I stopped at the intersection of Queen St. W and Spadina Ave. on my way to work today since I was craving a coffee and a muffin, something that seldom happens. This particular place has a good combo offer that’s cheap and I like the idea of not getting bankrupt in five years simply because I was spending four dollars a day on branded coffee.

The air smelled fresh and crisp, a mix of sun, shade and a hint of rain, a gentle breeze and I swear I even heard birds chirping. Things got nicer as I heard a street busker playing some cool Celtic tunes on the violin. I was smiling and happy until a big truck farted on me, its thick black smoke snapping me out of the idyllic mood I was momentarily lost in. What an awful way to remind you that you were at one of the busiest intersections in the city, during rush hour, and that dirt and noise was all that was in store for you. To make it worse, there was a crazy man across the street swearing at his comrade and smashing a bottle against the sidewalk.

I got my coffee and asked for a cranberry muffin that smelled delicious. The girl taking the order looked visibly nervous and I caught her glancing repeatedly at the queue , that kept on lengthening, of caffeine deprived serious looking folks in front of the counter. Slightly annoyed, I responded with a firm “No, thank you” when she asked me “Would you like meelk?” for the third time. Poor girl, seemed on the verge of a breakdown, prompting me to resolve to never work a morning shift if I were ever to work at a coffee shop. “Sank you, hava nice dae” she said, coming up with a smile (in a Chinese accent, in case you didn’t catch that).

I ran across the street to my bus stop, holding a hot cup of coffee in one hand and a brown bag in the other. As I was boarding, I saw a lady and (her?) child, who was crying loudly, getting out. I get annoyed by children who have learnt the art of faking crying. It starts with the kids making weird faces that makes other people, except me ofcourse, go “aww” and the mother go “oh god not again”. This is usually accompanied by loud screaming, crying and throwing tantrums while not a single drop of tear escapes the eye (worse than crocodile tears). They’ll stop this drama as soon as the mother lifts them up or they get a chocolate or something like that. Talk about parents spoiling their kids by patronizing such obviously fake theatrics, or other acts employing emotional blackmail.

As my bus left the intersection, I couldn’t help but think how interesting these little segments in our day-to-day life could be. If your day was uneventful so far, perhaps spending few minutes reading this made it interesting.

Cheers.

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte

I spent most of my time in January playing computer games, specifically Simcity, spending anywhere between 10 to 12 hours on the computer each day. One might wonder what I was doing and what was the real cause of this escapism, but lets keep the philosophical issues aside and look at what I managed to build.

Simcity is a computer game that simulates city building. Its a single player game where one starts with an empty piece of land and slowly builds a city (or a town / village) over it. A range of factors, such as unemployment, pollution, transportation, utilities, environmental and trade policies, taxes, industries, health and education, govern how the city will develop – and I must say it is pretty close to real situations. Infact, this game has been used by planners and architects in a number of research projects.

Here are some screenshots from a small rural village housing a population of 3,000 people.

Town center, Mayor’s house, medical center, a mill and a little lake with stream flowing across the village. I like cities that have water bodies. There’s a school and a small library nearby.

Water pumping station, few houses and shops. The road tunnel under the bridge connects to the neighboring city.

Railway station and a blue train on an elevated terrain.

Rural rail with farms on one side and residences on the other.

I like laying out rail tracks, routing them through the village and working on their traction.

Some large farms next to agricultural industries. The tunnel passes under the railway line and takes you to the other side of the village.

More farms, trains and trees.

Assorted farms: Sunflower, apple orchid, wheat, corn etc.

So that was my calm little village, with no air or water pollution, almost zero crime and healthy, educated people. The train connects this village to the city (40 minutes away) and those with higher education go there to work. About 600 people from this village work in the city, while 300 people from the city work in the industries here. Primary revenue sources are industrial and residential taxes, and export of water to the neighboring city.

That concludes visit to my farming village. In the next post, I’ll take you on a tour of an industrial town.

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte