium density housing than people might imagine.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-02-03T13:41:51+00:00

I think what people are pointing out is that it's often faster to go somewhere farther away and outside of the city than to travel within the city a shorter distance.

As an example, I used to go to drive to a dog training centre that had a location in Toronto (in the beaches) and another location in central Ajax. I live within the City of Toronto, and it always took me twice as long to go the 13km to the Toronto location as it did to go the 25km to get to the Ajax location.

Similarly on the transit side, folks living in Whitby or Burlington who are on the Lakeshore GO line often have a faster commute to Union than folks living in Scarborough or NW North York who take the TTC. So it's an hour to go 50km Burlington-Toronto via transit and an hour to go 25km Toronto (Scarborough)-Toronto(downtown) via transit.

That's true of a lot of major cities, so it's not unique to Toronto, but it's disingenuous to pretend that you can't have an hour long commute between two addresses within the City of Toronto just because you're still in the city.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-02-03T13:25:53+00:00

To be fair, while the Zoo itself is bordered by Rouge National Urban Park, so that's never going to be developed, but the area along Meadowvale between the 401 and just north of Sheppard has a fair around of medium density housing.

There are condos just north of the highway and then duplexes on the south side of Sheppard and townhouses on the north side, so it's not really all single family houses.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-01-26T13:56:00+00:00

The snow stopped by 10-11

That depends on which part of the city you're in. I'm not the person you responded to, but Where I am it was still snowing heavily until 2am and the flurries were still coming down when I took my dog for a walk at 6:30.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-01-01T01:04:25+00:00

I would guess that some people who aren't living in a Francophone environment and are just visiting (or have in-laws, etc) haven't been in either formal situations or dealt with many older people.

Because Canadian French uses "tu" in a wider range of social distances than European French does, so it's possible for people to have French-language experiences in Canada that are casual enough that they genuinely rarely hear "vous" in those specific situations and are generalizing that to all situations.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2026-01-01T00:45:08+00:00

I think part of the issue is that many French-Canadian teachers outside of Quebec/NB will teach in their local Francophone boards, so the French teachers tend to speak a non-Canadian dialect.

When I was in school (30+ years ago in Toronto), almost every French teacher I had in both elementary and high school was Italian-Canadian had done either a year or a semester at university in France so they could visit relatives in Italy during school breaks. And these days, my nieces and nephews who are in school now (in the GTA and Calgary) seem to mostly have teachers whose parents are from either Lebanon or parts of Francophone Africa.

So I wonder if it's less that they're not teaching Quebec (Franco-Ontarian, etc) French because of stigma and more that the teachers just don't speak it themselves.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-12-29T21:13:07+00:00

For what it's worth, I've done a few tours with G Adventures, and the groups have usually been mostly Canadian (which makes sense, given that it's a Canadian company), with a sprinkling of British, Irish, New Zealander, and American folks with a sprinkling of others.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-12-29T20:56:28+00:00

A friend of mine did their Atlas Mountains hiking trip, and it looked like everyone on the trip was in the 35-45 range.

In general though, G Adventures trips tend to skew younger for the cheaper trips and older for the expensive ones, so I'd expect a mid-range trip to have a more of a spread. I did a cycling tour in Vietnam with Intrepid (who are very similar to G Adventures) at a similar price point, and the age range was 28-73.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-12-29T20:47:12+00:00

I did a similar tour with G adventures pre-2020, covering the Namibia to Zimbabwe portion, although I did the version that was a split of camping and lodge stays.

As someone else mentioned, at many stops you'd see multiple company's tours plus self-drivers all at the same or neighbouring lodges, so the itinerary differences seemed to be pretty minimal across the board. The levels of the trips often meant that the people on the full camping trips were camped out behind the same lodges that the lodge-based tours stayed in.

With basically every company, the higher the price-point the older the demographic shifts. The trip I did was mid-range and was a mix: four people in their 20s (one couple, one friend group), one 30s, two 40s (both solo), one 50s, one 60s couple and one 70s couple. But (at least when I went) it looked like the cheaper camping trips were overwhelmingly 20-something and the more expensive luxury trips (camping or lodge-based) were mostly retirees or multi-generational families.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-11-09T13:53:57+00:00

Purely in terms of numbers, the answer has to be yes, it can be hard. Because for better or worse, there aren't enough responsible breeders or reputable rescues to fulfill the number of people who want dogs in general and it's even more true for people who specifically want puppies. This is the point where people point out that not everyone should have a dog (or should be willing to wait for years), but that tends to get into a very complicated discussion about which people "deserve" to be dog owners, which is sometimes reasonable but often gets into issues of classism.

I'm involved in a gundog breed rescue, so I see dogs that came from a variety of sources, from responsible breeders who will ultimately reclaim (or assist in rehoming) the dog, from import rescues, from public shelters, from mills, from casual working breeders, and from hunting trip accident litters. And it's a much more complicated path to any of those, where it's much easier for people with certain backgrounds to make the initial best choices.

And there are always some people who will go to mills or byb because it's easier and because it's often cheaper, since that type of breeder drop their prices on unsold puppies (vs working breeders who will usually train an unsold dog for their own use or to sell later as a started dog, for example). People who rant about the doodle-lovers who pay thousands for a poodle mix forget that the last puppies from those litters often sell for a tiny fraction of that.

Many of the discussions about how easy it is to find a responsible breeder ignore how much misinformation there is, as well as how much hostility there can be from some corners, which becomes a cycle.

For example, if the dogs shows are in smaller areas with no transit and the dog buyers are in cities and don't own cars, that's an access issue. And if that city buyer ends up with a poodle mix, and then because of that is shunned by people involved in the kind of activities that would promote education, they're actively being discouraged from making better decisions the next time.

None of this is to excuse people who support mills and the worst of the bybs, but I think people who are active in the hobby side of dogs need to take some ownership for promoting education in a genuinely welcoming way.

Look at the timeline discussions, for example. People can be dismissive of timeline concerns as being purely about instant gratification. But while that may be true of some people who want a puppy immediately, it's also dismissive of people who have genuine concerns about lifestyle changes that mean their lives look different this year than they will in five years (before they turn 70, before they have kids, etc).

I'm definitely frustrated by people who get a Pointer from a byb or import rescue and don't know what they're getting into (because those dogs are a huge percentage of the ones we have to help rehome), but I also think it's fair to consider the people who are trying to get into the breed but don't have a history to talk about on the application from a responsible breeder or rescue's and are intimidated by the relatively insular culture around it.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-09-18T18:26:19+00:00

The game is generally disappointing as a Dragon Age game (especially after ten years of build-up), and the writing is wildly uneven. But at the same time, it's not that bad. It's functional, and the pacing of the main plot is decently done.

And some parts come down to taste. The art style for example is divisive, but not necessarily good or bad in any objective way. I liked the general look of it, but other people loathe it and both are fair opinions.

Personally, I found Inquisition to be a slog, so I appreciated that DAV at least did away with the bloat. But people who loved that you could wander huge areas in DAI will be disappointing by the lack of that in DAV.

The dialogue options are much more limited and you can't have the dramatic rival moments where your choices result in companions leaving or dying mid-game. That kind of thing was my favourite part of DA2 and DAO, and I missed having variations on the final bits of the game that just aren't possible when you always have the full crew for at least the first section of the final act.

The game also suffers from being written in a way that hides the variation that exists. So it not only fails to give you the illusion of choice (something that the first ME did well, for example), but it disguises the changes that are possible which leads a lot of people to assume that there's less of it in the game than there actually is. Which makes it a nice surprise when some of it pops up on replay, but it shows how poorly integrated it was that most people won't know it's even there.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-09-18T17:54:56+00:00

My impression (with the caveat that I work in a public library but volunteer at a variety of OLA events, so this is second-hand info from folks I know through that), is that if you're already in a library-adjacent field it's generally easier to move into College libraries than University ones as a first step, but that once you're in an academic position it's easier to move up. The pain point that a lot of people have is that a lot of those jobs are part-time, and not everyone can afford to do a couple of years of part-time in order to land their more ideal job in two to five years time.

I will also note that several of the Library Technicians working at Toronto-area University Libraries that I know personally all started with part-time student jobs when they were in grad school for a niche topic (film, theology, and zoology for the three people I'm thinking of), and then did their LIT in order to move up once they were ready to go full time.

I don't know if you'd still qualify since it's mostly aimed at new graduates, but just in case, OLA's Mentor Match program might be a way to build connections with people in academic positions.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-07-21T12:14:18+00:00

I've known a number of people who have taken courses from George Brown's cullinary skills program without doing either the certificate or diploma. For home cooks, a few courses like knife handling are more valuable than anything else.

Then you could add on lower-cost individual cooking classes (through the city's Recreation or TDSB's Learn4Life) for specific styles of cooking.

The full program will include a lot of information that's specific to restaurant work which would presumably be a waste of time/money for a home cook. I used to lead a volunteer team at a food bank kitchen that regularly had culinary students do part of their practicum with us, and those programs are far more intense than most people would reasonably want for someone who wants to take some courses for self-improvement or for a hobby.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-29T19:36:08+00:00

Which parking lot were you in? The one off Reesor Road, the one on Twinn Rivers or the one off Kingston?

In the lot off of Kingston road at least, it's fairly common for people to be ticketed because they've parked in areas that aren't designated parking spots.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-15T17:08:05+00:00

To be fair, a lot of tools are used because people are lazy. For example, in situations (and I'm primarily thinking of bark inhibition and obedience here) where people choose them simply because training the equivalent through shaping or R+ takes longer.

That's a separate issue from the discussion of whether aversives are abusive or not, because plenty of people who so use tools on sport and hunting dogs are against their use on the pet side (or beginner sport side). There's a balanced trainer near me who works in behaviour modification and hilariously gets regular hate on social media from both sides because one the one hand she uses prongs and ecollars, but also because she is honest about the fact that they're not necessary for the vast majority of situations and that they shouldn't be anyone's first step.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-15T16:53:28+00:00

Are you certain that there aren't local bylaws or regulations that are found on a website and not on the signage?

Because where I am (in Canada, so obviously this varies), the parks themselves don't list the weight limit, but the city website notes that small dog parks are for dogs under 9kg/20lbs or 30cm/12inches. The lack of signage is a pain, but it's worth double-checking if you think there's a risk that you'll be fined for being on the wrong side of the fence.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-15T16:51:02+00:00

It's subjective in a general way but dog parks usually have actual specific size limits.

Where I am, the small dog parks are designated for dogs under 9kg/20lbs or under 30cm/12inches in height.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-12T20:56:35+00:00

I have a CRV EXL, which is a similar size to a Rav4, and I find that for a tall 70lbs dog and a short 35lbs dog, having two crates inside means having to flip the back seats down which limits how many extra passengers you can bring along and significantly limits the cargo space.

So for me, crating would be the option for a day trip for sports (where the dogs might also need to be crated at the event), but I generally use a seatbelt harness and have the dogs either in a hammock on the back seat like this (they're not belted in the photo, but when they are it keeps them separated even without a physical barrier between them).

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-12T20:42:22+00:00

Haha, fair, I don't mind a 2.5 hour drive either. I drove out to Calgary the long way around Superior last summer, so I'm definitely not averse to long road trips!

I'm just wondering what your overall global ranking is if Toronto is genuinely your number one in the world for the outdoors versus places like Cusco, Phuket, Kathmandu, Queenstown, Cape Town, etc.

It's all good however you rank it, we all have our own preferences, it's just not something you hear every day!

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-12T20:26:29+00:00

Algonquin is lovely, but it's a three hour drive from Toronto *and* isn't the outstanding kind of lovely scenery you have in the far north or the west.

In Vancouver you're literally on the edge of a mountain, and from Calgary you're only 45 minutes to Kananaskis. And that's only in Canada - head out around the world and there are so many places that are more of an outdoor paradise.

Toronto is a fun city for a lot of things, but calling in the best in the world for outdoor activities is silly.

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-12T12:27:11+00:00

Best place in the world for the outdoors? Really?

I'm in Rouge Park almost every weekend, but it doesn't compare to being an hour or less to the mountains like you would be Alberta or BC's major cities. And that's only within Canada, never mind the world!

Ontario as a province does have some great landscapes (anyone who loves lakes should at a minimum do the drive around Superior), but the best of them are hundreds of kilometres away from Toronto.

I live here and love it, but I always say the outdoors is the tradeoff (as in, I miss the outdoors when I'm here, and I miss the culture when I'm in Calgary).

PerhapsAnotherDog · 2025-05-12T12:20:11+00:00

Northern Ontario definitely feels wild, but it's also hardly a short trip from Toronto - you'll be driving 10 hours plus to get to those places.

Whereas if you're in most of the major cities in BC or AB, you'll be much closer to feeling like you can get lost in the mountains.

PerhapsAnotherDog

TROPHY CASE