rollercoateser

Posted on January 31, 2014 by kaan

It seems that, lately, anytime I go on a bike ride longer than about 15 minutes I go through pretty much the same emotional highs that then get deconstructed through rationalization. It basically goes like this.

That person I just caught a glance of is a cyclist. With quite thin legs. In tights. On an upright bike.

CONCLUSION: Shannon is in Vancouver and forgot to tell anyone!!!

At this point the logic is clearly stamped “infallible”. Nevertheless I take a moment to keenly observe the cyclist and cross check.

That is not her helmet. She could have borrowed one.
That is not one of Shannon’s coates. She could have acquired a new one.
That is not her highviz tunic. Probabilities are sharply dropping.
Shannon is one of the most reliable logistics communicators I know. Also that person looks nothing like her.

Whatever. Easy mistake. Could happen to anyone.

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captain stinky pants and associates

Posted on January 30, 2014 by kaan

Monday night I enjoyed a Dine Out Vancouver soirée at Libra Room. That part was great.

While there, Miki introduced a topic that made me smile. She informed us she is on a 12 step program to becoming a cyclist. She self identified as being at level 3. While it is not clear exactly what the step or level criteria are, I do know she recently went on a bicycle powered pub crawl that started at UBC and eventually landed her back here at home. That is some good stuff for a level called 3 of 12.

On the ride home from Libra Room, I’m pretty sure she leveled up.

She was leading the way, like a good cyclist, on the far right of the road. Tess was riding just behind her. I was riding on the far left side of the road being an ass. We were nearly home. Suddenly Miki belts out something like “ohwphack!” At this moment she has a skunk under her front tire. I shouted “go! go! go!” Tess said “ooohh!” Unfortunately, her face was aimed at the skunk when she said that. Tess got a full spray down, Miki’s back tire took a bit of a hit too. My jackassing on the far side of the road paid off and I got away clean.

But I still have to live with the smell.

The skunk ran away. In general I hope it is fine. They lived here before we laid down a city and they are adapting. If it was rendered sterile by the encounter, that’s okay though. Hopefully that would promote an adaptation whereby skunks check for cyclists before darting onto the road.

Posted in Adventures, Bicycles | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

morning

Posted on January 25, 2014 by kaan

The view out my bedroom window this morning was stunning. A crescent moon hung in the corner with Saturn above it shining brightly. Antares, one of the brightest stars in the sky, was visible in the lower left. As I was enjoying the scenery, the international space station went whizzing by.

Below is my mspaint rendering of the scene. It is a long exposure mspaint image so the ISS is visible only as a blurred line.

LongExposureMorning

Posted in Inspiration | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

British Columbia as Westeros

Posted on January 24, 2014 by kaan

The amazing and talented map maker Andy Cuthbert has redrawn BC as Westeros. Click the image for a large jpg, pdf is here. Descriptions are at the bottom.

GoTMap_AC_2013

Please credit accordingly; he says feel free to share.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

synergetic ideation

Posted on January 21, 2014 by kaan

As a citizens of a bilingo country, all Canadians are expected to be able to insert jargon or slang from more than one discipline or culture into casual conversation. The trick is finding the right combination of lingo to throw down so you come across as übergnar without seeming totally 404. Continually strive for improvement in the area of bilingoism.

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Beautiful, still

Posted on January 19, 2014 by kaan

Early morning adventures anywhere bring with them the privilege of watching the world wake up. This Saturday was no exception. The moisture in Vancouver combined with the warmth of dawn to produce some stunning views.

All that rambling to excuse posting more photos of places I have already shared. I live in a beautiful part of the planet. I hope I never take it for granted.

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Stanley Park in the morning mist

 

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Sunrise over Bowen Island

 

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tied up in silk

Posted on January 18, 2014 by kaan

My last few hours in Toronto this week were spent joining the circus. My wonderful friend Sylvia invited me to join her at the Flying Arts Collective. I have known a few folks who were into silk aerial work (such as Lis, the source of my worms!) but had never tried it myself.

The wonderful instructor, Stephanie, walked me through a great warm up and then got me going on the basics.

image

After basic climbing skills we got into foot locks.

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And eventually I managed an inverted butterfly move. But I was too exhausted to repeat the move for the photoshoot so instead here is a photo of my butt half inverted.

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That was Wednesday. I am still hurtin’.

I think I want to do more of this.

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I really wanted to discover this was a hoax…

Posted on January 14, 2014 by kaan

To quote the opening paragraph:

 

The National Energy Board and Department of Fisheries and Oceans have entered into a Memorandum Of Understanding regarding fish and fish habitat. Through this Memorandum Of Understanding, the National Energy Board will now be responsible for assessing potential impacts to fisheries from proposed National Energy Board regulated pipeline and power line applications.

 

source

Posted in Ramble | Tagged , | 2 Comments

afternoon wisdom

Posted on January 6, 2014 by kaan

I think clocks would be more efficient if they only spent electricity moving the hands uphill, from 6 to 12, and then charged their batteries going back downhill again from 12 to 6 using regenerative braking just like in that prius I saw.

 

Posted in Inspiration, Ramble | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

bourboned

Posted on January 3, 2014 by kaan

While in Kamloops last week I had the joy of participating in a bourbon tasting substantially empowered by brother.

six bevvies

I made some notes of things people said about each. We sampled them from shortest to tallest bottle. You can use the comments to see which bourbon is most likely to be your favourite.

Elijah Craig 12 year old
– it has a grape nose
– it has a light brown taste
– it makes me want to get my banjo out

From this point on we had live banjo music for the tasting.

Maker’s Mark
– it makes me smile
– it happens on my mouth with rad

Buffalo Trace
– I’m wearing buffalo jeans
– it has a dry aftercorn
– it is thicker in my mouth

Jim Beam 8 year old
– it has hickory oaks of tenderness oversold
– my urine is now clean
– it is better cuz drunk

Old Grand-Dad
– crying-more-than-the-lanyard-incident activated
– monster mash
– mouth spankin’
– didn’t finish in Ni4ky’s mouth

Evan Williams
– oh no no, oh hell yea
– gotta lotta peat
– it’s like skate blades. That is a compliment.

Eagle Rare 10 year old
– amber goodness
– it is like walking up to a velvet wall
– rap a moss
– it is like finding martin guitar strings

From this point on we had live music from a guitar strung with martin strings.

It was a fun evening.

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