Saturday, December 29, 2012

Ready for the finall 100km

Among the Trees at 2400km

Hit the 2400km mark on Sunday before leaving for SK and Christmas. Back now and have 3 days to do the final 100km.  At -20c,  > 30km days would be a challenge, but at -6 it's a nice ride. BTW doing a final ride on the 31st with friends in Fish Creek park. If you're interested let me know.

- Peace

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Les Misérables (Movie Review)

Was invited to a preview screening of Les Misérables.  Was told we'd be on the VIP list. Don't wait in line see the studio rep.  Arrived at the appointed time and the studio rep was not to be found, there were reserved seats so I didn't worry as the theater filled quickly.  When the rep showed up showed up at the last minute she didn't have our name on the list and the theater was full.  Ended up in the front row.   From VIP list to worst seats in the house.


Such a reversal of fortune is at the heart of Les Misérables, but I didn't know that.  I  missed the Les Mis phenon in the 80s when it was everywhere, even in Oboe Jones.  Can't even claim that I saved the money and gave it to the poor.  I did know about the candle sticks, that part has been retold in faith communities a number of times.  Now that I can put that story into the larger context I say Amen.

At it's heart Les Misérables questions what really changes the world.  Revolution?  The Law?  Grace?  It's doesn't offer a quick fix.  Grace can be repaid with theft and a refusal that burns like coals.  Grace can take years to learn, with painful and costly failures in the process.  To freely give is to be truly vulnerable with no guarantee of return.

The story of Les Mis is worth spending time with, and the movie adaptation is deeply engaging.   Powerful performances.  Music that gives voices to suffering and longing.   I can see why Les Mis the musical had a 27 year run.

Three weaknesses I'll note.  It may have been seeing it from the front row, but the visual style wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for from a period piece.  Had been hoping for glimpses of the historic grandeur of Paris that we had seen this summer.   Mostly the movie focuses in on the characters, given the personal nature of the story that makes sense.  The sets never feel real, they feel like elaborate theater sets.  Given the source material that may have been a deliberate choice.

I don't know if it's the movie adaption or inherent in Les Mis, but the romantic love story of the second half fell flat.  There's not much to it.  Boy sees beautiful girl.  Girl see's handsome boy.  Love at first sight.   Given the depth of the rest of the story, this felt really strange.  It's just a set up for more deep questions and moral choices for those around the pair and the movie recovers; but it's the one part of the movie that really dragged for me.

The closing number doesn't fit with the rest of the story.  It's seems to be an ode to the Revolution, but the rest of the story is quite ambivalent about the revolution.  Got rid of the King, now we have a new King as bad as the old King.  It's part of what makes Les Mis work. So having a closing number that seems to embrace the Spirit of the Revolution is odd.   I'm guessing the movie is being faithful to the musical and I'll have to read the book to see if the musical was being faithful to book.  My gut says the musical needed a simple way to wrap things up, and this was the simplest feel good way to do that.  Struggling with grace and it's vulnerabilities doesn't lend it's self to a good closing musical number.

Struggling with grace and freedom is why we need stories like Les Misérables and the movie is powerful and accessible introduction to it.

- Peace





Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Elvis and the Popes

Elvis and the Popes

Back in 2005 I blogged about The Pope and Elvis and how the DJ at Graceland had equated the Pope being a spiritual guy and Elvis being a spiritual guy. I've told the story many times since, how I doubted that many people would connect the Pope and Elvis that way. So I had to take a picture of the collection of statues including Elvis and two Popes when I saw them in Burano this summer.

 - Peace

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Armor and Sabbath

Reading Leap Over a Wall by Peterson again. Reading about David and Goliath going over the passage before the famous battle.
Saul answered David, “You can’t go and fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperienced—and he’s been at this fighting business since before you were born.”

David said, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference—I killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
Saul said, “Go. And God help you!”

Then Saul outfitted David as a soldier in armor. He put his bronze helmet on his head and belted his sword on him over the armor. David tried to walk but he could hardly budge.
David told Saul, “I can’t even move with all this stuff on me. I’m not used to this.” And he took it all off.
 from 1 Samuel 17 (The Message)

While pondering this passage it struck me that there are parallels in the Gospels.  From the end of Mark 2 for instance:
One Sabbath day he was walking through a field of ripe grain. As his disciples made a path, they pulled off heads of grain. The Pharisees told on them to Jesus: “Look, your disciples are breaking Sabbath rules!”
Jesus said, “Really? Haven’t you ever read what David did when he was hungry, along with those who were with him? How he entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, with the Chief Priest Abiathar right there watching—holy bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat—and handed it out to his companions?” Then Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren’t made to serve the Sabbath. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath. He’s in charge!”
Seems to me both Saul and the Pharisees were working out accepted wisdom, you needed armor to fight, you needed detailed rules to keep the Sabbath.   Yet both were subverting the thing that they were trying to protect.  David wouldn't have won in a traditional armor based fight.  The Pharisees had turned a blessing "take one day a week off -" into a curse.

Do our systems and traditions serve us or do we serve them?  Is Christmas a blessing or a curse?  Does the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution serve it's people or do they offer sacrifices to it?

Just what's running through my head.

 - Peace

Monday, December 17, 2012

2300 KM End in sight

Fish Creek @ 2300km

Hit the 2300km mark yesterday. Just 200km to go by the end of the year. Should hit 2400 km before Christmas. I'll be aiming to hit 2500km goal on the 31st with a final ride of the year event. If you're interested let me know.

- Peace

Thursday, December 13, 2012

We Love Our Neighbours Vol 1


We Love Our Neighbours Vol 1 from Storyboard Solutions on Vimeo.

Noticed the above on Kevin Frank's site. Kevin is my favorite cartoonist and he's now doing animation.  Cool.  The rehabilitation of a Sarnia neighbourhood is in keeping with Kevin's other work. Heaven's Love Thrift Store would fit right in.

- Peace

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

The Paste Holiday Sampler (2012)


As you'd expect the Past Holiday Sampler has the usual Paste suspects - Sufjan Stevens and Great Lake Swimmers. Was delighted to see geek favorite Johnathan Coulton of Portal 'Still Alive' and 'Code Monkey' fame included as well.

From the Noise Trade Page:
Fortunately, every year some of our favorite Paste artists choose to freshen the holiday music genre with new releases, whether they're original compositions or unique takes on traditional holiday favorites. If you're looking for the perfect playlist for that tired "Secret Santa" party or just hoping to amp up your holiday spirit in a new way, look no further than the Paste Holiday Sampler.
You know the drill, email + postal code that the artist can use to contact you gets you 18 hip Christmas songs.

- Peace

Monday, December 03, 2012

31.6 km short, 3 days late

Path at Dusk @ 2200kmn
Hit the 2200km mark today in Fish Creek Park. At the exact same spot that I was at for 2100km, though you wouldn't know that from the picture.

Was 31.6 km short of the 2200km mark at the end of Nov. I'd like to blame it on an issue with the front brake, but we were promised a Chinook that would warm things up so I delayed for that. Got a mild warming today, though not as dramatic as a Chinook.   Still I got out and rode, got quite cool once the sun went down.

With 28 days left and 297 km to go, today's ride puts me right on track.  How ever I'm sure to loose 5 days due to being in SK for Christmas, so it will be a challenge to hit the 2500km mark by the end of 2012.

- Peace


Thursday, November 29, 2012

Free Christmas Music from Sufjan Stevens


Sufjan Stevens has released twelve songs of the fifty eight songs on his Silver and Gold Christmas box set via Noise Trade.  Email + postal code = download.  Sweet.

- Peace

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Free Snow Angels


If you like your Christmas music on the folk/bluesy/jazz/torch end of things then Snow Angels by Over the Rhine will be for you. OtR has released the album for free on NoiseTrade. Give them your email and you can download the album. No you have no excuse for not having excellent artful music for Christmas. - Peace

Monday, November 26, 2012

Breath Moon at 2100km

Breath Trees Moon @ 2100km
Hit the 2100km mark on the way home after watch to Grey Cup with friends. Was in Fish Creek park, with the only light being the moon.The moon the flash and my breath created the most interesting shot.

About a day behind the pace to hit 2200km by the end of Nov, but that shouldn't be an issue.  Weather this week looks good and I have reasons to ride Mon, Tue and Wed.

- Peace



Friday, November 23, 2012

Blood and Chrome, the future of TV?


Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome is a prequel to the reimangined Battlestar Galactica. Set ten years into the first Cylon War, it follows a young William Adama on his first mission after joining to Galactica as a hot shot pilot.  Very coll for those of us who enjoyed the first Galactica remix.

The above video isn't a trailer, it's episode 1 of what will be a full blown movie on SyFy in Febuary 2013.  They're released six episodes so far. Just follow the link at the end of episode 1 to see the rest.

It's an interesting approach.  We're used to being able to watch TV episodes online the day after they're released, but releasing it to the web before TV, and releasing it in chunks to build interest is a gutsy experiment.  No doubt this will build interest in the series.  Will it lead to higher numbers of people watching on TV or buying the episodes?  Will it generate enough online ad revenue to make this the new model for TV?  SyFy will have interesting data to ponder when this is done.

This is a high profile instance of content providers bypassing the typical channels to release content to directly to fans before it goes to the traditional channels.   No one is worried by one example.  As trend, it threatens everyone from traditional media empires to netflix.  While not as flashy as Bill Adama vs the Toasters, the fight for the future of TV will be just as interesting to watch.

- Peace

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

It's a small world..

Today on my Twitter feed:

Karen Jiang (@karenjiangles), who I know from Calgary Church, was surprised to see my name mentioned on Jordon Cooper's blog.  Jeremy Klaszus (@klaszus) piped in to say he didn't know that Jordon and I knew each other. Karen was surprised to learn that I know Jeremy.   As Jordon (@JordonCooper) and Jeremy are much cooler than I, her surprise is understandable.

Thing is knowing Jeremy is connected to knowing Jordon, though Jordon wouldn't know that.  So for Karen, and anyone else who cares here's the short (but too long for twitter) version: 

I met Jordon back in 2003, as I had started blogging and was interested in Canadian bloggers talking about faith.  Jordon's blog was the first to come up for those search terms.  Getting to know Jordon lead to a group called Resonate.  Reasonate lead to me meeting Warren (author of The Year I Shot Myself, Got Arrested and Lived to Preach About It and the pastor at Xalt.

I joined Xalt in 2005 and connected Xalt with the Salvation Army mobile kitchen. For a couple of years the folks from Xalt would take the mobile kitchen out once a week to serve soup and sandwiches down by the drop in center. Jeremy was recruited to help serve with the mobile kitchen by Julie Kaye (@mysoci) who was at Xalt and is now connected to Calgary Church.

Small world.

- Peace

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Winter Stream @ 2000km

Winter Stream at 2000km
 Rode the Spray Lakes trail loop on Saturday while Kim was at a Science conference in Banff. Hit the 2000km mark, and stopped to take a picture of this mountain stream.

I'm a couple of days off the ideal pace for hitting 2200km by the end of Nov. Won't be an issue as long as I make the most of the two days of warm weather before the next cold snap.

- Peace

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Collaboration with Lisa and Tim.

Up

My favorite shot from Tim and Lisa's Wedding. We didn't have much time to shoot, but when I saw the swing set at the church, I knew I had to ask. They went for it and really got into it. Lisa wanted a shot of her pushing Tim and that became the shot above. Collaboration is my favorite part of shooting. When one idea leads to another that leads to a great shot.  Makes for a fun day.

- Peace

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Fish Creek Pathway at 1900km

Fishcreek Pathway at 1900km
Hit the 1900km mark yesterday, just ahead of the next wave of winter. I'm at the 100km/week pace that I need to hit 2200 km by the end of Nov. Three 30+ km rides, not big deal other than the cold toes. I'm thinking I'll need to do more rides with fewer km as the fresh snow will slow things down this week.

- Peace

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Paris Top 5 Shots + 1

Took over 3200 shots in Paris.  Published 195 of those to Flickr.  Of those 195 12 have made it my Most Interesting of 2012 set. Here at my top 5 shots from Paris and the one I thought would get more attention but didn't.

Under the ArcThe underside of Paris' most famous arc at night. I wish I had centered this shot better. Other than that I love it.
M ChangeThe cconic sign for the Paris Metro with other signs. I'm quite sure this was shot from the top of a tour bus.
OopsMoved the tripod thinking the shot had finished when it still had a second to go. Oops.
Paris BeaconQuite happy with capturing the beacon light at the top of the tower.
Arc de TriompheA more traditional shot of the Arc de Triomphe
FlowerI thought this Lensbaby portrait of the young woman with the flowers in her hair would genergate more interest. Oh well, I still like it.

1800km and a Revised Plan

Bridge Snow Creek @ 1800km

Hit the 1800km mark yesterday on a nice ride in Fishcreek Park. Winter riding is a unique challenge and one I've enjoyed this week. It is much slower than summer riding, changing from 23mm slicks to 35mm treads on my commuter cost me 10-20% depending on the road conditions. Trail riding on various forms packed snow yesterday was a hoot, but not fast.

I'm 200km short of where I wanted to be at the end of Oct. So Nov and Dec will need an extra 100km each to reach 2500km in 2012. That means 100km/week until Christmas. That's about the pace I did this first week of winter riding, so it's do able.

- Peace

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Frosty vs The Walking Dead


The above video is from Sufjan Stevens' second Christmas Box Set Silver and Gold. The video can be summed up as Frosty the Snowman vs The Walking Dead. Based on Mr Frosty and the wonderful Christmas Unicorn that ends with the chorus from Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart Again; the second Christmas Box Set is looking a much darker than the first.

Monday, October 22, 2012

1700km and Winter Riding.

Spruce Meadows at 1700km
Hit the 1700km mark at the tail end of a ride on 22x.  While there was snow in the fields and sub zero temps, the roads where clear.  Today the streets are covered in snow, so winter riding is here.   I have a couple of 700 x 1.5 inch tires from our visit to Savary Island that I can use on my Lynskey, that should deal with the snow for now. 

The ride yesterday went well except for freezing my toes.  My bike shoes, shoe covers and warm socks were not enough.  Didn't get frost bite, but it was close.   Will have to figure out how to keep the toes warm.

To hit the 2000km mark by the end of Oct, I have ten days to do 300km while dealing with a week of winter.  Fun :)

Will post progress as it happen.

- Peace


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Goat Creek & 1600km

Riders
Rode Goat Creek on Saturday with 10 friends.  Quite a large group for the October ride.

Hit the 1600 km mark while passing a group of horse riders.
Horeses at 1600km
Tracked the ride with my Garmin so you can see all the gory details and I've posted 23 pics to flickr.

- Peace

Friday, October 05, 2012

O How the Mighty Have Fallen



I've been a fan of the Choir since 86 and out of the 18 albums I have O How the Mighty Have Fallen is one of their best.  It has their all time most sublime song: Mercy Will Prevail. It deeply embraces doubt and pain:
I wanna swear it's true but it's hard to defend it
I know it comes from You and I don't comprehend it
Love never fails
Mercy will prevail
I wanna swear it's true but it's hard to defend it

In the chill of a cruel word
In the nest of a wounded bird
In the shadow of doubt
In the smoke
In the smoke of a torch blown out
The final line of the song puts that raw pain and doubt into the context of incarnational faith in way that is simply stunning.  Best to listen to the song via the Noise Trade Widget embeded above, but reading the full lyrics works too.

I highly recommend giving them your email & postal code and downloading the album.

- Peace

Sunday, September 30, 2012

My 103 km Day

Calgary in the Distance at 1400km
A bit of catching up first. Hit 1400km on Friday, two days off the pace with time running out. Had an issue with my front break and two flats, joy.  The last flat was just at 1400km so I didn't get any buffer past that.  Kim came to get me, so I could get to PedalHead before they closed on Friday.

So I had 98.5km still to go and just two days to go.  Got distracted by other things on Saturday, so had 98.5 km to go as of this morning.

Left early for Converge at The House in Kensington, used the extra time to take the river pathway turning a 19km ride into a 35km ride.   After Converge I joined Richard's Birthday Ride as it passed through Kensington.  We rode to Eau Claire and then to Sandy Beach, past the reservoir and on to Glenmore Landing. Taking me to the 51km mark

North Glenmore Reservoir
After some food (I had poutine) and drink to celebrate Richard's birthday, the Fellowship was broken and I headed west and north along the Reservoir with Calvin and Dave until they headed back to their homes in the North.  I looped around the Reservoir and headed south along the pathway that took me to 37th Street, took 37th Street over Fishcreek and then home through evergreen.  82km.

After dinner and a break I headed out in the dark for a 22km ride mostly in Bridlewood.  Hit the 1500km Mark by the end of Sept.  Yay!


Evergreen at 1500km
Hit the 103km for the day when I got home.   I've posted the data from today's ride, if you're really curious.  Most satisfying number to me is the moving time of 5h 23m.  The last time I did 100km in a day it was exactly 100km and It was 5h 30m for moving time.  Not exactly Tour de France speeds, but progress for me.

Now to see how I feel tomorrow, I'd like to get km in before the snow hits on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Goal for October is to hit the 2000km mark for the year.

- Peace

Friday, September 21, 2012

1300km and plan for 1400 & 1500

Sunburst @ 1300km

Hit 1300km on the way home from through Fishcreek Park this evening.  That puts me on track to hit 1500km by the end of the month.   200km in 9 days no problem, except Sat and Sun are booked with non riding events and I'd love to hit 1500km while riding with friends on the 29th.  So that's 200km in 6 days.   Aiming for 1400km by Wed and 1500km for next Sunday.   Doable but not much in the way of recovery time if something goes wrong.

- Peace

Monday, September 17, 2012

Fishcreek at 1200km

Fishcreek at 1200km

Hit the 1200km while riding in Fishcreek Park this afternoon.  If I keep the pace from the last 400km for the next 300km I'll hit 1500 by the end of the month :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

22x at the 1100km Mark

Heading West on 22x at 1100km
Hit the 1100km mark while riding west on 22x. You can see the point where I turned back east in the distance where the road from the left joins the highway.

- Peace

Monday, September 10, 2012

My Top 6 London Shots + 1

I took over 2500 shots while in the UK.  Of those I published 185 to Flickr.  Of those 18 made it to my Most Interesting of 2012 set.  Here are the top 6 shots as ranked by Flickr:

#1London Eye Pod2nd only to 2008's Sky Canola this shot just took off. 1266 views, 76 favorites and 49 comments. I knew it was a cool shot but wasn't expecting that much of a response.

It was the perfect spot for my Sigma 8-16mm Ultrawide lens.
#2The Eye by Night#31 on the all time list, the London Eye does well again with my Ultrawide lens. Taken with my tripod on the Westminster bridge.
#3Gothic CeilingThe Gothic Ceiling of the St Mary Aldermary Church was listed as one of the reasons to visit it when I googled the church while trying to locate Moot. Moot is as cool as their ceiling. Even if they did mock me for drinking Strongbow. Not a real cider apparently.
#4Armed BobbyA weak shot technically, I think this shot works as the British Police are famous for not carrying guns. The fact that this armed Bobby is a woman just adds to the dissonance.
#5Modern LondonWith 7 favorites and 0 comments I have no idea why people like this shot. I'm guessing the curved architecture, the clouds and the river.
#6Very SilverShot from our tour bus, this is one of those times when things come together.  Cool shiny Austin Martin on a mostly monochromatic background.
+1Piccadilly CircusSometimes I get very excited about a shot and post it to flickr and the silence is deafening.  I have a whole collection of these shots called: Personal Favs.

I just love this handheld, Lensbaby night shot of a drenched Piccadilly Circus.  Flickr was less impressed.   

So that's it for London. I've started posting pictures from Paris.

- Peace

Friday, September 07, 2012

1000 KM and an Updated Plan

Crossing the Elbow at 1000 km
Hit the 1000km mark on the way back from downtown. Stopped and took this shot crossing the Elbow River.

It's been eight days since hitting the 800km mark for an average of 25km a day. If I keep that pace for the rest of Sept. I'll pass 1500km by the end of the month. That leaves me with 1000km for the last three months of the year. 500km in Oct, 300 km in Nov and 200 in Dec should be quite doable. I have done 500km in December before though I'd rather not repeat that :)

Only major risk is Environment Canada is calling for a mild fall and winter. So there's a good chance it will be wet and extra cold. We'll see.

- Peace

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

First Ride With My New Garmin Edge 500

Just after hitting the 900km mark and seeing Kendra, I was riding to meet Kim and Sarah and realized that my Enduro 8 was missing.  I backtracked to where I had last had it but no luck.  Now I love the Enduro 8 except for the bracket, it has a small tab that breaks each winter making it easy to bump the Enduro 8 out of the bracket.   I hadn't bothered to replace the bracket this year as I was thinking I would replace it with a Sigma (much better bracket) or Garmin.

I went with the Garmin after a heavy endorsement from Kendra that night at supper after I mentioned losing the Enduro 8.   Also David M. has been singing it's praises each year when we ride Goat Creek.

Got the Garmin Edge 500 yesterday at MEC with the speed/cadence senrors yesterday and installed them yesterday afternoon, but didn't get out for a ride.

Ran an errand today and looped around the north side of the Glenmore Reservoir.  I've uploaded the data from my first ride to the Garmin site.  Other than needing to prod it to connect to the speed/cadence sensor everything seemed to work fine.

One hiccup I didn't expect was that there's no single odometer on the Edge 500.  So 100km points won't be as easy to track.  Will take a look and see if the data format is easy to read so I can at least automate the math.

- Peace


Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Small World at 900km

Kendran and I at 900km

Our back to school tradition is taking Sarah out to UBC. My tradition is taking my bike out to Vancouver when ever possible :) While Kim and Sarah were shopping for some items to make Sarah's new room more of a home I was out riding in Vancouver. I had just hit the 900km mark for the year and had stopped to connect with Kim and Sarah about where to meet when Kendra walked up to me! Small world. We had been planning to get together of supper that night, but the meeting in the park was random.

Kendra was in Stanley park registering for Monday's Triathlon. Since I was over 900km and under 901km I could take our shot as my 900km shot. Yay!

Yes I'm annoyed that the shot is blurry. Should have paid closer attention.

 - Peace

Thursday, August 30, 2012

800km and a Fountain

Centennial Park at 800km

Went to Holy Smoke BBQ tonight and passed the 800km on 12th Ave by Centennial Park.  Centennial Park now has some cool fountains, so I pulled over and made this my 800km shot.


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

New Music from Charlie Peacock



New music from Charlie Peacock. Stream from the above widget or download in exchange for your email and postal code.

While Charlie is probably best known as the producer behind Switchfoot, I always think of his quirky pop/jazz debut album Lie Down in the Grass from 1984.  Listening to it now, I can pick out various stylistic influences, but in the mid 80s surrounded by Thriller Mania, Peacock was a truly exotic revelation.  

Enjoy!

- Peace

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Mr. Rogers Auto-Tuned



"Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind?" - Mr. Rogers.


Thursday, August 16, 2012

700km and some thoughts

Haysboro at 700km
Had hoped to hit 700km before heading to Europe at the end of June, but it didn't happen. Jet lag and personal drama delayed this mark on getting back.

Been getting out and riding the last couple of days and hit the 700km mark while running an errand.

Would like to say that I should hit 1000km by the end of Aug, but Kim and I have been hit with epic colds. So we'll see.

- Peace

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

No Longer with Shaw

Last week the Practice Leadership Team was disbanded and the two remaining members (myself and the BA PL) laid-off from Shaw. It came as quite a shock. I have some theories on what happened, but nothing simple enough for a blog post.  The FB relationship status of "Its complicated" probably covers it.

Thank you to everyone from Shaw who reached out to me after hearing the news.  Your support was amazing and deeply appreciated.

Trying to figure out what's next. What mix of writing code and helping other people write code is appropriate for me, while still being viable in the market place? That's the question.

Will update when I land somewhere.

- Peace

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Europe as Seen from my Phone

Rome in Between

Kim and I did just over three weeks in Europe to celebrate our 20th Anniversary. I choose not to take the laptop along. I took the SLR and shot over 11,000 pictures :) But without the laptop I couldn't post any of them. For on the road posting I relied on my Galaxy Nexus. I was impressed with what the phone could do and really enjoyed using it for my picture of the day while traveling.

Other than posting on the road, the laptop is also how I've kept from needing to buy a bunch of SD cards.  I picked up a ColorSpace from HyperDrive and put an 250 GB SSD in it.   Wasn't worried about speed, but figured an SSD could take the bumps of traveling better than a traditional drive and would go easier on the battery.  Worked like a charm.  Looks like I got one of the last ones as it's not listed on their main web page anymore.

BTW Wired had a post today Stop Arguing About Instagram and Go Make a Picture about embracing the iphone as a tool for photography.

- Peace

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Construction at 600km

Construction at 600km
Hit the 600km mark on Friday. That leaves less than a week to make the 700km mark before we leave for Europe.

The 600km mark overlapped with the 500km mark.  I could have taken another shot of the block house.

- Peace

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

500 km Recap

Block House at 500km
Hit the 500km mark on the way home tonight. While I've been taking a picture every 100km and posting to Flickr I haven't been blogging the 100km marks. So here's the recap:

Hit the 100km mark in Vancouver at the end of April. Shot is of Jericho Beach.
Jericho Beach @ 100 km

Hit the 200km mark in May while riding around the Glenmore Reservoir with the Hills. Me with the Hills at 200 km

Hit the 300km mark on June 2nd while riding Goat Creek. To be honest that shot is from about the 302km mark, I missed taking at shot at exactly 300km. Something about coming down the path at almost 50km/h.
 300km on Goat Creek Trail.

Hit the 400km mark last week while riding between the office in the NE and downtown office.
400 KM on the bike path

So that brings me to hitting the 500km mark tonight. 500km puts me at 20% of my 2012 Goal of 2500km. Hoping to hit the 700km mark before we head to Europe for most of July. Will be lucky to hit the 800km mark by the end of July. So that leaves 1700km for Aug - Dec or 340 km a month. More than doable, but I'll have to do better than I've done at the start of this year, and after three weeks off I'll be almost starting from scratch. Oh well what's the point of goal if it doesn't challenge?

- Peace

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Goat Creek was Amazing

16 Riders
Rode Goat Creek trail on June 2nd.  Been doing that since at least 2005 but a few things made this year standout.

Had 16 riders, so one of the largest groups ever.

Had our youngest riders, two 10 year olds and 8 year old made the entire 45 km ride.  Previous record was Amy when she was 14.

Paul lost a steel water bottle.  It bounced out of his panier while coming down the first part of the trail.  He mentioned it to riders going up Goat Creek and asked if they found it if they would put it with his van at the trail head.  It was on the windshield when we go there.  Thank you fellow riders.

We dodged the rain.  Weather forecast for the day wan't good.  There was some heavy mist when we started out, but it never got beyond a light rain.  It cleared up after the first 9km.  We saw some very scary dark clouds while in Banff, but we just got the edge of it and the clouds headed back where we had come from.  The path back to Canmore had some puddles but we had sun and a tail wind most of the way back.  We normally have good weather, but this year's close call was very dramatic.

Really enjoyed the Iron Goat afterwards.  Our first time there.  We had a private room for our group and the hockey fans got to watch the game.  The duck wings were fantastic, as were the ribs.  I'd avoid the fries (regular or yam)  not that they were bad, but they didn't compare well with the rest of the excellent food.  Our friends who need a gluten free menu were very impressed with the variety of choices the Iron Goat had for them.

I'm continuing to add pictures to my Goat Creek June 2012 set on flickr.

- Peace



Saturday, May 12, 2012

Shooting the Lower East Side

Young Punks
I find Vancouver's Lower East Side fascinating.  Last year I blogged about How to Shoot the Lower East Side? This year I was back to get Sarah from UBC and took a trip down to the LES and  saw young punks hanging outside a club.  So I parked a block away and wandered over to ask if they mind if I took some shots.  They up for it, and we had some fun.  Just shot with the pop up flash, nothing fancy, but I'm happy with the results.

To be honest I though they'd tell me off, but they we're very welcoming and followed up by email.  It would have been easy to let fear prevent me from asking, but I'm glad I asked.  I hope they're happy with the results.  Will be posting the results to Vancouver Punks this week.  See all my Lower East Side shots.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Over the Rhine and Blind Boys of Alabama June 9th

Update: Heard from the promoter that the show has been canceled :(

Over the Rhine will open for the Blind Boys of Alabama June 9th in Bowness.  Sweet!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Random Thoughts On the Alberta Election

Alison Redford and her team came from behind to defeat the Wild Rose chalenge. I was surprised that none of commentators or PC party members referenced how Alison Redford had come from behind to win the PC Leadership later year. She's a bit of a comeback kid and that's not a bad thing.

Speaking of random patterns. This is the second time Rod Love has been working with a female conservative leader who had a substantive lead only to have that lead collapse for the actual vote. There's probably no connection there. I wonder if we under estimated Ralf Kline.

A Wild Rose supporter last night summed up the WR contradiction. "I didn't leave the PC party, it left me. They've been in for 41 years it's time for a change" I take that as "The PC party changed, so we need to change it back" Not a strong pro change message.

Was hoping the Alberta Party would win at least one seat, but looks like they got caught in the "anyone but the WR" wave.

 - Peace

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Easter on Nose Hill

Easter Pilgrims
Lead a short Easter Liturgy for Calgary Church and some friend from Xalt on Nose Hill this morning.  Told a compressed version of Holy week in 4 stops pairing the stories with our progress on the path.

The ancient practice of going up to Jerusalem / at the trail head before the climb.
Jesus in the temple, washing of feat, last supper / at the stones near the top of nose hill.
Jesus death and Holy Saturday / bottom of valley
Waiting to recognize the Risen Jesus / The large erratic on the other side of the valley.

Took about 45 minutes.  We made it just in time to see the sun appear in the NE.

We followed it with a potluck breakfast at The House in Kensington.   Good food, good times.

Posted 8 shots to flickr.

- Peace

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Next to New Potoshoot.


Asha in Stockings
Did a photoshoot for Next to New - a small thrift shop in the East Village run by the Golden Age Club. They have a range of clothing for cheap. The models I worked with couldn't believe how good the deals were.  Will be posting photos to flickr over the next week or so.

This was my first shoot using a three flash set up, will take time to master, but I'm happy with the results.

Monday, March 05, 2012

Loving Double Twist Air Sync

I have two Macs at home but prefer Android for my phones.  I really like Double Twist for bridging the gap between Android and iTunes.  Was disappointed to find that the free Double Twist didn't support my new Nexus Galaxy on OSX. The issue being the Nexus Galaxy can't be used as a USB mass storage device.

So I bought the $5 Air Sync add on for Double Twist as a work around.  Wishing I had bought it sooner.  Loving how I just edit the playlist in itunes and if my phone is in the house with WiFi on it just syncs to my phone.   I don't have to remember to grab my phone before going downstairs to the iMac.  It's a much smoother experience.  If you use Android and iTunes then Double Twist and Air Sync are your friends.

- Peace

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My First Interesting Photo of 2012

Wall of Jars
Wall of Jars, taken while Kim and I were at the Science Center is the photo from 2012 to break into my all time top 10% of interesting pictures on flickr. 

Thing is I didn't want to take this shot. When I caught up to Kim I showed her some of the shots I'd done and she sent me back to get one of the full wall of Jars. So Kim gets as much credit for this as I do.

- Peace

Sunday, January 01, 2012

2000 KM in 2011

New Years Lights at 2000 KM
After a couple of days of procrastination, I finally decided that I was going to hit the 2000 km mark for 2011 yesterday. I was at 1941 km, so yesterday afternoon and evening I did almost 60 km of riding. After weeks of not doing more than 20 km at a time this was a serious challenge. Did about 35 km in Fishcreek with the usual suspects. Was a ton of fun, but ridding in snow is hard work. Finished of the goal by doing 25 km in the evening on the Lynskey in Evergreen. The cold, the dark and being out of shape slowed things down but I did hit the 2000 km mark at about 11:30 last night.

The goal for 2012 will be 3000 km, 1000 km more than this year.

- Peace & Happy New Year