I've been living in Toronto for a couple of weeks now. I used to wonder how well I would take to the city, because I've been living in small towns since I was 7. It turns out I am doing very well here. It is very multi-cultural and I knew that before moving here. I've been to school and courses with people from different cultures and that doesn't bother me. Surprisingly, I don't mind driving in Toronto as long as it is not during rush hour in the morning or after work

The closest grocery store does not have a parking lot so I have to walk there and carry back what I buy. Since I can only carry so much, I found that I was going back every couple of days. That got old quick, so I found a larger grocery store not too far away where I can park my car, load up, and come home. Now the trouble is making sure I can carry it all to the elevator and into my condo :)

There were a couple break ins down the hall shortly after I moved in. I let security know and they were all over it right away. The owners didn't have their alarm turned on. Later security said this happened two or three times to the same units, and they think they know who is doing it. Still, I feel safe in my condo. I can even walk around naked because there are no buildings in front of me. I have a view of the lake, a park, skydome and CN Tower.

My dog gets more walks now that we're in Toronto because he won't go on the balcony. I take him out before work, after work, and before bed. We go to the park beside the building which is quite large and pretty. Below the park (under ground) is a multi level parking complex for the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Every day at 6:00 PM all of the dog owners in the building meet out there and we let our dogs loose to play. Bandit really loves it. With all of these "walks", I was worried that I am getting too much exercise and might start to lose weight. Then I realized that I am not exercising when I let the dog run loose for 20 minutes, so it balances out :) Just to make sure, I had an ice cream cone for the first time in 5 months! I'm not bringing tubs of it home, so I think I'm still staving off my addiction.

Work is going well. I have adjusted to working from home quite well. I am strict about getting to work by 9am, having lunch at noon, and finishing >= 5pm. Since my den area where the computers are has no windows or distractions, I feel like I did when I worked in Orillia. I talk with co-workers over IM and email like in Orillia, so it doesn't feel like much has changed. I have been having some issues getting access to some computers at work over the VPN, and with my Vista laptop, but we've got most of the issues resolved now.

Last Monday I had an interior designer come for an initial consultation. She's going to send me some drawings of my space next week to help choose a plan, then we're going to a furniture store to choose some pieces. Later we'll go to a lighting store to choose light fixtures. Believe it or not, only the kitchen and bathroom have ceiling lights installed. The rest of the rooms have a cap over the ceiling outlet. (It's a new unit that hasn't been lived in before). It will take some time, but in the end I will have a designer look that suits a Toronto waterfront penthouse.

Last night I returned from a three day Scrum Master training course led by Mishkin Berteig, one of only two certified trainers in Canada. I found it interesting that my employer's existing non-formal development processes will make it MUCH easier to implement Scrum than everyone else who attended the course. Much of what we do already can be refined and made consistent to become Agile and the Scrum way. For example, releasing changes to customers every few weeks. The companies my colleagues work for have hierarchies of sign-offs, waterfall like processes, and way more paperwork than I ever thought possible.

I also found it interesting to contrast the kinds of questions I asked (from a developer's point of view) with the questions asked by the project managers. My questions were more about how to make Scrum work with our tools such as JIRA (with Green Hopper plugin) and Confluence, and how to build a truly cross-functional team that has all the skills necessary to implement any product backlog item from start to finish. I was really surprised to find out that many of the companies my colleagues work for do not use issue tracking systems, or know what Subversion does!

My next plan is to create wiki pages that talk about how to implement Scrum in our company using as few words possible. I think it's important to make it short and readable. I've written several process documents for our company before, usually over 50 pages, and I find that people don't read the whole thing or remember what they read.

I've been going to Toronto the last few weekends to look at condos for sale and apartments for rent. To make a long story short, my dad has been schooling me on the global economy crisis and strongly encouraging me to rent for 6-12 months. Ultimately I decided to buy because I was able to find exactly what I was looking for, am able to make affordable monthly payments, and can see myself living there for 10+ years. As long as I can stay employed, I don't care if the housing market crashes and prices plummet.

Below is some of the criteria I gave to my real estate agent:

• Queens Quay area (waterfront)
• New building that allows small dogs
• 1 bedroom + den for home office
• Breathtaking views of lake and city where I can see the CN Tower
• Walking distance to subway
• Walking distance to parks, boardwalk, restaurants, bars, etc.
• Balcony
• Ensuite washer & dryer
• Dishwasher
• Modern interior (granite counters, nice finishes, etc.)
• etc.

We looked at about 9 condos before we found the perfect one. I had to go back to my bank several times while making offers to see how much higher over my pre-approved amount I can go. The seller wouldn't budge and I ended up paying close to list price. Still, I'm very pleased with my purchase and move in the day after I move out of my Orillia house.

My dad is pretty disappointed that I didn't wait 6 months, and thinks I'm going to bankrupt myself. He doesn't realize that the mortgage payments are affordable (within my gross debt ratio), otherwise the bank wouldn't have allowed it. The bank is making me pay my car off with some of the profit from the sale of my Orillia house. I don't have any debts other than the mortgage. I will have almost the same amount of left over money at the end of the month as I do here in Orillia. If the housing market crashes, so what. The payments will stay the same for 5 years. All the websites I read and people I talk to seem to think that Toronto condo prices are going up this year. If a unit like this were any more than it was, I probably could not have afforded it.

Below is a picture standing at the door of the bedroom (larger than my current bedroom!). The second picture was taken standing near the bedroom window. The view from the living room is exactly the same.

A couple guys came by tonight to buy my home theater at full asking price. They also wanted to buy my couch, kitchen table & chairs, and microwave! I sold it all to them except the kitchen table & chairs. If they pay what I want for it, they can have those too. Now I get to start with fresh decor.

Last week I put my house up for sale. Before the sign went up and before the agents tour, my agent asked if she could have three potential buyers come through. They came, they saw, they bought! After the first viewing there were talks of an offer. Two days later they put in a near asking price offer, but wanted an April 8th closing date because they sold their house with that closing date. I accepted the offer and decided to rent a condo in Toronto for 6-12 months instead of buying one. That will give me time to learn Toronto's areas and also to see what happens to the housing market.

Yesterday I took the day off work to view a few apartments. The first was a nice 2 bedroom condo in a new building. Allows pets, in unit laundry, A/C, forced air natural gas heating, balcony, granite counter tops, parking space, storage locker, 5 min walk to subway, etc. WHAT A VIEW. From every room you can see a beautiful Toronto skyline including the CN Tower. Allowing pets, and the view are the most important things to me. What I don't like about this place is the location. It's at Bloor/Lansdowne which is a bit dumpy with a handful of brand new residential developments. It's a 20 minute walk to High Park, and 5 minute walk to subway. He'll let me do a 6 month lease then go month-by-month after that. I saw a second larger unit in the same building that is $100 more, and min 12 month lease.

The third place I looked at was High Park Village. One company owns about 7-10 high rise apartment buildings. The location is beautiful, it's across the road from High Park, lots of great shopping and restaurants within walking distance, 5 minute walk to subway, allows pets, etc. They have multiple vacancies but could not show the one with a city view without 24 hour notice to the tenant. I looked at another without a view instead. The building is 40 years old, parquay floors, no A/C, dated looking balcony, and some really old kind of heaters along the base of the walls. It costs an additional $85/month for parking, more for storage locker, more for access to shared laundry facilities, and if I want a 6 month lease instead of 12 month I have to pay an additional $200/month. This is a lot of money.

I'm going back on the weekend to check out some places in Queens Quay, and maybe by The Beaches. I'm most excited about Queens Quay because this is going to be close to what I will eventually buy. I want a great downtown view, newer or completely renovated interior, pets allowed, nice places to walk the dog, shopping within walking distance, etc. From what I hear, Queens Quay has it all.

What concerns me is that I can't figure out how I will set up my living room furniture in any of the units I've seen. Most units have small living rooms. My furniture fits, but not properly. I need a 10 foot or larger wall for my entertainment center, and the couch needs to be parallel to it. In these units my couch would be in the way of a doorway no matter how I place it. The only way around this is to get rid of my home theater and buy something that will go in a corner. It can be still be large, but it can't take up a 10 foot wall! I'm going to see if I can sell my home theater, but if not I'll find a way to make it fit.

Today my agent emailed to say that the deal has been finalized and the SOLD sign will go up tomorrow.

After 9.25 years of employment at IJWS, I am officially laid off. January 2, 2008 was my first day working as a contractor for IJWS as Ryco Technologies (aka Ryco Tech). In the first year not much will change other than me moving into a Toronto condo in 3-6 months, and working from home. In the mean time I will continue to strengthen my skills in all areas of Java development, and will begin work on my ISO 900003-2004 Quality Assurance plan. I want Ryco Technologies to be known for high quality software by following industry standard engineering processes. I have been studying these processes over the last year, and have also learned what not to do from experience.

Eventually I'll begin work on one of several ideas I have for products and services. These are long term goals and I need to do more research before I decide on any of them. If I end up needing work, there will always be recruiting companies in the GTA to help me find contract jobs.

What do you think of the logo? I've had several designed for me by different artists and this is the one I like the most.