Tag Archives: Standard Fare

Personal Musings

Another Vancouver Weekend Recap

  • picnic with blueberries and cake at Edgemont music in the streets
  • got a library card (North Van Libraries are still open) and borrowed some films (documentaries on Napoleonic wars and King Tutankhamen tomb discovery plus Leonard Cohen “I’m your Man,” something else i forget)
  • Caribbean fest (corn on cob, ribs, iced coffee, hot coffee)
  • Canadian fireworks for Celebration of Light along with Choogle’rs form Colorado and Ianiv from the newly-more-funded Now Public – watched from Dundarave, ate picnic and played disc on well-manicured West Van park lawn
  • podcast editing (new Choogleon up (Happy Vappy) plus 4 more almost-ready-to-go
  • updated podcast queue page and uploaded album art rough drafts for editing plus made some album art
  • Flickr posting (Canadian fireworks set)
  • commented in support of Miss 604’s (very successful) blogathon
  • assembled an art table (bought screws from dollar store) for my studio room
  • rehung a Van Gogh print with a pool table in a cafe – hung so is in the rays of a translucent skylight (sigh)
  • tokes on the porch/park/etc. (sweet tooth, purple kush, durban poison)
  • played wiffle ball (the boy kicked my butt (again))
  • hung hemp twine line with clothespins for the outline sheets for novel project (working title: elsewhere)
  • bought screws to assemble my custom maple bookcase (home to massive, qulaity literature library)
  • saw simpsons movie too (a tearjerker, sniff, sniff)

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BC & Vancouver Activities

Vancouver BC Place Stadium dome un-flated

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{Note: Cross posted at GetElastic, Urban Vancouver and 2010 Daily Vancouver}

Updated Dome pic with correct date
[Note: Updated photo with correct date – *really* sorry for any misunderstanding ;-)]

Digg this story

Vancouver’s noble and venerable stadium BC Place – which opened in 1983 as one of the first self-supporting domes in the world – is the latest casualty of the wildest winter weather ever around here.

Early reports say a 40 foot rip caused the collapse under the wet heavy snow. Check out more with Derek Miller’s Penmachine and CBC and Vancouver Sun and Now Public. No injuries reported. See Derek’s snapshot of BC Place’s collapsed dome too.

I recall the inflating of the dome with a batch of 747 engines and seeing David Bowie, Peter Gabriel and The Tubes there in August 1983. But i digress …
view from new office

The two venues BC Place (home to the CFL Lions plus hosts a variety of concerts, trade shows, exhibitions and concerts) and GM Place (home of the NHL Canucks plus concerts etc.) sit directly across False Creek from EP HQ and dominate the skyline from our perspective.

BC place dome in better days
Oddly enough… in recent Olympic 2010 talk, there was discussion of removing the roof for a more ‘wintery’ experience in the opening and closing ceremonies. Wonder if the estimated $175 million (how did they come up with that number?) will encourage that decision.

Meanwhile, Vancouver’s beloved Stanley Park is still recovering from the loss of 3000+ trees during the recent hurricane-force winds (well technically typhoon-strength winds since we are a Pacific city, not Atlantic), not to mention the boil-water requirement, a few massive snow storms (by our standards) and the wettest November ever (which is really something).

Press conference is scheduled for 2:30. Digg this story

Kinfolk + Pals

The World is Not Flat checks in from The Netherlands

I don’t know Lee and Sachi personally but seems i am only a degree or two of separation apart … either way, I’ve been following along on their round the world trip and they’ve recently come ’round to Europe and into Amsterdam.

With my particular interest in the social policies of The Nederlands – having visited Amsterdam (Flickr tag) several times – (listen to Choogle on with Uncle Weed podcast episode #27), i read Lee’s recent missive with great interest.

Yup, it’s all about the harm reduction and tolerance and it turns out that decriminalization and normalization does statistically reduce abuse and use – perhaps getting high and screwing whores really are less enticing when the risk/thrill factor is removed ;-).

Thick snippet below but read the whole piece at Sex and Drugs in Liberal Holland.

 I described Amsterdam to my Mom as “A bastion of hedonism”. Sure, it has beautiful canals, nice people, amazing sights, about a billion bicycles and a ton of charm, but what is truly impressive about Amsterdam and what differentiates it on a worldwide scale is the liberal policies of the Dutch government concerning drugs and prostitution.

For instance, we stayed in a guesthouse in the Red Light District and within two blocks of our guesthouse, anyone with the money can legally buy “soft drugs” like marijuana, mushrooms and hashish in small quantities and sexual services from a host of licensed prostitutes who display their wares in large windows under red lights. I suppose you could also see some music and complete the hedonists triumverate of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.

The view from our place:

For the visitor to Amsterdam, these elements of the city can be surprising and intimidating – we talked to some people who would not step foot into the Red Light District. However, I think it is more surprising that the city doesn’t have the overall feel of a “bad neighborhood” with a high frequency of drugs, sex shops and prostitutes. There is a ragged and depressing element to the Red Light District, but I don’t think it is much different than any other city – it is just that tourists are exposed and invited to participate in activities that would otherwise be managed in dark alleys and controlled by criminals instead of government agencies.

The Dutch policy seems based on the idea that people are going to do what they are going to do, regardless of the government or the potential for punishment. And if this is true, their only tools are regulation, taxation and tolerance. It makes sense to me and the Dutch folks we talked to about it.

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Cannabis, Annotated

Immovable mass of cannabis thwarts modern military means

What a tremendous effort to thwack some cannabis – seems sad in a way – too much work for little purpose or possible benefit.
Hemp field in Afghanistan

Canada troops battle 10-ft Afghan marijuana plants

Thu Oct 12, 4:52 PM ET

Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet (three metre) high marijuana plants.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defence staff, said on Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

“The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It’s very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices … and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don’t dodge in and out of those marijuana forests,” he said in a speech in Ottawa.

“We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said.

Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.

“A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hillier said dryly.

One soldier told him later: “Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I’d say ‘That damn marijuana’.”

Print Story: Canada troops battle 10-ft Afghan marijuana plants on Yahoo! News

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Personal Musings

Words are for revolutions: Backgrounder tidbits

Just starting into a weblog feast thanks to Ben and Jay but ya know i have been a little apprehensive about doing so and i think there is a few reasons for this …1) i hesitate to be too self-indulgent and ego-centric. ya see now … in the last 12 months, my media manipulation skills resulted in excess coverage in national magazines, local newspapers, films and myriad websites and public access shows. i really do enjoy this kinda stuff cause i have a lot to say but sometimes i feel as though it reflects on me in a less than favorable manner like i am “pimping my own dojo” too much. in reality, i tend to be rather self-deprecating and sincere to a fault and don’t want to be that guy who is always cheesing out and boosting his own jive scene.

2) words are important things and are not to be trifled with. As a writer (aren’t we all …) and a reader i place almost undue reverence on the written word and tend to spend months doing a “big project” and feel “small projects” along the way aren’t as worthy. when i see my work published in a magazine and recall the hours i spend editing and researching, i am pleased momentarily. when i sit to write, i am motivated by the feeling that i am sharing an epistle with an yet unknown audience. this weblogging is much more immediate and i don’t much care for being caught with my pants down (well sometimes hehe) for lack of editing and consideration.

3) finding myself being an internet entrepreneur type again, there is always 15 “urgent” things on my list thus i feel my priority is doing that stuff whether is be creating ads, fundraising, writing business plans, proposals, contracts and letters, moving furniture, wiring offices, understanding command prompt TELNET on my mac osx (no laughing) to program a DSL router or improving my joint rolling skills. at the end of it all, the ‘puter (though a fine tool) and i need a little reboot time away from one another.

4) i reckon i am a veteran weblogger in that i publish most everything i write and finish in one form or another on-line and have been doing so since i borrowed an HTML book from Scottyo and posted my first hemp in japan website. shoot, i got stories i wrote in 11th grade are on-line and i am olden now. plus my works from evergreen, menu magazine, high times, photo galleries from the Olympic winter games and cannabis cup, even the infamous Uncleweed story are available for public amusement. i do like transparency and don’t mind people knowing what it is that i do (though i hope none of my youth hockey team players come across tooo much ;-) don’t need no irate parents).

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i suppose, in recent years my use of the internet as a gutenburg-press-like publishing renaissance tool is well manifest in my fantasy sports leagues participation, particularly in the hockey league where i am currently battling some mystery team for the virtual Stanley cup. the players i choose and the manner in which in manage my team evolved over years of careful study and somewhat reflects my personality – i don’t like superstars or streaky inconsistency types, i like hard-workers who chip in every game and score in clutch situations. plus i avoid players from teams i don’t care for and relish finding the young break-through player before anyone else.

now that i have moved into the new/old office, my routine will facilitate more entries as i aim to make this a tool to post many of the lists that i am wont to make. perhaps we shall see my favorite books/authors, films, road-trips, countries visited, brushes with fame, fave tokes and other such info “for the record.” i realize my space-time continuum is often skewed so i it behooves me to post anecdotal discourse publicly before the senility gets any worse.

OlyWa, Friday, April 4, 2003