This weekend, we participated in the yearly Newcastle Island orienteering meet. Veronica told me that she came second in her category (not bad for a lady with such short legs). As for myself, who knows.
I ran about 15km over two days and I had run 8km three days earlier. At the end of the second race, I arrived at the finish line and simply sat down. I then began to remove my wet dirty shoes, some clothes and eat chocolate. I decided at some point to move off the finish line so as not to get run over. I was quickly replaced by an old brown dog that found the finish line's shade irresistible.
Newcastle Island: http://www.newcastleisland.ca/
Monday, May 25, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Traveling Tricks
Trick #2
Some B&Bs are actually hippie communes. Be prepared, bring underwear to share.
Trick #12
On red-eye flights, airlines strategically place babies and small children throughout the aircraft. They are paid by the airline to cry and whine. Trick: if you own the baby, you get paid.
Trick #27
Helping airport cleaning staff is inappropriate.
Trick #32
If you are longer than your bed then sleep diagonally with your head next to your alarm clock. (If you do not have an alarm clock you can sleep in four different ways.)
Trick #61
If you don't know where to eat then ask the fat airport staff. They likely have an opinion.
Trick #74
If you're hungry while in Toronto's Pearson airport, commit suicide. There's more choice in hell.
Trick #98
If your taxi driver has involuntary muscle spams do not panic. Good luck though.
Trick #102
Credit card sales-booth people are just as bored as you are. Pretending you need a credit card is fun, but not nice.
Trick #103
Creativity is enhanced by boredom. Airports are an artists muse.
Some B&Bs are actually hippie communes. Be prepared, bring underwear to share.
Trick #12
On red-eye flights, airlines strategically place babies and small children throughout the aircraft. They are paid by the airline to cry and whine. Trick: if you own the baby, you get paid.
Trick #27
Helping airport cleaning staff is inappropriate.
Trick #32
If you are longer than your bed then sleep diagonally with your head next to your alarm clock. (If you do not have an alarm clock you can sleep in four different ways.)
Trick #61
If you don't know where to eat then ask the fat airport staff. They likely have an opinion.
Trick #74
If you're hungry while in Toronto's Pearson airport, commit suicide. There's more choice in hell.
Trick #98
If your taxi driver has involuntary muscle spams do not panic. Good luck though.
Trick #102
Credit card sales-booth people are just as bored as you are. Pretending you need a credit card is fun, but not nice.
Trick #103
Creativity is enhanced by boredom. Airports are an artists muse.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
TC10K
Against our better judgement we ran the TC10K. The TC10K is a relatively popular 10 KM race held in Victoria. This year about 13000 people decided to participate. Some Kenyan dude training out of Lethbridge won the thing in under 30 minutes. The man could run! I saw him very briefly while I was at kilometer 2 and he was at kilometer 5. His cool-down was running the 10 km again, in the opposite direction.
Veronica ran a total of 9 kilometers over three separate days to train for her big race. This would normally spell TROUBLE but... She ran the entire race in 1:03:07 and beat two of my friends that had been training for 3 months. This obviously doesn't teach her a lesson about regular training and fitness, unless her legs really hurt tomorrow. I can only hope... (I'm thinking nice thoughts, but I bet you thought otherwise, tsk.)
I ran the thing in 50:09 which sounds good until you find out that this time put me in 1568th place. I've redefined a Canada-bronze (where 3rd is like gold). In my case, 1568th place is like ... gold plated. To quote my cousin: "Good enough, [it]'ll do".
For the bored, the complete results can be found here:
http://www.raceheadquarters.com/tc.php
Veronica ran a total of 9 kilometers over three separate days to train for her big race. This would normally spell TROUBLE but... She ran the entire race in 1:03:07 and beat two of my friends that had been training for 3 months. This obviously doesn't teach her a lesson about regular training and fitness, unless her legs really hurt tomorrow. I can only hope... (I'm thinking nice thoughts, but I bet you thought otherwise, tsk.)
I ran the thing in 50:09 which sounds good until you find out that this time put me in 1568th place. I've redefined a Canada-bronze (where 3rd is like gold). In my case, 1568th place is like ... gold plated. To quote my cousin: "Good enough, [it]'ll do".
For the bored, the complete results can be found here:
http://www.raceheadquarters.com/tc.php
Friday, April 17, 2009
Energy consumption
I had this link sent to me:
http://blog.wattzon.com/2008/11/14/scarcity-and-abundance/
It's worth a look. It places our energy consumption in a new perspective.
http://blog.wattzon.com/2008/11/14/scarcity-and-abundance/
It's worth a look. It places our energy consumption in a new perspective.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Mini-Vacation in Tofino
Veronica and I went to Ucluelet/Tofino over the weekend. We visited some large trees...
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Cutting CBC funding
I just read the following article: www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/03/25/cbc-layoffs.html. In a few sentences: "the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. plans to cut up to 800 jobs as part of its strategy to make up for a $171 million shortfall in 2009-10 ... The cuts became necessary after the federal government turned down CBC's request for bridge financing that could have helped the public broadcaster weather the economic recession...".
I don't think it matters whether you love the CBC or hate them, these cuts simply don't make sense given the current economy. The government has stated that under the current economic conditions their goal is to help the economy. It would seem to me that having 800 people lose their jobs is not fulfiling the government's stated goal. Furthermore, is it not easier to keep 800 people employed rather than create 800 jobs?
Compared to the automotive industry job losses, supporting the CBC is a far better economic investment. Looking at this article www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/02/20/carbailouts.html, we find that the government will potentially provide billions of dollars while the car companies will cut thousands of jobs. Let's take a closer look at GM. It costs the CBC 171,000,000 / 800 = 213,750 per person to maintain a job. Assuming similar costs for a car worker it would cost the government about 1 billion to save 5,000 autoworkers, yet GM is potentially asking for 6-7 billion and cutting these 5,000 positions. Again assuming similar costs as CBC, with 6-7 billion GM could maintain 30,000 to 35,000 jobs (at least for a few years). GMs current workforce is about 12,500 people.
Ultimately, these aren't numbers but people. Neither Canadian deserves to be laid off.
I don't think it matters whether you love the CBC or hate them, these cuts simply don't make sense given the current economy. The government has stated that under the current economic conditions their goal is to help the economy. It would seem to me that having 800 people lose their jobs is not fulfiling the government's stated goal. Furthermore, is it not easier to keep 800 people employed rather than create 800 jobs?
Compared to the automotive industry job losses, supporting the CBC is a far better economic investment. Looking at this article www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/02/20/carbailouts.html, we find that the government will potentially provide billions of dollars while the car companies will cut thousands of jobs. Let's take a closer look at GM. It costs the CBC 171,000,000 / 800 = 213,750 per person to maintain a job. Assuming similar costs for a car worker it would cost the government about 1 billion to save 5,000 autoworkers, yet GM is potentially asking for 6-7 billion and cutting these 5,000 positions. Again assuming similar costs as CBC, with 6-7 billion GM could maintain 30,000 to 35,000 jobs (at least for a few years). GMs current workforce is about 12,500 people.
Ultimately, these aren't numbers but people. Neither Canadian deserves to be laid off.
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