Ghost Bike Hunting

Heard about Ghost Bikes on The Point on Dec 18th. You can listen to the segment at 3:00 in the second audio clip. The interview includes Michael Kalmanovitch of Edmonton Bicycle Commuters. EBC was the first group in Canada to place Ghost Bikes. One thing that would have improved the discussion on the Ghost Bikes is the recent U of C study that shows that roadside memorials may improve safety.

Tay’s study shows that the markers appear to have significant short-term safety benefits. As part of his study, he placed mock-up memorials at selected intersections with red light cameras within the City of Calgary. In the six weeks after the markers were installed, nearly 17 percent fewer drivers ran red lights than in the six weeks prior to installation.

While I was in Edmonton over Christmas, I wanted to go see a Ghost Bike so I found the list and headed out to find one. The one I found was for Christopher Scott. I surprised to see that the official picture on the site is credited to none other the blogging buddy Ian McKenzie. And yes it's the same Ian as on my blog roll as the picture is indeed in Ian's flickr stream.

Update: While I love the Ghost Bike idea on many levels, I wonder if it will scare non bikers off. When people realize I ride on the road, I always hear I could never do that, I'd be too afraid.

- Peace

4200 KM Done!

Ken, Dave and Calvin rode with me on my final 20 KM push to 4200 KM. It was cold. Weather report says -23c, but it's always colder in Fish Creek. Thanks guys!

- Peace

4100 KM in the Snow

Hit the 4100 KM mark today, 98 KM to go by Saturday. Will need to pick up the pace a bit. Didn't know we'd have way more snow the normal when I decided to plan the party 10 days earlier than last years. Nice to have a challenge.

- Peace

Free Alt Christmas Music MP3s

Sounds Familyre a record label that includes Sufjan Stevens, Wovenhand and Half-handed Cloud released a A Familyre Christmas Vol 1 for 2007. I just found it. For 2008 they are releasing a track a day between yesterday and Christmas that will be Vol 2. Put some Alt folk in your Christmas listening this year!

- Peace

Snow Blowing at 4000 KM

Hit the 4000 KM mark tonight, two hundred to go. If I can keep up the pace of the first ten days of December I'll hit 4200 in time for the party on the 20th. It would suck to have planned a party and then not be quite done in time.

- Peace

Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!

A fan video of Sufjan Steven's Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!

Loaded my Xmas playlist on the ipod this morning - 284 songs from classical to metal. While I have six versions of Hark the Herald Angles Sing, I've got plenty of non traditional tunes to space them out. I do find it puts me in the Christmas mood, a healthy mix of darkness, lament and celebration.

BTW you can build your own Alt Xmas song collection by one, Geek Dad has arranged a free download of BNL's version of Jingle Bells though only for Dec 08.

- Peace

Dusk at 3900 KM

Hit 3900 KM yesterday, just 300 KM to go.

Wish List

Convenience for those who say I'm hard to get a gift and confession that yes I enjoy getting gifts on my birthday and for Christmas.

Rez Box Set - probably only available on line, so click the link.

Star Wars Prequel Trilliogy

Batman Begins

The Dark Knight

Batman: Gotham Knight

Pinhole Cap

Beyond Homelessness by Brian J. Walsh

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe

Prince Caspian

Pentax DA 50-135 F2.8 ED SDM

Pentax DA 16-50 F2.8 ED AL


Lensbaby Composer


Joby GorillaPod SLR-Zoom

USB Headset

- Peace

Looks Like Harper Pulled a 'Joe Clark'

Stephen Harper isn't the first conservative Prime Minister to think that the Liberals wouldn't bring down his minority government during a Liberal leadership transition. Joe Clark made the same mistake in 1979. Clark had won a minority, and Trudeau had announced he was stepping down but had not left yet. Sound familiar?

Maybe Stéphane Dion's long goodbye was inspired by Tredeau? It looks like Dion won't be the second Liberal Leader not to become PM. I'm guessing he'll be the first leader of any party to become PM six weeks after leading his party to their worst election result in modern times.

Strange Times.

- Peace

After a week of being sick with a nasty cold, I was able to ride this weekend. Passed the 3800 KM mark today. I have just under 400 KM to do in December. On Dec 20th I'm planing an >42 and <38 party. To make that happen I need to average about 20 KM a day for almost three weeks. Will let you know how it goes.

- Peace

Blokus as a party game

"Blokus is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players" - Wikipedia. Played it last night with eight players, two players per colour with no table talk allowed. It got quite intense and was quite the hit. We played two rounds.

- Peace

URLs Should Be Forever

I know link rot is almost as old as the web. Still cool urls don't change! Now the web will always have new users, and people who just don't get it, so link rot is here to stay. However I just wrote some code for Who Reads What to update the image URLs because Amazon decided to change them for no known reason. Amazon is neither new to the web and has long been a great example of a company who get's the web. So I'm at a loss as to why they decided to change a bunch of image URLs. sigh. Code is in place and the WRW is looking more like its self again.

- Peace.

Learning From Teaching

While teaching my photography students to use AutoStitch to create Panoramas and they came up with some wonderful effects by not quite getting the idea. The idea was to create an image like the the one with the boy arguing with him self on the couch, where they are in both shots and the shots are combined using AutoStitch. However what we found was if the two pictures overlapped the part where they were posing the software would blend the two images creating a ghost effect.

Nite Riding at 3700 KM

The nice thing about hitting 3700 KM in Nov is knowing I don't have to do over 500 KM in Dec as I have the last two years.

- Peace

Breakfast with Dan at 3600 KM

Hit 3600 KM just as I was arriving at Nellie's for Breakfast with Dan. Met Dan via Resonate, he's the worship pastor for River Park Church. River Park is hosting the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival this weekend. Plan is to take in a couple of films after getting in some more KM today.

- Peace

Desperate For Love

Love the six forms of animation in one video. Desperate for Love by Over The Rhine

- Peace

Over 3500 KM Over Deer Foot Trail

Was lost in thought as I pedaled through the 3500 KM so this is about 3506 when I thought to take the shot.

- Peace

Code Monkey Music Video

Missed this when it made the rounds on the net the first time. This was a big hit in our cube farm yesterday. We're all married guys but we can relate. The song is by Jonathan Coulton.

- Peace

Wassaup 2008

From the same guy who made the Bud commercials back in the day.

It was all possible, Stone says, because Budweiser never owned the rights to the idea. He’d originally made it as a short film independent of the brand, and Budweiser had only leased the rights, paying a mere $37,000 for five years of use. Back then, people gave him a hard time about the low price. Now Stone, a diehard Obama supporter, says it’s more than paid off. “That I’m able to use an idea distributed by a huge company, who made a lot of money off it, so that now when I put out what I want to say, it’s recognizable, and it sparks -- that’s worth $1 million to me.”

Love the spot and the background story.

- Peace

My Flickr Avatar Goes to Cooler Parties Than I do

Should I be worried by this?

- Peace

Zen and the Art of SVN

Noticed this in the commit log for subversion:

[Ken] Removed module that did not yet exist

So either Ken has gone all "one hand clapping" in his comments or he's invented time travel.

- Peace

Strange Flat Tire

Got a flat in my front bike tire on the way home tonight. Strange thing is the bike is in the back of the Element. Was sitting at a light when I hear a his out of the back. Got home and checked the bike and the front tire is flat. What the??? Kinda glad I didn't bike today.

- Peace

3400 KM - Canmore to Banff and Back

Every year when I organize the Goat Creek Oct ride, some one asks about the weather. All Albertan's know that the first serious snow will arrive on or before Oct 31st. My only answer is that I've had good luck so far. Sat morning Clement and I drove through the worst winter driving conditions I've seen on an Alberta highway in years. The signs at the east end of Canmore were plastered with snow. But when we arrived at the Tourism center in West Canmore there ground was bare, the grass still green. Dave called from within the Blizzard, he was running a bit late, I reassured him that west Canmore was looking good. We got to the trail head and it was damp but quite ridable, by mid day it was very nice. This is the second time I've driven through snow to get to good riding conditions. Never call it to you get to the trailhead.

On the Goat Creek trail we met Emily, Trevor (they're wearing red) and Robin who's MIA in the picture. They decided to join us on the ride back to Canmore instead of going back up Goat Creek to their car. We took the Rundle Riverside Trail, it was workout. Much harder than taking the Highway. The trail has a great number of roots. The roots are not huge but over 8 KM they wear you down. In damp conditions they will through a new rider off the trail. It was more work they we expected, but we made it though and Emily, Trevor and Robin were great sports.

- Peace

Kevin Makes the News

Kevin got written up in Thief River Falls MN. Covers his adventures repairing the bike trailer and a number of people who've shown Kevin hospitality on his Calgary to New Orleans canoe bike adventure.

- Peace

Thankful at 3300 KM

Thankful for warm weather on a holiday Monday in Oct. and hitting 3300 KM
That Calvin and Michelle are married, very happy for them.
For friends who opened their homes for Thanksgiving Dinner. Lisa, Louis, Ed, Luke, Peter, Melissa & Phil you're all wonderful.

- Peace

Dancing between things that don't exist

A great clip of Peterson on the Secular and Sacred divide. Not sure why the group who put up the video felt the need to add the text box that comes up in the video, I don't think we could have missed the point.

- Peace

Talented Kids

I'm teaching a photography course at Boys & Girls club in Forest Lawn, introducing eight 10 to 12 year old to photography and couching them. They are a very talented group. Here's one shot from last night. The assignment was to take pictures that change the angle of how we normally see things.



- Peace

Who needs gas at 3200 KM?

Ed and Calvin rode with me to the 3200 KM mark, just beside a Husky station. The attendant couldn't understand what we were doing, and threatened to call the cops. I thought that was odd given Husky claim's to be "Mother Nature's Gas Station".

- Peace

Zero is not Null and Null is not Void

"Zero is not Null"
" and Null is not Void"

Spending the weekend at the Western Canada Java Software Symposium and the snippet of conversation stuck me as one of the geekier moments so far. A detailed conversion about the definition of nothing. Having a great time BTW :)

- Peace

3100 KM by the River

Lost a couple of weeks of riding to being sick, but got back into it the last couple of days. Hit the 3100 KM mark tonight. Aiming to hit the 3200 KM mark by the end of the month so I'll only have a 1000 KM to do in the last three months of the year.

- Peace

Jesus isn't Jesus now that he's Jesus

before we made him the answer and forgot the question
before the orthodox and the catholic

before the freaks and the seminars
before we had him charted, dissected and enumerated

before t shirts, bumper stickers and the blue eyes
before the icons, statues and stained glass

He walked the earth
a man from disreputable Nazareth
son of a carpenter
born in a barn

He spoke and he upset our understanding of God

but he's safe now
we have him figured out
he doesn't threaten us

pray for my salvation and that of my people
that we might once again hear the word of the Lord

Burning Bush

New Shows TV Still Repeats

JJ Abrams creator of Lost and Alias has a new show Fringe. After seeing the first episode I'd say it's his take on the X Files. Looks like it could be good, but I couldn't help notice how much his new evil corp Massive Dynamic resembles the Lost evil corp The Hanso Foundation.

Summer Glau also seems to be repeating herself, in Firefly she played a brilliant, innocent girl who was turned into a killing machine. In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles she plays a killing machine that impersonates an innocent girl. Loved her in Firefly, and she does a good job in the new Terminator, but I can't help but feel I've seen her do this before.

- Peace

3000 KM on Jumping Pound Loop

Hit 3000 KM this morning with Ken and Dave while riding Jumping Pound Loop.

- Peace

2900 KM on 22x

Hit 2900 KM on 22x just west of the city limits. On clear day you'd see mountains from here, but not today.

- Peace

The Old Prince Still Lives at Home

Love the Fresh Prince memories :)

- Peace

New Hockey Night in Canada Theme

It will be if Ari wins the contest. Go Ari!

- Peace

Saskatoon with Sarah, Tony and Julie

Spent the weekend in Saskatoon with Sarah, Tony and Julie. Sat night got to share a meal and time with a house church that meets at LT's place. We ate, sang, and talked. We shared some of our stories, and our struggles, both on serving the poor and with random bits of connections.

Sun, had breakfast at the Broadway Cafe. Rider pride was in full display for the Labourday Weekend classic against Winnipeg.

Sunday afternoon, checked out a local art gallery and then did a photo shoot with Tony and Julie.

Sunday night, Tony and Julie made curry and shared their story, the full unedited, wonderfully complex two hour version. I should have asked for the movie rights, though I don't think a movie would do it justice. Then we watched the Great Debaters until 1 am.

Monday morning I had breakfast with Jordon, Wendy and the boys. Got to hold Oliver, his like a mini Jordan that you can hold, who wouldn't want to do that?

It was a good weekend.

- Peace

Highwood Pass

While on vacation in Kananaskis I rode the north end of the Highwood Pass, that's a 700 meter climb, my first major rode climb. Trivia: the Highwood Pass is Canada's highest paved pass.

- Peace

400 KM behind and 7 Weeks ahead

Hit the 2800 KM mark tonight. Bad news is that I'm 400 KM short of the plan, good news is that I'm 7 weeks ahead of when I hit the 2800 KM mark last year.

- Peace

I punctured an Nimbus Armadillo

Had a rash of flats back around the 1400 KM mark, so I bought a pair of Nimbus Armadillo tires. Speacialized says:

This armored version of our classic, fast rolling Nimbus tire has a rounded profile and recessed tread for great traction, designed for speedy commutes and changing conditions city streets - even when they include glass, nails, and other hazards.

However a screw punctured the main tread of my back tire on Elbow drive this morning. Now the Nimbus Armidillo did last about 4x longer than a normal tires were lasting me, but I was sad that it didn't live up to the "nails and other hazards" hype.

- Peace

We Hiked King Creek

King Creek is by no means an official trail, you have to cross the creek on longs placed by previous hikers, cling to a rock face and hunt for the best crossing. I think this is what makes this trail so popular. Kim and I found that having hiking poles made it much easier. It'a only 3 KM in, but with some side climbs, pictures and a break for lunch we spent almost five hours there.

- Peace

Team Airdrie at 2700 KM

Biked to Airdrie and back with Calvin, Clement and Richard. Had a great BBQ, hosted by Richard's mom in Airdrie. It was a good day. Also the first time I've done 100 KM in a day :)

- Peace

Kananaskis Lake Panorama

I took a fire road off highway 40 and it lead to a fire tower where I was able to take this panorama, with the kind permission of the fire watcher.

- Peace

2600 KM at Ribbon Creek

Hit the 2600 KM mark while ridding Ribbon Creek with Kim and Sarah.

- Peace

2500 KM and a view

Just got back from a week of camping in Kananskis country. Hit the 2500 KM mark while doing a ride on highway 40.

- Peace

10 Years with Pedalhead, Thank You!

Dropped off a framed 8x10 of the above picture at Pedalhead this morning. It's been 10 years, 20,000 km, 5 bikes and I don't know how many rims since I bought my first brodie from Al at the Edmonton Store. He then moved to Calgary to open the Calgary shop and I followed the next year. I'm much larger than anyone I know who averages 2000 km in year, so keeping me on the road for 10 years is no small feat. Thanks guys!

- Peace

Field and City at 2400 KM

Hit the 2400 KM mark yesterday morning. Was on the way back into the city from a ride out to Pridis.

- Peace

Rough Notes on Forgivness

I'm speaking tonight at Xalt, Here are my rough notes. Mostly reminders about what intend to talk about, make of them what you will.

- Peace


Matthew 18:21-35 (The Message)

21 At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, "Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?"

22 Jesus replied, "Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.

23-25"The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn't pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.

26-27"The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

28"The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, 'Pay up. Now!'

29-31"The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' But he wouldn't do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.

32-35"The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy."


Works on several levels

The master forgives first: this is not pop-karma

The economic: who's money was lent?

Kingdom: We have a modern view of law and goverment, for all it's faults, Kingship is far more relational. The King had set a personal example on how things should be done, to reject that was to reject the rule of the King.


BTW - pure speculation, but who do you think Peter was thinking of? Who was he spending most of his time with?
Matthew 6:9-13 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)


9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.


Again God is the source, of our meals, of forgiveness.
If we believe that God is the source of what we need, then we can forgive our debtors
Used to wonder what it meant for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, I believe the rest of the prayer is the answer,
God provides, forgives and keeps us from participating in evil
We forgive and we follow.


Jesus sums up the Kingdom with the first story, and forgiveness makes up a major part of our action in the Lord's prayer, why?

Mathew: New convent
John: New commandment, Love one another as I have loved you.

Two Breakfasts Two DHLs

Helped to make Breakfast on Thursday morning for Inn From the Cold. Was thrilled to see Dave Hansen-Lange was part of the crew. Dave lives in Hong Kong, but is visiting Canada for a few weeks. Had a great time serving breakfast and talking code with him and Calvin. On Friday I had breakfast with Debbi Hansen-Lange, who is also in town from Hong Kong and had a great time getting caught up. HK tidbits from the two DHLs:

Hong Kong is easy, you can live with just English, public transport is wonderful even in their village, they only goto the city when they want to.

The expat cultrue in HK takes some getting used to, lots of money, lots of quirky people.

BTW if you didn't know Dave & Debbi share a blog and photo stream.

- Peace

2300 KM on Wed

Hit the 2300 KM mark on Wed, just getting caught up with the blogging :)

- Peace

Echo Lake

After Revelstoke I headed south to the Mazu farm for a family party with Melissa and Phil. On Monday we had a great time at Echo Lake, somewhere near Lumby.

- Peace
Dave

Hit 2200 KM coming down Mt Revelstoke

We stopped at a waterfall that Calvin had found just off the road, but hidden by trees for my 2200 KM shot.

- Peace

Back from BC

After a great weekend with extended family in BC, it's hard coming back to the sometimes painful realities of the city.

- Peace

Ain't No Reason - Brett Dennen

as seen on Paste CD Fan.

- Peace

A damp 2100 KM

Hit the 2100 KM mark on the way home Friday, ended up catching up the the storm that was ahead of me, but I was heading south faster than it was. Got quite wet in the end.

I'm now past the 50% mark on my way to 4200 KM.

- Peace

Feist on Sesame Street

Thought this was cute, you know you've arrived when you get a guest spot on Sesame Street.

- Peace

Calgary at the 2000 KM mark

Hit the 2000 KM mark yesterday morning.

- Peace

Sky Canola

Taken about 10 KM south of our place.

- Peace
Dave

Fair Trade Music?

"Fair Trade Music" is the tag line for NoiseTrade.com. Joe Kirk (via email) described it thus:

NoiseTrade is the brainchild of Derek Webb. It takes the "give away the album for three emails" model that he used on Mockingbird and blends it with the Radiohead "pay what you want" model. He's turned it into a service for artists. You can get music at the noisetrade site and there is code to drop a widget on your page. It's a very cool idea and should catch on quickly. It came out of beta on July 4th. Lots of good music on it already.

I picked up the new four song Sixpence None the Richer EP for $2, cause I don't like giving out friends emails, and I knew I would blog it. Here's the widget for the My Dear Macine EP:

- Peace

1900 KM on Elbow Drive

- Peace

Blur a 1800 KM

Hit the 1800 KM mark on the way home last night. Rode a good part of the way with a Chris who had just flew in from Paris and was biking to San Francisco. We started talking cause just after he passed me on a hill, he had stopped and pulled out a map, so I stopped and asked where he was headed. He had one bag and sleeping map, tent was in the bag. His path and my path home matched quite well so I guided him through the bike paths heading south, avoiding paths that are on the map, but washed out in the 2005 floods. Didn't get a picture of him, never seemed to be the right moment.

- Peace

Pixar Short: Presto

Just way too much fun.

- Peace

1700 KM and The Bow River

After taking a week off due to life, sleep and some sloth I hit the 1700 KM mark on the way to work yesterday.

- Peace

Kevin Is Alive

View Larger Map
Heard from Kevin on Friday, he popped up in gtalk, he was blogging from the Medicine Hat Library. He's set a week's worth of blogs to appear on his blog http://kevinfloat.blogspot.com/ over the next week. The above map shows his camp sites from the first 12 days. He figures it could be 20 days or more till we hear from him again.

BTW I've finished uploading pics from his departure to flickr.



- Peace

16 Years and 1600 KM

I hit two milestones today 16 years of marriage and 1600 km of biking for 2008. Kim came out and met me at the 1600 km point and we did a quick photo shoot, so this is my 1600 KM shot :)

- Peace

Can't Search Google with Google

I can search the World Wide Web with google, and If I wanted I could search my local machine with google desktop, but there is no one search for google mail, calendar docs, picassa albums and blogger. Why? How weird is it to have data islands provided by Google? The same Google who's mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Just noticed that today.

- Peace

1500 KM on Stephen Avenue

Hit the 1500 KM mark last night while on Stephen Avenue.

- Peace

Mercy Now

As seen on Paste CD Fan.

- Peace

The more we learn about biology...

The models we were taught in school about "dominant" and "recessive" genes steering a strictly Mendelian process have turned out to be an even greater simplification of reality than Newton's laws. The discovery of gene-protein interactions and other aspects of epigenetics has challenged the view of DNA as destiny and even introduced evidence that environment can influence inheritable traits, something once considered a genetic impossibility.

In short, the more we learn about biology, the further we find ourselves from a model that can explain it.

- Chris Anderson (canderson@wired.com) is the editor in chief of Wired: The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

OK it's from Wired but I thought it was an interesting quote.

- Peace

Jolene Schneiderman where are you?

Some folks here in Alberta miss you and would love to hear from you. Drop me a line djking@gmail.com.

- Peace

Kevin Floats Away

Kevin headed out on a great adventure, he's Canoeing and biking his way from Calgary to St. Louis, maybe even New Orleans. Don't know when we'll seem here again, but our prayers are with him. BTW He's going to try and blog his trip at kevinfloat.blogspot.com.

- Peace

1400 KM and a Flat

Hit the 1400 KM spot and a screw at the same time. Got a flat, so this picture is taken from a bench waiting for Kim to rescue me. Irony is that the Slime Tyer Liners I ordered came in today but I didn't have time to pick them up. Will have to drive there tomorrow.

- Peace

Out Riden and Out Geeked

Not only is D'Arcy Norman about 700 km ahead of me for 2008 but he's out geeked me by straping a video camera to his head and taping his morning commute. Watch the movie!

- Peace