Sucktastic!

Wind Energy & Open Data

2011-04-03T13:50:00.002-04:00

I've thought a lot about renewable energy in various forms for some time now, especially since I moved to PEI where a good amount of our energy can come from wind. The official figure I've heard varies from 15% (source) to 18% (source). That is pretty good, but when you figure only 20% comes from nuclear (when Point Lepreau is up and running) that indicates a lot of our energy comes from oil and coal.

In 2008 Premier Robert Ghiz put forth a plan to increase our output from the 149 or so MegaWatts we currently produce to 500. That would allow us to increase our wind consumption to 30%, directly cutting from oil and coal. This has obviously not happened, as his plan called for the first 100MW to come online this year. The culprit was a combination of the recession, the failure of Canada to implement a cap and trade system on our CO2 useage, and low oil prices. The proposals by developers would have required that the energy be sold at a higher rate than what we currently pay, and that's already the highest in Canada (according to Manitoba Hydro (source), .169$/kWh).

One thing that will help out wind energy is that the price of oil is back up (~$108/barrel). The economy looks like it is slowly getting back on track as well, though how much of that is an illusion remains to be seen.

The government claims that the 500MW plan is still in effect, once they get some good proposals from developers. This is good news.

When researching information about wind energy on PEI, or anything to do with electricity, I found there was not a good source of information. I admit I don't look beyond page one of google's search results, but I do try to query the best I can to find this information. The fact that I had to go to Manitoba Hydro to find out what we pay for electricity is funny (of course I could have checked my bill, but I can't link to that). One person who also feels this pain but is doing something about it is Peter Rukavina. He is looking to open up government data, particularly how much energy is being generated by our wind farms. It turns out there just isn't any publicly available data on that. In fact, the North Cape Wind Farm isn't even permanently connected to the internet, it's on dial up! (So much for the island getting high speed internet)

Peter was able to use some data from the New Brunswick System Operator website and scrape the data into an tracking system here. That page shows how much energy and where that energy is coming from for the NB system. Of particular note is the PEI component. I've actually used the code from that page to embed a little graph on the right hand side of my blog here so you can see at any point what our energy flow with NB has been doing. If the number is positive, it means we are importing energy from NB. If it goes negative it means that the wind must be blowing and our demand is actually low enough that we're exporting wind energy to NB. That occurred for the first time since the feed went live last night.

Thank you Peter for all the work, meeting with politicians, writing the code, and the interest in our wind energy. I look forward to further developments and I'd be interested in helping out in any way I could.

Immaculate Machine No More

2011-02-09T10:18:00.003-05:00

Sad but not totally unexpected news yesterday, Immaculate Machine, one of my favourite bands, is no more.

I first saw them in 2007 in Charlottetown (also the first time I saw Smothered in Hugs!), and then a couple times after that, every time they came back to the island. I even blogged about a couple of their shows here. Another interesting fact, they were the first band I ever photographed (as evidence by the not so great shots showcased here).

They had a lot of talent and put on a great live show, and I will miss them! They are all involved in new projects though, so I assume I'll see them again someday.

CBC Radio 3 Searchlight Nomination

2011-02-04T09:04:00.000-05:00

As the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait would say, Holy Haleakala! Someone nominated sucktastic for the CBC Radio 3 Searchlight for Canada's Best Music Website. Though I'm extremely flattered, I don't really see my blog as a music website. Only because Canadian Indie Music is such a large part of my life does it get mentioned here so often. But I also talk about other things, food, travel, atheism, photography, etc. So I don't really think I qualify.

However, the blog where we keep The Moe and Martin Show, Canada Is a Music Mecca is also nominated! Besides our show, there is lots of great stuff going on on that blog. We have a number of contributors posting interviews, album reviews, daily music news, occational tracks of the day, and more every day.

So please, if you have a Radio 3 account, or want to sign up for one (it's free and easy), consider voting for Canada is a Music Mecca!

Music PEI Week Playlist

2011-02-02T12:26:00.000-05:00

I took a lot of video for the Friday night Music PEI Showcases. 3 Venues, 9 bands, and 22 videos have been compiled for your viewing pleasure!

Click YouTube to go to the playlist page and watch in HD.

Metering the Internet

2011-02-01T10:25:00.004-05:00

Some of the biggest news in Canada now is related to the CRTC allowing usage based billing [UBB] by Bell Canada and others. Many Canadians are voicing their dissent of this move, and are particularly critical of the CRTC for not looking out for the best interests the people it is supposed to protect.

I remember when High Speed Internet was first happening in Canada, sometime around 1998-99. I was on board right away when I moved to Hamilton for university. I believe I was paying $50 a month for unlimited cable internet. Sometime in 1999/2000 they switched the plan myself and many of my Software Engineering friends were on to UBB, without actually telling us. A friend of mine was the first to find out, when after a few days, they cut off his internet. Many of us followed in the days to come as we went over our quotas. We spoke out strongly against this practice, as many others did as well. Within a month or two the UBB policy was reversed in full.

It was slightly different in that older case compared to now, for one thing, they cut us off, not charged us more. Obviously their policy was very wrong, but I think charging us more for going over on our bandwidth is also wrong.

If UBB goes through people will all of a sudden have to be very concious of what they're doing online. Want to watch a movie on your paid for Netflix subscription? Well you might have to pay again on top of your subscription. Want to stream a TV show from CTV or The Comedy Network? Visit sites with lots of ads? Guess what, now you'll also have to pay for those ads to be loaded. Sure, you can ad block, but then the people who run the sites will lose out on income. This will hurt many part time bloggers and people who depend on ad income to operate.

Myself personally, I upload and watch a lot of video on YouTube, upload pictures to flickr, and I have also been spending a lot of time watching Al Jazeera's coverage of the revolution in Egypt. In a 15 minute time frame last night I tracked my bandwidth usage. I downloaded 150MB, and uploaded about 100MB. project that forward and my total bandwidth is about 1GB/hour. In total last month I uploaded about 10GB of video, and that was a light month. Maybe I'm an exceptional case, but I know if my internet were metered I would be over every month.

Overall UBB will hurt Canadians in their pocketbook, as well as stifle new development out of Canada.

For more information, and a petition to sign check out Open Media.

The Moe and Martin Show

2011-01-29T09:31:00.002-05:00

Since last spring my friend Moe and I have had a radio show on Radio Atlantic, and available as a podcast on Canada is a Music Mecca. Recently Radio Atlantic has been having issues ensuring our broadcast goes out either on time, or at all. However the podcast has always been a more convenient way to listen to the show.

The show focuses exclusively on Canadian East Coast music, with a definite bias on the Charlottetown scene. We play pretty much anything, but tend to avoid the straight up traditional stuff, as well as jazz/blues/classical. But Rock, Pop, Country, Hip Hop, Electronic dancey stuff, etc, are all covered. Along with great tunes, you also get a lot of Moe and I talking about the music, artists, shows and the scene in general in a pretty informal (and often wine fueled) manner. Check here for all of our shows. Something I should do in the future is get a best of show list. We've had some really good ones!

Our most recent show was a recap of the Music PEI 2011 awards show, and I think it's a fun one. There is lots of great music from the winners of most of the awards.

For your part, your mission, when you choose to accept it, is to send us requests, music, links, fake news reports, real news, and any other feedback you like. Email us at themoeandmartinshow@gmail.com.

Music PEI Week 2011

2011-01-24T08:36:00.002-05:00

Music PEI Week 2011 has ended. As always it was filled with great music and good times. I took my video camera around Friday night to three different venues and 9 different bands. That'll make a lot of editing in my future, an endeavour that has already begun. So far I have finished with two bands, Racoon Bandit and The North Lakes, both at Solid Rock Cafe. Racoon Bandit won Best Video for their video HAT and The North Lakes won best Alternative Album.

Big winners were one of my favourite bands, Haunted Hearts. They get played a lot on The Moe and Martin Show and I've probably seen them live more than any other band (including seeing them Friday night, stay tuned for video, they really rocked!). They get classified as Country, but I don't think the standard classifications are working very well for PEI bands anymore. When I think country I think twangy whiny crap music, and that they are not. Perhaps it's just that the classification has changed while I wasn't paying attention. Anyway, Haunted Hearts won Group of the Year, Album of the Year, Country Album of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year.

Molly Rankin, another regular on the radio show, won 3 awards herself, Female Vocalist, New Artist, and Pop Recording. Each of her speeches at the awards was funnier than the previous. In fact the whole awards show was hilarious. Fraser and Lenny did another fantastic job as hosts.

Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for all the videos, but until then, here's a couple from Racoon Bandit and The North Lakes:

Flying Home

2011-01-19T08:40:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update on things.

I'm taking the advanced pottery class at the PEI Pottery Studio this semester, and really enjoying having some direction again. So far I've thrown 10 mugs and 9 bowls (of varying quality. This is a chance to experiment after all). I'll try to get some pictures of the process soon.

Besides that I'm trying to figure out a photography project I can get into. I am too lazy for a full 365, but a friend recently suggested something to do with food photography. Combining sharing what I eat with pictures could be fun. And potentially embarrassing for those days I have nothing but a bowl of cereal for dinner.

I also have a new iPod, the one that takes pictures. So I've found I've been taking a lot of crummy mobile photos and sharing them on facebook and twitter. For instance here is my veggie madras from Churchill Arms in Charlottetown from last night:

Follow me on Twitter to see more.

Smiley Goat

2010-12-13T21:55:00.002-05:00

Not much of a content post so much as a 'hey I really like this goat shot' post. This was from Krista and I's so called 'Belfast Day' where Belfast Mini Mills had an open house, as well as a potter.

The Mini Mills has some really fun animals, along with our favourites the goats.

Downtown Seattle at Sunset

2010-12-03T10:25:00.003-05:00

I am finally getting around to posting all the pictures of my cross North America trip from last year.

In some ways I'm kind of glad I waited a while to post them. I feel like over the past year I've gotten a bit better at editing pictures. I get to re-live the trip by going through all the raw pictures one by one, triggering associated memories and good times. I've caught up with my Dad's cousin who I stayed with in Seattle while attempting to confirm details on his classic car.

Of course, I could have posted them a year ago and just gone through the set and re-lived the memories. Oh well, I've been busy.

I still have Vancouver and the Via trip on The Canadian from there to Toronto to go. I anticipate there will be some more pictures that I'm very happy with, just like this Seattle skyline shot.

Flowers Under Attack

2010-09-30T08:19:00.001-04:00

is this still on?

Radio Debut

2009-02-11T08:18:00.002-05:00

Wintersleep Acoustic Guitar from the show at The Wave in UPEI.

Hello everyone, especially anyone coming from Radio 3. I hope you are enjoying the show I co-hosted with Craig Norris, as much as I enjoyed recording it.

I hope to post more here in the future again, with more music related stuff. Things like show reviews, local news, that kind of thing. Stay tuned.

For anyone who reads this before the show, it will be airing on CBC Radio 3 between noon and three eastern, February 12, 2009. Have a listen.

Snowing

2008-12-12T10:46:00.001-05:00

The weather here has been quite variable the last couple weeks. One day it'll be snowing, the next -10, the next raining and +11.

I saw Grass Mountain Hobo's at Back Alley Music last weekend. Tomorrow is Nudie & The Turks at the same place.

Other than that not much going on musically that I'm aware of here in Charlottetown. You know who I really feel like seeing live again (even though I've seen them 4 times this year), The Tom Fun Orchestra... alas, it will have to wait until next year.

On that same note, Tom Fun and Hey Rosetta, and Pat Deighan & The Orb Weavers, and many other great bands have all been nominated for ECMA's. Congratulations to all the nominees!

Here's a new track from K'Naan at Radio 3

Long Nights

2008-11-27T07:56:00.002-05:00

Been too long since I've put anything here. I really need to start thinking more about just quick posts perhaps, with some music I'm listening to, or shows I've seen.

Over the last month I've seen (and sometimes photographed) Cadence Weapon, Matthew Barber with The Spades, Stars, Hey Rosetta!, Raccoon Bandit, The Lodge, Pat Deighan and the Orb Weavers, the Love Junkies, Tom Fun Orchestra, and Carmen Townsend, to name a few.

Tonight I'm seeing and photographing Sam Roberts, which should be a lot of fun!

I can't stop listening to the new single from Shout Out Out Out Out, In the End It's Your Friends.

I shot this picture with my new 30mm f1.4 lens by Sigma. I've been pretty happy with it, tonight will be the first real test of it's purpose, shooting bands.

Ghost Guinness

2008-04-23T09:42:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post about some bands we've seen over the past week.

Last Thursday night Matthew Barber played at Baba's. I wish I'd payed more attention to the 3 different guys who opened, but I didn't. They all played enjoyable acoustic sets. Matthew Barber was very good. Especially considering the loud thin crowd. He is a great songwriter, and man, can he play guitar. He's very inspirational for me in my learning. Definitely something to shoot for.

Last night I was out to see Hey Rosetta! and Woodhands. Two very different, but excellent bands. I first saw Hey Rosetta! at the ECMA's in Fredericton, and though they were good, I really found the sound to be terrible there. Last night they sounded a whole lot better, and it was a whole lot more intimate.

I've never seen Woodhands before, but had heard good things about them on radio3, as well as enjoyed their music there. It all lived up to the live show, which was so full of energy, and great music. I'm convinced Dan Werb (keytar/singer/keyboards) is a twin of my friend Cam. Woodhands is the kind of band that I think Cam and I could have done. Maybe someday. Until then, I really enjoyed their show, and would love to see them again.

Here is their song Dancer, which rocked live:

Signs of Spring

2008-04-10T11:15:00.002-04:00

I honestly don't remember it feeling so spring like here at this time last year, but this week has been great for weather.

I went out for a quick bike yesterday, it was good. I'm sore today, that good kind of sore where you pushed yourself.

Not much else to say, I'll share a song I'm totally hooked on and can't wait for the album to come out. Islands - The Arm:

Passion

2008-03-19T10:34:00.002-04:00

Post Show Wrapup Post:

My friends and I saw Immaculate Machine play twice here in Charlottetown on Saturday. They first played in the small back room of Back Alley Music. I took my camera to that show, expecting it to be less crowded, and for me to be able to get a good vantage point. I was not disappointed.

Boxer The Horse opened the show, and I hadn't heard of them ahead of time. They put on a pretty rockin' show, and I enjoyed it. It also gave me a chance to be up front and take pictures and check camera settings. The keyboardist had a PBF shirt! I couldn't place it at the time, but I knew I'd seen it around somewhere before.

Immaculate Machine was up next, and they very much rocked. It was such a small room, and a lot of people in the crowd didn't know them, so I think they suitably impressed all. I was up front the whole time, snapping away, and enjoying the hell out of them. I posted a lot of pictures to flickr.

After their set I talked with Brooke (guitarist/singer) for a while about his experience in Dawson City, doing an artist in residence kind of thing. It sounds like a great place, I'd love to head up there for the Dawson City Music Festival some year.

After some chilling time at home, we headed back out to Baba's. We were there a bit late for Drea Macdonald, who was just wrapping up. Next up was Smothered in Hugs, a kickass local band. They put on a rocking good set. Even though it was even darker at Baba's, I wish I'd brought my camera, because I missed out on getting some pics of these guys.

Immaculate Machine played another great set next, and had the crowd moving (and one guy seemingly convulsing). After the show Shannon and I stuck around and chatted with Kathryn and Brooke, and I picked up their 7" single, even though I don't have a record player!

It was an awesome night, and we made it home safe and sound, which was initially in some doubt when we were almost attacked by a loose pitbull on the walk home. :/

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day on the couch. :)

I can't leave you with my favorite IM song (C'Mon Sea Legs, it's not on Radio 3), so I'll leave you with another favorite:

Another Year

2008-03-11T09:00:00.002-04:00

We're well into another year, and lots of things have changed for me. I'm sure anyone who ever checks here and reads this knows what's new in my world, so I'm not going to write about it.

I'm looking forward to spring. This has been a long snowy winter, and I miss biking on the Confederation trail. My goal of this year is to get out at least a few times a week. I also should start looking into seeing if there are any bike races here in PEI that would be fun.

In the meantime, I keep busy, Pottery, Photography, and I've just started Painting. I guess it's the three P's. ;)

I'm trying to get out to as many live shows as I can. It's been pretty quiet her over the winter, but the highlight was the Cuff the Duke and Blue Rodeo show. This weekend is Smothered in Hugs opening for Immaculate Machine. Also upcoming, Buck 65, Cadence Weapon, Cuff the Duke, Matthew Barber and Jill Barber, and Two Hours Traffic. (too many to link to!)

We also made it to the ECMA's in Fredericton, and here is one of my highlights from there, The Tom Fun Orchestra:

Our World

2007-10-17T12:18:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately, today I don't have a music video, or even a song. I promise the next post will have one of those. This time I want to share a video, part of a great series that I'm working my way through, and one I think everyone should watch. It's a great set of tools and information on Global Warming, and I know a lot of people are sick of hearing about it, but it's worth taking some time out to hear a bit more. The vidoes are well thought out, and I found them entertaining as well. Here is a good intro video, I hope everyone finds it as informative and interesting as I do.

Orange Time

2007-10-05T10:15:00.001-04:00

A quick post today, and instead of just a song, I also have a video.

It is that time of year, the summer is over, now we have a wait until winter. Though the fall days are nice, crisp cool air, it always saddens me when summer is over. I always feel like I've let it get by without taking full advantage, and perhaps even more so this year. Now that I have a new bike, I've been getting out more though.

Still, here in PEI, the summer didn't really start until June, and it seemed to be pretty much over in late August, though we got a few weeks recently of low 20's daytime temperature. I biked as much as I could!

This weekend the gf and I are off to New Brunswick to hopefully get some biking and hiking done in Fundy National Park. We're staying at a B&B that my parents stayed at, and it should be an enjoyable weekend away.

Now, on to the tunes. This video is by one of my favorite bands, and it's my favorite song of theirs. They have a new album due hopefully early next year, and I also hope that they can tour out this way at some point. I'd love to see them. This is Wolf Parade, and their song I'll Believe in Anything.

Late Summer

2007-09-20T13:01:00.001-04:00

I'm counting this as late summer, even though the weather is indicating otherwise. I miss the long late summer we get in Ontario.

CBC Radio 3 has done something cool. Starting late last week they started broadcasting live to the web. I think this is going to be seen as somewhat groundbreaking. I know a lot of stations simultaneously broadcast terrestrially and on the web, but radio 3 is doing it just for the web. Also, no commercials! :D Nothing but great commentary, and tons of great Canadian music.

Back I go to Amanda Putz, Tariq Hussain, Craig Norris, and up in a couple hours, Grant Lawrence. After that it's Lisa Christiansen, then Lauren Burrows. All of my favorites! :)

Before I go I'll leave another track to listen to. This is The Russian Futurists, described as space pop. It's a one man band, from Toronto, and unfortunately Matthew Hart won't be out east further than Montreal anytime in the listed tour dates. But here is his song, Let's Get Ready to Crumble.

Eagles and Music

2007-09-14T10:54:00.001-04:00

I was obviously very happy to have captured an eagle pulling a squid out of Rustico Harbour. I don't think I need to say much more about this. It's motivating and depressing how much sometimes photography is being at the right place and right time, ready to take a picture. It's motivating because you don't always need to be a pro with the best gear and experience to get a great picture (in no way am I implying this is a great picture btw). It's depressing because you can put lots of time and money into this, and not have the chance to get something truly spectacular.

I've been pretty fortunate (insomuch as I believe in fortune, ie not at all) to have seen and captured some pretty cool things. The snowy owl, the whale, and the eagle. I guess a lot of it is just getting out there and shooting. Which is enjoyable, and half of the fun.

Music for this week is an artist I would love to see, in fact, I hope he'll be at the Halifax Pop Explosion in October. Enjoy this fun song by Buck 65:

Nerd!

2007-09-10T08:58:00.001-04:00

I honestly don't do these tests very often, but when one hits so close to my heart, I just have to.

I am a bit disappointed that they combined the sci-fi and comic part, I guess because I never really got into comics.

However, I can sleep well at night again, knowing my status is unchanged. :D

Yellow Moon

2007-08-28T20:58:00.001-04:00

So tonight is the Lunar Eclipse, but it looks like us out east are going to miss it. It starts around 6:55 for us, which is when the sun is just rising, so not only will it be light out, but the moon will also probably have set. Ah well, I've done some looking and the next eclipse that I'll be able to see is February 21. It will probably be chilly, but I'll try to get a picture then. :)

This was taken last night at Brackley Beach, PEI. The moon had just risen above the dunes and was quite a sight.

New Music Friday!

2007-08-24T12:39:00.001-04:00

For this week's musical selection, I am picking something a bit different. Have a listen to The Choir Practice's Red Fox. I don't know much about them, aside from the fact that they are a mixed group from out west. Enjoy!

New Music Thursday!

2007-08-16T10:17:00.000-04:00

CBC Radio 3 has done something that makes me very happy. They now allow me to embed the R3 player in my page. I can also pick a song to have queue'd up, or a playlist. One of these days I'll add my playlist to the side, so if anyone wants to have a listen to what I'm finding interesting, it'll be there.

For now, I will post a single artist and song. If this works out, I will try to make this a weekly post. I hope you enjoy!

For this week, I want you to have a listen to someone who will be in PEI next month. He hails from Windsor, ON, and has a catchy twang I can't get out of my head. This is Ron Leary, and his song The Road In Between. (hit the play button to listen)

I can't wait to see him in September.

Grey Day

2007-08-15T13:25:00.001-04:00

I'm going to attempt to write more in here again, my life is far from uninteresting, so some people may actually be interested in hearing about it.

Well, anytime you lose a pet it's a grey day. Trogdor was hit by a car and killed last night. Nothing much to add to that but how much it sucks. :(

Trogdor Slideshow

Understanding

2007-01-18T10:26:00.000-05:00

I had done some thinking about my earlier post about Trent University's slogan, and realized that I was wrong about my writeup about it. I had said that it wasn't true that the world belonged to those who understood it, but in fact, I have come to realize it does. I think those people who are running the world understand it the best, they understand how money runs everything, power is money, and they know how to keep power.

This is not good. It's such a gradual path to get to where we are now, no one step seems to be evil, but here we are, and I don't like where we're headed.

Alien World

2007-01-09T07:15:00.000-05:00

Appologies for the bit of down time, it was not for the lack of things to say. I am bombarded daily with things I want to talk about, from eating to politics, my opinion will be heard.

For those not in the know, I have moved to PEI. After a busy christmas season with friends, family, and loved ones, I packed up all my belongings and treked east, with the huge help of my girlfriend, father, and brother. The move went smoothly and now I sit at my new job, Random Computer Guy for UPEI typing this post. I will start work soon, log into my 20 year old terminal program, and try to teach myself how things were done.

I hope everyones holiday was enjoyable, and that the new year brings happiness. I am sorry to all those I didn't get to see and say goodbye to before I left, I know there are lots of you, and I feel bad I wasn't able to say goodbye personally to each.

Evil?

2006-12-10T18:36:00.000-05:00

Woah, sorry for the pictureless post, but apparently you might not want to listen to, or hang out with me anymore:

How evil are you?

Find out if we can still hang out here

Golden Rule

2006-11-29T08:30:00.000-05:00

The Golden Rule is perhaps the simplest, easy to follow, and most beneficial rule we have. However, for whatever reason, most people do not follow it (selfish jerks!). This is especially true when driving in rush hour, as I've had the chance to observe over the last 7 months or so. Although I'm leaving the rush and traffic behind, I think everyone would benefit from reading through a list that Dumb Little Man has compiled, with some good ideas as to how the Golden Rule applies to driving.

The Golden Rule and Driving

Have a look, tell your friends, if everyone were to follow these rules commuting would be a joy, not the worst thing ever.

2006-11-29 09:40 EDIT: Keith adds a great addendum to tailgating: "If the guy behind you is tailgating you, and there's no one in the front, see "honour the left lane""

Understanding

2006-11-23T11:56:00.000-05:00

I love Trent University's slogan, right there on their homepage.

The world belongs to those who understand it.

If only that were true.

Personally, right now, I think the world belongs to a bunch of bloody idiots who have no clue about anything to do with understanding. George Bush, the Pope, Stephen Harper, Tony Blair... These are the people in charge of the world. We need to change this, somehow, we need to start educating people on what the issues are, and get some leaders in power who understand them as well.

Here in Canada we have more tax cuts potentially coming up. That's great right? No one likes taxes, but think of what they do. Health Care, Education, Pension plans... these are 3 of the most key issues as I see them, funded by our taxes. Education is arguably the most important of those, and what are we doing, cutting spending on them all.

People are naturally Short Term Greedy, we need a government in place that understands that, and doesn't try to gain popularity by pandering towards our poor tendancies. Until we can educate everyone on how to plan ahead for life, including how to educate children, how to stay healthy (so you don't have to use much healthcare) and how to save for retirement, we need a responsible government to provide those services for us. Not cut them back while trying to buy votes with tax cuts.

Great Article

2006-11-17T11:43:00.000-05:00

I found a link to a great article by Natalie Angier at RichardDawkins.net. Read it, digest it. She speaks a lot of truth.

This picture was taken on my flight back from Saskatoon where I was visiting my girlfriend. The trip was a lot of fun, winter sure comes early there though. :) Check out my set of pictures if you're interested in seeing more.

Speeding Through Life

2006-10-25T13:23:00.000-04:00

Regular readers (ha!) will have noticed a change in focus of this blog (and not just in the fact that there are posts again). The reason is that I'm attempting to improve my writing skills, and have chosen to talk about things that mean a lot to me in the process. So there are going to be more posts about evolution, biology, and the very interesting book I'm reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Today I critique the conclusion of a review found on The San Francisco Chronicle by Dinesh D'Souza.

The article is mostly about Dawkins questioning of why religion exists from an evolutionary standpoint. In the book, he talks about how nature is a very precise tool and gets rid of anything that is not helping a species to survive and procreate. So what is the reason for all known human groups to have religion as part of their culture? What benefit would it provide us to help our existence?

The reviewer talks about two tribes, one religious, one secular, and how the religious one would persevere because they had a purpose to live, while the secular one would apparently be caught up in trying to figure out their purpose, instead of trying to live. I find the view of the secular tribe to be silly, as well as the conclusion that is drawn in the review.

My favorite quote from the article is in its conclusion:

"It seems perplexing why nature would breed a group of people who see no purpose to life or the universe, indeed whose only moral drive seems to be sneering at their fellow human beings who do have a sense of purpose."

Show me one atheist who sees no purpose to life. The reviewer falls into the view that the majority of theists seem to hold on atheists, that because they don't have a magical being in the sky telling them what to do, they must lack morals, a purpose, and are unwilling to contribute to society. I find this to be an insane notion, and quite the argument against religion. Every time I hear someone use the "If we didn't have god telling us our morals we'd be out raping and killing" argument I have to laugh at what that says about the person arguing. Maybe these are the people we need to keep under religion, it seems to be the only thing keeping them in check.

And as for atheists having no purpose, I would argue that since we believe that this is the only life we have, we are not headed to a better life after we die, that we have to enjoy our life now, not wait for that second chance. I think that fills us with a much greater purpose than most theists give credit for.

Maybe evolutionarily speaking religion is with us because it gave us a purpose, a set of morals. However in this age, when we know so much about the natural world, does it still serve that purpose? Do we need a made up reason to be, to tell us how to act? Or can we just enjoy this one life we have, contribute to a better world, and not waste energy, time, or money on falsehoods?

Obscure Connection?

2006-10-23T12:20:00.000-04:00

Wired has an interesting article about Gary Wolf's search for an atheist style.

I don't agree with some of his conclusions but I like his findings of the so called New Atheist groups. I think anyone who is a fundamental atheist (ie, believes in Atheism 100%, no doubts) is as full of it as a fundamental theist, so people claiming this faith in atheism is a fringe group as well. The majority of atheists are probably more in the >99% range, but since you can never scientifically disprove a supreme being (or for that matter, thor, zeus, ra, etc) you can never be 100%.

Yes, Atheists love to hear of a convert, or a celebrity/scientist who has thrown of the shrouds of religion, but for every one of those, there must be 10 who join some stupid cult, or think they can eliminate radiation with magic water...

grrrrr I don't think I'll ever understand some people.

My Take on Things

2006-10-17T14:53:00.000-04:00

huh, normally I have to change the title from the title of the picture, to the title of the blog entry, but this one is somewhat appropriate. :)

I've been reading a great book, which I recommend to anyone interested in biology, Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean Carroll. So the reference here to the picture I posted is related to that book.

Ever wonder how something like a butterfly knows where to have it's spots on the wing when it's developing as an embryo? Or how most people have 5 fingers per hand and some have 6? The book goes on to explain how our genes are coded with switches that are acting from the very beginning of development to control how all of our features are created from the one original cell. It is truly eye opening and fascinating stuff.

On a semi-related note, I am reading another book, Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Also a fascinating and excellent read. Richard Dawkins is going to be on The Colbert Report tonight, I urge everyone who can to watch it. It is on past my bedtime, so I'll be YouTubing it tomorrow morning.

Richard Dawkins is one of my heros, as is Stephen Colbert, but the Character SC plays on the Report is about the exact opposite of Dawkins. I suspect the clash should prove interesting. :)

Nerd!

2006-09-07T21:13:00.000-04:00

And proud of it.

In Flight Movie

2006-08-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

I'm off to PEI shortly, the restrictions are still in place. Obviously I'm not happy about that, but for now, there's nothing I can do.

The plan is to fly out this afternoon, then tomorrow we're driving to Quebec City, where we'll meet up with one of my flickr friends, Marinee, then crash somewhere there for the night.

Sunday we'll drive to Toronto and pick up my car and head to the SC. For me next week will be a normal work week, but it'll be excellent to have Ines here. :)

Wish us and the 91 VW Diesel luck!

Update

2006-08-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

I have done some digging, and have a better idea of who is responsible. It seems that Transport Canada itself is in charge of these silly restrictions, and the GTAA (Greater Toronto Airport Authority) is fighting to get them lifted. Hey, that's great, they're on our side then right? Haha not really, they've been losing money at the duty free shops, so they want to make sure that people can still buy their booze! I'm pretty sure I'm going to be even more mad if someone can bring a bottle of booze on a plane and I can't bring a bottle of iced tea.

It really is sad if these restrictions get lifted because the duty free's are losing money, and not because it was a stupid idea to begin with. Transport Canada, boo to you!

The CBC article is here.

Rant

2006-08-16T18:57:00.000-04:00

Ok, the recent terrorist plot foiled in England. Very good job by them, it would have been a disaster if they group involved had been able to carry out their plan. Though, realistically, they're going to get away with something someday, and we won't see it coming. What can we do to prevent it? I'm honestly not sure, perhaps live a bit more tolerantly with each other, maybe there's a reason people out there hate the US so much (and it has nothing to do with being jealous of their freedom).

One thing I'm insulted and angry about however is the ban on liquids for your carry ons. Well, they were going to use explosives disguised as liquids to blow up the planes, that's a new and very unique method isn't it? Bzzzzzzt! Wrong! An explosive device disguised as contact lens solution was detonated on a Philippine Airlines 747 on December 11, 1994! That is almost 16 years ago, and just now they're telling me I can't bring a bottle of iced tea on the plane. I find it extremely insulting, and deplorable on the airline industry's part. I'm flying next week, and I'm going to be pissed if this restriction is still in place. They should have either banned liquids in 1994, or figured out a way to screen for liquid explosives.

Look, it's going to happen again, we can't guard against every threat ever conceived of, but when a proven threat hasn't been guarded against, and they have to back peddle to pretend to care, and restrict our freedoms, I get upset. I have no problems with them dealing with potential threats, but this half measure they've implemented isn't going to cut it. What's next, no liquids on trains, buses, public buildings, schools? How many different ways can someone sneak an explosive around? Should we ban ever carrying anything?

Let's have a look at the root problem here, patching the bugs as they come up is a half measure at best. It'll keep things running, but the whole system is still broken.

The information on the 1994 incident is available on wikipedia, I first saw this on a show on the discovery channel.

Edit: by the way, I just put a picture of one of the Westjet flights up there, but I in no way blame or hold Westjet responsible for anything that's going on, I'm not really sure who is responsible actually. Anyway, I love Westjet, I'm flying Westjet next week to PEI(yay!), they have always been the friendliest, funniest, courtious airline I've ever flown with. Book your flight today*.

* I am not affiliated with Westjet. ;)

Name Me!

2006-06-06T17:37:00.000-04:00

does anyone still read this?

If so, I have a fun contest going on over in my flickr account, follow the link from the picture to have a look. :)

Holidays

2006-01-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hello all, sorry as always for the long time between posts. It has been nothing short of the craziest month I've had in a long time, perhaps ever.

I hope everyones holidays were good, as those who keep up with my flickr pictures know, mine was good. My brother made it back in spectacular fashion, allbeit in 2D form. The most notable other news is that I now have a fantastic girlfriend. I hope that she doesn't mind that I mention that here. :)

The picture is from a game of Carcassonne I played with the gf and her sister and husband. Carcassonne is an excellent german game where you place tiles so that the sides match up, and attempt to get the biggest cities and roads. Lots of fun, not too reliant on luck, or skill, but a great blend of both. I've been trying to find it, but it doesn't seem to be available in Canada. I am most likely going to have to have it ordered from the States. gah.

ah PEI

2005-11-16T21:04:00.000-05:00

For the third time this year, I found myself in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

As always, it was a fun trip. We did a roadtrip day Saturday which was a bit crazy. We got up way too early, and tried to do too much, ending up tiring ourselves and having to crash too early. We have a better plan for next time, stay tuned!

The picture is from Peggy's Cove, NS, which I always enjoy visiting. It's such a picturesque little village. I find most people focus on the lighthouse and rocks though, and less on the town in behind. I don't know, for me, it's the town that is the neatest thing about Peggy's Cove. Well, I took a number of pictures, I'd like to go back another time when the weather is better (though I'm sure that'd mean more tourists...) and get some more pictures.

My most recent PEI trip set is here. Enjoy

Slacking in Fall

2005-11-04T13:44:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, I'm such a slacker. Or is it that nothing has really been going on? Some of both I'm sure.

This weekend I'm off to Body Worlds in Toronto, then driving to Montreal for a climbing competition Sunday. The first of the season. I'm climbing at least as strong as I was at my best last season, so I'm thinking I'll do better. Timelines are going to be tight this weekend though, Body Worlds at 1, probably leave there at 3 or 4, then drive to Montreal check into the hostel (same one as Bj and I stayed at on our NB Roadtrip). The competition is at noon Sunday, so I should be leaving it at around 4 or 5. It's going to be a tiring long drive home that night.

Next weekend I'm off to visit Ines in PEI again, I'm quite excited about it. :) We're taking the Wood Island Ferry into Nova Scotia on the Saturday, and driving around there a bit. I will have pictures of course.

busy busy

2005-09-29T10:55:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've updated. I normally have a few spare minutes at work, or in the evening to pump out a post, but recently I've been too busy. My weeknights are usually spent climbing, playing squash, at my art class, or hanging out with friends. Work has been really crazy as well, we're developing and testing a new event driven database model. So that's keeping me quite busy.

What have I been up to recently? Well one new thing that I mentioned is my drawing class I'm taking at Mohawk. It is a lot of fun so far, I really can't wait to see the improvements in my drawing. Next semester I think I'll be taking a watercolour painting class.

Sunday was the 30km offroad Squeezer bike race. I can't believe how much fun it was. The course was very challenging but this time my bike held up for the distance, and I finished in a respectable 494/1149, with a time of 1:54:56. My goal (without knowing anything about the course) was 2 hours, so I am very happy with my finish. I can't wait till next year to do it again, but faster!

Climbing season is fast approaching, the first competition (for fun, not on the tour) is on the 22nd of October. I'm probably not going to that one, but still, that's just over 3 weeks away, so I'm working on getting back into bouldering shape by climbing twice, (soon to be thrice) a week.

Back to School

2005-09-09T12:41:00.000-04:00

Well, the kids have gone back to school. What does this mean to me?

I can't believe how much busier the roads are while biking in to work, I guess I'd gotten used to minimal traffic over the summer. It's hard to believe the increase is only due to people being driven to school.

Interestingly (to me anyway) I'm headed back to take a course this fall. It's a drawing course for people who think (or know in my case) they can't draw. It's at Mohawk, so I'm going to have to get my butt in gear and get a parking pass and the supplies for the course before it starts in a couple weeks. It's going to be interesting though, for one thing to be back in a class environment after more than 3 years, and taking a drawing course, which will be completely new for me.

I had something else I wanted to complain about, but I forget. If I remember I just may post again!

ah racism

2005-09-01T08:41:00.000-04:00

Randy found this link on a livejournal site.

Anyway, I wouldn't normally comment on US race relations, though who knows, maybe I should, but one interesting thing to me is that it's posted on yahoo. Yahoo bought flickr recently, and I was not impressed. Something about big companies (american) buying out little companies (canadian) and potentially decimating them. Ha ha, though if it had been Google who had bought them, in all my fanboyism, I would have been thrilled! Though in truth, Yahoo's aquisition of Flickr has had no ill effects that I can see, in fact, they were able to buy more servers and keep up with the ever increasing demand of more and more users. The site was getting pretty slow there for a while just before they moved to California. I can't imagine how many terabytes of pictures they have on there now. At least 12.

Oh let's see, a picture just for fun.

Late Updates

2005-08-25T13:55:00.000-04:00

One thing about going away every weekend to a photogenic location, is that processing the pictures I take starts to backlog. To get 20 pictures up on flickr takes me about 2 hours of downloading, processing, and uploading. One of the things I've done to hopefully aleviate that system is buy a mac. Just a cute little iBook, but it comes with iPhoto, which should do most of the steps of my downloading and processing all in one.

The PEI trip was awesome! Ines was the greatest host ever, and we did a whirlwind tour of the island. I got to see lots of lighthouses, wind turbines, beaches, and potato fields from tip to tip. I took almost 500 pictures, and am still in the process of going through them. I'll have more online within a week or so I hope.

Wes and I's trip to Michigan was also a blast. Camping the night before was funny, we had way too much fun drawing pictures with a flashlight and my camera on long exposures. We're definitely going to have to do them again. The race was awesome. It was very loud, and actually being there gives a much better sense of how fast they are going than seeing it on tv. (300 km/h!!!!) More pictures will be coming from there as well.

Weekend Photos

2005-08-10T23:09:00.000-04:00

Alright, Owen Sound pictures are up! This is the first and second pass through them, so at some point there could be some more added.

Leaving for PEI in less than 2 days! Gotta remember to charge the camera, bring cd's to backup on every night, and have lots of fun. Shouldn't be hard.

There are some pictures of the parts for wind generators that they're putting up on the Bruce Peninsula in the latest set. I'm so impressed that we're finally getting them here. Ines tells me there are more in PEI, so we'll be going to check them out at some point. I think it's extremely important that Canada invests heavily in alternative power production. That is all.

Setting Moon

2005-08-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

What an awesome weekend, it surpassed all expectations of awesomeness.

Highlights include, but are not limited to:

Driving up highway 6 in the afternoon on Friday, ending up behind Wes just as we got to Owen Sound. He was headed to Sauble, me to Owen Sound. Odds of that happening? 12.

Dinner with my Uncle, Bob, and my Grandfather at Montana's.

Seeing Bonnie's artwork (watercolour paintings) and going to an art show in Owen Sound with her showcasing local artists. We saw some really unique and interesting stuff. I bought a painting by Judy Gray!

Family Reunion at Harrison Park, catching up with relatives, playing volleyball, and feasting on an excellent dinner.

Swimming at my Aunt Lynn's cottage afterwards, followed by some drinks and spending the night (we all had tents)

Seeing Inglis Falls with my Grandpa Ted and Bonnie, taking lots of pictures, running into Wendy Bachiu (hope I got the spelling right).

More swimming at the cottage, lunch, then a long drive home.

Lowlights include:

Stupid drivers who drift between 75 and 110 km/h! I know you might not have cruise control, but it doesn't mean you can't keep a constant speed by varying the presure on the gas pedal with your foot!

That's about it, it really was a fantastic weekend! I'll be processing the rest of the pictures this week, for now I have 6 sunset pictures up on my site.

Big Weekends

2005-08-05T11:02:00.000-04:00

A big few weeks coming up.

Today I'm going to see my grandfather in Owen Sound, it's been way too long since I've been there to see him. Tomorrow we have our annual family reunion. Sunday I'm not sure what my plans are. I'm thinking of maybe heading over to Sauble Beach for some swimming.

Next weekend I'm using my remaining vacation days and taking a 4 day weekend to head down to PEI to visit a friend who just moved out there. I'm hoping the weather will be somewhat better than last time:
(check out the full size picture to see the ice pellets travelling sideways!)

Just kidding, I know it's really nice there now. We're hoping to get to the National Park, and to the Wind Generators (which should make for some fantastic pictures!).

The following weekend I'm letting the sun darken up my neck some, and heading to Michigan with Wes to see my first Nascar race. From what he says it's going to be great!

Kaska is a Star!

2005-07-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

Pictures from the excellent Rob-Tiffany Wedding are up!

I have no plans for this weekend... I'm wasting my summer!

A Wedding and a Funeral

2005-07-25T08:27:00.000-04:00

It's a weekend of extremes, first of all, my friends Rob and Tiffany got married on Saturday night. I've got lots of pictures to go through and post, and I promise I'll try to do that this week. The reception was at Liuna Station, a very classy joint. I know at our table, when looking at the menu we thought that we'd have a choice between steak and cornish hen, however, when the steak came on it's own, we realized we were getting both! I was so stuffed after the steak (preceded by pasta) but as soon as I tsted that hen, I made some room. Magnifique!

The other extreme this weekend is that my Grandmother passed away on Friday in Belleville. She had been sick with cancer for a while now, so I know that it's good that she's not suffering anymore. I'll miss her a lot though. I was fortunate to come to McMaster, and have my grandparents literally living across the road from there. I used to rollerblade over from residence with my laundry basket in hand, every week, returning after dinner with clean clothes, and often a loaf that she'd baked.
We spent last night with her sister, my great aunt, going through tons of pictures, some from as far back as when she was a young child. Some of the pictures we found show a completely different side to my nana that I never knew. We made a 5 bristol board picture tribute to her life, and it was quite a life. She was a great person, and I'm glad to have known her for as long as I have.
The funeral is at 11 today in Ancaster, it's going to be tough, but also I find them to be somewhat enjoyable. You get to see family that you don't often see, and catch up with what's been going on. There are always funny stories told about the person who passed. I'm sure this one will be no different.

I'll miss you Nana.

Chronotherm?

2005-07-18T20:37:00.000-04:00

Time Temperature?

Shaping up to be another hot week. I wish I had a porch so I could sit out on it, play some banjo, drink some beers, talk with the neighbors as they pass, and complain about the heat.

From what I saw in Forest Gump, Alabama looks like a cool place to live.

I shouldn't complain about the heat. I love this so much more than winter, there is so much to do outside comparatively.

Thinking about it, the summer is already half over. Crap.

About all we can do...

2005-07-16T16:45:00.000-04:00

What a week this has been. Work has been crazy, stupid quarter close! And the weather has been super humid and hot. What do you do in this kind of weather then? Besides napping like Schrody is doing here, and failing having air conditioning, you have to swim!

We've been swimming now for some time in Lake Ontario from a beach in Burlington. This past Thursday though I ended up getting both ears infected. I tell ya, infected ears aren't much fun. The doctor I saw said I was the tenth case he'd seen that day. I guess it was time to close those beaches down.

I had a friend from Toronto come down last night and we hit up the B&T (vietnamese place) downtown for some excellent food. Then to the Snooty Fox to relive some university locales. Today we went for breakfast at Your Place Family Resteraunt then to see Wedding Crashers. I'm a fan of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson movies, and this one didn't dissapoint. Quite funny and worth it. (though it had striking similarities to The Wedding Singer)

Well, the rest of my weekend should be equally lazy and indoors, hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

The Rough Life

2005-07-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

The picture is the view off a co-workers dock in Grand Island, NY. This place was like Cottage country here in Ontario. Except they're living this life all the time, this was a co-workers house! It was fantastic to spend a weekend there, at our company weekend party.

Friday night 4 of us went down, got hassled at the border, and ended up partying with mostly NY folk. Very good times. I was even drinking Bud(!) by the end of the night. I've got some pictures of us drinking around the fire, and some other night shots.

Saturday morning was a bit rough, but I figured a quick trip to Timmy's (I was impressed they actually have them!) would be the cure. The guy serving us was named something like Booya, and he was a moron. I can understand maybe they don't know the standard terms that we have here, I ordered a large regular. Had to explain what that was a couple times, ended up with an XL regular. whatever. But when dave had to direct him to the muffins and point out the one he'd already asked 3 times for, that's just stupid. Anyway, the coffee did help, and by lunch, we were drinking again.

The rest of the company made it up for Saturday afernoon. We all got boat rides in various boats. The one I went on was a bigger boat, and we went to within sight of the spray from Niagara Falls. I went swimming off the side of the boat there, the current was crazy! I'd dive off, end up a few metres out, then within seconds, I was being swept past the boat. Spent some more time swimming when we got back, and had some dinner.

After dinner most company people left, but there were a bunch of us left. We spent time doing stupid human tricks with Danny and Randi, some kids of one of our employees, I couldn't believe how flexible they were. Stupid human tricks inevitably leads to armwrestling, where I beat Danny righthanded, then in an epic left handed battle, lasting many minutes, beat him left as well. Feeling invincible, I took on Randi (she's 12) left handed, and suffered a monumental defeat! Oh the bruised ego! Next up was their father Phil, who beat me right handed so fast, that I think he actually sprained my wrist. It still hurts today.

Around midnight Derek, one of the hosts of the party, took the remaining few of us left to Turners, a bar where you can boat up, dock, and head in to drink. It was also good times, though not as busy as we were hoping it would be.

Sunday morning came, and I know I didn't want to pack up and head home. We got some more swimming in, Brendan, our main host, served us some breakfast, then we packed up and headed for Canada. No hassles at the border this time. A quick swim at a co-workers house, another beer, then I was done. When I got home I napped for a couple hours.

Awesome weekend!

New Hog

2005-07-06T21:09:00.000-04:00

It's a beast! :P

This is it, a 1999 Ford Contour Sport, V6, 170hp, leather, cd, power crap, lots of trunkspace for dead hookers, 5 speed, not a bad car, and I got a really good deal on it. So what if it looks like it's a car for a 60 year old man.

Time for some roadtrips. Now I just need to find someone to go roadtripping with...

Have I driven a Ford lately?

2005-07-06T09:06:00.000-04:00

Yes. Yes I have. And now I shall purchase one!

Martin's Tip #1

2005-06-29T09:36:00.000-04:00

Whilst biking, you see a can of pop on the ground. Don't hit it assuming it's empty, because if it's not, you get a spray of steaming hot cola all over yourself.

Loon Stretching

2005-06-27T13:03:00.000-04:00

I have returned from the canoe trip, and am back at work. I almost hate vacations, for the fact that going back to work is so hard. I need a longer vacation.

The canoe trip was great. We had fantastic weather, only one afternoon of rain, the rest of the time reasonable. I'm not going to go into the details of the trip here, pictures tell a better story. See my pics here, and Dave's here. Note that as of writing this, mine aren't all up yet.

Mudrun!

2005-06-17T11:56:00.000-04:00

Event: Mudrun, a 10km race with mud related obstacles
Date: Saturday June 11th.
Location: Toronto, near woodbine.
People: Wes, Maygan, and myself.
Sleep: Not nearly enough.
Temperature: Bloody Hot.
River Crossings: 2, which most people waded through, we swam and had mud fights and beached ourselves on the muddy shore.
Mud Pits: 1, which we dove into, rolled around in, pulled each other through, and had lots of fun in.
Water: the substance which completely refreshes Maygan for about 12 seconds.
Showers: 3 hoses (noses?) that apparently had ice cold glacier water coarsing through them.
Fun: had by all.

Pre Run Picture

Post Run Picture

That time of year again

2005-06-16T10:12:00.000-04:00

We leave Saturday morning for the Second Annual Canoe Trip. I'm super excited about this years trip. We've lost one person (my brother), and gained two people (Wes and John) so this year we have an even number of people coming. As the stupid chef guy from the Lillydale commercials would say "You caught me working; banquet for 50, it's going to be great!". Ok, maybe that wasn't the most relevant quote.

This picture was from last years trip, I'll have lots more from this year.

Also we're still waiting on pictures from the end of the Mud Run that Wes, Maygan, and I did last Saturday, I'll post them and a summary when they're up.

My.Horn->(Toot,Toot!)

2005-06-08T21:47:00.000-04:00

So this picture was blogged on another site, along with lots of other cool shots.

Check it out:

The Site
Loquor
My Pic

yay!

BaitCar

2005-06-07T14:58:00.000-04:00

Found this site through Overcompensating:

BaitCar

Leaving wired up cars for theives to steal, (gps, remote ignition cut off, cameras, microphones, etc) then busting them. It's such a great idea, and has apparently been decreasing the number of car thefts in Vancouver where this trial is. Check out the videos, they're pretty funny.

I'm no Seinfeld

2005-06-06T13:10:00.000-04:00

Friday Evening:

6:00: Wes's place. Drank a beer.

6:30: Another beer, and some chips.

6:45: Dinner, consisting of 2 double beef paddy burgers. I felt crosseyed from too much beef.

7:15: Walked down to register for the Race registration.

8:00: Back at Wes'. Decided not to have another beer, as we have to run a 5km race later in the evening.

8:45: Head back down to Hess for the race. Start planning where we are going to find someone to hold a platter of beer for us.

8:58: See a group of people congregated down George street, decide to see what they're up to, as the race doesn't start for another 45 minutes.

8:59: Apparently the race starts at 9, giving us one minute to stretch, and no time to find people to hold beer for us.

9:00:
Lap 1: Wes and I run together, it is a fairly well paced lap, the uphill back towards Queen wasn't too bad. At the end of the lap, Wes called down a server gave her some cash, and ordered us a pitcher of beer. We found a coupld of cute girls to keep the beer with them and refil the glasses as we ran (Much to the disgust of their boyfriends).

Lap 2: Another well paced lap. The uphill section was getting harder, both of us were feeling heavy, probably due to the beef and beers earlier. Our beers and girls were waiting for us back just before the start finish line. They had poured what seemed to me like a lot of beer. No problem though, we had already missed out on a lap of drinking because we had to buy the beer. The beer did not go down well. It's hard to drink carbonated beverages when you are out of breath. I was a bit slower than Wes, but I got my beer down.

Lap 3: It's also hard to burp while you're running and out of breath, the gas buildup in my stomach was not an enjoyable feeling. This lap was significantly slower than the previous one. We kept running however, and sludged our way up the uphill section. Back for more beer at the end of the lap. It looked like we were drinking full pints, but they were probably 3/4. I am not one for drinking beer fast, and Wes had to help me out a bit near the end of my glass.

Lap 4: We were both feeling very slow this lap. We had to stop and walk a couple times. Things were mixing in my stomach that were never meant to be together. Some bikers (choppers, not mountain) told us that one of their "ladies" was single, Wes almost went back for some biker action. They laughed. I think we may have rolled up the uphill section. I had gone from thinking that our drinking run was a fantastic idea, to the worst idea ever! Drinking the bigger pints in the previous laps meant that thier was not much beer left at the end of this lap. I had serious trouble drinking my beer, Wes helped me out again. A bouncer from the bar came over to let us know that we can't drink beer from the bar outside of the gates. Luckily we only had a bit to finish before taking off again. Wes described me as having a very bad look on my face as I choked down my last little bit.

Lap 5: Very shortly into this lap I had the feeling that the events taking place in my stomach were about to take place outside. I found myself a fairly discrete corner and let'er fly. It was pretty gross. However, I felt much better, and the rest of the lap for me wasn't too bad. even the uphill section. Wes, who keep in mind had more beer in him than me, had some issues so we slowed the pace down.

Finish: Not a spectacular time, 33:55 for Wes, and 33:56 for me (damnit!). We have some ideas of how to make the run better next year, and are also looking for more people to join us. Keep it in mind for next June!

10:00: We changed and stayed in hess, having a few more drinks before heading home for the night.

All in all I would have to say, a fun experience. Now I know that I can't really drink and run very well.

Saturday night was Ty and Laura's wedding. What a fun time that was, it was really great to hang out with people I don't see nearly enough. The open bar ended up being trouble, the live band was great (such a great idea, even though they didn't know any Rage Against the Machine or AC/DC). The food was great, second best steak of my life, nice and rare. After the wedding Cam, Randy, and myself went to The Still (in Kitchener). That was pretty funny, highlighted by a german guy kind of hump dancing with a table? (from what I remember). I drank way too much, and yesterday was pretty much a disaster. I had to get Cam to pull over 4 times on the way home.

Yeah, so like my brother, I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from drinking, probably just a couple weeks. I hope everyone elses weekend was fun!

It's done

2005-06-03T16:27:00.000-04:00

Car is gone, money has been transfered.

Now the search is on for the next car.

In the mean time, I'm running a 5k road race tonight around Hess. Wes and I are planning to add some extras into the race. We're hoping to find someone to hold a platter of half pints that we can down on each lap of hess. Afterwards there shall be more drinking.

Ty's wedding tomorrow should be good times.

End of an Era

2005-05-24T11:41:00.000-04:00

so I put my car up for sale today, if anyone has a sub $5000 car they want to get rid of, let me know. Preferably a manual.

Bananas and ciggarettes

2005-05-19T09:03:00.000-04:00

A big bug flew in my mouth yesterday. I spit it out. It tasted like bananas.

Turns out the combination of jalapeno chips and mango sorbet leaves a ciggarette taste in your mouth. Nasty!

Grow Little Pine Tree

2005-05-02T17:01:00.000-04:00

Wes, Maygan, some of Maygans friends, and I planted trees on the weekend with Hamilton city Councillor Dave Braden

I guess there were about 30 people planting at the first site, and probably about 15 made it to the second site.

In all Dave told us we planted 2000 trees. On my flickr account I noted on a google map where we planted. It's neat, you can see some of the trees from the Linc as you're just passing Upper Gage headed towards Stoney Creek.

We did go and drink Friday night, and crashed at Wes' place. It was rough getting up at 6, but we made it, and were only slightly late for the planting (due to some lack of knowledge of where certain people lived and where the tree planting was... not laying any blame on anyone who had planned it... *cough* Maygan *cough* ;) )

Oh and Brad, if you're wondering, I figured I'd planted about 1900 trees, then Wes figured he'd done about 1950... so one of us may have been incorrect. But not both I'm sure.

Can I Kick it?

2005-04-28T12:22:00.000-04:00

Ok, weekend plans:

- Critical Mass Bikeride starting from Hess Village tomorrow evening (5:30 for anyone else interested in joining us).

- Drinking at Hess afterwards and crashing downtown. Shall be good times, anyone interested in coming for that is welcome as well.

- Planting Trees with some Hamilton City councillors Saturday morning. The weather forcast is calling for rain, which in my opinion, is perfect for planting trees. Maybe it's from past experiences planting trees, but it just isn't right unless it's raining on you while you do it.

I think I'll leave Sunday open as a free day.

pics from the Paris to Ancaster Race

2005-04-22T21:40:00.000-04:00

Quick link with pictures of me from the Paris to Ancaster Race:

Here

And Wes and Maygan

Sorry for no picture, but I'm linking to pictures, so that's gotta count for something.

Also, what kind of crappy business model does this place that took the pictures have, when they charge $20 for a jpeg image of a picture, or $24 for a 5x7 print? I know I can't afford those, and I'm guessing that not a lot of other people could either. I bet they get a low number of people ordering prints because of their high prices.

Another Week...

2005-04-22T18:11:00.000-04:00

Good thing it's supposed to be rainy this weekend, as my bike is in the shop. Though I'm going to see if I can get the road bike going tomorrow in case Wes and I decide to do a ride in the rain on Sunday.

Lets see, any other weekend plans... nope, not yet. Anyone up to anything?

Twisted Derailer

2005-04-18T09:25:00.000-04:00

The Paris to Ancaster race was yesterday. It was a lot of fun, great course, great weather, and everyone was nice. The race was a 60 km mixed road and trail ride, so it was everything from pavement to unbelievable amounts of mud.

Around 58 km in going through some muddy areas something happened to my derailer that caused it to explode, and bend in on itself and into my spokes and gears (see picture). I walked the last 2 km after bending the derailer out of the spokes. Wes and Maygan were waiting for me at the finish line, and Wes ended up pushing me across, which should be in some photos somewhere online. I'll have a look for them.

All in all a good race, though my time wasn't great, and wouldn't have been great even if I didn't blow the derailer. I need to get in better biking shape.

Biking to Work

2005-04-14T10:57:00.000-04:00

Now this is the weather I'm talking about.

I'm biking to work more and more now, as well, last weekend some friends and I biked 50 km. We were outside from about 10 to 5 that day and ended up with pretty bad sunburns. On the plus side I'm starting on my farmers/bikers tan early this year!

This weekend Wes, Maygan and I are biking a 60 km race from Paris to Ancaster. I can't wait, it's going to be lots of fun.

I hope everyone is enjoying the great weather.

Grandmothers Rose

2005-04-01T17:58:00.000-05:00

Wow, I see that posting fewer words and more pictures sure is helping the frequency of posts here... *cough*

*tumbleweed*

Anyway, I need better incentive or something at updating...

Chateau From a Different Angle

2005-03-14T15:19:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've been behind on updating this page. Hopefully what I'm going to do, is start posting more pictures here, and less words. Maybe that will be incentive to post more often as I have to write less. We'll see.

Bj and I's roadtrip was excellent. We took a week off in February, rented a car (Thanks National for being the only rental company we could find with unlimited kilometers!), and drove down to visit our friend Ali in Fredericton. While there and on the way there and back, we visited Montreal, Quebec City, Fredericton, Charlottetown, and St. John.

For the most part the weather was great. We had a blast, spent too much, drank too much, and ate too much. It was just what I needed for a vacation.

I'll stop there, and continue soon with Amy and Mike's wedding and climbing competitions in Ottawa and Montreal.

Febtober

2005-02-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

Heading out for vacation time after work tomorrow. I really need this time off. Work has been really busy lately, and I need some time. So my friend Bj and I are driving to New Brunswick to visit our friend Ali in Fredericton. I believe it shall prove to be a great time. I'll have lots of pictures from there on flickr sometime after the trip.

Speaking of trips, my brother is in the air right now, headed for Australia. How cool would that be?

What a weekend

2005-01-24T12:35:00.000-05:00

I smartly did nothing Friday night, in anticipation for a busy strenuous weekend.

Saturday I drove to Vaughn (North of Toronto) for the next tour de bloc bouldering competition at The Pad. It was a very nice gym for bouldering, with 3 large freestanding structures to boulder on. The comp was a lot of fun, I'm not sure how I placed yet.

Getting there was interesting. The snowstorm was in full effect and driving was quite hazardous. Getting home was even more interesting, because added to the blowing driving snow, it had accumulated quite a lot since the morning. I made it all the way to Stoney Creek (in about 2 hours) only to get stuck turning on to our block. 20 minutes of digging got me going again, only to get stuck once more pulling into our developement. Luckily there were a couple nice guys that saw me this time and came over with shovels and helped dig and push me out enough to get my car off to the side of the road until the plow came by later and cleared the road enough to allow me to move my car to my parking spot.

Sunday Wes, Maygan and I went cross country skiing at Hilton Falls conservation area. I had to rent skis (and the boots ended up giving me massive blisters on my heels). The rental skis were crap, they were the non waxed kind, they had scales of some kind on them, and they were slow as hell. I'm definitely getting my dad to bring me some up next weekend. Anyway, the skiing was a lot of fun, the day was beautiful, I got lots of cool pictures (which I'll be posting more of on flickr as I process them). After skiing, we went back to Maygan's place and made dinner. I forget what we made, but it was some kind of indian food, and it was fantastic. We finished the day off by watching Napoleon Dynamite. A great movie.

Today I'm unbelievably sore, but still plan on climbing tonight.

An excellent weekend.

Snowy Drive into Work

2005-01-20T12:57:00.000-05:00

Let's see, what has been going on lately.

I turned 26 last weekend, and did not get to party it up. I was however sick all weekend, which is almost as much fun.

Amanda came down on sunday and brought me a cake, that was nice.

Keith and I are going to a bouldering competition this weekend. I'm going to be entering in the middle category this time instead of beginner like I did last time. It shall prove to be an ass whopping of monumental proportion. It is all in good fun though, and I enjoy the competitions a lot.

Neuter Day

2005-01-10T08:31:00.000-05:00

Today is the Day Trogdor and Schrodinger lose their manhood. I feel sad for them, but better that than them marking territory all over the house.

Have I mentioned that Flickr is the greatest photo site ever? I encourage anyone who takes photos and is reading this to get a free account there, and post lots of pictures.

Do it! Do it!

Happy New Year!

2004-12-31T15:25:00.000-05:00

2004 comes to a close, and I for one will not miss it. 2005 will hopefully prove to be a much more exciting year. There's only one person who can ensure that happens though, and he happens to be lazy. I'll have to kick his ass into doing stuff.

Snowday!

2004-12-24T11:55:00.000-05:00

Took a snowday yesterday, as I couldn't get my car out of the parking lot there. That's the first time since I've been driving that I can remember, not being able to drive because of the weather. It's not like the roads were that bad, it's just that there was a big snowdrift blocking my car in.

That was an interesting night all around actually. At about 4:30 our fire alarm started going off, and wouldn't stop. The fire department got dispatched and it took Keith a long time of trying to get through to the alarm people to figure out how to disable our system. The firefighters were nice. I feel bad for them, having to trudge through the snow (because they had trouble finding our place) in the blowing snow/ice pellets that were happening at the time. What a night!

I hope everyone has a merry christmas and so forth.

moon

2004-12-19T23:27:00.000-05:00

A picture of the moon, taken from work last week. Only one person asked what I was doing when I was taking pictures up out the window with my big telephoto. People must be getting used to my eccentricities.

What a weekend. Friday night was our works christmas party, where I may have drank a bit too much. Saturday a highschool friend came and visited a bit, it's always great to see her. Saturday night a bunch of us went out for dinner for a friend's birthday. Service was slow, but the food was good. After that I went to the Gravity christmas party (gravity is the gym I climb at) and mingled with just about everyone from there.

After that nummish and I went out to try to get into Emma's back porch in Burlington. We waited almost an hour in the cold rain before giving up and hitting up the Dickens and the Poacher. We ran into friends of his at both places, and it was good times.

Today my brother and I did some christmas shopping. I'm almost done now, only a couple more people left.

Cat in Tube

2004-12-18T08:54:00.000-05:00

This is the first day Trogdor was home, sleeping in a tube.

Last night was our work Christmas party at boston pizza. It was a lot of fun, all you can eat pizza and wings, and we ran up a pretty good bar tab. I drank too much, and I'm up way too early today. Trogdor is half the reason for that.

James N Allen Skyway Bridge

2004-12-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

James N Allen Skyway Bridge
Originally uploaded by suckamc:.

First attempt to get the traffic on the bridge at night. I think next time I need a longer exposure.

I'm going to be playing with the layout and things for the next bunch of posts, trying to get the posting from flickr how I like it and the css for the blog itself satisfactory.

Climbing was good tonight, I didn't do anything to hard or spectacular. I need to go easy on my right index finger, it is starting to feel like there could be a problem. No point chancing hurting it and being out for 6 months.

I didn't make it christmas shopping. Looks like it'll be all Saturday then.

red sunset

2004-12-16T18:43:00.000-05:00

red sunset
Originally uploaded by sucakmc.

We've been having some very nice sunsets here in the S.C. recently. This one is from this evening.

I also find it depressing to see other peoples sunset pictures on Flickr and they are timestamped at something like 18:00, and here I am with a nice red sunset from 16:56... :) I guess it would be worse if I was even further north though.

Toronto

2004-12-16T01:08:00.000-05:00

Toronto
Originally uploaded by suckamc:.

Downtown Toronto from Stoney Creek Mountain (about 55 kilometres). This was what I saw driving into work one morning, and had to pull over to get some pictures.

I like this because it gives you a feeling of scale, as you can see some stuff in Stoney Creek in the foreground, and the full lake in between here and there.

Well, headed out christmas shopping and climbing. It is that time of year...

TTC Streetcar at Night

2004-12-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

I walked up from the Eaton Centre on Saturday to visit some friends and go to a birthday party (Lemma). On the way I took some time lapse pictures on University Ave. This one turned out particularly well I think.