National Treasures

I got to see two national treasures over the past few days.

I just returned from two days of camping in the Gatineau Park , with the family, up at Lac Philippe. In the days B.C. (before children), we used to spend a fair bit of time up there, hiking, biking and skiing so it was a nice re-introduction. I always forget what a treasure the Gatineau Park is!

Saturday night we had a raccoon (raton laveur in French or as I like to call them, with their mask, a raton voleur) visit the campsite despite me sitting 15 feet away in front of the camp fire. He or she had a good sniff around our cooking gear, cooler and food bin before sauntering off, disappointed.

On Sunday morning, we did an 11km hike past Lac Renaud, Lac Taylor and up to the scenic lookout, then back.

After a swim, we did a hike to Lusk Caves and went spelunking in the two caves. The caves are quite amazing and easy to explore, just bring good flashlights or headlamps.

Monday, we headed home in time to get unpacked, washed and fed, before heading out to see Stuart McLean of CBC’s Vinyl Café perform a live show in Gatineau. This was our third trip to see Stuart, having been to his Christmas shows the last 2 years.

Stuart is truly a national treasure and if you are not familiar with him, you should tune into his show on CBC Radio, via the Internet or Sirius satellite radio. See http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/listen.php for more details.

Stuart’s show is a throwback to the golden days of radio when the story was as important as how you told it (or so I’m led to believe – I’m not that old). Vinyl Café also prides itself in showcasing wonderful new Canadian musicians and has introduced us in the past to great acts like Dala, Roxanne Potvin and Danny Michel.

Two weeks ago, Stuart did a show on the Via Rail train, the Canadian, which crosses Canada, telling fantastic tales about our country, Canadians and the railroad. A podcast of the show should be available on the CBC's web site for a few more weeks if you missed it. It was a very poignant episode with Canada Day just 2 weeks away at the time.

Monday’s live show was split into two segments that will be separate radio episodes. One segment featured a monologue about the Canadian Museum of Civilization, designed by architect Douglas Cardinal, the wonderful Canada Hall and exhibits such as the totem collection. Stuart’s tour of the Houses of Parliament uncovered hidden treasures in the Library of Parliament for another segment and two wonderful, new Dave and Morley stories were unveiled (I’ll never look at rusting hulks of cars in the woods in the same way, Stuart!). Finally the show featured great performances first by Ottawa’s Andrea Simms-Karp and then by Hawksley Workman.

Another great show! Thanks, Stuart!

Storage lockers

Driving by Wendover yesterday (or as the Cowboy Fringants sing, Ste. Cecile de Wendover), we saw a man beside a storage locker that was stacked solid with stuff.

He was kicking the wall of stuff trying to get the door shut.

The great irony was that he probably removed it from the garage of his house!

Now people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. My garage is equally messy, and yes, I barely have room for the van sometimes, but it was amusing.

Hotels blow it with their HVAC

I've never met a hotel HVAC system that I liked. HVAC is short for heating, ventilating and air conditioning in case you were wondering.

Most motels have those units on an outside wall that offers heating or cooling with 3 fan speeds: loud, louder and 747 taking off. Unfortunately if you try using any of these settings and try to sleep you will soon get frustrated and turn it off. In summer this has the effect of becoming stiflingly hot in an hour or two. In winter, it soon becomes frigid.

Hotels generally have the units in the ceiling which are quieter but also seem incapable of regulating the temperature.

In April, we spent a couple of nights in the Delta Centre-ville in Montreal with the family. As hotels go, it was fine, but, like all hotels, the heating and air conditioning system was lacking. The Delta was better than most in that it didn't feature one of those horrible, through the wall systems that make so much noise but, over 3 days and 2 nights, I never did find a comfortable temperature despite flipping the thermostat between 18 and 24 degrees C. Either it was too cool with the fan on or too hot with it off.

I spent 8 nights at a new Holiday Inn Express in Antwerp (Antwerpen ou Anvers) Belgium two weeks ago and had the same problem so I resorted to leaving the window open. However the traffic and pedestrian noise (polite term for drunks on the sidewalk) was so irritating that I had to close the window and try just the HVAC, but again, no joy in finding a temperature below 24 degrees celsius. To add to the irritation, in Europe you have to put your room key in a slot by the door to turn on the lights and HVAC, so the moment you leave your room, the HVAC shuts off. Now presumably, you could insert some other piece of plastic, like a maxed-out credit card in the slot and leave it there but I didn't think of it at the time.

Thinking more about it, I realize that hotel rooms are like camping in a tent. You are either too hot or too cold, but the sheets, mattresses and towels are usually better.

Thought du jour

"A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group."

- Russell H. Ewing

The Best Thing About Being Middle-Aged

So my family, friends and collegues have heard me complaining about getting older and in particular, needing reading glasses for the first time a year ago.

This complaining was often followed by very little sympathy, particularly from those who have worn glasses most of their lives.

However, today I found something to be grateful and happy about being "middle-aged".

I had my annual physical today and my new doctor, probably to her relief as much as mine, told me I am too old for testicular cancer and too young for prostate and colon cancer, thereby eliminating the need for either invasive examination!

Hooray for middle age!

Google April Fool's Joke or Birth of Skynet?

Did anyone else notice what I hope was a Google April Fools Day joke?

Before it disappears, go to Google Images and see CADIE, the Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity.

CADIE, Sarah Connor is probably coming for you right now!

2008: The Year of Music

I know it is rather late to do a New Year's recap of the past year, but here goes any (its my blog and I'll recap if I want to, recap if I want to...).


2008 was a spectacular year for me and live music. I saw an incredible amount of live music for the first time in many years.

February Winterlude: Joel Plaskett & the Emergency

March:Evita (not so great)

May (Tulip Festival): The Mighty Popo

June (Ottawa Jazz Festival): Salif Keita, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra

July (Canada Day on Parliament Hill): Blue Rodeo

July Cisco Ottawa BluesFest: Matt Mays and El Torpedo, Secret Machines, Fiftymen, The Tragically Hip, Sean Kingston, Wintersleep, Orchestra Baobab, Feist, The Cooper Brothers, Matthew Good Band, James Taylor, Jully Black, Jason Collett, Most Serene Republic, Stars, Kathleen Edwards, 3 Days Grace, Mighty Popo, Crash Parallel, Plain White T's, Akon, Wyclif Jean, Anders Osborne, Sam Roberts Band, Donna Summer and many others.

August (The Ottawa Folk Festival): Ana Miura, Sarah Harmer, Catherine MacLellan, Lynn Miles, Wil, Dala, James Hill, The Duhks, The D Rangers and others.

September, Cirque du Soleil Corteo (featured some amazing music!)

November: Stars at the Bronson Centre

December: Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe Christmas with Dala at the National Arts Centre.

A bird in the hand....

should be worth far more than two in the bush.

Favourite quotes, part ???

Ooh! Two posts in one day - how prolific of me!

Another amusing quote I came across this week.


"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."

- Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

Down, down, DOW

Heard on David Letterman's monologue this week:

"The Dow Jones hit 6000.

Do you know what that means?

No?

Neither do I."

The Biggest Threat to Windows Security

I discovered this quite by accident yesterday. The biggest threat to your computer's security is Microsoft itself! This is probably not a surprise to any IT professionals.

My work PC was upgraded to Windows XP Professional last year. (Whoo Hoo!)Our IT department usually works under the premise of You can be secure or you can get work done. Actually, I'm just kidding. We do normally get work done and are reasonably secure, but as a user, I can't do much to personalize my desktop or computing environment.

After the new "deploy", I could no longer put my cheerful seasonal pictures on my desktop as a background. For example, one that I posted in my blog in November 2006 http://creative-wryting.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html. You can guess the symbolism!

While I was rummaging around Microsoft Office 2003 Tools and the Microsoft Office Picture Manager, I came across this and a number of other photos I had used before. If you right-click on an image in the Picture Manage, once of the options is to Set as Desktop Background.

Clicking on this, and, lo and behold, my favourite picture now appeared on my desktop!

Therefore despite the best efforts of our IT, Microsoft over-rode their restrictions!

Let's Not Meet By Accident! (My top complaints about Ottawa drivers)

So far this winter, it has been a challenging time for drivers in Ottawa, what with the increased volume on the road as a result of the transit strike and bone-chilling temperatures and black ice.

I list here my biggest complaints about Ottawa drivers.

Clean the snow off your car!

I don't just mean your front windshield! I mean your entire car; roof, hood, trunk, all windows, front bumper and especially all your lights. How many times have you seen a car with just the front window cleared off with the windshield wipers? You'd think it would be obvious that clearing it all off increases how well you can see around you. Cleaning off your roof ensures you don't create a mini blizzard for cars behind you. Also have you ever had a big slab of ice come off a car in front of you? I have. A couple of years ago on the 417, a slab of ice came off a delivery truck, right at my windshield. Fortunately, the only damage was a broken windshield wiper. Scared the crap out of me because I could do nothing to avoid it with the traffic on the road. It was one of those slo-motion moments...Ooooohhhh cccrrraaapppp!!!!!

I should also mention this is a all-season rule because spring and fall frosts and heavy dews can block your vision and can be just as difficult to clear off. Not only that, but unless your windows are warm, they seem to recondense on your windows so a block later you can't see again, sort of a wind chill kind of effect.

Stop on the friggin' stop line!

The stop line. You know, that white line painted on the road at an intersection? It is set back from the intersection to allow pedestrians to cross. With winter snow banks, I know it can be hard to see if you stop at the stop line, but try stopping there and then creeping forward. Also a good idea when intersections are icy as they have been recently to not go racing up to the stop line and expect that your all-season tires will stop you on a dime.

Frankly, I've been scared too many times by cars careening into the road from side streets when they ignore this rule. Last year I almost hit a car that slid into the road from a side street. The only saving grace was no traffic in the lane beside me. Same last night for a car in front of me.

Don't confuse the adequate space between me and the car ahead of me as an invitation to change into my lane!

My driver ed instructor Mr. Panter, taught me to respect the 3 second rule, and leave lots of space between me and the car in front of me, so don't confuse that with an opening for a lane change. When you do, neither of us is respecting the 3 second rule.

Not so close, I hardly know you.

I always thought this bumper sticker was cute. That and "If you can read this bumper sticker, you are too close". See the previous comment for more explanation.

Get off your cell phone and drive!

How many times have you seen cars turning at intersections, making lane changes or even more concentration-demanding driving maneuvres and the driver is on a cell phone?

Pilots have a saying about what takes precedence while flying: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. If you recently heard the cockpit communications from US Air pilot Chesley (Sully) Sullenburger, you would see this in action. He was busy flying a plane with no engines instead of giving blow-by-blow accounts to the tower or passengers.

So be a "Sully" and put away that cell phone for those moments when you aren't flying or navigating and can safely communicate.

Quote of the Day

My quote of the day for yesterday, January 5th, was:

"Waiting for a bus is about as thrilling as fishing, with the similar tantalisation that something, sometime, somehow, will turn up."

George Courtauld

This, of course, does not apply to Auto-wa (Ottawa), still under the grips of a transit strike, where buses have not been seen on the roads since December 9th!

Christmas Joke

A new Christmas joke with the assistance of my collegue Murray:

What is the favorite Christmas song of the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz?

I want a hypothalamus for Christmas,
Only a hypothalamus will do....

Stock "Quotes"

I came across a couple of amusing quotes about the stock market while we have all been reeling from the market turmoil:


"...be fearful when others are greedy and...be greedy when others are fearful."

- Warren Buffet


“Wal-Mart is where the poor will go shopping. That means everyone in about six months.”

- Douglas McIntyre, writing on the 24/7 Wall Street blog about the virtues of Wal-Mart Stores Inc in the current environment.

Midnight thoughts

"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago."

Friedrich Nietzsche


I like this quote because it so aptly describes the thoughts that go through your head, like a dog chasing it's tail, when you lie awake in the middle of the night.

My Ottawa Folk Fest Highlights

We cut Friday night short and arrived to see Ottawa's Ana Miura. Her performance to a fairly small crowd was really great- beautiful voice, great guitar. The highlight was Ana playing a homemade ukelele (more on ukes later). We liked her so much we bought 2 disks at the CD Warehouse tent. Check Ana out at http://www.anamiura.com/.

We went with the entire family on Saturday.

The highlight of the afternoon was the Ukelele workshop where my kids got the chance to build a kit ukelele under the watchful, expert and patient eye of lutier Wolf Kater http://www.wolfkater.com/. Thanks Wolf! See http://www.ottawafolk.org/index.html#ukelele for more details from the Festival on the workshop.

The kids later went on to Ukelele 101 where they learned to play their creations. The instructors were a distinguished looking older man and a young bearded fellow who were introduced without much fanfare. Imagine our surprise to find the older man was Chalmers Doane, member of the Order of Canada for his work teaching children to play the ukelele and for developing a highly successful curriculum for schools. Chalmers is incidentally the father of the beautiful Canadian singer Melanie Doane!

The younger bearded man was James Hill who is considered one of the most talented ukelele musicians in the world, something that was confirmed watching a number of performances on Sunday! We were amazed by how humble and down-to-earth they both were.

One memorable quote from James: "Tuning, like aircraft maintenance, is always worthwhile". You can see more about James at http://www.ukulelejames.com/

Music highlights for me were D Rangers, Wil http://ibreakstrings.com/, (this guy is great - another CD purchase from CD Warehouse!), Ottawa's Roxanne Potvin (great voice and guitar), guitar great Colin Linden and of course Sarah Harmer http://www.sarahharmer.com/ who closed out the show with her great voice and band.

Sunday afternoon we attended a number of great workshops where a number of different artists were brought together to play their music and accompany each other.

More great shows here. Unfortunately we couldn't see all the workshops at once so missed Ana Miura and Sarah Harmer at the "Tuned Into Nature" workshop.

We did see Dala with Radoslav Lorkovic who played an amazing accordian and piano on his own songs. He also appeared with the D Rangers on Saturday. They were unfortunately drowned out by sound bleed from the Dance tent by Donna the Buffalo, another great band from upstate New York, featuring accordian and washboard.

We also saw James Hill, Anne Davison, Roxanne Potvin and Catherine MacLellan at the Blacksheep Live workshop. This was one of the first times we heard James play ukelele on his own, with partner Anne Davison playing cello and accompanying others. Anne by the way, lights up the stage when she smiles! Roxanne Potvin was great again doing acoustic versions of her songs. Catherine MacLellan from down east (Halifax, but her heart belongs to PEI evidently) has got a wonderful voice. She was the hardest working performer on Sunday, performing on 3 stages throughout the day.

Later we saw Colin Linden, Lynn Mile and Catherine again in a tribute to Rasputin's, the Ottawa folk music venue that was destroyed by fire earlier this summer.

The evening concerts began with The Duhks, followed by James Hill and Anne Davison again. Great performances by the Duhks. James demonstrated his master of the ukelele by showing how to use it as a percussion instrument and play it with chopsticks, as well as play some of his own compositions, Chalmer Doane's and traditional arrangements with Anne on cello.

The highlight of the evening for us for powerful music was American blues folk songstres Odetta who in her 70's has a powerful voice surpassed by only her wit. In introducing one song, she was discussing birth control and wryly commented that now, as ever, was still a good time to use a rubber (condom) if you are having sex!

The evening was closed off by Rufus Wainwright. We left during his performance as the battle between "chairs" and standing people escalated and unfortunately spoiled the warm fuzzy feeling that the small and intimate performances from the preceding days had created.

The top performers in my mind from the weekend were Colin Linden, who is just an amazing guitar player and was improvising to play along with Lynn Miles and Catherine MacLellan. Also James Hill in his performances with Catherine and Roxanne. Just incredible!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend of great music. On big thank you to the Festival for making it a welcoming event for families! The children paid no admission and the Ukelele building and Ukelele 101 workshop, Instrument petting zoo and kid activities made it a real family event.

P.S. What is it about bringing chairs to outdoor music events and expecting people will not stand in front of the stage? Take a hint people - if you want to sit, go to the National Arts Centre - they don't have a mosh pit there!

Great Weekend at the Ottawa Folk Festival!

I've just spent two and a half wonderful days listening to some fantastic music at the Ottawa Folk Festival, held at Brittania Park.

I wouldn't classify myself as a "folkie" normally - I went mainly to see Saturday headliner Sarah Harmer. However I really had a great time and expanded my musical boundaries with the wide variety of folk music styles.

The weather was great except for a bit of a shower on Friday evening, there was some great food including fair from Ottawa's Green Door restaurant, great beer from Big Rock Brewery and of course great tunes and a couple of really cool events.

More to come!

Shameless Solicitation

Please click on the following link and help me get extra ballots to win $5000 to spend at airmilesshops.ca in BMO Mosaik MasterCard's contest.

http://www.surfandwin.ca/default.aspx?sID=37426

Thanks!

"I feel like a Rock Star!"

Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien arrived at the Ontario Provincial Police station in Kanata on Monday to be booked and fingerprinted on criminal charges, stemming from last year's municipal election.

"I feel like a rock star," O'Brien said to the crowd of reporters waiting for him upon his arrival.

Yeah Larry, you're a rock star....Think Britney Spears, not Bono.