Canada's UNESCO Sites

CBC.ca has this Google Map showing the locations (and if you click the markers, a picture and blurb as well) of all the UNESCO sites in Canada.

I am fortunate enough to have visited 10 of the 14 without realizing it and now have a burning desire to see the rest. What do you think of the list? Been to any? Glaring omissions? Questionable sites?


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Mom, it's my birthday, what would you say...

So it's mine and LeRoi Moore's birthday today.

I'm okay with it. Being a year older that is. It's alright.

I was already mocked by Brabe...but I totally deserved it :)

See you in my new year!

Simpsonized

Over the past couple of months I've been slowly taking advantage of the public's ability to Simpsonize themselves. Finally I have a new profile picture! Wookiee thought the ad was for Simpson Size meals - sucka!

Here are my best friends in Simpsons style:

Wookiee


Brabe


Dave

& me, Spage!

New Feature

Blogger now allows me to upload video so I'm going to give it a shot. I'm told this video was taken by an intersection camera at 72nd & Scott Road in Surrey, BC. It looks about right, and doesn't seem doctored...just crazy.

DMB Community

The Gorge was incredible. Again. As always.

We camped at the amphitheatre with a friend from Halifax and two more from Ohio. At the venue I met up with my DMB people who came from Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc.

And then in the venue on N1 I ran into a DMB friend I met in Amsterdam on the Spring Tour.

Beautiful venue, music, and people...it just doesn't get better than that. It's cheese and corn, but sometimes during the shows, when I do a panoramic scan to take in the Columbia River gorge, the tens of thousands pulsing positive energy, the band and stage display, and the blanket of stars above us as the moon rises over the campsite beyond...I get a little teary at the joyous beauty. It's like being wrapped in happiness and friends. Which makes it so hard to leave, and so easy to rush back to year after year.

See you in 2008 for my 8th Gorge in a row!


Pictures from Gorge 2007 will be up on Flickr as soon as I can, but Priority One is repairing my busted up motorcycle, and booking travel to DMB at Shoreline and Hollywood Bowl - this summer tour doesn't end until October!

Crash

So I managed to get into a motorcycle accident on Friday morning. It's taken up some of my time so I haven't posted in a long while. The next snag is that I leave tomorrow for the Gorge for three DMB shows which equals radio silence until next week. Have a great Labour Day long weekend!

-new pictures have been uploaded to my Life In Macro set on Flickr - my fav:

-still haven't got my last trip pics uploaded so I'm throwing one up here - let's go Iconic; this one is of my English friend, what he refers to as 'his' bridge, with San Francisco in the background

Sun Burned Again

Trust me, I'm not complaining about that!

I'm back from my weekend in San Francisco. It was a wonderfully relaxing, intellectually stimulating, huckleberry of a time. My friend was travelling with his 15 year old son, Lineker, and the three of us prowled around the glorious areas of town that have nothing to do with cable cars or Fisherman's Wharf.

Mike and I shared discussions, debates, conversations, philosophical and ideological ruminations, and enjoyed each others' company - perhaps the last time for three years.

I miss him already, but there's no time to dwell...Gorge is next week!

San Francisco pictures to follow...eventually...

Rewards

The upside of massive credit card debt = loads of Airmiles reward miles.

And I am using some of those miles to give myself the reward of visiting my friend from England while he is in San Francisco this weekend.

I'm off to the airport - see you next week!

Even Though I Like My Job

I called a friend of mine who works at a concert venue in Rochester, NY the other day. When he answered, loud music and static came through the receiver along with his voice loudly saying, "Hello? Spage?" "Chris?" I replied, "Are you at work?" Not able to hear me he shouts, "I'm at an O.A.R. sound check right now, let me call you back later!"

Before we hung up, I strained to hear some of the musicians' notes as my eyes drifted back to my monitor and the multi-year funding grid spreadsheet I had been working on. *sigh* Jealous.

versus

That's Revolutionary!

Get your clothes wet to wash them? How innovative!

Words #3

A word that has been finding its way into our conversations a lot lately...

hubris [HYOO-bruhs]

-excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance

"As both capitalist and communist states—not to mention the technological world—have evolved under the illusion that men purposefully built them, ideological optimism seeps into every niche of our lives. It is made worse by mass culture which feeds our most destructive illusions, fostering the belief that if we’re only justified (and who isn't?) if we only calculate things correctly, if we only do the right thing (and who doesn't?) then the future must yield the desired results. There must always be a way. And so hubris turns to false certainties, everyone expects to be a winner, and each morning is a mind-blowing surprise."

-Stephen Vizinczey, One of the Very Few

Winnipeg is West, Vancouver is What?

As evidenced in policy, action, and opinion, when those in the East look to the West they can't seem to see beyond Alberta.

And now they're seriously talking about Winnipeg as one of the cities in the West and conveniently leaving Vancouver off the list?

This is from an article about Canada having the lowest crime rate in 25 years.

"Higher crime rates are more the trend in large western cities, such as Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, Melcher said."

True, it seems as though they might be saying that Vancouver doesn't have the same "higher crime rates" - not only is that not true, but the chart in the article shows that BC and Saskatchewan moved about the same on the crime scale between 2005 and 2006. So you can see why it appears once again that Ontario-goggles, providing fog to overshadow the land beyond Calgary, have struck again.

And for the record I have no beef with Manitoba, so if they like being Western, they're welcome in my house...they can take Alberta's place.

Serious Reporting

Want to see the most interesting wobble fall on heels I've ever seen?

This video is from an NBC news piece about a model who fell twice on a Paris runway during Fashion Week.

Can you help but laugh?

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Stoner Geeks

That's what we are. A girl I met in Amsterdam said that she got the feeling that I threw the wickedest parties. She would be wrong about that. Being an American in Amsterdam I knew she had a wild frat party in mind. When I chill with my friends, we relax, toke, and have high-minded philosophical discussions about things most do not expect.

Wookiee: You know what Will Ferrell is? He's an even-more-insane version of Bill Murray. He's Bill Murray squared.

Spage: Well, I don't know if 'squared' is really the right term.

W: You're right...Will Ferrell is the inverse log of Bill Murray!

S: Yeah, I think that's more accurate.

W: Will Ferrell is 10 to the power of Bill Murray.

QED


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Local God

Instead, this guy thinks that it's his job to master; "Thou shalt drive at the speed I decree - whatcha gonna do about it? You're trapped behind me! Bwah ha ha ha ha."


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