My 12 Most Interesting Pictures of 2007

According to flickr on the last day of the year.

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Done: 4000 KM in 2007

Well it's done, 4000 km in 2007. Thanks to Calvin for coming along for the final ride. Thanks to everyone who's expressed their encouragement , it means a great deal. 4200 is the goal for 2008 :)

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3900 KM and Invite

Hit 3900 last night. Just under a 100 km to go now. Plan is to pass the 4000 km mark on Sunday the 30th. Some friends are coming along for the ride and some others are just coming over to the house for some hot drinks. If you're interested drop me a line.

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Merry Christmas

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On The Edge at 3800 KM

3800 KM was my 2006 goal, 4000 KM is 2007's goal. Unfortunatley I broke my chain just past this point. Oh and we leave for SK tomorrow. Stay tuned...

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Fist Post from My MacBook Pro

Holiday Mac/Pc ad. Posted from my new Mac Book Pro. Yes I've joined the cult.

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Trees of Light at 3700 KM

Sufjan Stevens - Put the Lights on the Tree

Hope you enjoy this festive music video from Sufjan Stevens as much as I do.

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Christmas Music in Uganda

Last June when I heard that Lisa was filling her new 30 Gig ipod with music to keep her company while in Uganda I managed to get about a half gig of Xmas music on there. Got some odd looks from friends when I told them what I up to. Got this from Lisa

Last night was my last night in my town of mbarara, and i had a great evening/Christmas party with my friends who live on the same compound as me. we made mincemeat tarts and listened to your beautiful collection of carols that you donated to my ipod. after 6 months of July, it started to feel a bit like Christmas last night.

And that made my day, cause that was the idea.

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Winter Riding at 3600 KM

Had an appointment this morning, so my ride into work was at noon with sunlight, that and fresh snow made it quite bright. This time of year I don't get much bright light while riding.

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Vinyl Cafe Date

The Vinyl Cafe is in Calgary tonight and Kim is taking me :) Will update with a review after the show.

Update: Stewart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe crew put on quite a show, warm, friendly, smart with good music just as a packed room of CBC listeners would like to picture themselves. Live the Vinyl Cafe is almost as smooth as the Radio show, though the highlight of the evening was Stewart mixing up the words nozzle and novel. When he did get it right the crowd cheered so loud that he had to try again, only to mix it up again. If you're a fan of the show seeing it live worth it.

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Crossing Fish Creek at 3500 KM

First Ride in Dec and I'm playing catch up. A broken chain meant I didn't hit this point on Friday, so I have to do 518 km in Dec to hit my goal of 4000 km. We're headed out of town for Christmas, so really I have 22 days to do this, that's 24 KM/ day, every day. Wind chill this morning -27. Sigh.

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God's Art

as seen from this bench in Fish Creek Park.


I know nothing about Doris Flynn, other than what is on this bench. I love the fact that this simple dedication speaks of hospitality, rest and God as artist. I wish I'd had the chance to meet Doris.

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Sky Over 3400 KM

Biked 40 km today, passed the 3400 KM mark in while in east Fish Creek Park. It' going to get cold this week, but I'm going to try to keep at it.

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Cab Turning at 3300 KM

Passed 3300 KM last night, in the snow and the ice.

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Solitude Together

Solitude Together a great term coined by Lisa

After walking for 3 hours with someone I have met twice before, I can feel more kinship than with many people that I have worked beside or gone to church with for years.
...
However we do it, I think it's essential to build more solitude together into our lives.

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Elbow Blur at 3200 KM

Hit 3200 KM on the ride home last night.

Overhead at the Office

Overhead at the Office is quite funny. I really should blog some of the random things I hear as I bike around town.

Woman to man in Fish Creek Park: Yeah I could deal with it that way, but then I'd be accused of being a slut.

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Path in Shadow at 3100 KM

Hit the 3100 KM Mark yesterday. This is on the north side of west Fish Creek Park as the sun was setting. Nine pictures to go :)

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Portal

Played Portal on the weekend and finished yesterday. The video gives you a bit of an idea what it is about and it won't. It will capture the puzzle aspect of game but I don't think it captures the creepy humor. The game is narrated by an AI with emotional issues. It's done brilliantly. Funniest AI since Marvin the Paranoid Robot. So play for the unique puzzles and stay for the final AI swan song.

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Driving With Miss Melissa

As previously mentioned I got to ride with Miss Melissa in her new 1999 VW Beetle. After Xalt I set up my Pentax K10d in the car with the trip pod and took pictues as Melissa drove me back home. Shooting in multi frame mode, I filled my 2 Gig card. Flipping through the shots made me think of doing a movie, turns out Picassa can take a set of pictures and generate a movie. I then used Windows Movie Maker to add music and credits. Enjoy.

Part of my personal joy in doing is that it reminded me of the Wizzard of Space and Time from 1983.

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The City of Words

The 2007 Massey Lectures will be broadcast this week on CBC's Ideas. I've enjoyed the Massey Lectures in the past, when I've caught them, but this year's description caught my attention.

The end of ethnic nationalism, building societies around sets of common values, seems like a good idea. But something is going wrong. In the 2007 Massey Lectures, writer Alberto Manguel takes a fresh look at some of the problems we face, and suggests we should look at what stories have to teach us about society. “How do stories help us perceive ourselves and others?” he asks. “How can stories lend a whole society an identity...?” From Gilgamesh to the Bible, from Don Quixote to The Fast Runner, Alberto Manguel explores how books and stories hold the secret keys to what binds us together.

Emphasis is mine.

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VW Melissa

Melissa came by with her new car last weekend, gave me ride and let me take some pics :)

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School at 3000 KM

My homework, 1000 KM by the end of the year.

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Tim of None the Wiser

Got to see None the Wiser at the Cabin on Sat.

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Finale

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Now On Facebook

OK so I finally broke down and joined Facebook, mostly for professional interest. Right now my CEO writing a post on my wall. Lunch time at a start up:)

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Yesterday 2900 KM Today the Train

Yesterday


Today


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They say this a good picture of me

Like most photographers I hate having my picture taken, but at a flickr meetup it's just one of the risks. Blame for this shot goes to Ian.

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Photo Weekend

Spent Saturday at Tim's place west of Millervile, shot some friends and a skull. More and the skull later. Sunday joined the Calgary Flickr Meet on Noes Hill, pics from there to follow. Thanks to Teresa who agreed to take to the swing while I took shots.

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Path at 2800 KM

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Thank You

To the very kind person who turned in my keys to Calgary transit yesterday, thank you!

Yeah I know the chance of that person reading this is 1% or less, but isn't it good to know good people are out there?

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Watch Me at Work

You can catch glimpses of me at work on the Cambrian House Web Cams.

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Canmore at 2700 KM

Had a great time biking Goat Creek trail today. Though at the end I came up just short of 2700 KM. Clement and Marina were kind enough to help me out. Clement dropped Dave and I off near the goat creek trail head and Marina drove the Element back to town so I could get in the extra distance I needed to hit 2700 KM :) This is Canmore from above, Dave and I were back in town in less than 20 minutes, average speed was around 32 km/h, top speed over 60, at total rush!

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2600 KM in our back alley

Heading out to Goat Creek tomorrow and I'd love to pass the 2700 km mark on that ride. It's 40-45 km so that means doing 60 km today just to be safe.

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My Family

2500 KM

Passed the 2500 KM mark after work today on the way to Tims. Started my new gig today, more on that once they get my profile updated.

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Last Day Keeping the Lights On

I don't blog a great deal about work. In fact in four years I've only mentioned the AESO by name once. I talked about my code setting the price of power back in 2004. I made on oblique reference to keeping the lights on in a poem. Today is my last day working to keep the Alberta Power Grid on line at a fair price. I'll admit I quite enjoyed knowing that there are people who's entire job is tracking and reacting to a number my code calculates. After today friends won't be able to bug me when their power goes out. I'm going to miss looking at the lights and telling people my code must be working.

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CTrain Over Fish Creek at 2400 KM

Passed the 2400 KM mark last night.

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JavaScript is the New Metal (Again)

Hearing Scott Davis and David Geary talk about Google Web Toolkit at Calgary's NoFluffJustStuff this weekend, I was reminded of one of last year's bloggable quotes: JavaScript is the new metal. The difference is Scott thinks people need to get down to the metal and David thinks the GWT Java to JavaScript compiler is trustworthy. I'm with David GWT is very cool.

Was also impressed with Brian Sletten's take on NetKernel and the the power of emerging semantic web tools.

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The Foxhole Manifesto

The city at 2300 km

. Passed 2300 KM on yesterday morning's ride. Obviously my pace has fallen well short of 200 km / week.

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Lisa and Matt

An Amazing Weekend

As previously noted: Blue Man Group Friday Night.

Lisa and Matt Arrived Friday Night.

Caught the tail end of the Debbi and Dave's going away party Sat Morning as we picked up Kevin and Clement to go hiking.

Hiked King Creek.

Enjoyed the fund raising dinner & silent auction with friends from Xalt. All three of my photos were sold. One to a woman I'd never met. The three pictures were picked based on feed back here and on flickr. Would never had the confidence if not for all of you :) The pictures raised $100.

Skipped the flickr hike Sunday due to lack of sleep and poor weather. We played Power Grid and Guitar Hero II. Matt ruled the grid and Sarah ruled the guitars.

Xalt Sunday Night. Post Xalt dinner with Dave & Debbi and 11 others :)

Blue Man Group: How to be a Megastar Tour 2.1!

It was a miracle whip liturgy of a post pop culture. I liked it.

The above photo is not an official Blue Man Group picture. Obviously.

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It's Snowing

An office mat just pointed out that it's snowing. Ah life in Calgary, snow in early Sept.

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Simpsons Opening in a Star Wars Universe

Modern Cowtown Art

The Calgary Flickr Group got together Sat Night and took some shots downtown. I think the cow is my best shot from the evening.

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U2 & Mary J. Blige - One

Thanks To: Sivin Kit’s Garden

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The Kid's Got Talent

From Sarah's trip to France in March. She finally finished posting her best pics to Flickr.

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2200 KM Arch

Trying to get back into the 200 KM / Week rhythm.

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Clean Water

At Xalt Sunday night we heard from Father Raphael Mponda of the Anglican Church in Malawi. He's taken training her in Calgary from CAWST, he and his team can now build Household Water Treatment filters for about $30 in Malawi. These filters can last up t o 30 years. Decades of clean water for less than I spend on lunch in a week.

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Life is Still

Of Torture and Cowardice

Reading the story of The Man Possessed by a Legion of Demons at Xalt a couple of weeks back I was struck by this

What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!

Here's what the demons had driven him to:

Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

Yet when Jesus comes they cry out not to be tortured. Cowards!

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A Shaky 2100 KM

Trying to get back in the grove after vacation and being sick. Asthma make ridding a challenge to say the least. Way behind schedule. sigh.

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Time

8:00 AM The hotel alarm clock didn't go off as expected. It reads 8:00. I noticed the dot indicating PM. Sigh, I should have left a wake up call. No problem, I'm not meeting Kim Reid till 9:00 and it's just a couple of metro stops away. Must not have slept well, I feel tired. Hotel beds. Or maybe it was the call my wife got on her cell, someone looking for Alex at 10 PM Alberta Time, Midnight in Montreal. Shower, Dress.

8:30 AM Out of the hotel, find the Peel Metro Station get directions to Atwater Station. Off at Atwater. Kim said look for the old Montreal Forum, now an AMC Movie / Pepsi building. Look for Eggspectation. Found the forum, the Canadians' C Logo on the sidewalk. Circle the block.

9:00 AM Can't find Eggspectation. No sign of Kim. I have his cell number. That's odd my cell says 7:00 AM. Must have flipped back to Alberta time, it was having trouble sending text messages last night. Leave Kim a voice mail, wondering where he is.


9:30 AM Still no sign of Kim. Walked around the block a couple of times. Leave Kim a voice mail, something has gone off track but would still like to get together while I'm in Montreal. Head across the street to Mc D's.

7:42 AM I notice the receipt for breakfast says 7:34 AM. My phone isn't on Alberta time. Kim's not late, I'm two hours early. I'm tired cause I got up at 6:00 AM not 8:00, the clock was off fourteen hours not twelve. Must have messed it up setting the alarm. I have no idea what Montreal should look like at 7:00 AM vs 9:00 AM. The amount of sunlight, the traffic and people patterns mean nothing to me.

9:00 am Kim shows up, we have breakfast at the old forum. He was wrong on the name of the place. He laughs as I explain the voice mails. We have a good conversation till well after 11:00.

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Spider

As found by Mark in the Coopers' backyard.

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