It’s been a year or so since this whole Butcher’s fiasco started. I was one of the lucky ones, getting my money back. It was probably because I work for the CBC (which I made a point of mentioning) and CBC had already done an expose on the whole online-coupon thing and interviewed Marlon at the Butchers as well.
The Butchers is gone, and has been replaced by Marlon’s meats. And the website states in it’s FAQ section that they will honor coupons until Labor Day weekend 2012. They are asking voucher holders to submit their vouchers to buytopia and other web coupon site who will “schedule it and arrange collection or delivery”
Needless to say Buytopia and the like are not going to do that. They are not in the product scheduling and delivery business and I am sure their lawyers will argue that it is Marlon’s responsibility to honor the agreements.
Several commentors on the blog have mentioned that the vouchers are no longer being honored and apparently legal action has begun.
If you are a voucher holder I would recommend you try to get other people together and place a class action suit against the parties involved. There is a lot of money on the table and if Buytopia or the Butcher’s win, they are going to walk away with it. Minus whatever the lawyers take and I don’t think anyone bought coupons to pay lawyers.
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Tags: buytopia, Marlon's Meat, meat, scam, the butchers, toronto
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There is a hierarchy in cycling that I have noticed over the years. It’s a though that has been bouncing around in my brain and think I have it solidified enough to actually write about.
1. Roadies.
At the top are road cyclists. They spend the most money, spend the most time riding and generally are the fastest cyclists out there. And within that group there is another hierarchy with Euro kit guys at the top. Euro-kit guys are the riders who wear full matching team kit and even go so far as to match their bikes to it. Here is Alex Howes of Team Garmin. Notice how his shoes match the kit, even his bike computer matches, that is not by chance.
These guys are top of the cycling hierarchy because they’re masochistic, they’ll crash and then get up and do it again. They’ll ride 200km today and then do it again tomorrow, and then the next day and the next. You gotta respect that.
Over at Velominati, the Keepers of the Cog posted “The Rules”. With a rule like #5 “harden the fuck up” you can see these people take cycling very seriously. Not all of them are elite, but chances are if you see someone with full kit like this, they are not a poser, they just understand the rules.
Next are the weekend warriors like myself. We wear mis-matched gear, or club kits that don’t match our bikes, but still try to follow “the rules” to the the best of our abilities. You will find us riding rain or shine. (I rode today in Toronto mid-January for crying out loud!) These roadies celebrate the arrival of new wheels the way other people celebrate the birth of a child. We watch our number obsessively and are always looking for a chance to prove ourselves. Like my sister said to me last night, “It’s not a race until someone is ahead of you.”
Next are the middle-aged mid-life crisis dudes. They’re the ones riding the $15,000 Trek Madrones with Dura-race sets. Kudos to them for choosing cycling as way of dealing with their lost youth but it’s not the bike that makes you fast, it’s the person riding it.
2. Couriers
Couriers are a close second on the hierarchy. Anyone who rides a single speed before hipsters came along is bad-ass. Or is riding a single speed before everyone else who rides a singles speed did it before everyone else ultra-hipster? Perhaps they just ride them ironically? Anyway one who rides a single speed not to be stylish but to minimize the chances of a broken part because they need to ride a bike for a living is pretty hard-core. Plus they also ride in all sorts of weather. (See rule #9)
I think if you could get them to wash up, cut the dread-locks, wear matching uniforms and teach them to use gears, you’d have a pretty intimidating road team!
3. Triathletes.
Triathletes are hard-core and can be crazy fast, but they break rule #42 which states,
“If it’s preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run, it is not called a bike race, it is called duathlon or a triathlon. Neither of which is a bike race. Also keep in mind that one should only swim in order to prevent drowning, and should only run if being chased. And even then, one should only run fast enough to prevent capture.”
4. Mountain bikers
Roadies are more serious but mountain bikers have WAY more fun. Roadies drink espresso, mountain bikers drink beer. Enough said. These days you can drop just as much for a mountain bike as a road bike. They have their own version of kit (roach wear, rnh, and the like) and their own nomenclature.
The difference is that much of mountain biking is downhill. Where you ride a ski lift to the top of the hill and then let gravity pull you to the bottom.
While the risk of injury makes mountain biking bad-ass and help raise it in the hierarchy, this wimpy practice of enjoying a downhill that was not earned cancels out any bad-ass effect.
5. City Commuters
Note that I wrote city commuters and not commuters. There is a difference. If you live in a city like Toronto, which is openly hostile to cyclists (Yes, that fat-bastard is our mayor) you have to balls of steel to go wheel to wheel with cars in open traffic.
City commuters are tough and they band together occasionally flexing their civil muscle and taking over the streets. Google “Critical Mass” to see what I’m writing about.
6. Commuters/recreational riders
Anyone else who rides a bike. It’s awesome that these people are on bikes, and given time they may move up the hierarchy. I have a desktop for my computer that reads, “No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everybody on the couch.” True dat!
7. Recumbents
Seriously, do you want to ride a bike or have a nap? The only saving grace to recumbents are the bat-shit crazy fuckers attempting to break the sound barrier on two wheels.
8. Power assist anything
I hate even putting these people on here, but two wheels is two wheels. and as long as you’re doing most of the work then I guess it’s a start. Electric bikes are not on here. Those things are cancer.
So that’s the cycling hierarchy as I see it. It’s a work in progress and I’m open to suggestions or changes.
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Tags: commuters, couriers, cycling, mountain bikes, recumbents, roadies
It’s always fun to look at the site after awhile and review the analytics to see what posts were popular. This blog is really just a collection of random thoughts and things I collect so there isn’t much in the way of a cohesive theme. This randomness is detrimental to the popularity of the blog, but good for my personal well being so whatever. Anyway the top posts are sort of random as well.
The top post is because of a single word, “nudity” which was from a single amazing picture.
This picture is called “Sea of Nudity” by Spencer Tunick. I had corrected an issue the site had with getting a proper Google index page and once Google had indexed it the traffic shot up.
The second most popular post was on the Butcher’s scandal. I titled the post, “The butchers scams Toronto?” and that combination of keywords generated a lot of interest. It is also the top commented story of the year as well with 15 comments. Luckily I turned out to be okay, I got my money back; but from the sounds of it many people did not which is unfortunate.
The third and fourth most popular posts were also about the butchers and were follow up stories.
Over all the blog saw a 5 fold increase in page views, and a reduction in the bounce rate of 10 percent, although the time on page dropped by 26 seconds.
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Tags: Analytics, the butchers, top posts
I came across a number of incredible ideas while in Japan. I took photos of a few and wanted to share them and why I think they are so great. The first is a turning lane that extends into the intersection. What you are seeing is a car which has proceeded into the intersection and is now waiting to turn. What this does is allow the driver to see how far into the intersection they can extend and begin their turn without impeding oncoming traffic. Some of the traffic signals in Japan can be confusing but I think this one is spot on.
One thing that did concern me however is the idea that the car has already turned their wheels. This is dangerous because if they are bumped from behind they will be thrust into oncoming traffic exposing the driver to a T-bone hit.
The next idea is side walks for the blind. I have seen this on the subway platform on the TTC but in Japan they have it on the side walk. These are different textured panels which are set into the concrete of the side walk. These panels provide directional information and warnings for the blind. Another advancement they had, which I couldn’t take a photo of is different music playing for each direction of the crossing. I am not sure if this is everywhere or just the intersection in Asakasa where I took this photo. You will also notice in the top right the pattern extending across the white lines of the side walk.
The last picture is from a public toilet. The Japanese take cleanliness very seriously. The extends to the public spaces. I have written before about the amazing toilets. Well in an effort to promote cleanliness and health the Japanese provide sanitary spray and tissue for you to wipe the toilet with before you sit down. There are even instructions in Japanese and English in case you are not sure what to do. It is a simple solution using materials that are already found in the bathroom anyway, they just moved the location into the stall.
Now I can’t speak for the rest of Japan, but I find Tokyo to be very easy to move around in. Most of the signs are either accompanied by visual representations or English. The transit repeats the instructions in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. There are enhancements to make things easier for the handicapped and to ensure public safety.
While Japan is by no means perfect there are good ideas that we should look at adopting to improve quality of life in Canada.
I work as a product manager of web analytics for the 
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