UML (United Messengers) is probably a good bet. It seems like people stay there longer and make fairly consistent money. Kid Gloves is amazing but I don't know if there would be any spots available (smaller company). There are lots of small companies that can end up working out well. The best way to find out about them is word of mouth. I'd say try one of the bigger companies first like UML and then if you like it stay. Once you're on the road, if you make friends with other messengers, you'll get a pretty good idea of where you want to be.

Also tell your friend my cardinal rule of surviving as a bike messenger: Never NEVER go faster than you are comfortable going in any given situation, no matter how much of a hurry you are in or how much pressure your dispatcher is putting on you. It sounds obvious, but it can be pretty easy to get caught up in trying to prove how fast you are to your dispatcher, especially when you are just starting out. After all, at the end of the day you are just delivering crap and arriving a few minutes late is better than arriving dead. The only time I got hit by a car when messengering was when I was pushing it too much and not totally paying attention. Easier said than done believe me.

sweeeeeeeeeeeet!

i usually wipe down the chain and put some lube on it once a week. for the winter bike everything else gets greased in the spring and that's it. for the nicer summer bikes, i take care of them a bit more but these days generally maintainance is on an as-needed basis.

god damn snow.

supposed to be heading to chicago for hot water music today

Ouch.

ps. Even though I don't know you, I still hate you for not inviting me. :)
pps. The only thing worse than knowing you're not getting a snow day on a day like today is when your partner goes back to bed after finding out they *did* get one.

Huh

Hahahahahaha ya man Carlotta just looked at me blankly said goodnight and went back to bed...
Anywayz...the ride in was so damn fun it made up for it!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa boyeeeeeeeeee! its nasty out there peeps...ride safe plz!:)

edit: riding in listening to Fela Kuti definitely made the vibez much warmer!

UofT = Open
UGuelph (where kim is teaching this Winter) = Closed

yeah,
at least i have tickets to tomorrow's show not tonight's so i can take time going down.

lucero and able baker fox (1/4 casket lottery, 3/4 small brown bike) are the openers.

i got about a block down college on bike this morning before turning around.
my beater bike still only has clearance for 23's and the snow jammed quickly. not to mention there werent even tire tracks in the snow yet.

and of course the queen street car took 30 minutes to show up.

Bunch of sissy farmers!
Edit: rumour has it that it's harvest day at UofT too.

Awesome....now I have 2 friends to mooch free visits....I mean work out with.

I took a day off riding too - I made it to Roncesvalles and decided that was enough... I experimented on my street to test how things were on my roadie, and the snow was too thick to turn on (was fine going straight :)) as I nearly went down trying, heh. Roncesvalles is my usual gauge of how the majors are, and it was still pretty messy - so I thought bollocks to it and took the streetcar.

Feel almost guilty for it, too... Keep safe out there!

Bummed that I'm not going - although I did get to see Hot Water Music a couple times I got way more into them long after the fact...

I was going to go down early so that I could catch the Chuck Ragan show the night before... A buddy of mine caught him in London earlier this year and said that it was one of the best live shows he's ever seen.

College seemed pretty clear, as did most main roads. Bloor & St. George were downright ok to ride on with 23s. Most side streets (Pearl, Duncan, Simcoe) in the core were sketchy-ass business. Enough cars had run over the snow to turn it to hard-pack, but not slush yet. Hard-pack takes you down quick :eek:

Wes - when you posted, only UTM was closed.. and now you're probably at work. Buuuuuut....

Hooray! (I was "working" at home today anyways :p)

Yeah, I have a snow day too, hooray. It really isn't too bad out there at all, the only problem will be avoiding drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow or, in other words, 98% of Toronto drivers ;)

I am going to load up on coffee, pop in a DVD and wrench on the Razesa all day!

ya man...gotta get to know the front desk peeps and teef one of those blocks of 'guest pass' tix!

I nominate Sgt. Dan 'pimptacular' Halen to sweet talk the front desk girl! ;)

Yes, thanks to the dithering twats at U of T. I checked the website diligently before leaving for my 11 o'clock class only to find the University closed at 11. Nice....

Fun ride in, not so fun back. The snow is infilling the ruts so they're harder to see, so keep it slow if you're heading anywhere in a snowy curb lane. That and the sucker-chumps with their blades are busy filling the curb lane with piles of snow.

Hello there Captain presumptuous. Kidding. You're welcome to come with me to blast your shoulders or get pumped up or whatever. Woo.

Hey I go to the Y as well! Dovercourt construction represent ... usually dress up as the cop.

whooo u of waterloo is closed. I just woke up and found out.
what a great surprise! guess I didn't miss all my classes afterall :)

Just woke up ? damn... *smack* :lol:

Rode to work on the mtb, goofed off for a couple hours, bought a new computer at the campus computer shop, did about 20 minutes of work, turned around and came back home again. \o/

Got home, shoveled and made a nice bacon + cheddar sandwich. Bacon from Cumbrae's, bread from the bakery. Cooked the bacon and toasted the bread in my grill pan. Good stuff.

Now I'm sittin' on the couch having a cup of tea and watching the cyclocross worlds from last weekend.

Snow day! Woo!

Also: I found the road conditions much better (slushier) at 11:00 than at 9:00. Less of the brutal hardpack mentioned previously.

What type of computer did you buy?

2.0Ghz Mac Mini. My G4 Powerbook is starting to show its age, but I'll continue using it for web/email/"fun" stuff. :) But I'm planning on starting to do more audio stuff and so I wanted something with a little more horsepower, and also the G4 is a little sluggish with the gigantor raw files my camera spits out.

Oh sweet, macs.
I've been running my osx86 Hackintosh for about 7 months now. Stable as a rock! I'm totally happy running an older version (10.4.8) and don't think I have any need to upgrade to leopard anytime soon.

FIRST: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/04...ial-you-s.html
SECOND: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/10...-photosho.html
THIRD: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/18...hotosho-1.html
FOURTH: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/25...hotosho-2.html
FINAL: http://www.mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=384
hahahahahahaha

PC 4tw!

Edit: Man it's fun riding outside. 23c lasers through the snow!

windoze ftl

Word. You can pry OS X from my cold dead hands. I'm not the hugest of MS haters, they do some things well, but given the choice of OSes I'd pick OS X every time, no contest. OS9 and below weren't all that, but that's well in the past now!

Phew.. To keep it on-topic, I just did a really tough workout. Yoga warm-up... Then onto the bike for 5 * 3:00 threshold exertion @ 100+rpm (with 1:00 rest in between each) with progressively harder gearing for each interval... then a 12:00 power yoga routine. Had to work off that bacon 'n' cheese sammich. I was reminded of that during said workout I may have thrown up a little in my mouth. :0~

Also I hit at least 187bpm. I'll check ze data later. :P