Game Night at Nathalie's

Game Night from Nathalie Babineau-Griffiths on Vimeo.  Nathalie did a time lapse, I was sitting near the camera. We played Dominion, Munchkin and more Dominion.

 - Peace

300km in Millrise

Got a cold in early Feb that just hung around for weeks.  Nothing too bad, but enough to keep me off the bike.  Got out today and thanks to the bonus km I did in Jan hit the 300km for the year.  The plan calls for being at 400km by the end of Feb.  100km in six days shouldn't be too bad.

- Peace

Venice Top 4 Shots + 1

We had four nights in Venice. I took 2978 shots, published 110 of them to flickr.  Of those 10 made it to my Most Interesting of 2012 set.  Here are the top 4 shots and 1 that I loved that flickr didn't.

	Side Canal An iconic Venetian moment caught as we passed this side canal on a water bus.  Even caught a bit of Venetian litter in the lower left corner. I'm guessing it's the strong lines that drew people into this picture.
	Glass Fire The island of Murano is famous for it's glass-work.  This is a peice of public art on the island that I shot with my Lensbaby. I think the Lensbaby blur suggests the movement of fire. Lucked out with the clouds making such a great background.
	Reflecting Canal Did as late night walk about to see what I could find.  This is my top night shot.  I think it looks very industrial, so I'm a bit surprised that this did as well as it did.
	Smoking in the Shadow I have mixed feelings about this, cause I'm not trying to make smoking look cool.  We were stuck by how much smoking there is in Europe and so I wanted to reflect that reality.
	Flowing Just happened to come across a fashion shoot on the island of Burano.  I loved how the wind caught her dress.  Was surprised that this didn't get more attention.  One of the other shots from the shoot did make the Most Interesting of 2012 set. The people running the shoot didn't chase us tourist photographers off, and were very friendly to us.  It made my day.

I took over 11,000 photos in Europe last summer. I am currently publishing photos from our time in Rome. You can see my most interesting shots from London and Paris.

Little Red Wagon

Little Red Wagon is story of how Zach Bonner became an advocate for homeless children before he was twelve. As a movie it's very "After School Special". However the subplot of a family that goes from middle class to homeless is real enough to be a good introduction to the issues of homelessness for children. The message that we can do something to help is also worth repeating. If your looking to engage a group of kids with the issues of homelessness then Little Red Wagon would be a good start.

- Peace

200km in Fog at UBC.

Went to Vancouver to help Sarah move. Took the bike along, and hit the 200km mark while on UBC campus.  Twas a bit foggy.

So that takes care of the 200km goal for Jan.  Will aim to get some bonus KMs in before the end of the month.

- Peace

My First Intersting Shots of 2013

Got a couple of shots of one of the neighbourhood Jackrabbits. Kim loves them so I knew she'd be happy to see them. Folks on flickr also liked them so they are the first two shots in my Most Interesting of 2013 set.

Feels a bit strange as I'm still posting shots from 2012 and my Most Interesting of 2012 set is still growing.

I have maintained Most Interesting sets since I started on flickr in 2005.

- Peace

First 100km done and a plan for the First 1000km

We've had quite the mild start to 2013, so it made it easy to get out and ride. Went out in today's snow storm cause I wanted to hit the first 100km mark on the 10th day of the year. Just not the same if it goes to 11.

Figure I can do 200km in Jan,Feb & March then 400km in April. That will put me at the 1000km mark about when I hit the 100km mark last year :) I'm hoping to maintain a base line of fitness built up from last year. I've learned that if I ride hard for 8 months and take 4 off then I'm right back where I started. So winter riding it is :)

- Peace

I have a Rebel Mouse, not sure what to do with it.

Rebel Mouse is a social aggregator, it pull all my streams (flickr, blog, twitter, facebook) into one page. It looks really cool.

 I wish my FaceBook profile looked that good. FaceBook has access to the same info so really it should be able to to the same thing, but that's another rant.

So what do I do with Rebel Mouse now that I have it?  Does it replace my about.me page? I love to read my twitter/facebook/rss streams in this format, but that doesn't seem to be something they're doing.

Rebel Mouse really cool, just not sure why I'd go there after setting up my page.
 
- Peace

2500 down 3000 to go

Thanks to Clement and Nathan for coming out and joining me on the last ride of 2012. I hit the 2500km mark for 2012, and that was the goal. Glad I didn't have to do 60km on the last day, like 2011. Only had to do 55km. Didn't get out on the the 30th cause I was in pain from doing the 40+km on the 29th after a week off. Still felt good on the 31st and the 55km was fine. For 2013 I'm aiming for 3000km. Working back to where I can do > 4000km a year. - Peace