Sunday, July 29, 2012

Seymour Narrows

A few days ago, my Father-in-law Chuck told us about Ripple Rock.  Ripple Rock was situated in the middle of Seymour Narrows just north of Campbell River.  This rock created terrible currents and whirlpools that would wreck many a ship.  The decision was made in the 1950's to get rid of it.  The solution was to tunnel under the water and place explosives within the rock.  Around 1400 lbs of explosives were packed into and under the rock.  When they pulled the trigger, what resulted was the largest non-nuclear explosion to date.  The rock was gone and shipping was safe.


Chuck thought it would be a good idea to go and hike the trail out to the narrows.  I went to the tourism centre and got a map and asked where the trail was.  The young lady told me the hike was about 3 hours long.  The map said the trail was 4km each way.  The math sounded good to me.


What we were not told was that the trail was of moderate difficulty.  There were some significant elevation changes and some scrambles as well.  While this would not be terrible news for most people, my mother-in-law has two artificial knees and climbing can be a bit of an adventure for her.  We realised the way things were going early on in our hike, but Diane decided to press on.  She made it both ways with only light to moderate complaining.


The forest was incredible.  You could almost image dinosaurs roaming amongst the ferns and giant moss covered trees.  The endpoint was pretty worth it as well.  We made it out onto the narrows at low tide and we could see the whirlpools and eddies around where the remaining rock lurked under the water.  There is also a very strong current in the narrows.  We witnessed a sail boat get caught in an eddie, get turned part way around and start going the wrong direction by the current before he got it under control.


One last point.  I had decided to take Diane's tripod up with us so that we could take a family photo at the top to prove we made it.  I quickly realized that the damn tripod was heavy.  This was no travel friendly model that I was toting up the hills.  As a result, I forced all of my fellow hikers to pose for photos at the end of the trail.  There was no way I had lugged that God forsaken chunk of iron over 4km to not use it.  I am now of the firm opinion that I will be saving up for a small carbon fibre tripod, no matter how long it takes me.




Tripod=win

The long walk back.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Nature Is Icky


We decided to go for a little nature walk through the Seal Bay forest.  It was a fantastic easy hike through old mossy trees with the ground covered in ferns.  You really had to keep your eyes on the trail however because you couldn't walk more than 10 feet without crossing paths with a giant slug.  These slugs were HUGE.  I'm used to slugs that look like little snails without a shell.  The slugs on the coast look like giant slimy pieces of licorice.  The slugs come in two flavours.  There is the Black Slug which is black (shocker) and the Banana Slug, which is even bigger and yellow with black spots.  These things littered the trails.  Some were slowly making their way across and quite a few had started the trek, but got squished by bike tires or people's shoes.  The latter were giant piles of slime and guts.  There were many close calls of almost having to find a tree trunk to scrape the goo off the bottom of my shoe.


We decided to take the big loop around the forest.  At first the trail was marked very clearly.  However, we got to a point where the trail came out on a major road and just sort of ended.  The map had us walking along the busy road for quite a ways before rejoining the loop.  In all of our wisdom we decided to take a shortcut.  We took another trail that was supposed to link up with our main loop a little further along.  The trails were not so well marked along a our shortcut.  Long story short, our one hour hike took more than twice that long and we were late for dinner (which we were supposed to make).

Here's some pictures I took along the way.



Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Road

After busting our humps for a week in the kitchen repainting, replacing light fixtures and all that entails in an older house, we hopped in the car to drive 1400km down to Vancouver Island.  We had a deadline to make it for my Mother-in-law's 60th birthday party.  Jen had planned it from FSJ and we booted down here so she could cook up a storm for the BBQ.
Essential road trip snacks.

Slurpees make a hot drive easier to do.

Waiting for the ferry at Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver.

Our ferry.


The road trip was actually quite uneventful. We drove for 13 hours the first day and made it most of the way down to the coast.  We caught the ferry over the next day and had a little more relaxing day.  We were up late that night visiting with Jen's parents and then up early the next day to do last minute shopping for the party and Jen had to start cooking.  We had a southern bbq with brisket, pulled pork, chicken wings, baked beans and potato salad.  Jen's mom had a great time and so did all of the guests.
The perfect combination

Jen and I are extremely tired now and it's cloudy and cool outside.  We are hoping to have a day of rest and do a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Canada Day

I took my camera out to the annual Canada Parade last weekend.  This year's incarnation of the parade was a distinct improvement on previous parades I've seen in the John.  Most parades up here involve a load of big rigs with little to no decoration rolling down the street.  This year we had some actual floats.  Maybe there is hope yet.








Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Steve Jobs

I just finished the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.  I had been curious about the book, but then it was sitting on the new books shelf the last time I went to the library.  I ended up grabbing it, not sure what to expect.  I had heard and read the same stories in the media as everyone else about Jobs and they were kind of interesting, but would I be able to make it through a whole tome about the man?  The answer is yes.

This book was actually, very well written.  The book is a good story that is mostly in chronological order, which makes it pretty easy to follow along.  The book also seems pretty balanced. although there are some pretty serious questions that are left unasked by the author.

I was surprised at how much of a dick Jobs was.  We have all heard what a jerk he could be, but he turned out to be a jerk most of the time and he never did feel bad about it.  Jobs didn't feel that the normal rules of social conduct applied to him.  He actually didn't feel that any of the rules applied to him.  This was what let him break them all in his time at Apple, but made him an asshole.

Jobs saw the world in black and white.  Something or someone was either the best thing ever or shit.  There was no in between.  This explains his perfectionism.  It had to be perfect or it was shit.  There is a reason that Apple products are so polished.  Jobs knew what he wanted and got the people around him to accomplish it, usually through bullying.

It was also interesting to find out the reason for Apple's end to end integration.  While it is true, that Jobs thought it was best for consumers, he more importantly needed the control.  Jobs was a massive control freak.  He did not want anyone opening up his creations and messing them up.  He didn't want anyone to make a program that would interfere with his vision.  Job's need to control everything in his life, was most important in the development of the Apple ecosystem we know today.

When I finished the book, I was very impressed with what Jobs had accomplished during his life.  Upon further review however, the story of Jobs life was the story of Apple with a brief interlude at NeXT and Pixar.  What I mean, is that the man had no other interests or accomplishments.  Jobs was married with a family, but he was often, distant, cold and neglectful towards them.  I think what I learned was that Jobs was a very complex man that helped usher in the digital age and later changed how we interact with said digital world.  But, I do not thing he was a great man.  Jobs was a great businessman and salesman, but not a great man.  He was actually a generally awful man who's accomplishments were one dimensional (but impressive in their area).

In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story, likes Steve Jobs, hates Steve Jobs or is just curious about the man and/or Apple.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Fascination


I'd like to introduce you to my new fascination.  I recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S III.  I had read lots of reviews and seen lots of pictures.  I was pretty sure that this phone was the one I wanted.  The day it came out, Jen and I went into Bell and sold our souls for a few pieces of shiny plastic and glass.

I must say, that so far I am very impressed with my phone.  The screen is gorgeous and large enough to read emails, etc. on.  Video looks pretty good on it too.  The dual core processor keeps this thing ticking along and I haven't detected any lag or stuttering yet, regardless of what or how much is running.  My only complaint would be the material the phone is made of is extremely slippery.  I don't have a case yet (none are available), so I handle the device very gingerly.  I have visions of the damn thing squirting out of my hand like a wet bar of soap.  That would send me into an unrecoverable emotional tailspin.

I have very few cell phone numbers yet, so I have had to keep myself busy texting my wife and discovering interesting apps.

Jen got her iPhone that she has been wishing for.  It has been pretty interesting comparing the two styles of OS.  iOS is almost idiot proof, while Android takes a bit more figuring and discovery.  So, far Android seems like it may have a bit more of an upside despite/because of it's complexity.  However, I've only scratched the surface.

Yay!  Another way to make summer fun/less productive.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

School is finally over for another year.  The strike is over for another year.  It's time to relax.  Jen had me make a list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer.  One of them was to get back to blogging.  Working last summer really took the steam out of my blogging and I'm hoping to get my mojo back this summer.  We're travelling a bit this summer which will give me a little bit more to write about.  So here is the first of what will turn into many interesting blog posts.

I have been taking a camera course for the past couple of weeks.  This has made it a pretty hectic last couple of weeks of school.  Between baseball, camera course and nerd club, I'm busy every night of the week.  I  paid quite a bit of money for this course.  I had it recommended by a friend and I really wanted to get deeper into my camera so I could use it as more than an ultra-expensive point and shoot.  So, far the course has been underwhelming.  The first class was spent finding the basic buttons on our cameras.  I am someone who actually reads the manual, so I knew where 90% of the controls were and had a pretty good idea where to find the other 10%.  Unfortunately, most of the other students couldn't find much more than the power switch.  So, I sat with my thumb up my but while I waited for the instructor to help all the people without a clue.  Since then, we have talked about a lot of information that a quick perusal of a photography site or a Google search would have turned up quickly.  They have also been covered in such little detail  as to make the information not much more useful than a Google search.  Luckily, the last class was about shutter speed.  We looked at what it did (which I knew) but what you can do by changing it and also what kinds of speeds work best in what sorts of situations.  I also have some homework to do, so I'll be out shooting and actually getting somewhere.  Hopefully, things are looking up.

I may seem overly critical of my course, but it is true that teachers make the worst students.  I have spent the last five years developing curriculum for little people with a short attention span.  I also realize that there are lots of people who learn better when doing than just listening.  My course would be infinitely better with a few less handouts and more time hands-on.

Complaints done.  Happy Canada Day!