BC Bloggers

Lip-synching to O Canada?

2010-03-10T14:14:00+00:00

ARE WE A NATION that increasingly only mouths the words to our national anthem? I could be wrong but viewing all the Olympic success at the podium seemed to suggest some folks don’t quite know the words (at least to the English version) of O Canada.

Perhaps this was due to excitement or for linguist reasons. I don’t know how to sing the French version of O Canada. Nonetheless, it makes me wonder if the fact that more and more Canadian schools no longer sing the anthem regularly could be causing the confusion.

I liked singing the anthem every morning in elementary school. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it gave us kids a sense of unity, if only for that moment. We came together from all walks of life and found common ground in a song that woke us up to the day.

To me, the anthem is not militarist, overly proud or nationalistic. Rather, it is respectful of a vast inclusive land that we strive to protect in many different ways.

Oddly enough, we were quick to protect the current lyrics, although the song has gone through previous transformations. A recent suggestion to change the anthem into something more “gender-inclusive” was rapidly rejected by the public. It seems that women do not require the validation of a politically sensitive anthem.

Ironically, the suggested minor change from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command” would probably have gone unnoticed by those of us who are challenged to remember the lyrics.

Hump Day

2010-03-10T13:54:45+00:00

Once upon a time and not so long ago as these things go, pink was the colour for boys:

In Semiotics: The Basics (this book may not be on every nightstand), David Chandler cites an excerpt from a trade journal called The Infants’ Department: A Monthly Magazine of Merchandising Helps for the Infants’ Wear Buyer. In June, 1918, the journal pondered pink – and blue – as symbols of girlhood and boyhood. “Pink or blue? Which is intended for boys and which for girls? … There has been a great diversity of opinion on this subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy; while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

Portrait Wednesday – Say hi to Adrian

2010-03-10T12:35:27+00:00

Adrian

Portrait courtesy of “Artist Marie”. If you would like to be featured on Portrait Wednesday just send an email to info@midislandnews.com

Qing Ming Festival in Nanaimo

2010-03-10T12:20:07+00:00

Next month on April 4th or 5th is the Qing Ming Festival when Chinese families visit the graves of their ancestors with offerings. There is a rich history of Chinese settlement in Nanaimo. There are 4 cemeteries which include Chinese graves in Nanaimo. In 1890 the coal company donated land at the corner of Stewart and St. George Street it was an active cemetery from 1890 to 1924. In 1976 the Nanaimo Chinese community presented the site to the City as the Garden Memorial to Chinese Pioneers. This was the first garden in Canada to commemorate the contribution made by the Chinese and their Canadian-born children to Canada. Thanks to the hard work of Ed Lee, Chuck Wong and Davey Thom. For historical records you can find more information at the Nanaimo Community Archives.

2010-03-10T12:14:00+00:00

March 10, 2010. This past week I have been researching and drafting out a Petition and Affidavit to be heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. It has been an onerous task. What I am asking for is that I be granted powers of discovery of documents and personnel that are but not limited to the powers given to an auditor as defined in the Society Act. Since a director is suppose to be a "policeman" this should be easy for a judge to grant. It will be a bit hard for him to disagree. Many societies do not have auditors so it is logical that this power be given to directors severally apart from a Board. In that way at least with a Board of ten members at least there is a ten percent probability that one person will do an audit for his own personal diligence. An audit is simple. You take one piece of paper and you follow its history within an organization and question each piece until you are satisfied that everything is in order. Or else you come across a broken piece of tile. DERAH recently replaced the lobby flooring in the Tellier Tower building. I noticed a lose piece of flooring tile which surprised me. The tile also reminded me of tile I had in my workplace which was extremely difficult to clean. I also wondered why the tile was not glued to the floor; the glue was not applied properly. The tiles absorbed everything and it was impossible to keep clean. I asked a few questions of staff and I was told that Russ Cunningham had installed it. I then went to Home Depot with the small broken tile and was told that it sold for $1.00 a tile. If I had access to the invoice for the flooring I would check to see if the tile installed was priced at $1.00 a tile. This is how easy it is to do an audit. It isn't difficult. Why audits are required is for funders. However, auditors are like everyone else who work: they do as little as possible for the greatest wage. They rely on and even state so in their financial statements that they rely on management for their data. So if Kim Kerr approves of an invoice, an auditor would not question it as an auditor only wants to make sure the financial statements are consistent with accounting rules. Unless an auditor is hired otherwise, the auditor does not investigate for fraud. Fraud is usually detected by employees who report it to senior management. What I would like to do is see the invoice for the flooring and determine to my satisfaction if the price invoiced was reasonable. Since I wasn't given access to invoices, I asked another director, Alex Burnip, who is a friend of Kim's, to look into the pricing. Alex never got back to me.

Mar 27, 2010: Direct from Carnegie Hall: Ken Lavigne! at St Andrews United Church

2010-03-10T12:13:12+00:00

A fabulous singer and story-teller, tenor Ken Lavigne shares the amazing account of how, against all odds, he found a way to live out his dream of singing at Carnegie Hall. With spectacular songs, entertaining and hilarious stories, Ken embodies the spirit of the underdog: audacity, tenacity, tragedy and ultimately triumph.
A wonderful evening of entertainment and a moving follow-up to our Olympic experience. www.kenlavigne.com.
Tickets are $25 and available from St. Andrew's United Church, 985-0408, office@st-andrews-united.ca or N.Van Community Arts Council, 988-6844, nvartscouncil@telus.net.

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2010-03-10T09:14:09+00:00

Yep, another post that tells you to go over to my new column at True/Slant and read what I wrote there. Not that ANY of you followed that advice last time I posted it. Still, the thought of an analysis of the value of Lindsay Lohan’s butt with cameo appearance by Kim Kardashian’s butt must be worth SOME clicks, no?

Celebrity Assets: Plundering Booty

Bums in seats: the dollar value of celebrity bottoms (trueslant.com)
How much celebrities get paid to sit in fashion shows (mrsmogul.blogspot.com)

Filed under: Blogging, capitalism, Celebrity, celebutard, Entertainment, Lush Life, marketing, raincoaster media group, shopping

Finally, a graph that shows correlation and causation.

2010-03-10T08:53:39+00:00

Last week, the mighty Canadian Hockey team (not “Ice Hockey” as Amuricans call it, but just Hockey) triumphed over the US and ended the miracle. Many Canadians tuned in to watch the game and their viewing habits appeared in Edmonton’s water consumption.

…that’s a lot of toilets flushing during intermission…

[via patspapers.com]

Why, the nasty thief!

2010-03-10T07:54:00+00:00

Hermit Rex has stolen Bo's shell!

I just went to check on them and feed them their fish. Rex is wearing Bo's shell. Sure, I originally brought it home thinking he'd like it, but I didn't know then that it was occupied. And now she probably had eggs.

Did he remove her forcibly? Shake her until she just left? Where has she gone? I can't find her now. There are ample shells for her, big ones that she would like, but they all seem to be empty.

For shame, Rex; that wasn't very kind of you!

Insistent On Traditional Image Perception

2010-03-10T07:30:57+00:00

So I am going to meet a person next week to discuss about a potential business relationship and I knew right off the bat that this was a sole proprietor type of operation. The interesting thing was in virtually all of the correspondents the person appeared to be insistent in trying to make his business sound semi large. For example, in all of the communications there would be emphasizes on the office building and how it is located in the downtown core, there will be secretaries and assistants to guide me, etc.

Really, I already knew ahead of time that this was like a virtual office setup where people simply pay to say use the location for a mailing address while occasionally using the space. To me I personally wouldn’t care too much if the person flat out just said they are their own boss and run their business mainly at home. I would think nowadays it can be more impressive where you are able to sustain a viable business at the comfort of your own home.

Shouldn’t it all be about the numbers at the end anyways when it comes to a business? Example, one guy that makes a million a year in his living room versus a guy that makes fifty thousand while have a traditional office can be more impressive in terms of your image perception. To me that shows that the person knows how to be resourceful and can think out of the box.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance

Why turquoise, Gabriola?

2010-03-10T07:09:43+00:00

So, old cars. There are a lot of them in the Gabriola forest, you know, rotting away. Mostly they’re in pieces, and being gradually covered in moss and salal. They’re usually a bit off the beaten path. Sometimes car parts become trail markers or salal decorations, like this tire rim.

Of these old cars, there seem to be a disproportionate number of them that are turquoise. Really! Now, why would that be?

When I blogged about a previous turquoise wreck in the Gabriola forest, a commenter, SL, came along and said

This is a door panel (or what is left of one), off a 1955, 56 or 57 chevy. From what I can see it includes the inside window roller handle, door handle and the arm rest. Probably a 57 because the turquoise colour was more popular in 57.

OK, so how long do you suppose a car made in 57 lasted, before somebody finally wanted to get rid of it by dumping it in the forest? 15 years? And, if so, can we assume that dumping turquoise cars in the Gabriola woods was the 1972 thing to do?

I know, I know, you’ll tell me I need to get out of the house more. But I do, you see. And that’s when I find old cars in the woods.

The Wrong Kind of Green on Democracy Now

2010-03-10T06:33:58+00:00

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/9/the_real_climategate_conservation_groups_align

Since Amy Goodman was harassed by Canadian border officials on her way to a presentation here in Vancouver, I have been watching Democracy Now semi-regularly. This segment is very interesting, it is mostly about how corporate money has corrupted some big environmental groups. But the conclusion is that people getting out on the street and taking direct action is the way to drive real change, for example stopping airport expansion in the UK.

The Real Climategate: Conservation Groups Align with World’s Worst Polluters

Major environmental groups are coming under criticism from within their own ranks for taking positions that some say are antithetical to their stated missions of saving the planet. In the latest issue of The Nation magazine, the British journalist Johann Hari writes, “As we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world’s worst polluters—and burying science-based environmentalism in return…In the middle of a swirl of bogus climate scandals trumped up by deniers, here is the real Climategate.”

Guests:

Johann Hari, columnist for the London Independent. His article for The Nation is called ‘The Wrong Kind of Green’

Christine MacDonald, journalist who used to work for Conservation International, or CI. She is the author of Green, Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad.

Watch the show at http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/9/the_real_climategate_conservation_groups_align

Read 'The Wrong Kind of Green' at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/hari

Guest bloggers

2010-03-10T06:02:46+00:00

Until now, I’ve done all the blogging on Gabriolan.ca, which is why each blog entry says Posted by Gabriolan right under the title. I plan to keep blogging as usual, but there will be a few guest bloggers appearing from time to time as well. Here’s what I’ll tell you about them: they’re fascinating people, and they know stuff.

I let them decide whether to blog under their real names or not. The first one wants to be anonymous, and has chosen the username Anon E. Mouse. The second one wants to blog under his real name, since he thinks you’d recognize him anyway based on his writing style and choice of content. I’m not sure about the third one.

Anyway, meet guest blogger number one, Anon E. Mouse, who says:

Hello all, I want to start by thanking Gabriolan for the opportunity to contribute to this blog. As a sort of homage to the privacy policy of our host I’ll be writing under the handle of Anon E. Mouse. I only hope I can live up to the high standards of interesting content on this site!

Anon E. Mouse’s first post will appear on Thursday morning, bright and early.

Now let’s hope guest bloggers two and three do write that interesting stuff they said they’d write for Gabriolan.ca readers. I’m waiting for their first blog posts.

Photo – Big women pageant in China

2010-03-10T05:23:12+00:00

A special beauty contest for chubby women held in Shenyang, China. 40 women participated. (Xinhua)

Tags: photo

Our Struggles With Infertility

2010-03-10T04:14:34+00:00

Last week the Calgary Regional Fertility Program held their annual Images of Hope Fundraiser. We participated by submitting the following story and photograph. The Generations of Hope website states their mission as: Through the Generations of Hope Fertility Assistance Fund, patients for whom IVF treatment is a challenging financial option can receive support for treatment at ...

Continue reading Our Struggles With Infertility

Surprise, surprise

2010-03-10T01:21:05+00:00

Jack Mintz, former head of the CD Howe Institute - Ontario's version of the Fraser Institute - was hired by Gordon Campbell to consider the subject deeply and give an independent and unbiased report supporting HST for British Columbia. This long time business apparatchik, champion of business tax reductions, privatization, free trade and globalization, opponent of public pensions and social

Looking for Love

2010-03-10T00:01:01+00:00

Hanging with Thomas at the Playground

2010-03-09T23:39:01+00:00

Since starting my three month paternity leave, I’ve started to learn what it’s like to spend entire days with Thomas; and I’m still to learn what it’s like to do this for weeks on end, and looking forward to it! He’s a really fun age right now, and I feel like I have a new play-buddy, except he doesn’t drink and I have to change his poop a few times a day .

Bubba is already able to climb the bars and get up to the top level and shoots himself down the slide. It’s a bit nerve racking, but he’s a champ. It feels like only yesterday he was learning to roll in our Maui condo.

With our next one on the way, I really get it when people say “they grow up so fast.” Alex is ready to go at any moment. We’re in the redzone, but my guess is things start happening March 12th. And I think it’s a girl.

I’m looking forward to some serious quality time with T-Bone. We’ve got Imagination Station every Wednesday, story time at the library, and Little Dippers at the local pool when possible. I feel so grown up.

Thoughts While Headed to the Holy Land

2010-03-09T22:34:14+00:00

I’ll be touring around Israel all week and plan to provide regular dispatches on my experiences and some mostly sober thoughts inspired by what I see. A few essays I whipped up on the flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv:

From the Promised Land to the New World and Back Again

I Am A Bacon-Flavored Kind of Kosher

A Country Where You Can Not Get Away from Politics

I’m dead tired and a bit flustered at not being on my home turf for what will be a game-changing event when it comes to Canada’s role in Afghanistan. Must retire for a bit.

Let Slip the Dogs of War The Taliban could be finished in 2010. Things are looking...
Which Canadian Political Party Has the Hidden Agenda? Canadian Liberals have been harping on a Tory “hidden agenda”...

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Vancouver’s visible minority population to double in 2031: StatCan

2010-03-09T22:25:46+00:00

Latest release from Statistics Canada:

The visible minority population of the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Vancouver could more than double from 910,000 in 2006 to just over 2 million by 2031, according to new population projections.

The main factor would be immigration, as well as fertility.

During the same period, the rest of Vancouver’s population is expected to increase at a much more modest rate of roughly 12%.

These projections on Vancouver’s diversity are based on a ‘reference scenario’, that is, the medium assumptions of how the population might evolve as determined by analyzing recent demographic trends. Other available scenarios are a low-growth scenario that assumes low fertility, life expectancy and immigration, and a high-growth scenario that assumes high levels of each.

By 2031, visible minority groups could account for nearly 60% of Vancouver’s population. Of the 2 million visible minorities, one in three would be Canadian-born.

Counting both first generation and second-generation immigrants, 70% of the population of Vancouver would be either immigrants or children born in Canada of immigrant parents by 2031. This would be the second-highest proportion in Canada behind Toronto.

The largest visible minority group in Vancouver would be the Chinese, as it was in 2006. Their population could double from 396,000 to 809,000 over the next two decades. As a result, their share of Vancouver’s population would rise from 18% in 2006 to 23% in 2031.

The South Asian group, which ranked second in 2006, is likely to remain the second largest visible minority group. They would account for 14% of the population in 2031, up from 10% in 2006.

The share of Vancouver’s population having a non-Christian religion is projected to increase from 16% to roughly 21%. The proportion having a Christian religion is likely to decline from 50% to 47%.

The proportion of persons reporting no religion in Vancouver is likely to continue to be one of the highest of any metropolitan area in Canada, with this group accounting for nearly 33% of the population in 2031. This would be virtually unchanged from 2006. This situation is in part related to the high level of Chinese immigration in Vancouver. The population of Chinese origin has a high propensity to report no religion on the census.

One could only imagine how this ethnic mix would affect the already stringent race relations in Canada.

Tags: Chinese Canadian, population, statistics canada, Stats

Hyacinth Park Playground- Saanich

2010-03-09T21:55:00+00:00

We got a hot tip this week to go to Hyacinth Park Playground which is in Hyacinth Park on Marigold in Saanich. We drove around a bit before discovering that the best way to get access to the playground is to take Hyacinth Ave, which is a 'no-through-road' that runs off of Interurban. It has a nice little parking area and is right next to the playground.

Well, the hot tip paid off as this is a great playground. Hyacinth Park is pretty big with sports fields and there is a building there which may or may not have washrooms- we didn't make it over to that side. There are walking trails behind the playground that run onto Panama Flats and they definitely looked tempting had we more time to explore.

On a bed of gravelly sand, the playground has something for everyone. There is a climbing frame car, a double 'duck' seesaw, a double toddler/double big kid swing set, a bouncy thing and two climbing structures.

The smaller structure has steps up to a low climbing tower and a nice double width metal straight slide down. There are a couple of different climbing options to get up. The bigger climbing structure has a good range of things to climb up including hanging mushrooms and an elevated ladder to hang from. There are steps, parallel bars and a nice arched bridge in the middle- always a hit with little ones. There is a low double width straight metal slide and a high climbing tower with a curly metal slide.

This is a great playground in a great location. Lots of grass, trees for shade and multiple picnic tables.

Laila

2010-03-09T21:54:01+00:00

Hello all- a quick note to let you know I’m going to be on assignment( still locally, but it’s going to be busy) for a bit, so posts are going to be infrequent for the next 12 days. I will be replying to emails as time allows, but be patient as there are only so many hours in a day! I’ve appreciated your kind words and regards during my illness, and look forward to blogging regularly again within the next two weeks, with a couple new installments on the MOT series, as well as some other goodies you might find rather…interesting.

Filed under: bc politics, Blogroll, CKNW Talk SHow Idol, Credits, crime, humour Tagged: Bc Rail, Gordon Campbell, kevin falcon, Laila Yuile, ministry of transportation

More Please!!!

2010-03-09T21:40:37+00:00

Every now and again you read something so outrageous you have to laugh. So it is with the report recently released by BC Citizens for Clean Energy: A Triple Legacy for Future Generations.

The essence of this lobby group’s proposal is that the government should develop an export policy for green energy targeting up to 17000 MW of exports by 2016, an amount greater than the size of BC Hydro’e entire existing hydroelectric system. Then it wants to target for more than double that amount of exports by 2036. And the legacy they offer if this is done:

secure supply of renewable energy
substantial reductions in climate change impacts
the elimination of B.C. tax-supported debt within 15 years or less and eventually even the elimination of the provincial sales tax (or presumably the provincial component of the impending HST).

The promised legacies are, of course, nonsense. Committing all that energy potential to export won’t enhance B.C.’s security of supply. It is the export of privately-developed, privately-owned power this group wants government to promote. BC Hydro couldn’t use that power itself when the power is committed to export; it would just be the conduit making the development and exports happen.

Nor will the export sales substantially reduce climate change impacts. It will be the greenhouse gas targets adopted in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere that will determine how much GHG emissions will be reduced and potential climate change impacts avoided. Greater green energy exports from B.C. may affect how U.S. targets are met, but they certainly won’t determine what those targets are.

As for the elimination of B.C.’s tax-supported debt — that is so fanciful one hardly knows what to say. The facts are exactly the opposite. The export plan BC Citizens want the government to implement would be a financial disaster.

The key element of the plan is that BC Hydro or its trading subsidiary Powerex would buy all of the power IPPs can develop in the province (after streamlined environmental review), paying high enough prices so the projects could be financed, built and profitably operated. BC Hydro would then provide all the back-up, shaping, and transmission services needed to be able to sell the power to export customers and receive whatever price it could negotiate.

Notwithstanding the heroic (but grossly incomplete and fundamentally flawed) numbers put forward by BC Citizens, there is no reason to believe BC Hydro could do this at a profit, let alone the multi-billion dollar annual profit BC Citizens suggest. The amount BC Hydro would have to pay the IPPs to develop all of these green energy resources, plus the transmission and other costs it would incur and alternative trading opportunities it would forego would in all likelihood greatly exceed the amount it could get from the export sales, even with whatever renewable and other green energy credits it could secure.

Maybe BC Citizens just got the sign wrong. Silly mistake — it would be a loss of billions, not a gain that BC could expect.

BC Citizens reasonably ask the question: if we export lumber, non-renewable minerals and metals, why shouldn’t we export green energy. That however is not the issue here. The issue is why should government force BC Hydro to buy power it doesn’t need (in extraordinarily excessive amounts), supply all of the services the IPP sellers don’t have, and take all of the market risk of exports.

If the numbers are so good, why don’t the IPPs buy the services they need and export the power themselvers. After all, that is what the forest and mining firms do, and pretty well everyone else who exports goods or services from B.C.

BC Citizens aren’t looking for an energy export policy that is in the broad public interest. They are looking for a government handout of breathtaking proportions, covered by the green umbrella that apparently can make even the most outlandish proposals seemingly more palatable.

IPPs already have a lot with the costly policies in the BC Energy Plan. What their lobby group is telling us in this report is that they want more — a lot more!

Now is time to speak to MPs

2010-03-09T20:26:45+00:00

The Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans was formed this week in Ottawa. The Minister of this department is Gail Shea and her knowledge of fish biology is, umm, shall we say, deficient (follow the link). Can we rely on the parliamentary committee to make a difference? They are now establishing an agenda for this session's work. I sent each MP on the committee an email that repeats the

playing your cards right

2010-03-09T20:12:00+00:00

"Hell is the knowledge of opportunity lost;
the place where the man I am
comes face to face with the man I might have been."
Anonymous

After a tremendous round of computer hearts where I must have played my cards right I got to thinking if there is indeed a right way to play your cards? In my tremendous round of hearts there were so many times when things could have all gone awry but I was saved by what some other poor sod threw down and that got me thinking that maybe the cards you are dealt really don't matter so much...maybe what matters is what is what cards are played by all the players...and maybe what really matters is to be able to play the cards you were dealt no matter if they were bad with the circumstances of the game.

Is it too much to hope for the gods to smile down on us and give us good cards? And just what makes a winning hand? For it seems that some hands hold all the aces and it still doesn't cut the mustard. Good cards are only good if there is a fortuitous opportunity to play them...timing does seem to be everything. Having the right cards at the right time...but then also having the courage to go for broke when the right time comes...and of course knowing when to hold em and knowing when to fold them is pretty good strategy too.

And all these card playing proverbs make for pretty good living life advice too. We seem to think that we need to have all the aces to have a great life but we really need to know what a great life is before we can play our cards right to get it. We also have to realize that maybe if we don't hold a great hand that we still have cards and just having cards keeps us playing the game. Maybe some of the cards we are playing are just waiting for an opportunity.

to do good you actually have to do something
Yvon Chouinard

Misreading Pearl: A Continuing Story

2010-03-09T19:40:00+00:00

IT OCCURRED TO ME that good people who mean well still manage to misunderstand one another on so many different levels. The result ranges from minor disputes to silent suffering and misguided decisions, to global strive. Human survival depends on a marvelous mix of signals we give and get. Yes … we achieve a connection and empathy much of the time. But we also get it wrong and make assumptions to fill in the blanks. In fact, we are all storytellers in our own minds continually creating motivation and implications about the behaviors of others.

Misjudging starts early in life and leads to serious as well as funny consequences. This notion inspired me to explore the humorous possibilities through a fictional character called Pearl, whose story I will expand on from time to time in this thread. Eventually, I plan to piece together a series of events that explain how Pearl ended up in the awkward position of hanging onto a ceiling fan, with a fork in her foot.

MISREADING PEARL: A CONTINUING STORY

Copyrighted Material, Illustrated by Holly Pavlik

Pearl is a dear little six-year-old girl whose misunderstood actions result in strange and unwanted reactions. The latest misread of Pearl’s dubious deeds has her kicking and screaming in the principal’s office. Her head in a whirl, she cannot fully grasp what led to her spinning on a fan in the ceiling, with a fork in her foot.

Pearl was too small to recall she had been wronged from the start. A newborn home from the hospital, the pattern was set when her teary outburst, caused by a tickle in her throat, drove her parents into a frenzy.

The reason behind Pearl’s neon-bright face and siren-piercing screams was a mystery to her mom. When she picked Pearl up and started to swing her briskly back and forth in her arms, Pearl's sobs suddenly stopped from the shock of being so forcefully rocked.

“Oh,” said Pearl’s mom, “this does the trick!” Her mom never discovered that her baby's throat tickled that day or that the problem was solved when Pearl gulped down three ounces of formula later for lunch.

The ‘waterless’ washing machine

2010-03-09T19:13:40+00:00

From The Guardian: The ‘waterless’ washing machine that could save you money.

Dry cleaning is set to become a domestic activity with a washing machine that uses 90% less water than a normal laundry cycle and could be available by the end of 2011. The device, developed by Leeds-based Xeros Ltd, replaces water with tiny plastic beads that suck up stains and its producers claim it will shift stubborn pounds from household energy bills as well. [continue]

If it works well and becomes widely available, that could help a lot on Gabriola. Our summertime water shortages are serious enough that we really think twice before doing laundry in the summer.

Coolest truck cover

2010-03-09T18:45:58+00:00

You know those things people buy to cover the backs of their pick up trucks? I think they’re called canopies. (Example photos from Google images.) Most of them are rather ordinary.

And then there’s this one, which I spot at Folklife Village quite regularly. Look at that: all wood, reflects trees. Wow.

[Letter] Roadmap to a balanced budget: Maximizing government efficiency

2010-03-09T18:29:58+00:00

As outlined in Budget 2010: Leading the Way on Jobs and Growth, our Government has a clear three-point plan to return to a balanced budget. First, we will wind down as planned the temporary measures in the Economic Action Plan. These investments are protecting and creating jobs now. Second, we will take action to ensure government lives within its means. And third, we will conduct a comprehensive review of government administrative and overhead costs.

The last two points are both concerned with maximizing government efficiency and exercising fiscal restraint. As we follow our roadmap to return to a balanced budget, we need to take action to ensure that government lives within its means. All Canadians have had to make sacrifices over the past year. Families everywhere have had to take a look at their own expenses and set priorities. They expect their government to do the same, and that is exactly what we are doing.

We have recently announced that the operating budgets of federal departments will be frozen at the 2010-11 levels. Based on Budget 2010 forecasts, the freeze is expected to achieve savings totaling about $1.8 billion by 2012-13. Here, we are leading by example by freezing salaries for the Prime Minister, Ministers, MPs, Senators and Ministers’ offices budgets.

What’s more, we have introduced a strategic review process whereby all federal programs must demonstrate that they are effective and efficient. They must show they are focused on Canadians’ priorities and meeting the changing needs of Canadians. The 2009 round of reviews reallocated up to $287 million to Budget priorities. In 2010-11, about $33 billion will be reviewed and in all, we anticipate savings of close to $1.7 billion.

In addition, we will also conduct a comprehensive review of administrative functions and overhead costs. Our goal is to eliminate any redundant spending and find savings wherever they may exist. The review will look at external and internal service operations, business processes, and administration.

And yesterday, as part of our plan to improve efficiency and governance across federal departments and agencies, I also announced the elimination of 245 federal appointment positions across government. In streamlining these organizations, the Government is ensuring its resources are put to the best possible use for Canadians.

A balanced budget over the long term is necessary for economic growth and job creation. As opposed to previous governments, we are not going to balance the budget by cutting transfer payments for health care and education or by raising taxes on hard-working Canadians.

Under the leadership of Stephen Harper, Canada is in a good position to come through the global economic recession stronger than ever. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund, the World Economic Forum, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Economist Intelligence Unit all say we are now in the best position financially of the G-8 countries. Sound financial management always helps attract foreign investment and foreign investment spurs domestic economic growth.

There are encouraging signs of a global economic recovery. Although that recovery remains fragile, Canada is well placed to emerge from the recession stronger than ever. Our plan to see Canada through tough economic times is clearly working.

Stockwell Day
President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Asia-Pacific Gateway

Tags: conservative, federal budget, Letters, Stockwell Day

Gabriola’s murderous ivy

2010-03-09T18:29:24+00:00

Here’s another invasive plant that’s taking over swaths of the Gabriola forest. Pretty isn’t it? Beautiful, in fact. But oh, such a problem!

At least when I find honeysuckle strangling trees, I can get in there with my clippers and free the trees in a matter of minutes. But this? I think I’d need knives and a lot of time.

Spring in my Step!

2010-03-09T18:16:00+00:00

I truly felt a joy in my heart today as I went for my walk - all the signs of spring in evidence. I decided to share our bits of spring with you, and found this lovely poem to go with it!

God in the Seasons

Lord,In Spring we are reminded
of the magnificence of Your creation,
as the earth is covered in verdant green,
with splendid splashes of color,
and we witness birth everywhere,of animals bearing their young,
of buds turning into leaves and flowers
and our own moods being rebornwith renewed energy and life.

Lord,in Summer,
we rememberthe warmth of Your love for us
and the light of Your goodness.
Both are everywhere for those who look.
Thank You for butterflies,birds and wildlife for us to enjoy,
water to swim in,
and weather that frees us to romp and playwhile outdoor pleasures are at their peak.

Lord,In Fall,
we thank you for Your cooling breezes,
that bring relief from the relentless summer heat.
We see bright colors fading and dying,
leaves turning brown, crisp, disintegrating,only to be reborn next year,
reminding us that every living thing,
including us,must die in some way before being reborn.

Lord,In Winter,
as white snow blankets the ground,
we are reminded of Your purity and Your perfection.
The complexity and beauty of each single snowflake
only hints at Your transcendent intelligence and creativity.
We hunker down and snuggle in,
knowing this season will wind down
and Spring will reappear, as it always has
because You created an orderly, predictable universe,
not by chance,
but from your flawless design.
Thank You for the seasons,
Lord,and everything in them
that You created for our enjoyment.

By Joanna Fuchs

Zahra's Paradise

2010-03-09T17:42:54+00:00

I'm a fan of graphic novels and this is an online one worth checking out. Zahra's Paradise is about the 2009 "elections" in Iran and their aftermath. Read it from the begining.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2010-03-09T17:00:29+00:00

Shakespeare meets Mendelssohn on Saturday, March 20, 2010, at 7:30 pm as the Vancouver Island Symphony, under the direction of Pierre Simard, presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Tournament Second place and a little Roulette

2010-03-09T16:58:00+00:00

One of my favourite blogs that I read has nothing to do with poker but the lady is a very entertaining person and always has great stories and insights into her life. You can read her here. Well yesterday she had a post about a new chat site called chat roulette so the curious person I am I checked it out. Yea it was weird. Linda called it creepy. I just found it weird. All of a sudden you have this random face on your computer and if they don't like you or vice versa you hit the next button and a new face appears.You can see them and talk with them. Oh and of course the odd body part appears. Yea there was some of that. I did talk briefly with this 30 something married lady from Vermont. Is it Weird?? Yea. I could see it filling a void with some shy people. Would I try it again?? Not likely but check it out and see what you think.

I played my regular live tournament last night. I think 47 people showed up. I started off the night the right way. First hand in I was in the SB with pocket 10's. With 5 limpers to me and blinds at 100/200 I bumped it to 1400 and everybody folded. Just what I wanted. Happy to take the first pot. A good omen.

I then went card dead for awhile which was a shame as I felt comfortable as this table and felt I could do well. Our table broke down with a few eliminations and I got moved. Then I started hitting hands. Pocket Aces which after I raised preflop with one caller held up. I had J9 offsuit in the BB which rivered a straight on an unraised pot. The queen on the river gave it to me and also gave another player his two pair. That was the end of his night. I was sailing along until I got pocket 8's. A young guy in early position raises 3.5 times the BB. Knowing how he plays I doubled his raise which was my mistake. I should have pushed. Anyways he called. The flop comes 10,7,3 rainbow. He checked blind which made me think. Should I push or see another card. I checked. Big mistake. Ace on the turn. Check check. I knew he hit his ace though. The river was a Jack I think. He checked and so did I. Of course he hit his ace. I mucked. Boy was that dumb play or what.

I was still in though and gradually started building my stack back up. We were down to 6 players I think when I got those pocket 8,s again. Same guy raised in EP and this time I pushed. He called . He had pocket Aces. Yikes. You know where this is going. I hit my 8 on the river and doubled up huge. He was crushed and went out shortly after. You gotta love those 2 outers well you love them when you are on the right side of them...

We got down to Heads up with a lady who I had never played before. We played for a long time with both of us ahead in chips and back and forth. With her ahead in chips slightly I was dealt Q10.The flop comes KK6. I checked and so did she. The turn was a nice 10. I checked hoping she would bet but she checked again. The river was a 2 I think. Figuring I was good I pushed. She snap called me. Yep she had the King. She had slowplayed it all the way. Good play on her part. I was down to a couple thousand and went out a couple hands later. Still it was a good night and happy with second place. Wish it was a win though.

Online Voting, Rapid Transit, and more

2010-03-09T16:44:00+00:00

No baby yet...

The Tyee has an interesting piece from Michael Geist on why voting via the Internet is a bad idea for democracy. I tend to agree--there are just too many things that can go wrong. Geist is a computer guru and at the forefront of innovative thinking in the technology world, so his voice carries a lot of weight.

SFU's Kennedy Stewart thinks the Province needs to put together a group of experts to hash out a regional economic growth strategy for the Lower Mainland (Sun blog).

The Langley School District is restructuring (Advance). Insert your own deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic joke here.

TransLink wants to hear from stakeholders on the future of Surrey and Langley rapid transit (TransLink).

Heart to Heart

2010-03-09T16:10:21+00:00

Heart are playing a show at my town's big new hockey arena. Last time I saw them I was swinging from the rafters of old Empire Stadium high on mushrooms. Time before that I saw them play a dance at my high school. I think that was the time I got loaded on a mixture of acne medication, lemon gin and chemical weed. I saw God, He was not impressed. I still like the magic mushroom label in the centre of Heart's first record or two. They are, for good or bad, the Led Zeppelin of the Pacific Northwest.

If Sonja wants to go see Heart I will go with her. "Remember when you were swinging from the roof of Empire Stadium, higher than Michael Jackson the day he died, the last time we saw Heart?" We had just starting dating. I was trying to make a good impression. Somebody's got to love the crazy, doped-up motherfuckers of the world.

Mar 9, 2010: Laura Bell, “Claiming Ground” at Purple Thistle Centre

2010-03-09T15:52:59+00:00

See Laura Bell on tour to promote "Claiming Ground"

Mar 9, 2010: Mark Spragg, “Bone Fire: A novel” at Purple Thistle Centre

2010-03-09T15:52:53+00:00

See Mark Spragg on tour to promote "Bone Fire: A novel"

Garden Nerd Series: Garden-grown food for a good cause.

2010-03-09T15:00:03+00:00

Last year I started the spring growing season by attending an annual meet and greet event for Plant a Row, Grow a Row, an international organization that had local hubs in many communities.

Tough customer sampling some green beans at the source.

As it says on the website, it “builds on the long-standing tradition of gardeners loving to share their harvest with others. It is a people-helping-people program to assist in feeding the hungry in their own communities”. In short, gardeners are asked to produce just a bit more than they otherwise would plant, and donate the surplus to the local food bank. The Plant a Row, Grow a Row group makes it easy by having a weekly drop off point in the community. As last year, St. Thomas More Collegiate. has volunteered to host the drop-offs.

This year, as last, the group, organized locally by well known city horticulture manager (and neighbour) Claude LeDoux, is holding the annual Gardener’s Party at the gym of St. Thomas More . It is a great chance to come and meet some fellow gardeners, listen to some fascinating speakers and learn about this great program.

At the event this year, scheduled for March 18th at 6pm, speakers include renowned horticulturalist Brian Minter; Daniel Mosquin and Ingrid Hoff from the UBC Botanical Garden, Conrad Lum from GardenWorks Mandeville and Mark McDonald from WestCoast Seeds. Expect refreshments and some free goodies. The evening was entertaining and informative last year but consider bringing a cushion (seating is on the bleachers in the gym). From the recent press release:

Growing food is this year’s hot horticultural trend, and it’s a great family activity, especially when you can help kids learn about the importance of helping others at the same time. You can grow vegetables and fruits in containers, in with your perennials, or in your own backyard plot. You can even grow Tumbler tomatoes or strawberries in a hanging basket!

So please join us March 18^th at 6 pm at St Thomas More Collegiate (7450 12^th Ave., Burnaby) to find out more. Admission is free, but we would appreciate the donation of non-perishable food for the Food Bank. See you there!

With the undeniable passion for gardening in New Westminster, the developing sense of food security and local sources of food, the sustained two-year push to gain another community garden in this city (culminating in the recently announced new plots at St. Mary’s in Sapperton), groups like Plant a Row, Grow a Row, really help form a network of community involvement and responsibility out of a passion for a good hobby. Congratulations to them for another great year, and happy gardening.

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Royal Dinner and Dance on Garden City and Blundell, Richmond

2010-03-09T14:00:47+00:00

Shhh … don’t tell anyone about this place.

I am just kidding. I just wanted to catch your attention and read on.

It had been a while since we had dim sum as a family. The beauty of having a blog is that you can easily figure exactly when the last time it was. Everything is so well documented. For us, the last time was in October last year. We are not much of a dim sum people.

Last weekend, we decided to just go to a restaurant closest to home. Suanne reminded me that there is a place that serves dim sum with an odd name … the Royal Dinner and Dance. This is located on the strip mall on Garden City and Blundell in Richmond.

The moment we walked through the door, we had a good feeling that this is going to be good. All these years, we did not even realize this place would be like this.

The restaurant is located upstairs. You walk up a very wide staircase which has pictures of dancers. I think this place doubles as a dance club too because there is a stage and half of the restaurant is on the dance floor.

The restaurant is bigger than we imagine from the outside. What caught us by surprised is how many customers they have despite its size. The place was filled with customers. This is the kind of place where entire/extended families come for dim sum. A lot of the tables taken were parties of four and above.

The table already were prepared with the order form and a pencil. It took us a while, as usual, to make our selection. The prices are cheap too.

Service is hurried as one can expect from a place this this. They came by twice asking if we are ready with the order. They were cool when we said we needed more time. For people who are not used to this type of places, you would take it personally when they abruptly turn away and go to the next table. We don’t consider this rude but understand that some people not used to this will feel slighted.

We were glad to see the varieties they have on the menu. So, we try to pick one or two items from each section … and in the process over-rule some of Arkensen and Nanzaro’s choices. If we leave the choices to them, they will pick TWO orders each of siu mai, har gow and sticky rice. So unexciting. LOL!

I was surprised when both Arkensen and Nanzaro said that they wanted the Rice Rolls with Chinese Donut ($3.75). We never thought they will want such traditional and to us, bland dish.

The Chinese donut here was not crispy but a tad soft. A sign that it is not made fresh. The flavour comes mainly from the soya sauce. They also gave us hoisin sauce and sesame sauce too which we thought it was kind of weird. I actually asked our waitress if it is meant to go with the rice roll and she said “yes”. *shrug*

It was quite nice too dipping the rice roll on the two sauces.

The Pan fried stuffed eggplant with shrimp is kind of skinny. Other than that it is cooked just nice. It is not overcooked that it is all mushy and loses the whiteness inside and yet also not undercooked that it’s raw and fibrous. The flesh inside was still white. We thought they did this perfectly and like the sauciness of the dish too. The sauce was great with the rice roll. Only $2.50.

Well, Arkensen also ask for this … the Steamed Crystal Prawn Dumpling (also $2.50). The size is respectable and the texture was firmly springy.Very good.

We were looking for that tell tale sign of freezer burn and all to see if they are just simply steamed direct from big batches of pre-made ones. They looked good enough for us.

They also have several congee options. We got the Lai Wan Boat Congee ($3.95) because we do not know what it is. We still do not know why this is called Lai Wan or what the words Lai Wan means.

The congee bowl is quite big for a $4 portion and has in it squid, prawn, pork rind, peanut, and Chinese donut. The congee itself does not carry a lot of flavour but a dash of soy sauce and ground pepper does the trick.

Next up is called the Fried Sticky Rice with Preserved Meat ($3.95). It came in a glass bowl and is supposed take a form of the bowl when they cup it upside down on the plate. Well … it fell apart and the waitress had to scrap the rice into the plate, losing the form.

You see it was not sticky enough for that. And I was thinking that this is FRIED sticky rice and so it is not supposed to be that sticky.

Anyway, the sticky rice has lots of …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Royal Dinner and Dance on Garden City and Blundell, Richmond (381 words)

Breakwater Books in Powell River BC

2010-03-09T13:42:00+00:00

As you probably can guess from the name of the blog, books are an important part of our life. Wayne writes books, I edit books (mostly Wayne's), and we're a small book publishing company. But we couldn't make it without the help of local bookstores that carry Wayne's titles. One of our strongest supporters in Powell River is Breakwater Books.

Breakwater Books is strategically located near the corner of Marine Avenue and Alberni Street. It's a great part of town to walk, window shop, have a bite to eat and purchase a good book to read. The owners are Sean and Ruth. They have great books to browse, a free wireless hotspot, tables and chairs for relaxing, and a great little coffee shop with breakfast sweets and lunch treats.

When you enter the store you'll find tables displaying books of interest, including lots of local titles. Look close and you'll see all six books in Wayne's Coastal BC Stories series. Other good finds include the Sunshine Coast Trail Guidebook and Along the Edge of the Salish Sea by our local hiking expert Eagle Walz.

Sean and Ruth also host book launches, author readings and other cultural events in their store. So come on down to Breakwater Books. You'll be glad you did.

Thanks for visiting "my world." If you want to see more exciting places from around of the globe, go to the "That's My World" website. -- Margy

A most excellent Governor General

2010-03-09T13:19:38+00:00

When I’m wrong, I’m wrong and I’m happy to admit it.

And in the case of Michaëlle Jean, Canada’s 27th Governor General, I was wrong.

When she was appointed by Mr. Dithers(remember him? , it seemed that he’d only chosen her because she met politically correct criteria. I remember thinking at the time: CBC journalist? check; black? check; female?check; immigrant? bonus points! The only two things she wasn’t was lesbian and handicapable. But then you can’t have everything, can you? She certainly seemed way too young and lacking in gravitas for the job.

She also got off to a rough start even before she was sworn in. Some thought her a separatist. Then there was the issue of her dual citizenship. Then when she got into the job came the news that she needed some time off because she was ‘tired.’ Needless to say that last issue caused some comment especially when compared to the Queen who at 90 carries out a punishing schedule that would puts anyone to shame. Only later was it revealed that she need to rest under doctor’s orders.

Despite some missteps such as Rideau Hall trying to call her Head of State, Her Excellency has grown into the role. She certainly caught the nation’s attention with her eating seal. She has also done well in her numerous tours both domestically and internationally.

But it for her actions in December 2008 when she granted Prime Minister Harper’s request to prorogue Parliament that she will be remembered for. I think she acted correctly in her handling of the affair but she would have been within her rights to have refused the request. What would have happened then would have been anyone’s guess. I’m sure the historians and political junkies will be waiting with bated breath for the memoirs of the people involved to be written.

The governor general is now in Haiti. Anything she can do to keep the spotlight on the poor benighted country is to the good.

Long story short. While a Governor General serves at Her Majesty’s pleasure, the term of office is usually 5 years +/-, I certainly would not be averse to having Prime Minister Harper advise the Queen to extend her term.

I don’t think it will happen but it would be nice if she had the chance to do so(provided she wants to, of course!)

Curbside Garden Chipping Service in Parksville

2010-03-09T12:39:32+00:00

Parksville’s Wood Chipping Program is to get under way April 6 to April 23, 2010 between the hours of 8 am and 2:30 pm.

Only put out branches for pickup on the scheduled day!
Branches with a maximum diameter of 6 inches (15 cm), stacked with the larger end of the branch or trunk facing the roadway;

Piles must be limited to a size of 5 feet wide by 3 feet high, and only one pile per residence will be removed by the chipper crew.

Here is the Spring Chip Up Schedule:
Monday, April 6 through Thursday, April 9
north of Highway 19A (ocean side of highway), including the north side of the highway, between Dogwood Street and Wright Road
Monday, April 12 through Thursday, April 15
south of Highway 19A, including the south side of the highway, between Moilliet Street and Church Road, including both sides of Moilliet Street
Friday, April 16 through Tuesday, April 202
east of Moilliet Street to Corfield Street, north and south of the highway, including both sides of Corfield Street
Wednesday, April 21 through Friday, April 24
east of Corfield Street, north and south of Highway 19A, including the resort area, to the eastern boundary of the City

Questions? call Parksville Engineering Depart. 250 248-5412

Feed me

2010-03-09T12:08:51+00:00

This has happened in my house more times than I can count!

Little Bo Peep ... is fast asleep

2010-03-09T11:37:00+00:00

(Mating behaviour of intertidal hermit crabs, Part II, following "A friend for Boy Blue".)

The trouble with Googling hermit crabs is that they are popular pets. When I Googled "hermit crab" suppliers, the list included 110,000 sites. And most pet hermits are land species. They don't breed well in captivity, because the young have to hatch and grow in water; they move to the land as they mature. Few pet owners can manage the complicated schedule and arrangements necessary. When I finally realized this, and specified "marine hermit crab mating", I found what I was looking for.

The questions I was asking were: How do I know the sex of my hermits? Do they need to molt before they mate? Are my hermits displaying normal mating behaviour? And, suggested by Laurie; Will they be successful in spite of being in a tank? (Which I am careful to keep with a species, water, and temperature mix that matches their home environment, but still ... a big human peering through the wall all the time? Electric lights? Is that too stressful?)

Grainy hand hermit, Centennial Beach. Already worried.

Sexing a hermit crab is easy. Sort of. On the last set of legs, the female has two small holes in the joints; the gonophores, where the male will insert his sperm. The male has none. The only problem is to catch the female out of the shell far enough and long enough and in the right position to be able to see this. A rare event.

Never mind; I know an easier way. I'll get to that.

I found an article in the Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, by Alexander Turra*. (2005) He studied the mating strategies of 4 species of intertidal hermit crabs on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. One of those species was of the same family as my two, Paguridae, and the same genus, Pagurus. All four of them acted in ways similar to mine, although he noted that the displays were family-related characteristics.

He started out with a collection of around 800 hermits from an intertidal beach and mud flats, and housed them in plastic pools with sand and mud from their home base, in running seawater. More or less the same procedure as I'm using, although I sure don't want 800! He fed them fresh fish and mussel meat; mine get dried fish, seaweeds, and occasionally a bit of mussel or nudibranch.

Then he watched them around the clock. When a couple formed, everything they did was recorded. Let's compare his Pagurids to mine:

1. - Pagurus criniticornis (the Brazilian hermit, from now on called "Crini"): the male grabbed a smaller female and turned her to face him.
- Rex (Pagurus hirsutiusculus) grabbed his little gf and held her facing outward:

- Boy Blue (P. granosimanus) held his smaller girl like Crini did, face to face.

2. - Crini picked at the female's pincers and legs with his pincers.
- I didn't see Rex or Boy Blue do this.

3. - Crini held his female's shell with his pincers or legs.
- Rex used only his smaller pincer for holding her, and the legs for adjusting her position.
- Boy Blue used both pincers or a pair of legs; sometimes, because he was busy eating, he just kept one leg deep inside her shell.

4. - Crini sometimes dragged his girl over the bottom.
So did Rex, but not Boy Blue.

This I thought was very interesting: in some invertebrates, the female resists mating, and with reason; it puts her in a precarious position, and uses much of her strength. The female hermit seems not to mind; watch:

5. - When Crini's mate was ready, she

"... signaled to males they were ready for copulation by touching male eyestalks with their antennules."

- I didn't see this in my hermits; I wasn't watching closely enough.

The pair eased out of their shells and put their gonophores in contact. Copulation lasted from 10 to 36 seconds, and was repeated up to 4 times. No wonder I missed this; that was quick!

Then the female slid back into her shell. Crini continued guarding her, holding her shell or her pincers.

6. - Afterwards, Crini's gf stayed quiet, sometimes buried in the sand, for several hours.
- Rex's mates wandered away. Or maybe he abandoned them; hard to tell, because he dragged them around a lot.
- Boy Blue's girl (she needs a name, since I can recognize her; how about Bo Peep**? "Bo", for short.) sleeps. At least, she stays in the shell and doesn't move for hours. I caught her and Boy together this morning; now she's sleeping again.)

7. - Some of Crini's mates molted; some didn't.

So things line up; I think I can be confident that this is mating behaviour, that the smaller hermits are females, and that, no, she didn't need to molt first.

If everything worked out, the females will be holding eggs alongside their abdomen in the shell. Later, she will release them, they will hatch, and the tank will suddenly have almost microscopic babies swimming about. I may miss these, and if there's an increase in the number of Hairy hermits (Rex's babies, that would be), I wouldn't be sure, since there are quite a few little ones already. I will notice any replicas of Boy and Bo.

If. Laurie's question still needs to be answered.***

I'll let you know.

Young Grainy hand. Not one of mine; she's still on Centennial Beach.

*Turra Alexander. Reproductive behavior of intertidal hermit crabs (Decapoda, Anomura) in southeastern Brazil. Rev. Bras. Zool. [serial on the Internet]. 2005 June [cited 2010 Mar 09] ; 22(2): 313-319. Available from: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-81752005000200003&lng=en. doi: 10.1590/S0101-81752005000200003.

** To go with Boy Blue.

*** Alexander Turra's hermits were successful parents: two Pagurus species' eggs hatched at 19 days. (Turra, 2007) I'll be on the lookout in a couple of weeks, then.

2010-03-09T11:36:56+00:00

Peter Schjeldahl knows the score:

"Koons is famous for a public persona of relentlessly smiley, Amway-salesman unctuousness. But Skin Fruit makes clear to me that his deepest passion is anger, provoked by situations over which he has no control. The object of that anger, like the proverbial aim of standup comedians, is to 'kill.' Koons’s recourse to an air of collegiality and aesthetic assault is dictated by a distinct vulnerability in his position. His career and the plutocratic culture that it has adorned represent an epoch-making collusion of mega-collectors and leading artists, which has overridden the former gatekeeping roles of critics and curators and sidelined the traditional gallerists who work with artists on a long-term basis of mutual loyalty. With numbing regularity, newly hot artists have abandoned such nurture for gaudy, precarious deals with corporate-style dealers like Larry Gagosian, Pace-Wildenstein, and David Zwirner. In the boom era, buzz about the opportunistic exhibitions of such dealers and the latest sales figures from art fairs and auction houses were what passed for critical discourse. The situation mesmerized newcomers, by flashing promises of ascension to the starry feeding trough. Now that such promises can no longer be made, the posturing of Skin Fruit—roughly, noblesse oblige, laced with a left-libertarian raciness—cannot long deflect the mounting potency of class resentment. People are going to notice that the defensive elements, in this particular scrimmage of sensibilities, are members of the putatively vanguard aristocracy of wealth and social clout. The future of art, and the corresponding character of cultured society, seem bound to be determined by some smart, talented, as yet unidentified parties among the howling sansculottes."

(Image found, but I wish I'd made it)

Satinflower (Olsynium douglasii)

2010-03-09T08:40:03+00:00

Here's another entry in the roll-call of indigenous spring flowers here, the Satinflower (Olsynium douglasii). I photographed these at Highrock Park in Victoria West yesterday. It is also known as Douglas's Widow Grass. The weather has been cold lately relative to a few weeks ago, hovering around zero degrees Celsius, and while I was trying to take these photos there were actually a few tiny snow crystals drifting down. Summer is coming but winter has not left yet.

Add to Newsvine

2010-03-09T08:10:18+00:00

I’ll keep this short, because I only have feeling in my left hand which is NOT my best typing hand, and the typos I’ve come up with today are really quite amazing.

The short form is: they stuck a five inch needle in my boob today and sucked part of it out. Sure, they used freezing, but they needed to use so much that my right arm is kinda sorta “theoretical” at this point. I mean, I can SEE it, but I can’t get much use out of it. When they’ve put enough freezing in your boob that you can taste it in your mouth, you know you’re good and froze. And then they decided to do this to my belle poitrine:

But why the bruise eventually showed up on my hand, I have NO idea.

In any case, I whined to the appropriate circle of friends and the Booze Fairy came over with a delivery, and then we went to Mickey D’s (sadly too late for the Free Coffee in the Mornings Until the 14th Offer) and had not one but TWO, count ‘em, TWO burger courses, and then came back and blogged and then went home and passed right the fuck out.

Or so I hope.

Filed under: Blogging, diary, raincoaster

Bees in trouble

2010-03-09T08:10:10+00:00

Are Gabriola bees in trouble? The Vancouver Sun reports that 90 per cent of bee colonies have been wiped out on Vancouver Island. Since Gabriola is so close to Vancouver Island, it’s hard to imagine that our bees have fared much better.

If bees don’t polinate your veggies and flowers, and if bees don’t pollinate local crops, who will?

Here’s what the Sun article says:

Vancouver Island beekeepers are reeling from the worst commercial honeybee die-off in recent memory, with some estimating almost 90 per cent of colonies have been wiped out in the last few months.

Many blame a harmful parasite called varroa mites that has become immune to some pesticides, and fear the shortage of bees could affect spring pollination.

The amount of bees that have been lost is just phenomenal, said Sol Nowitz, a veteran commercial beekeeper who breeds bees and produces honey at the Jingle Pot Apiary in Nanaimo. It’s the biggest catastrophe to kill bees on the Island ever. [continue]

Mar 22, 2010: Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam at Cafe Deux Soleils

2010-03-09T07:54:07+00:00

The Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam is a performance poetry competition for poets 13-22 years of age. There is also a non judged poetry open mic with priority given to those who are 13-22.

All poetic styles are welcome to compete. Sign up starts at 7pm. The show begins just after 8 o'clock.

We also have a featured performer every month. This month it is Kevin Fortnum from Toronto, Ontario.

Using Company Points To Get Affiliate Money

2010-03-09T07:24:26+00:00

Today I saw this company where its online business model was mainly to have people try out free offers from various vendors while doing surveys. Of course, the business gets like say $2 to $10 for every survey or offer that people try as a direct result of their referral. Their incentive to get people to do so is to reward them with these points of sort that can be used as a currency for their in-house products. Example, doing one survey can net them 100 points which can be used to play a game or 1000 to buy a cheap item.

It seems like it is doing well for them too. Compare that in contrast where if you went with the more traditional route where you say charged people $5 for like 1000 points or something like that and you probably won’t get as large of a response unless your product is truly in demand. There is a drawback to this though as many of these affiliate companies don’t allow you to offer incentives in order to get people to try the products.

For example, if one vendor offered me $5 to refer someone to try its product I can’t say that I will offer you $1 to do so. There are many that don’t mind though as long as it is qualified leads. Different ways of creating a business.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance

Michaelle Jean is Lucky I AM Retired :)

2010-03-09T06:16:15+00:00

Michaelle Jean is BACK in Haiti … her second trip! Surely the money spent on her trip … private jet ….full entourage, security …and all the media to record her basically doing nothing (bet she didn’t get her hands dirty!) could have been better spent on actual additional financial ASSISTANCE to a school or hospital there. Inmstead, looks [...]

Labyrinth

2010-03-09T05:52:19+00:00

By David Parkinson

A labyrinth in the intertidal zone; a zone of instability between sea and sand

Last week I wrote about brainstorming gone wrong. I was trying to understand why it is that people often react fearfully and negatively when a space opens up for a discussion of possibilities and ways forward. I have noticed a similar reaction in other contexts, so it is not unique to the two specific meetings I talked about. My reason for bringing it out into the open was to think my way around it, because it is very worrying to me.

Activists work to change the world. More than just that, they are usually trying to change the world — or some little corner of it — in a direction other than its present trajectory. They work against the grain of prevailing political, economic, and social trends. (If they work with these trends, we call them something else, like ‘politician’ or ‘businessperson’ or ‘marketing guru’.)

Activists usually acknowledge that a mass movement will be more effective than a one-person crusade. So they put lots of effort into enlisting public support and finding like-minded people willing to apply their time and skills to achieving some vision of a better world (or a piece of a better world). I spend much of my time thinking about public outreach for various projects I’m part of, and sometimes I question the value of it, especially when — as it inevitably does — it takes time away from the work itself.

Let me be clear: when I say “I question the value of it,” this is not code for “I think it has no value.” I’m saying that we need to take a good hard look at where we are spending our time and energy and make some tough choices. We should do this as individuals and also on behalf of the organizations we belong to and work for. It might be that outreach is the most effective use of our time; it might not. This probably varies from time to time and from project to project.

I’m also saying that this is not an empirical science. There are no right or wrong answers and people should feel free to differ amicably. One person’s feelings on this question might shift around over time. The only wrong answer is: “I haven’t thought this through carefully.” If one person wants to spend all of her time getting people on board, and another person wants to spend all of his time working quietly on tangible projects, what matters most is that they’re both happy with the choice they’ve made and feeling effective and satisfied doing what they’ve chosen to do. I think we focus too much on building consensus of technique and not enough on consensus of vision. Which means: rather than have everyone doing their own thing in the interests of a larger set of goals, we often try to bring people together around the same actions and fail to talk about the bigger questions. Sometimes I’d rather see us agreeing more on the problems we’re trying to solve, and agreeing less on the solutions — so long as we’re moving in the same direction roughly.

Here’s how this shaggy preamble relates to the subject at hand: at a rough guess, I would say that about 25% of the local population is aware of the growing challenges of resource depletion and climate chaos and has some inkling what to do about it. I would say that about 1-3% of the local population is aware and is taking serious steps to prepare for the real possibility of shortages, disruptions, and social or economic upheaval. (Growing food, going off-grid, learning to live without a car, building a strong social network, and so on.) Roughly, these latter are the people who consistently show up at events concerned with sustainability, Transition, and protecting the environment. (These numbers are the result of what we call a Scientific Wild-Ass Guess, or ’swag’ for short. Feel free to quibble.)

The activist’s task is to move the 75% portion of unaware or unready folks into the smaller group which has the facts and has some serious solutions in mind. And then to move all of those folks into the pretty tiny group of people actively creating solutions and leading the rest of the population into awareness and action.

It’s overwhelming when you consider it in its entirety. A huge hurdle — and this is what I was writing about in last week’s post — is that people are naturally resistant to new information, especially information which threatens their worldview and compels them to change their thinking or their behaviour. That’s why getting people to become more aware and take action is so difficult: even when people consciously know something to be true, and acknowledge that it is important to change their behaviour, we’re creatures of habit and prefer to amble along until a crisis forces us to change.

The negative reaction to brainstorming that I have witnessed is, more generally, a reaction against conversations that threaten people’s worldview and make them question their habitual behaviour. It’s always easy to make the things we do and the way we do them seem like the only things worth doing and the only sensible way to do them; after all, otherwise why would be doing the things we do and doing them the way we do them? Social inertia means that the burden of proving a new idea falls squarely on the dissenter. It means that the untried but promising ideas get squeezed out of the conversation. The conventional prevails unless we fight hard. The people who champion unconventional ideas feel marginalized and may lose interest in the conversation. We lose some of the most promising sources of creative thinking if we’re not careful.

Given that our time is finite and precious, the real questions we need to be asking ourselves and each other are: how much time should we spend creating tangible solutions for ourselves and others? how much time should we spend trying to get the message out and bringing people in? how do we know whether time spent acting is more fruitful than time spent recruiting? can we measure this? can we talk about it? If so, where, when, and how?

Some of us will believe that the single most important action is to connect with people, to spread information, to let people know what they need to know in order to be better prepared and to work to bring them in on the action. (We might be assuming that no action is meaningful if it does not have broad-based support and involvement, or that the situation is not urgent.)

Some of us will want to create tangible solutions and build infrastructure that they believe we will need, whether or not the mass of the population understands or is ready to adopt these solutions yet. (We might be assuming that most people will not take action until ready solutions are in place, or that we must act quickly before the situation becomes drastically worse.)

Probably most people who think about these things fall somewhere in the middle and believe that some proportion of our time is best spent doing outreach and recruiting and the rest spent taking direct action. I’ve always felt pretty close to the middle, but lately I feel that I’m drifting gradually towards the action end of the scale. I see the value of continually working to find the people who are ready to hear the message I’m sending, but I worry about losing time which might be better spent doing the things we already know need doing. It’s gratifying to see the solutions getting up and running, but I’m worried that we’re only getting started and we have a long way to go before we are close to ready for regional resilience or self-reliance.

I do not disparage the work of recruiting and educating and drawing people into the network of activism and action. I do wonder, though, about untapped resources in the form of people who have little interest in talking and planning and prioritizing but simply want to get on with it. I’m not sure that their interests are fully represented, since they have a way of fading into the background. They may not show up for meetings (they’re not really ‘meeting people’) and they have no patience for listening to reasons why some new idea won’t work — they want to brainstorm creatively, with an open mind, welcoming challenges rather than admitting defeat before even beginning. They are the makers, artists, hammerers, tinkerers, builders, planters, and growers. People who bend problems to fit the materials at hand. Lateral thinkers.

How can we engage the creativity of these folks? Do we have the right tools for finding them and supporting them to do what they’re best at? I don’t think we do, yet.

As we move towards a future whose outlines are unknown until we map them, we need to attend carefully to the whole community. We need to try to create a language of engagement and passion and we need to understand that there is no one way to do things. We need to launch a diversity of solutions in keeping with the diversity of challenges and the diversity of people we want to have alongside us as we face these challenges. We need to ask ourselves how effective our techniques are, who we draw in and who we leave out, what we ignore, and who might best be able to take charge of the projects which are not in our area of expertise or passion.

More than anything, we need to brainstorm in the real sense: where there are no bad ideas, only possibilities opening up to the right set of people willing to take them on.

Pink Blossoms on a Cool March Day

2010-03-09T03:59:00+00:00

Our weather has been very strange - we had a mixed bag of sorts today - frosty windshield this morning, then the sun came out and it was lovely with blue skies. Then, later in the day, drama unfolded..... it started to snow......it appeared as if little pieces of white paper drifted down from the sky; it hailed, rained and snowed.....then the sun came out as if nothing had happened. After work, I met up with Richard at his parent's house as I wanted to take photos of their lovely plum tree which is in full bloom - it is a magnificent tree that puts on a show of pink for a short while, then the blossoms disappear. Here is the tree in all its glory! It was very cool out.

Thank you for viewing. Michelle

Jun 23, 2010: 7th Timberland Investment Summit at Vancouver Canada

2010-03-09T02:43:30+00:00

IQPC’s 7th Timberland Investment Summit is the key meeting of the year for investment opportunities in the timberland asset class. Now in its 7th successful year, the conference brings together a comprehensive line-up of decision-makers from the entire timberland investments value chain including pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, family offices, TIMOs, REITs, forestry management companies, law firms, and banks.

Here’s a sneak peak at highlights of the 2010 program:
- Highest ever participation from institutional investors, with speakers confirmed from Mass-PRIM, CPP Investment Board, TIAA CREF, APG, and Dallas Police & Fire Retirement System

- Dedicated workshops on risk mitigation, carbon credits, and strategies for smaller investors

- In-depth keynotes on the prospects for the US housing market, the macroeconomic outlook for timberland and the future of timberland values

- Interactive roundtable discussions on the top 5 timberland investment opportunities

Assistance recipients on government hit list

2010-03-09T01:24:44+00:00

Last week CBC reported cuts in social assistance services for British Columbia’s most challenged citizens. The story received almost no coverage in most other media, so it is probably worthwhile just to highlight what the government thinks must be cut to pay for their deficit.

On March 4^th the government issued a press release with the Orwellian headline, “Province Protects Services for Low Income Clients.” A backgrounder attached to the release, however, makes clear that there is no protection from the government for people on assistance. The backgrounder states the government will:

Reduce regular dental visits from twice to one a year
Cut dental X-rays from annual to once every two years
Slash their budget for funeral services for people on assistance by nearly half
Eliminate payments for contraceptive devices, pre-made foot orthotics, diagnostic testing devices (such as glucometers), optical, dental or extended therapies including chiropractic and physiotherapy.
Cut supports that were supposed to help people transition from assistance to other programs
Cut shelter allowances for people with disabilities and people aged 60 to 64.
Assistance recipients used to be eligible for nutritional supplements if they had a serious symptom. Now they will need two symptoms to get the supplements.

The government complains in its press release that the cost of social assistance has gone up by $19.8 million a month over the last year. These cuts will save $10 million this year and $15 million next year.

What the government doesn’t say is that the cost of social assistance has gone up because people can’t find work and for many their EI payments have run out. Yet these are also the people who the government says must pay the price for the recession. For a government that has cut taxes year after year there is no sense of sharing the burden.

I don’t consider myself that out of the ordinary, but without pre-made orthotics, chiropractic support and physiotherapy, I wouldn’t be walking around. I am lucky enough to have those services, but I guess the government doesn’t care that much if people on assistance can walk – just as long as they can continue to cut taxes.

Gordon Campbell told the CBC “There are a number of initiatives that are undertaken in the budget to make sure that we continue to put low-income people on the top of the list.” Apparently it is a hit list.

Free Strong Start program for preschoolers expands to West End

2010-03-09T01:17:45+00:00

Strong Start, a provincially funded, free program for children under six and their parents, is expanding with a new afternoon program in New Westminster’s West End. The program is a gentle introduction to school for preschoolers through play-based learning.

We’ve written about Strong Start here before. The Cole’s Notes version of that post: Strong Start is awesome.

The new Strong Start centre will open March 29 at Connaught Heights Elementary, at 2201 London St. in the city’s West End. Strong Start will share space in the school with New Westminster Parks, Culture & Rec’s long-running Tiny Tots preschool program.

Among the three programs, there should be a time to suit every parent/child schedule. The new program at Connaught will be open 12:30-3:30pm, Monday to Friday. Meanwhile, the program will continue to operate in Sapperton at McBride Elementary every weekday from 9am-12pm, and in Queensborough at Queen Elizabeth Elementary on Monday and Friday from 9am-12pm and Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday from 4-7pm.

Strong Start follows the regular school schedule, which means it is closed on professional development days and school holidays including spring break (which is this week).

Possibly Related posts:

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Mar 14, 2010: Vancouver Singles Hike Lighthouse Park at lighthouse park

2010-03-09T01:16:15+00:00

Join Meet Market Adventures and other nature loving singles for a spectacular hike in Lighthouse Park. This hidden gem is located on the outskirts of West Vancouver and boasts a trail system with several challenging changes in elevation.

Our experienced guide from Natural Trekking will take us on a journey along trails that wind their way through centuries old Douglas fir and cedar forests, rocky outcroppings that provide amazing views of Vancouver and Vancouver Island and stunning windswept vistas. You will definitely want your camera handy during this hike!

Of course, no trip to Lighthouse Park is complete without a visit to its namesake Point Atkinson Lighthouse, built in 1912 and considered one of the area’s most prominent lighthouses. So lace up your hiking boots, grab your camera and meet new friends while you share in the spectacular views and natural history that is contained in this remarkable park.

Details are subject to change without notice.

To reserve your spot please contact us:
1-800-239-0542
info@meetmarketadventures.com

Beautiful British Columbia

2010-03-09T00:01:01+00:00

Arrow-shaped blazes in the Gabriola woods

2010-03-08T23:56:30+00:00

They’re not very obvious, these: I walked past this trail blaze for years before I finally spotted it. There are a whole series of arrows on Douglas fir trees, leading one through the Gabriola woods.

Of course, these days there’s a very clear path as well, but I expect that the arrows came first.

Wine helps women stay thin

2010-03-08T23:53:52+00:00

Pour me a glass of wine, darling, will you? It’s good for me. And besides, the BBC says that women who drink wine are less likely to gain weight.

It’s a happy news day.

AAAGH!!!

2010-03-08T23:16:44+00:00

The Campbell crowd - they don't qualify to be called Liberals - is willing to chop programs and degrade services to people. However, they still enjoy spending, provided monumental schemes are involved. If Peter Kiewit Sons can construct it, BC Liberals will borrow to build it. Structures before people! There are conflicting schemers at work in Victoria. Their compromise is to approve capital

Wild Bald Eagle Mates at New Nest Site

2010-03-08T23:07:03+00:00

The wild bald eagle mates at the Jericho Youth Hostel site have chosen to once again build their nest in the Cottonwood trees across the soccer pitch from their former home in the Fir trees.

Wild bald eagle photography, North American lumber market prices and info, illuminated manuscripts, celtic ornamental knotwork, stories & drawings

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

2010-03-08T23:01:33+00:00

A wrap-up of the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver 2010.

Wild bald eagle photography, North American lumber market prices and info, illuminated manuscripts, celtic ornamental knotwork, stories & drawings

International Women’s Day

2010-03-08T22:25:47+00:00

In honour of International Women’s Day, here are some hot babes:

Ah men. Objectifying women since the beginning of time.

Women in the Canadian Economy

2010-03-08T20:01:47+00:00

Last weekend, I spoke at a community event celebrating International Women’s Day in Vancouver. It got me thinking about the status of women in the Canadian economy, reflecting both on the successes over the last half century and on the areas where work is still needed to achieve gender equality.

As a young woman in Canada, I have not felt discriminated against. Throughout my university career, my gender didn’t seem to matter and professors encouraged me to pursue a PhD and the life of an academic as much as any of my male fellow students. Growing up in Bulgaria was a different story – my own mother stopped me from going to a physics-based high school program at home because she felt that physics in not for women (those were her words). As an electrical engineer herself, she obviously had experienced discrimination and wanted to prevent me from going down that same road.

In Canada, however, I didn’t get any of that. Maybe it’s because I live in Vancouver, but what I hear Canadians tell their girls is that they can grow up to become anything they aspire to — rocket scientists, surgeons or presidents. Many of the young women I meet feel similarly – they feel that they are free to make choices and say they are as much in control of their career paths as their male friends.

Yet, when we look at the numbers, women are not growing up to be rocket scientists, surgeons or presidents. Nurses, teachers and social workers is more like it. Women are woefully underrepresented in “non-traditional” occupations such as high-level management and natural sciences. Even in the public sector, where women make up the majority of the workforce, they’re less likely to hold senior management jobs than men.

Yes, there are some women in leadership positions in areas that were previously closed to our gender in politics, business and academia. But they are few and far between.

So, if young women feel that gender is irrelevant for economic success, then why are women’s average annual earnings for full-time, full-year work in 2007 only 71 .4% of men’s? Why are average hourly wages so different: in January 2010, women got paid on average $20.59 per hour, compared to men’s $24.49? Why do women continue to be overrepresented in low-wage jobs? Over 60% of minimum wage workers are women and the proportion of workers earning under $10 per hour is similar.

It would seem that something happens somewhere along the line between school, when the sky’s the limit, and the demands of real life which pushes women into traditional sectors. The older I get, the more convinced I become that this something is children. Or rather, that it’s the outdated family policy that we have in Canada (and the US) that forces women to choose between motherhood and career or economic success.

Recent studies from the US show that in corporate America, childless women’s earnings are on par with men’s, and the earning discrepancies appear when women start having children. Research by Statistics Canada shows that having children is associated with an earnings loss that persists throughout a woman’s working career. At any given age, women with one child earned about 9% on average than childless women, while those with two children earner 12% less, and those with three or more children earned 20% less. The earning gap was larger for women with higher education than for those who only had high school diplomas. Curiously, this parental penalty does not seem to apply to men – men with children earn more on average than childless men.

The more I dig into the research, the more it seems that women with children earn less because they end up taking years away from work. And the reason that they are often forced to do so is that women remain the primary caregivers for children and we lack the social supports to allow women to work and care at the same time. Changing this would require a concerted effort by governments and the private sector.

What governments have control over is Canada’s family policy, and it is sorely in need of change to catch up to social realities of the 21st century – many women with children work, whether by choice or by necessity, and we need to put in place adequate programs to support these women and their families.

Providing accessible childcare that families can afford is an obvious one. Improving parental leave provisions is another way to improve many women’s lives. Statistics Canada quotes a recent survey showing that 40% of new parents could not take the entire parental leave because their family’s financial situation required them to go back to work. Increasing benefit amounts to reflect costs of living would be a great start.

Employers will also have to adapt, and we’ve already started to see some of that. More and more employers allow flexible working hours, opportunities to work from home and an increased availability of part time work. These are all changes that make it possible for women to care for children without having to completely withdraw from the workforce for years at a time.

Some companies are even in the business of raising awareness that women have not achieved nearly equal representation on the top of organizations both in the private sector and in government. McKinsey & Company is probably the largest and best-known professional services firm that is calling attention to the shortage of women in leadership positions in America’s businesses. Their reports, Women Matter and Women Matter 2, demonstrate some important relationships between the presence of women in corporate leadership roles and the financial performance of organizations and explore why that may be the case. This is a good start, but more work needs to be done.

The need to support women to work and to care would only become more pressing as the population ages and we start to experience labour force shortages. We need the women to fully participate in the labour market, as workers and as decision-makers. Changing family policy and making workplaces more flexible is the way to do it.

So go ahead and continue telling the girls that the sky’s the limit, but let’s also make sure that it’s really true.

Happy international women’s day to all.

This blog has moved

2010-03-08T19:15:00+00:00

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Catalyst could power homes on a bottle of water

2010-03-08T19:04:26+00:00

From physorg: Catalyst could power homes on a bottle of water, produce hydrogen on-site.

With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, MIT chemist Dan Nocera claims that he can produce 30 KWh of electricity, which is enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With about three gallons of river water, he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. The key to these claims is a new, affordable catalyst that uses solar electricity to split water and generate hydrogen.

Using the electricity generated from a 30-square-meter photovoltaic array, Nocera’s cobalt-phosphate catalyst converts water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is similar to organic photosynthesis, except that in nature, plants create energy in the form of sugars instead of hydrogen.

The hydrogen produced through artificial photosynthesis can be stored in a tank and later used to produce electricity by being recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell, even when the sun isn’t shining. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be converted into a liquid fuel. [continue]

How cool would that be for Gabriola?

Cheap Catalyst Could Turn Sunlight, Water Into Fuel: from Wired.com

Video of Dan Nocera’s lecture

MIT Professor Dan Nocera believes he can solve the world’s energy problems with an Olympic-sized pool of water. Nocera and his research team have identified a simple technique for powering the Earth inexpensively – by using the sun to split water and store energy – making the large-scale deployment of personalized solar energy possible.

Iraqi Elections in Vancouver

2010-03-08T17:51:00+00:00

I will gladly show my stretch marks to anybody. They don’t look pretty, but they symbolize an honoured passage into a magical kingdom that can only be entered the hard way. As I write this I have a purple index finger. My finger looks like it has been tortured or perhaps suffocated by restricted blood circulation. However, I want to stick my finger in everybody’s face and say “Look! ... I voted

Catch of the day

2010-03-08T17:48:31+00:00

Are you concerned about pollution in the ocean and along the seashore? Does it bother you that it doesn’t seem to bother other people? Do you enjoy guerrilla campaigns and a bit of subversion now and again? Yes? Then go see the catch of the day at the Anti-Advertising Agency’s site.

Cheam Lake Wetlands Regional Park, BC, Canada

2010-03-08T17:44:51+00:00

Just when you think you've seen it
all, Mother Nature comes along,
grabs you by your ears, and shakes
your eyesballs silly.

Cheam Lake Wetlands Regional Park,
located 15 km east of Chilliwack, BC, Canada,
is a sundae for the senses.
With the fresh touch of snow icing the mountains,
and the tang of spring caressing you,
Cheam Lake Wetlands Regional Park is
a sheer joy to explore.

She is home to several species of water birds,
insects, butterflies and even the occasional eagle and
hawk can be spotted soaring overhead.
Beaver have left their calling cards of gnawed
tree trunks along the waterfront, and the frogs
chorus their joy at the upcoming spring season.

Canada Geese are in abundance right now, greeting you
with honks and cackles as you wander gently
amongst their territory of bulrushes and wetland grasses.

Mother Nature, I think she's laughing at me.

A little bit of snow

2010-03-08T17:25:16+00:00

Sorry about the snow this morning, kids. It happened because I thought about taking my snow tires off, and that always makes snow happen.

Lowering the limit

2010-03-08T17:02:00+00:00

Every Friday night we go out to one of the local pubs or restaurants for dinner mainly because I am sick of cooking by that time. When I go I usually have a couple glasses of Red wine(that's my beverage of choice) and of course a meal of something. The pubs are usually packed with couples and people who come straight from work. They have a few drinks and then head home. The parking lot is also packed with cars. Why is that important? Well they are proposing to lower the limit on what makes you impaired from .08 to .05. That's a pretty big drop. If I drive I can have 2 glasses of wine now and be well under .08 but probably right around the .05 mark. So what this will mean is that I of course will now only have 1 glass of wine. Do I think this is a good thing? Absolutely. I never have more than 2. If we stay longer I switch to pop or juice. The thing is that I am in the minority. While we were there Friday night I counted the drinks people were having at 3 nearby tables. Most had 4 mugs of beer at least in the time I was there. Would that make them over the limit? Without a doubt. Yet they all got in their respective cars and drove home. Pretty scary isn't it. The police could stamp out drinking driving by just watching and stopping people as they leave the bars on any Friday night. I think most people don't realize that it doesn't take much to put you at the limit and that's not the only issue here. You don't have to be at the limit to suffer loss of driving skill and reaction time. It's really made me think. So from now on Friday nights will be one glass of wine and that's it. If I want any more I walk to the pub or take a cab home. I wish more people would follow my lead but as you people just don't think.

I didn't play any live games this weekend but I did play a couple online tournaments. I usually play a cheap buyin 45 player tournament. Anyways in one we were down to 11 players and 7 get paid and I got dealt KK in middle position. The blinds had gotten to the point that really my only play was to shove as any 3 times or higher preflop raise was more than 2/3 of my stack. There was already 1 limper in the pot. So I shoved hoping really to take the blinds and antis and maybe 1 caller. I did get one caller who had just a few more chips than me. What did he have? Jack 9 off suit. Yep. He of course caught his 9 on the flop and Jack on the river and I just stared at the screen. No more comment is needed on his call.

Later that night I thought I would play another. We were down to 21 players. I think I was sitting at about 7th of 21 in chips. I got dealt pocket 9's on the button. Already 2 limpers and still the blinds to act. I popped it 6x the BB hoping to take it down. The BB called and everybody else folded. I was a little worried and thought he might have an over pair. Anyways flop comes JJ9. Yep I flopped a boat. He checked and I of course checked behind hoping he would catch up a bit. Turn was a 10. He made a half pot size bet (I was hoping he thought I had nothing) and I took my time think of all my options. I finally just called. Well the river was the worst card possible(well at least in my mind). Yep another Jack. He instantly pushed and even knowing I was beat (yea I know very dumb play) I called. He had King 10. Yea he got his boat on the river. What bugs me about this hand (well the way I played it was bad) but he also called my preflop raise with King 10 off suit. Would you make that call? Not me.

Social Media for Hotels - Taming the Beast

2010-03-08T16:20:00+00:00

If anything strikes fear in the hearts of hoteliers these days, it’s social media. Seemingly overnight, we’re expected to tune in to dozens of websites each day to make sure no one has badmouthed us or posted an embarrassing video. If they have, we’re obliged to respond in a courteous, guest-is-always-right manner, knowing that everyone is listening—travelers, clients, media and the competition. No pressure there.

We’re also expected to generate original content. Not the easy pleasantries we’re used to exchanging with guests, like “Good morning!”, “Superior or deluxe?” and “How would you like to pay for that bathrobe in your suitcase?”, but clever, meaningful things in text, image and video format. And regardless of how desperate we may be to fill our rooms, we’re forbidden from being salesy or overtly promotional. That will cost us friends and followers.

Social media is like a difficult guest who demands so much attention we’re not convinced she’s worth the effort. She’s in our lobby now, demanding to speak to the manager, because she didn’t get her wakeup call—and missed her daughter’s wedding. Like any great leader, our first impulse is to run and hide. But that will only make things worse. So we gently take her aside, listen, learn, and use every tool at our disposal to turn her around. In essence, we tame the social media beast.

Social media has wrestled control over what is being said about hotels out of the hands of hoteliers and placed it into the hands of our guests—and then handed them a megaphone. This is fantastic when guests are singing our praises, but vexing if they’re crying for blood. Fortunately, new tools are now available to help us harness the powers of social media. One such tool is Revinate, a hotel-specific solution that so impressed me I'm now collaborating with its experienced team.

For the hotel industry, social media is an all-encompassing term that includes traveler review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp, online travel agencies like Expedia and Travelocity, social networking sites, blogs, and content-sharing platforms like YouTube and Flickr. Hoteliers can debate the power of platforms like Twitter and Facebook to drive room sales, but the influence of traveler review sites, where a “Book now!” button is never far away, is undeniable.

A major point of resistance to developing a comprehensive social media program is the time commitment involved. As a former general manager and director of sales and marketing, I recognize the hunted look in the eyes of my colleagues. During these challenging economic times, who has time to actively seek feedback when there’s a line of neglected guests outside our door? And yet we’re all too aware of the risks of turning our backs on the conversation.

Part of the solution is to reduce our dependency on traditional marketing activities that have diminished in effectiveness, things like print ads and brochures, direct mail, print publicity, voice reservations and three-martini lunches. Our resources need to shift to where the action is; increasingly, travel research, decisions and bookings are taking place online.

At the same time, we can adopt time-saving applications that do the work for us. Tools that scour the web for text, photo and video mentions of our hotel and our competitors and deliver a daily summary to our desktop. For the cost of a room night per month, we can monitor performance in real time, share and respond to feedback, and drill down in areas where improvement is needed. A simple, intuitive interface is essential, of course, since hoteliers reserve all our patience for our guests.

By bringing guest feedback into the open, social media empowers travelers to compare not only rates but multitudes of opinions in a variety of categories, from service and rooms to value and overall satisfaction. By collecting, qualifying and organizing this feedback, tools like Revinate enable two game-changing new standards of performance measurement in the hotel industry: market share of guest satisfaction and market share of voice.

Whether we’re a hotel owner, general manager or department head, we can no longer avoid that guest roaring for our attention in the lobby. By reallocating resources and utilizing newly-available tools, we can convert the social media beast into a powerful ally for managing our hotel’s reputation and strengthening our business.

About Revinate. The ultimate social media solution for hotels, Revinate harnesses online reviews and social media as the ultimate measures of guest satisfaction and drivers of demand. By tracking key metrics, providing real-time alerts and intuitively guiding hoteliers to action, Revinate helps hospitality companies profit from social media. For more information visit www.Revinate.com

2010-03-08T15:01:15+00:00

Brad Phillips, True Story, 2009

More on Gabriola telemarketing annoyance

2010-03-08T14:57:10+00:00

Those cursed telemarketers called me at 9:47 am yesterday (Sunday!) morning; I bet they’re targeting all of Gabriola Island. (See previous blog entry about them here.)

The call display said unidentified caller. The recorded message began Local septic tank owners… Good heavens. I want to know which slimeball company is behind this, because these morons keep calling and calling. So this time I did wait on the line, and I did press 1 for more information. That got me to more recorded nonsense. It’s all about some miraculous product for my septic tank, yadda yadda. They asked me to leave my name and number so they could call me back.

I hung up, and grumped about people who call before I have enough caffeine in my brain to be awake. And then I went to the CRTC’s website to see if this is even legal. Apparently not. The CRTC says that telemarketers must follow these rules when they call:

Among other things, telemarketers must:

identify who they are and, upon request, provide you with a fax or telephone number where you can speak to someone about the telemarketing call
display the telephone number that they are calling from or that you can call to reach them, and
only call or send faxes between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekends.

Telemarketers must not use Automatic Dialing and Announcing Device (devices that dial telephone numbers automatically and deliver a pre-recorded message). However, these devices can be used by police and fire departments, schools and hospitals, as well as for appointment reminders and thank you calls.

The fine for breaking these rules can be up to $15,000 for a corporation, and that’s for each violation.

So, hmmm. Maybe I will leave a message for the telemarketers next time, so they can call me back and tell me who they are. And then I can feed them to the legal department at the CRTC.

Are these complaints about the same compay? – 800notes.com
Septic Safety – tcpatools.com

New Lao Shan Dong Restaurant — The One Restaurant on Kingsway Near Intersection with Imperial, Burnaby

2010-03-08T14:00:59+00:00

This should get you all excited.

This post is not about just any restaurant.

This restaurant is the newly opened restaurant by the same people behind Lao Shan Dong.

A few weeks ago, I saw on Natalie’s Facebook of pictures of the food she had at a restaurant called The One. The pictures of the food was unique but I did not think more about it and thinking its just another nice Taiwanese restaurant. No plans at all in visiting.

Last week on the way home, I was walking past Lao Shan Dong when I saw a notice pasted at the door (above). Apparently, The One Restaurant is owned by Lao Shan Dong. I would not have visited if not for that sign. We knew that if The One has food half as good as Lao Shan Dong, this is going to be one successful restaurant in no time.

So Suanne and I immediately changed our Friday date plans to check out The One.

The One is located on Kingsway near the intersection with Imperial. It is just across the street of Pho Hong which we blogged about recently. There are ample parking spaces in the small strip mall it was on. But I do think that given the size of The One restaurant, it will be a challenge if they do have full house.

True to the theme outside, the interior is also adorned with tables and chairs in the clashing colors of black and red. The seats are plush but I do find some of them a bit small even for someone my size.

The interior is modern and spacious. It is also bright because of the ceiling to wall glass frontage on two sides of the restaurant. This is a refreshing difference from Lao Shan Dong which is always packed and cramped with nary a decor inside.

Nicole said that The One is upscale and indeed for a Taiwanese restaurant the likes of No 1, Beefy Beef, Corner 23 and others, this is definitely more upscale than them.

The One is opened for lunch and opened till late (to 2AM during weekends and 1AM on other nights).

The One is a Taiwanese Cuisine restaurant. So you get the same type of food you normally find in Taiwanese restaurants.

The menu is more extensive than the 3 pager above. I did not take more pictures because … well … I was afraid. I was afraid that they think we are spies from the competitors. So I only managed to take pictures of 3 pages. What I can tell you is that the menu is broken into sections of the following:

Appetizer: marinated ear, tofu and stuff
Noodles: what else … the same TBN from Lao Shan Dong!!!
Dumplings
Soup: what else too … the same TBN soup, sans noodles, from Lao Shan Dong!!!
Meal Combo
Hot Pot
Fried Rice

On every page of the menu are the words “No MSG” … and that is good.

We did not get the TBN (short for Taiwanese Beef Noodles for the uninitiated) because we wanted to try their other stuff. But we did notice that they offer both the Beef Noodle Soup for $7.50 and also just the beef soup (no noodles) for the same price. I asked our waitress if the beef soup is more if don’t want the noodles. She sheepishly said you don’t get much more beef. She was honest.

Like all TBN places, they also have lot of drinks options … milk tea, bubble tea, coffee, fresh juice, herbal tea and slush. There is also a section for dessert and of course things like thick toast.

This was what I was coming for … and what I saw on Nicole’s Facebook.

Not knowing what to choose, I randomly chose the one called The One Seafood Hot Pot with Rice. This is $13 — quite pricey but it also came with a drink and a small dessert.

I thought the hot pot was unique and definitely bigger than most.

This is more like it … a boiling pot. Most other places have that token light at the bottom that does a little more than keeping the soup hot.

It was disappointing to learn that the soup base is milk. It did not occur to us to ask when we placed our order. Both Suanne and I personally hate milk as soup. As a matter of fact, Chinese rarely uses milk in cooking … did you know that? So you find that diary products are not big in traditional Chinese cuisine.

Normally Suanne would be the one who will finish off the soup but she declined saying that the one in Pearl Castle is better. Although it was not my fav kind of soup, I thought it was quite good.

The Hot Pot has a lot of ingredients. That included prawns, mussels, fish cake, tofu, very bouncy fish balls (which bounced across the restaurant when I dropped it on the floor), other meat balls and octopus.

The fish ball has stuff in it. I remember having this in one of the stalls in the Richmond Public Market. We like this a lot. It was kind of small … smaller than the ones we had in the Richmond Public Market for sure.

Here is the drink that came with the Hot Pot. It is an …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of New Lao Shan Dong Restaurant — The One Restaurant on Kingsway Near Intersection with Imperial, Burnaby (284 words)

Bird Looks

2010-03-08T14:00:00+00:00

I was watching seagulls at Jericho on Sunday morning.

A couple of adults landed,

and then a younger one flew in to join them.

Its expression reminded me of someone looking over their glasses when they want to make a point.

The adults ignored the look and took off, flying around me, and then straight toward the camera,

before veering off to begin another trip around the dock.

Meanwhile, the juvenile peered at me, clasped its "hands" behind its back, and did a little jig.

Nearby, a crow eyed me as it snacked.

Another crow watched it and gave me that same "over the glasses" look.

As we passed by the little bridge on our way out of the park, I looked up to see this young Bald Eagle in a tree.

Talk about looks. I'm not sure if it found Black Jack more interesting, or me.

Almost 180 degrees swivel.

I walked around to see it from the front, and the gaze did not waver.

I kept Black Jack right by my toes.

Then it flew off to another tree.

Each of the bird looks played through my mind as we walked home.

I remembered that a goose had watched us intently on Saturday as well.

It had turned for a final glance just before swimming away.

As Monday morning begins, the weather has taken quite a turn. Here is encouragement for you and for me that Spring is still around the corner, just taking a little detour. Maybe, that is what all those bird looks were telling me.

Ignatieff a Disaster for LPC

2010-03-08T13:41:55+00:00

Michael Ignatieff makes me sick. For the umpteenth time, he delivers a spineless ultimatum to his foe, one Stephen Harper, whose spine suggests there's a one-inch thick, two-foot long, poker up his ass. I agree with Kady O'Malley's take (in the comments section) on Iggy's most recent foray into the snarling arena: [I]t bothers me that the leader, at least, seems to be ignoring the fact that an

Motivational Thought of the Day

2010-03-08T13:21:11+00:00

Photo Monday – Goldeneye

2010-03-08T12:29:28+00:00

Barrow's Goldeneye courtesy of Ralph Hocken's Photography

This Barrow’s Goldeneye was seen at Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island.

Enjoy your spring break!

Applications open for water services in Nanaimo

2010-03-08T12:15:05+00:00

How does the water get to your tap? How is it managed? How it is cleaned? Did you think the City of Nanaimo looks after this?

The City of Nanaimo is looking for a primary waterworks supplier who will manage the delivery of the water services. To find out more go to www.nanaimo.ca

A Long Way?

2010-03-08T10:26:10+00:00

International Women's Day. Today. One day only. Set aside to 'celebrate' women's progress in a (still) male dominated world. The rest of the year is dedicated to men and the mess most of them are making of our little blue planet. Like this diatribe visited on women unfortunate enough to be anywhere near 'right-wing ultra-extremists CHRISTIAN men'. When Virginia Del. Bob Marshall publicly

Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)

2010-03-08T09:07:09+00:00

I suspect you all thought when seeing the above duck, "Aha, he's showing us another picture of the Lesser Scaup!" That's what I thought too when I first noticed him swimming around in Swan Lake. Then I noticed the white band across his bill and realized that I was seeing something different. This is a male Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris), another member of the diving duck family. The cinnamon coloured neck ring is seldom very visible and the duck is sometimes called the Ring-billed Duck. Below is the more discreetly coloured female. I've just realized that one reason that the females of these duck species tend to be rather drab browns is that they blend in so well with the reeds and grasses that line their natural habitats like Swan Lake. I suspect this camoflage serves them well during the long periods they must spend on their nests when incubating their young.Below, the head-on view of the male shows the neck ring more clearly as well as his oddly shaped head.

A friend for Boy Blue

2010-03-08T08:31:00+00:00

A month ago, I was surprised by a new development in my aquarium; Hermit Rex seemed to have a girlfriend! At least, he was carrying a smaller hairy hermit around, none too gently.

... Or were they fighting? I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. And wasn't the small hermit too young for breeding? So I waited and watched, and Googled. "Hermit crab mating." "Hermit crab breeding." "... reproduction." I kept finding the same answer, over and over; "Hermits don't breed in captivity." And no information on how they behaved in the wild.

I kept watching. Over the next few days, Rex carried around the little one. He didn't eat much, and he was snappy with anything that came close; crabs, hermits, even snails. Everywhere he went, he held the edge of his captive's shell with the smaller cheliped. She (I still thought of her as the female) didn't seem to mind; she didn't struggle. At the most, she occasionally stretched, as she is above. Mostly, she just rested.

Then, on the White Rock beach, Laurie found me another couple, more equal in size.

I brought them home and watched. The next day, the big one had released the little one, who had then left her shell. So was this a battle for shells? But he didn't seem interested in the vacated shell; it was far too small, anyhow. When he continued ignoring her, I dumped him in the aquarium, and left her in a sheltered spot to recover and get back into her shell. Unfortunately, she died that day.

I kept on looking for info, but still found nothing useful. (Except all that background on crab/hermit species.)

Rex abandoned his friend and soon found another, and another; he carried each one around for a few days. None of them protested.

The other day, on Centennial beach, I picked up an empty whelk shell that I thought would be just the right size for Rex's next suit. When I brought it home and dropped it in the aquarium, two pincers poked out; it was occupied!

Hermits are social beings; they love a crowd. And my lot are multiplying, whether by stowaway immigration or by reproducing, I can't tell. But all but Rex, the hairy hermit, and Boy Blue, the grainy hand hermit, are tiny. And all the tiny ones are hairy. Boy Blue is the odd man out.

When the whelk shell hermit poked its eyestalks out, Boy Blue raced over to it, waved tentacles, (hers were red, just like his), "shook hands", touched noses. And grabbed onto that shell.

Boy Blue, gf, with bonus polychaete worm, slipper snail (on whelk shell), limpet on glass, and various amphipods.

The two of them retired under a piece of kelp, and sat there for two full days. Boy Blue, unlike Rex, kept on eating, sometimes holding his friend with a pincer, sometimes with a walking leg. Then he left her alone and went about his life again. She retreated into the shell and lay still for another day or so. Now she's out and wandering around.

I tried Googling again; I had to know; was this normal mating behaviour? I saw no sign of the females (if they were females; how could I be sure?) molting, as female crabs do before they are able to mate. Wouldn't she at least have to come out of the shell?

What I found out, finally, I'll post tomorrow.

Being Too Comfortable With Your Financial Security

2010-03-08T07:28:27+00:00

Usually it’s a fear of loss that gets you to take action on anything I’d say. With that in mind I was told of a person today that has it all set financially as a result of an inheritance. The problem now it seems is that since the person has more money than he knows what to do with he now goes through life in a very cautious way as the fear simply isn’t there when it comes to running out of money.

For example, we all know that that things like crime happen all the time. Now that he has the money he has hired a personal security guard. This is a simple residential home too. When he now gets sick for the slightest circumstance like a cold he now seems to neglect any kind of self assessment and would automatically assume that he is having say a heart attack. Therefore, he would always pay extraordinary fees to get a personal service to whiz him to the hospital for a check up.

To each his own I suppose. But one way I have personally avoided this type of mentality is to constantly get involved with activities or even work that puts you in the shoes of the everyday person. I find that this helps to keep you grounded in terms of fully appreciating what you currently have and therefore the money you get afterwards is just a bonus. You really do learn that so many things which you think you need you really don’t.

Eventually it becomes a situation like while you could hire someone to spoon feed and cut your meat it just seems silly that you need to spend money to do it I’d say.

This feed has been syndicated from AL6400 Blog – Business and Finance

Pavement Loop - Alex Varanese

2010-03-08T06:38:25+00:00

Pavement Loop - Alex Varanese

Ostrich egg patterns oldest form of art and communication

2010-03-08T05:55:19+00:00

From The Telegraph: Ostrich egg patterns oldest form of art and communication.

Engraved patterns on the side of ostrich eggs dating back to the Stone Age could be the oldest form of written communication known to man, claims a new study.

The etchings, thought to be 60,000 years old, were used to mark the eggs which had been turned into water flasks by hunter gatherers in Africa.

It was so early it was before humans – or homo sapiens – left Africa to populate the rest of the world.

The four different patterns and markings are repeated and believed to convey ownership or purpose and to differentiate the eggs from each other. [continue, see photo]

Roland's 2010 Olympics Bicycling Report Card - C+

2010-03-08T05:18:57+00:00

Obligatory disclaimer: As always, my opinions represent nobody but myself (certainly not Momentum and certainly not the City of Vancouver or Metro Vancouver and certainly not the Vancouver Olympic Committee, but of course thanks to Momentum for letting me blog here)

I'd give Metro Vancouver and the Vancouver Olympic Committee an overall grade of C+ for bicycling during the Olympics. Why so low? Let me count the ways:

Fungus, but pretty as a rose

2010-03-08T04:24:11+00:00

I am smitten with this fungus. Smitten! I obsess about it, because isn’t it gorgeous? Ok, maybe this photo doesn’t do it justice. See more photos here.

I wish a mushroom expert would arrive to help me identify the fungi I find in the Gabriola woods, because that would be ever so helpful. I think this one is probably Phaeolus schweinitzii (Fries) which is also called Dyer’s Polypore. (Because yes, one can use it for making dye.)

I thank God every day for what decay and fermentation produce. Decaying wood gives us mushrooms, and all manner of fungi. And then of course, we get into fermentation, with glories like sourdough, beer, and wine. Fermentation, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s have a hand for the good things produced by decay and fermentation!

(Sounds of applause fill the room. The curtain comes down. Gabriolan.ca takes one last sip of a fermented drink, and goes to bed. Gabriolan.ca dreams of fungi.)

Geocache Diet – Day 50

2010-03-08T03:05:10+00:00

When we lived in Calgary I did not see too many people who went for walks. There were people on the trails on nice days but not in the quantities I would expect for a city that size. If I went down by the river I would see a lot of joggers but that was ...

Continue reading Geocache Diet – Day 50

1-on-1 Interview With The Most Powerful Chef in The World

2010-03-08T03:00:41+00:00

The day before the Olympic started, the senior management team of McDonalds flew into Vancouver to host a global press event at the Games Main Press Center. McDonalds, as it is well known, has been a worldwide Olympic partner for over 40 years.

I was totally excited when McDonalds wrote to me a week before the Vancouver 2010 games asking if chowtimes would like to attend the global press event. I immediately said yes. I would not give up that golden chance to get into the highly secured Main Press Center and get close to the heartbeat of the games.

A few emails to and fro with several people within McDonalds follows after. They were asking about chowtimes and stuff like our traffic profile. After a while they asked … would you like to speak to Chef Dan Coudreaut? Chef Dan, you see, is the Director of Culinary Innovations. The man behind the food … and in many respect, considered as the most powerful chef on this planet.

Whoa! Play-acting as a journalist among hoards of journalists is one thing but being offered a 1-on-1 interview with The Man is yet another. As much as I did not know what to do, I knew I could not pass off this once in a lifetime chance. I replied “yes” first and then try to figure out something along the way.

Truth be told … when I mentioned on Twitter and chowtimes of the 1-on-1 interview, there was one particular reader who wrote an email (albeit politely) that she will no longer support chowtimes because of my acceptance for the interview. She symbolically asked me to remove her name from our email distribution. That sort of set me thinking how much emotions that some people shows at the sheer mention of McDonalds name.

What is it that evokes such responses? Is it that McDonalds pushes unhealthy food? Is it that McDonalds epitomizes the successful corporate world? Why does it seems more acceptable to eat dim sum (as a random example) than to have a Big Mac?

I am not going to push for an answer. You know and I know that everyone can argue until the cows come home and we will never be in any agreement. I went to the McDonalds event with an open mind and no prejudice with the intention to hear the low down from the #1 chef of the #1 restaurant in the world.

I have a feeling this post might invite reactions and I welcome all views.

It was a mad scramble getting the press credential. The media event was to be at 9AM and by 8PM the previous day, I had not received any instructions on what to do and where to go. I shot off an urgent email to McDonalds at night and that set a few wheels in motion. I think someone dropped the ball on chowtimes. I only got the go ahead at about 5AM — 4 hours before the event!

I was armed already with the questions I wanted to ask Chef Dan. Many of the questions were from chowtimes readers.

It was a wet day when I took the Skytrain to the Convention Center. I was given a couple of run arounds before I got to the right section to collect the press credential from. The volunteers were new on the job and had a hard time locating all the passes that were prepared upfront. It took 20 minutes to locate my pass — got me worried that they might not have my records and miss out on the event.

Almost everyone in the broadcasting world you can think of is there. They were wearing shirts with logo of Reuters, NBC, etc! The photographers who were seated near me were all carrying big cameras … not one camera but two. And they seem to know each other. There I was a small time blogger — sigh, no one really bothered to talk to me other than saying “how is it going?”.

I don’t dress like they do and certainly don’t carry the right type of equipment. Next time, I am going to print a T-shirt with the chowtimes.com logo so that I can feel more like part of the gang.

LOL!

While waiting for the event to start, we were served some food. It was early and serving full sized sandwiches was not quite right, one thing that I like was the Mini Mac. The bite sized Mini Mac tastes exactly like the Big Mac. It is amazing that they managed to make it so small — it was just like the size of a 25 cents coin.

I see that no one really touched the fries. It is because it it’s still too early for fries. But I took it because I wanted to sample their new sauces.

The new sauces were not to my taste. Maybe it is the name that they gave it — zesty mango, sichuan and thai. I was particularly interested in the Sichuan one. It was more peanuty than anything. It wasn’t spicy in anyway that can be associated with the word Sichuan. But I know … these sauces were not created for Asians but for the US market.

The press event was somewhat short. There were speeches from McDonalds management, the IOC and VANOC. The speeches were quickly followed by some fun and games.

The McDonalds Champion Kids program flew in children selected from Canada and all over the world with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the Vancouver 2010 games first-hand. These 6-14 year old also have a chance to serve as youth correspondence to share their experience with their hometown news outlets.

After the event, I was introduced to Chef Dan. He comes across to me as a down to earth kind of person. Very approachable.

As we settled down, I was shifty and nervous. I was nervous because of what I was about to say to kick off the 1-on-1. I just said three words … “Junk food. Why?”
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of 1-on-1 Interview With The Most Powerful Chef in The World (951 words)

Reign Valley Vixens 2010 Opener

2010-03-08T00:44:25+00:00

All I missed by attending flat track roller derby's Reign Valley Vixens' first bout of the 2010 season was the motherfucking Oscars. That and the five bucks it cost me to get in, five bucks I could have pissed away at the bar in five minutes with nothing but the Canucks and an old man in the corner passed out, pissing in his pants, to entertain me.

First thing I noticed was that the girls were providing no beer garden that night. Boo. Good thing I had drank quite a bit before I got there and had some pills with me. The only thing I do straight, and not even that most days, is wake up.

Besides the geometry of the playing surface - an oval - roller derby resembles horse racing in one very important way - as soon as you walk in the door you enter another world - a world of women in this case - quite the opposite of the sawmill world I spend much of my time in.

I took a seat, a suicide seat, on the cold concrete floor, I did not bring my own lawn chair as I was invited to, the same cold concrete the Vixens would soon be meeting with their farm girl flesh just as soon as their skates were knocked from beneath them one by one.

The bout between the Kiss Me Deadlies and the Doomsday Bunnies began slowly in the cold, old barn but once the girls got warmed up the violence me and about 200 other twisted motherfuckers and their children came to see began. Sugah Bomb, the roller girl I wanted to see skate the most, may have broke a leg and was sent by the first aid attendants to the hospital.

Soon after Sugah Bomb left the building, the Deadlies' Juvie Hall landed hard on the small of her back, hard enough the whole crowd gasped in pain, and lay there not moving for several painful seconds. Looked like she just had all the wind knocked out of her. She was soon back on the oval looking for instant retribution.

There were no further serious injuries in the first half of play, which the Kiss Me Deadlies dominated the way Canada dominated the Russians in the Olympic hockey quarter finals.

During the break I made enquiries about Sugah Bomb who did not scream as her broken bones tore into her flesh like broken glass. "She's so tough," I was told by a source close to the team, "when she gets knocked down hard she always jumps back up right away. We knew she was hurt bad when she stayed down."

In the second half I looked at the match less critically, enjoying the colourful socks, revealing fishnet, sexy wheels, frilly underthings, body paint and the smiles and grimaces of the girls who enjoy hitting and being hit as much as I like watching them assault one another.

The bout became more and more violent as the second half progressed with gang hits, elbowing, knees to the butt and more mayhem than I could calculate.

During an injury related time-out there was much giggling from the Doomsday Bunny bench as they plotted revenge on the Deadlies like Guy Fawkes plotted revenge on Parliament. Seconds later the Deadlies' Extreme Diva put an end to the plot against her team with a shoulder check on Juvie Hall that would put both Sedins out for the season.

The Deadlies won, last score I saw was 125-64, but they will miss Sugah Bomb if she is not healed up in time for them to take on the league leaders in unprovoked sex and violence - the Anarchy Angels - in April.

Ice

2010-03-08T00:01:02+00:00

When gatekeepers hold the gates open

2010-03-07T23:57:27+00:00

If Northern Insights / Perceptivity achieves one positive thing, that will be encouragement of readers' support of Alexandra Morton. I don't know the woman personally and never met her. But, I admire her because for years she has been shaming industry and governments, both federal and provincial, by doing their jobs of protecting west coast fisheries. I spent every summer from age 5 on the

Nincompoops gather to rant, dress unknown

2010-03-07T22:19:42+00:00

For NDP reaction to the BC Budget, I joined other bloggers in a conference call with finance critic Bruce Ralston. This is the second time I've participated in a Ralston conference for new media writers. The opposition party indicates willingness to continue regular dialogue with bloggers of all political stripes, a sensible approach because the growing numbers of blog readers are engaged and

Mailchimp for Vancouver SEM Meetup Communication

2010-03-07T21:57:58+00:00

Last week I used Mailchimp, a popular email service provider, to send a newsletter-type email to the Vancouver SEM Meetup group. This idea came about while thinking a better way to communicate with the group’s members. Mailchimp offers pre-designed formatting, tracks clicks, opens, and a ton of other information I thought I could take advantage of… [...]

John Prine - Memphis, TN - June 5th, 2010

2010-03-07T21:45:00+00:00

On June 5th, 2010 John Prine will be doing a concert here in this fine building located in Memphis, TN. I hope all my prine friends that reside near Memphis get to attend. I know of one for sure, she resides in Memphis and probably been prinein' for as long as I. I am happy for her - she deserves it.

2010-03-07T21:15:03+00:00

David Thomson on Red Riding (via Pete)

"[T]he torrential voice that begins as the sound of barbed talk among the books’ characters, but that ends up as the music or wind blowing through its shattered terrain. . . ."

"We have found ourselves in a culture of TV series and elaborate DVDs where some 'lost' movies are unpeeled before our eyes. And the eyes do have it. When The Sopranos ended, it was not with an emphatic story point, a wow! (like Tony being an FBI plant or a papal delegate), but a delicacy of mise-en-scène that had to be seen over and over again. Of course, that doesn’t apply to all TV, and it never will, but there are series that are works of visual conjuring just as some old movies now enter a Borgesian library of variants. Their pursuit tends to be meditative, solitary, and unnerving. It resembles reading."

(Those last three sentences viz. certain pictures that appear here intermittently)

No Cast/No Pins ~ Happy Days

2010-03-07T21:03:00+00:00

My cast was cut off the other day - what a relief. The pins were removed with vise grips - they did not want to leave me. Especially one pin; geez the doc really had to reef on it. When I went to view what was happening in the wrist area, I could not believe the size of these pins. Good grief and to boot they are made of titanium - I kept the lil gems as a memory of my day of dancing with the ice.

I do not have much movement yet, but in time I will. I start on wrist therapy in two weeks. It it very nice to be outside and try to open my fingers - I can feel the wind blowing through them. I also held a candy cane yesterday, a sweet treat - I love candy canes and I love having no cast and no pins.

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