Bixi: the Bicycle-Taxi

WorldChanging Canada: Bixi: the Bicycle-Taxi for a Bright Green City

Cool.

Of course, our winters in Saskatchewan would be a problem.

Balloon Ride

We finally got our balloon ride after three years of trying. Every time we were booked, the weather would be wrong - too windy, too calm (!), rain, clouds, etc. Then you'd have to rebook a month or two in advance so you only got a few tries per summer. I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen. But in the end we had a beautiful morning, as you can see from the pictures. It's a very peaceful experience.

2009-06-12 balloon ride

California State Parks Closing?

Schwarzenegger proposes closing 80 percent of California state parks - San Jose Mercury News

I'm not sure what to think about this.

My first reaction was that it was awful.

But if they just close the gates to vehicle traffic, maybe that's not so bad.

The concern is that there will be vandalism and other abuse, but if you can't drive in, will that really happen?

Sharkwater

I watched the documentary Sharkwater last night. There's some beautiful underwater photography. But it's also depressing.

We (people) have killed about 90% of the sharks so far. About the same as we've done to most large fish. The difference is that we don't eat the sharks like we did the fish, we just cut off their fins for shark fin soup and discard the rest.

Shark fins don't even have much flavor (they're just cartilage). But people, mostly the Chinese, will pay large amounts of money for it. And because there is so much money involved (literally billions of dollars) governments don't stop it. Even where it's illegal like in Galapagos, the government turns a blind eye.

Of course, it doesn't help that sharks are commonly portrayed and thought of as monsters. So people aren't as concerned about them being wiped out as they are about cuddly panda bears.

Part of the film is with Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd. He was one of the founders of Greenpeace but left to form Sea Shepherd because Greenpeace wasn't radical enough. (my oversimplification) I have a lot of admiration for people who don't just talk and inform, but actually take direct action.

Walkability

Get Your Walk Score - A Walkability Score For Any Address

Our current address gets a "Somewhat walkable" 52 out of 100. We avoid driving by riding our bikes.

If Rivergreen Ecovillage gets off the ground and we move there, we'd rate 90 out of 100 - "Walker's Paradise"

How does your address rate?

Talking About Running

I just finished reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novelist, runner, and triathlete.

I really enjoyed this book and identified with what he talked about. I'm not a serious runner, I don't enter any races. But I've run fairly regularly since I was a kid. Nor am I a serious writer, but I've done a little, and I'm certainly a serious reader, and in some ways my programming is a similar solitary creative pursuit. I'm also reaching a similar age as Murakami writes about - the point where you have to face the fact that your physical performance is past its peak.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Sometimes I run fast when I feel like it, but if I increase the pace I shorten the amount of time I run, the point being to let the exhilaration I feel at the end of each run carry over to the next day. This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do that, and the next days work goes surprisingly smoothly. I think Ernest Hemingway did something like that. To keep going, you have to keep up the rhythm. This is the important thing for long-term projects. Once you set the pace, the rest will follow. The problem is getting the flywheel to spin at a set speed - and to get to that point takes as much concentration and effort as you can manage.

This seems very true for my big programming projects.

"It might be a little silly for someone getting to be my age to put this into words, but I just want to make sure I get the facts down clearly: I'm the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I'm the type of person who doesn't find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I've had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself.

I've always been happy on my own as well, preferring to run on my own, and happy to read or work on projects on my own.

"I'm in my late fifties now. When I was young, I never imagined the twenty-first century would actually come and that, all joking aside, I'd turn fifty. In theory, of course, it was self-evident that someday, if nothing else happened, the twenty-first century would roll around and I'd turn fifty. When I was young, being asked to imagine myself at fifty was as difficult as being asked to imagine, concretely, the world after death. ... For me - and for everybody else, probably - this is my first experience growing old, and the emotions I'm having, too, are all first-time feelings. If it were something I'd experienced before, then I'd be able to understand it more clearly, but this is the first time, so I can't. For now all I can do is put off making any detailed judgments and accept things as they are. Just like I accept the sky, the clouds, and the river. And there's also something kind of comical about it all, something you don't want to discard completely.

"I look up at the sky, wondering if I'll catch a glimpse of kindness there, but I don't. All I see are indifferent summer clouds drifting over the Pacific. And they have nothing to say to me. Clouds are always taciturn. I probably shouldn't be looking up at them. What I should be looking at is inside of me. Can I see kindness there? No, all I see is my own nature. My own individual, stubborn, uncooperative, often self-centered nature that still doubts itself - that when troubles occur, tries to find something funny, or something nearly funny, about the situation. I've carried this character around like an old suitcase, down a long dusty path. I'm not carrying it because I like it. The contents are too heavy, and it looks crummy, fraying in spots. I've carried it with me because there was nothing else I was supposed to carry. Still, I guess I have grown attached to it. As you might expect.

"I expect that this winter I'll run another marathon somewhere in the world. And I'm sure come next summer I'll be out in another triathlon somewhere, giving it my best shot. Thus the seasons come and go, and the years pass by. I'll age one more year, and probably finish another novel. One by one, I'll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long-distance runner.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Warning: Potential spoiler - I give away some of the story.

I recently watch the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. I didn't know much about it, just that it was science fiction and starred Keanu Reeves. It's a remake of a 1951 classic.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the part where you find out the aliens are here to wipe out humanity because we're destroying the earth. (I wonder if that was in the 1951 version?)

After that I was cheering for the aliens, although I'm sure you're supposed to be cheering for the poor humans struggling not to get snuffed.

By almost any definition, homo sapiens is an incredible pest. If any other animal or plant had spread as much as we have and altered the planet as much as we have, we'd certainly be trying to "control" it (a euphemism for wiping it out).

Wiping out people entirely might be a little extreme, but certainly the earth would be better off with a lot fewer of us.

Often, pandemics are listed as potential problems of the same order as environmental destruction. But even the worst pandemic (depending on your definition), the bubonic plague, only killed roughly 50% of the population. That would still leave us with billions of people. But if we destroy the environment, that could kill not only all humans, but huge amounts of other life as well.

I was disappointed with the ending of the movie. The humans (mostly Jennifer Connelly) convince the aliens (represented by Keanu Reeves) that humans shouldn't be wiped out because we are actually nice people who care about our kids, and we can change, even if our track record is abysmal. Come on, how gullible are these aliens?

Oh well, I didn't really expect the movie to end with humans getting wiped out, as pleasing as that might be to a rabid environmentalist.

Logging Banned in Manitoba Parks

Logging Banned in Manitoba Provincial Parks | Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Manitoba Chapter

This is great news, but naively I would have assumed logging wasn't allowed in provincial parks.

Regardless of whether you think parks are for recreation for people, or to protect the environment, I can't see how logging fits into the picture.

Or at least, the only way I can see how it fits is that profit driven logging companies and money driven governments were cashing in.

Of course, I don't think hunting or motorized vehicles (e.g. snowmobiles, atv's, jetski's, powerboats) should be allowed in parks either. But that does depend on whether you think parks are for recreation or protection. I think parks can server both purposes, but only if you stick to self-propelled recreation.

I guess the next question is what about the other provinces? Does Saskatchewan allow logging in our provincial parks?

Australia Revisited

I know it's long out of date, but I never finished posting our Australia photos, so here's a batch from Perth.

2008-09 Perth, Australia

The War on the Car

From WorldChanging Canada: City Changing: Re-mixing Built Environments:

Recently, Toronto's city council approved plans to transform Jarvis Street from a five-lane car-only street to a four-lane street with bike lanes. This came after significant resistance from council members who claimed that an alteration of the street was but one battle in an alleged "war on the car". Dissenting council members also claimed that all parties involved—the some 27,000 cars that traverse Jarvis Street on a regular basis—had not been consulted. Instead, the city had sponsored an ad in NOW Magazine querying public opinion on the idea of bike lanes. Because NOW is a local, youth-oriented publication, it was assumed that thousands of drivers were being excluded from the conversation at the expense of Toronto's cyclists, who appeared at public planning meetings in droves to exhort city planners to move forward with the bike lanes.

While the approval of the lanes is good news for both environmental improvement and cyclist safety, the length and speed of the debate indicates the kind of uphill battle in store for people who want to engage in what we might consider "urban re-mix."

I love the "war on the car" part.

DSLR Cameras

Although I'm quite happy with my Pentax K10D, I could always use higher ISO and better auto-focus. There never seems to be enough light to use a fast enough shutter speed for hand held shooting, or a small enough aperture for more focus lattitude. Thank goodness for image stabilization or I'd be even worse off.

So I can't help but covet the Nikon D3's awesome low light abilities. Of course, it also costs roughly $5000 and is a huge heavy beast, so I don't really want one.

The Nikon D700 also performs well and it's somewhat cheaper and smaller. But, like the D3, it has a full-size sensor (the actual size of 35mm film). The bigger sensor is one of the reasons for the better performance. The problem is that I like the increase in focal length that the smaller sensors give you. On a full size sensor, my zoom would be 18 to 250mm. But on my Pentax with a smaller sensor, it's equivalent to 27 to 375mm. You could use a tele-extender but then you lose another stop of light, and this zoom is already quite slow. Of course, there are other lenses, but that's a whole 'nother story!

I've looked at the Nikon D300, which has a smaller sensor, but it's performance isn't as impressive as the D700 (or the D3). The Nikon D90 which is actually a more "consumer" oriented model, actually does better for low light, also does video, and it's considerably cheaper.

One of the reasons I bought the Pentax was because it had in-camera image stabilization, which means you're not buying expensive image stabilization in multiple lenses. But so far, I've stuck to my one super-zoom lens, so the argument doesn't really hold. And the image stabilized Nikon version of this lens is actually 18 to 275mm (as opposed to 250mm).

I also like how the Pentax will output standard DNG format instead of just a proprietary format like most other cameras, although this isn't a huge factor.

To complicate things, Pentax is coming out with a new K7 model this summer. Full test results aren't out yet so it's hard to tell how it will compare. It shoots video like the D90. And it's small and light and weather/dust proof which is a plus for me. The auto-focus is supposed to be better. And it would work with my existing lens. The resolution has increased, which is good in some ways (more room to crop), but higher resolution means smaller pixels on the sensor, which usually means more noise (i.e. worse low light performance). e.g. My Pentax K10D sensor with 10mp rates higher than the more expensive K20D with 14mp. (Of course, there's a lot more to a camera than just the sensor.)

Of course, I don't really need a new camera at all. An expensive camera is no guarantee of good pictures!

PS. For some reason I haven't got interested in Canon cameras, although I've had several smaller Canon's, and I'm sure their DSLR's are good too. The Sony Alpha's also have good specs but I don't know much about them either.

Kayaking at Pike Lake

It was a little windy on the lake so I stayed in shelter of the creek. A pair of red-winged blackbirds were scolding me, maybe their nest was nearby. At least they stayed still long enough to photograph them, unlike the muskrat which I saw several times but never let me take it's picture. Or another little bright yellow bird (yellow warbler?) that flitted about.

2009-05-31 Pike Lake

Automobiles

Not much question we live in a culture dominated by automobiles. (That's my bike squeezed in between the tables because there's no bicycle parking. Just acres of parking lots.)

I gotta find somewhere better to sit outside and have coffee! The view here really sucks.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

This Rose-breasted Grosbeak was a new visitor to the bird feeder. (Or at least, to all the seed on the ground under the bird feeder.) I've seen one on several different days, maybe the same individual?


Hard to get a good photo through the dining room window, with a 400mm lens hand-held at 1/60th (cloudy day).

Spring Road Trip

Shelley and I just got back from a week of climbing, starting around Banff and continuing to Penticton, BC where we climbed at Skaha.

As usual, we found some good places to eat... (all new to us)

In Banff we went to the Bison Restaurant and Lounge. On the way there to the restaurant, and on the way back to the lounge for fondue. As well as great food, it's situated in the Bison Courtyard which is a high performance green building containing a blend of retail, residential, and restaurant space. It's similar (although smaller) to the Rivergreen Ecovillage that is being planned for Saskatoon (and that we're seriously considering buying into).

In Penticton we started with the Hooded Merganser. I liked the name, and the pictures on the internet looked nice. We had a little trouble finding it. Knowing it was on the water, we drove up and down the beach but couldn't find it. It turned out to be inside the Resort/Casino. That turned me off a little, but luckily the restaurant was quite separate. We weren't very hungry so we sat in the lounge and had appetizers. It wasn't very busy so we had a quite meal with a great view of the lake. (Coincidentally, a duck I had photographed a few days earlier near Banff turned out to be a Hooded Merganser!)

For coffee we went to Fibonacci Roastery & Cafe. Kind of a funky place, but good coffee and deserts and comfy couches. We went back one evening for some live jazz.

We also really enjoyed Lee's Fusion and Amanti Bistro.

Finally, the evening we visited our friend Ellen in Summerland, we went to the Vanilla Pod Tapas and Wine Bar. They were very accomodating to our vegetarian needs and came up with several options for us that weren't on the menu.

Of course, we also sampled a few of the local wines (and brought a few home). We only made it to two wineries - Soaring Eagle and Zero Balance, both owned by Holman Lang Wineries. Both had some tasty wines. It was the first time we'd been to the Naramata bench - there are a ton of wineries in this small area.

We also did some climbing...

We were climbing at Skaha Bluffs, one of our favorite spots. Skaha has had access issues over the last few years but things seem to be resolved now. The new parking lot is great, although it turned out to be much too small for the busy long weekend. During the week when we were there it was fine.

Shelley's climbing in the gym all winter gave her the advantage this trip. Oh well, it gave me an excuse to get her to lead the hard stuff :-) We did our usual favorites like Plum Line, although we didn't do Double Exposure this trip. The weather was cloudy a fair bit and sprinkled a few drops, but for climbing that's probably better than too hot.

And, of course, some photographs...

2009-05 Banff & Penticton

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

I just saw a yellow-rumped warbler from the kitchen window. They're not rare, but I don't remember seeing one before, at least not up close. They're quite striking with their yellow patches.

I didn't get a picture and most of the ones I found on-line don't do it justice. This one is pretty good:

ON THE EDGE... A yellow rumped warbler perches on the edge of a hand rail at the Rotary marshes in Kelowna.

Spring Flowers

The first flower opened today in our yard. Old hat to those of you in Victoria and Vancouver (and my sister in Spain!), but a nice sign of spring here. Of course, they're forecasting snow for tomorrow - the joys of Saskatchewan weather!




I used my tripod, but they're still not as sharp as I'd like - too much wind and not enough light.

Sailing

Some great photos of the The Volvo Ocean Race.

I thought two month expeditions were long, but this race around the world takes nine months!

A favorite movie of mine is Wind - great sailing cinematography.

Adios Amigos

A few weeks ago I made the tough decision to withdraw from running the Prairie Pitch Adventure Race this year.

Little did I know that it would lead to me withdrawing from the Saskatchewn section of the Alpine Club itself.

A lot of the newer members probably don't know my background with the club. I first joined the Alpine Club over 30 years ago. There was no Saskatchewan section then.

About 15 years ago, Ralph and Lisa Bock and Shelley and myself got together and formed a "Saskatchewan Alpine Club". At that point we weren't affiliated with the Alpine Club of Canada.

It was around the same time that Vic started Vic's Vertical Walls (now Climb 306). Not surprisingly, the members of the club were some of his first customers. I was so excited to have a climbing wall in town that I spent my evenings and weekends helping Vic and his Dad build the walls, first at their original location, and then at the current location.

For the first few years of the club, Shelley and I were the only members with any amount of experience and we led most of the trips.

I remember Dave McCormack showing up at one of our early meetings and telling us he wasn't going to climb, just hike. As you probably know he ended up doing plenty of climbing. And despite moving to British Columbia, he continues to lead some of the section's most popular trips.

Next, we decided we should be a section of the Alpine Club of Canada. We had to overcome a certain amount of bias against a small group from the flatlands, but we made our case successfully and became a section. I remember nervously making our proposal at the national meetings and waiting outside to hear the verdict.

We started a section newsletter, The Prairie Pitch, which was arguably the best section newsletter for many years. Shelley and I edited, folded, stuffed envelopes, printed mailing labels, and wrote articles ourselves when we were short.

We brought the Best of the Banff Mountain Film festival to Saskatoon. It was a big gamble at the start - if it had flopped we would have been paying for it out of our own pockets. But it was a success and continues to be one of the main fund raisers and promotional events for the section.

About 10 years ago, on an ice climbing trip with Shelley and I, Tony Nadon proposed starting an adventure race in Saskatchewan. For lack of a better name we called it the Prairie Pitch, the same as the newsletter. Tony did a great job of organizing the race for five years. When he stepped down, I took over for the next three years. Organizing the race was a lot of fun, but also a huge amount of work. (Especially if you're a perfectionist like me!)

The section has always been pretty "hands off" with the Prairie Pitch. The big reason it was done as a section event was to get insurance coverage. Tony wasn't an active member of the section and nor were his friends that helped him with the race.

I did my best to step down from the race gracefully. I really hoped someone from the section would volunteer to take over. But I wasn't very optimistic. For a while I'd been telling people I wouldn't be running the race forever and that someone should get involved so they could take over. But everyone is busy and as long as I was doing the work, it was easier not to think about it.

When I made my decision I first notified the section executive, gave them a chance to respond (they didn't), then notified all the section members (they didn't respond either), and finally let all the racers know. The racers did respond - thanking me for running the race in the past, and hoping that the race would continue.

The only people interested in organizing the race were Full Moon and J2 Adventures who put on races in Alberta. Full Moon didn't feel they could take it on this year but J2 was eager to take over - even to the point of taking over the expenses incurred to date (mainly the reservation at Cypress Hills Resort), and offering to give the section a portion of the proceeds.

Again, I notified the executive about this. Again, no real response. I didn't really find this strange because, as I said, the section has never had a lot to do with organizing the race.

I met with J2 in person and they convinced me they were the best option to have the race continue. I was happy because I'd really been afraid my stepping down would be the end of the Prairie Pitch.

This is when things went bad. Some of the section executive started having second thoughts about what I'd done. They didn't want to lose a major source of funding for the section. I can understand that, but the section had no one willing to organize the race. If no one will do the work, it doesn't matter how much you want the money! And it's not like the section "needed" the money. Most of the section revenue is just donated to various other organizations. The section itself doesn't have a lot of expenses.

They kept questioning my actions and arrangements until finally I lost my temper. Oops. I was chastised (rightly) for my "emotional outbursts".

But I felt (and still feel) angry, hurt, betrayed, sad. After everything I've done for the section, this is how they repay me. By pulling the rug out from under me. By reneging on the arrangments I made in good faith. And all, as far as I can tell, for nothing. It's not like anyone has a better suggestion.

I really wish they could have spoken up before I'd finished making all the arrangements. All they had to do was say "we'll take it from here" and I'd have been happy to let them deal with it.

I honestly thought I handled it openly, honestly, respectfully. I didn't go behind anyone's back, didn't do anything underhanded. I kept everyone in the loop. I certainly didn't stand to gain anything from it personally. Even now, I don't understand what I could have done different. (Other than not lose my temper!)

Now I look bad, the club looks bad, and J2 is in a really awkward position - they've already advertised the race and even had people register for it! And the executive didn't even have the decency or courtesy to phone the poor guy - just sent him an email saying the Prairie Pitch belongs to them and they'll decide what to do with it.

So I've quit the section. Obviously I'm on a totally different wavelength from some of the section executive. Maybe I'm overreacting, but this whole thing has left a sour taste that isn't going to go away any time soon.

You Know It's Spring When ...

When you can sit outside and have coffee and be warm in the sun.

When the crocuses bloom. (crocus photos by Shelley)



When you can kayak down Beaver Creek on the spring runoff.


And see the muskrats. (We also saw two Great Horned Owls and the first garter snake of the year.)


And last but not least, sit outside and eat an ice cream cone after kayaking :-)

Life is good.