Asian bachelor fridge

Inspected the fridge as dinnertime approached, was pretty empty (but enough for a meal). There were a total of 11 food items / containers. How many can you guess?? Click on the "comments" to see the answer.

Battle formation

Had the dragonboat out with 22 paddlers, as well as all four outrigger canoes. It was pretty cool actually, sometimes when the dragonboat was stopped, and two outriggers were on either side, it was like a heavy battlecruiser with several destroyers in formation. Too bad noone was on shore with a camera this time. But actually, the dragonboat is pretty fast, I thought an outrigger, being light and streamlined, could keep up to it, but it was not the case. Haha, was joking next time we take the lead and the dragonboat is going to pass us, we'll just steer in front of it, wave the safety manual shouting "who has right of way?!" and piss them off. C suggested A and I might be able to match a full dragonboat, sounded like a challenge but unfortunately no opportunity to test it, and I'm losing another month of paddling practice.

Bike repair

There appeared to be more problems with the bike than I thought (bent axle, etc) and thus cost more than expected. Was thinking whether I should actually do it... this bikes getting pretty old now, a new wal-mart $150 bike would probably match it in quality, maybe it's not worth repairing. Oh well, will keep it going a while longer, if I did get something new I might get something much nicer. Also have considered "folding bikes" that you can collapse into a small-ish container so it's easy to store and to take traveling, I think that could be quite handy for me. Unfortunately the ones I looked at so far (and probably all I will look at in the future, due to their nature) were too small for me, too uncomfortable to ride. See, people who complain they're too short, here's another bonus for you.

Another Coincidence

Hadn't seen her or heard from her for a long long time, perhaps more than a year? Then, got an email, was a mass thing for charity sponsorship, but nonetheless an email from her. Then, just a few hours later, I actually saw her walk by as I stood in line at the supermarket.

Fish Creek bike

When I heard someone had ridden from fish creek, I was so impressed, it seemed like an enormous distance. But then later on, was looking at a map, and it didn't seem quite so bad. I'd done half-way round trip before, so full-way one-way (C-train home) would be the same. So I tried it myself.

Started off pretty normal, then as I crossed the zoo bridge going slow for pedestrians, a red-shirt passed me. He seemed pretty speedy, so I decided to set him as my pace car. After that, spent the next 30 minutes constantly going 100% to try to keep up. And keep up I did! No chance that I'd ever pass, but that's fine. Having someone there like that as motivation causes you to push yourself much more than being alone. I was even thinking, if he had stopped somewhere, I'd have stopped and said "Hey! What do you think you're doing?! You can't just stop." Anyways, along some gravel-road section near douglasdale, I somehow kicked up a stick and it jammed in my rear deraileur. As the dull grinding sound slowed me down, I tried to kick and back-pedal it out, but couldn't. Nooo.... red-shirt.... He quickly disappeared as I stopped for the quick fix. But even losing 30 seconds at 100% would require 5 minutes at 110% to recover (do the math) which of course would not be possible. I was actually quite sad to lose red-shirt, he'll never know how much he meant to me! As I started up, I discovered the situation was worse than I thought, as I changed gear and heard a terrible rattling! Stopped again to analyze things. A piece of metal had been bent, now pointing from the deraileur towards the wheel. If I stay in the gear farthest from the wheel (hardest), it's ok, but if I try to drop down, that metal goes into the spokes. With the rear stuck there, the front could only go to outside and middle, meaning my 21 speed bike had become a 2 speed bike: Hard and Maximum. Which I use most of the time anyways, except it made long steep hills extremely difficult. And stupid male ego prevented me from getting off and walking up, so I put super stress on my muscles and bike. Because of the first discovery of metal-into-spokes, my rear wheel was no longer true. But overall it wasn't too bad, still ridable. But with these setbacks, and the loss of red-shirt, I was pretty lazy the rest of the way. Also, without red-shirt, I got a little lost, had to bypass fences to go through a pathway closure, and eventually the pathway ended in a community and I had to backtrack to the previous turnoff. Still, it was only a little more than an hour from my place to 22X, I was impressed. Quite a while to get over to the train station, as I looked around. Was hungry but couldn't find any good food places. The train ride home seemed to take almost as long as the bike ride.

Quite glad to have done it, for sure will go again sometime, maybe someday make it round trip. Was a lovely day leading into a lovely evening (that I won't write about).

hike/paddle

Got to do two good things in one day. Just went to powderface/prairie creeks, didn't have too much time by the time we left the city. Had to cross a creek with no bridge, but the water wasn't insanely cold and the rocks weren't too slippy or uneven. Companions soon ran off, so now hiking alone I decided to make it more interesting and take off into the wilderness. Kept moving fast but seemed to make slow progress. Had "mantracker" in my mind, I was leaving an enormously clear path but going through terrain horses could never follow. Got arms and legs covered in tiny scratches from tree branches, but still fun enough. Also reminded me a little of wandering lost into the borneo rainforest with mustafa, though the fauna's completely different. The route often got bad, with the creek cutting into the cliff and having to ascend a lot to get around it, and eventually seemed to be becoming worse with no exit so I gave up and returned to the path. Mantracker would have got me then.

Back in town went paddling. Too bad it takes so long to transport and assemble the outriggers. I got to try the "new canoe" while there, and discovered it sucks, hopefully it's just temporary. Paddled for about the same duration as the dragonboat practice, was so nice finally to be out on the water on a beautiful day.

Thanks to someone mentioning "dipped cone" in the car, I had a craving, and swung by dairy queen for one. Saw some dragonboaters from another team there. Chatted a little, and as I finished my ice cream and left I called "good to see fellow athletes treating our bodies right!" Soo bad.

The longest time (new version)

This time I'm referring to the itinerary I just got in my inbox. I'm going to malaysia, via hong kong, which is great. The stupid thing is, to get to hong kong instead of the usual vancouver stopover, I've got a toronto stopover! Nothing like starting my trip by flying 4 hrs in the completely wrong direction! 30h20m from calgary take off to miri landing (plus time in airport before and after), that's several hours longer than it took to get to australia! (Not sure how it compares to my flight to Ghana 2005, but that was semi-intentional, saving personal money and also visiting Dubai)

Ok, looking a bit further, I could do it cheaper than them just by visiting the airlines websites. I'd spend much less time on a plane, and spend some time in hong kong. Think I will suggest, though now they've already booked it, probably won't want to change.

The longest time

Heard Billy Joel "The longest time" on the radio early in the morning, and it was then stuck in my head all day! It was there as I played a game, it was there as I made meals. My biking and running pace was set to the music in my head. It was there as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep. My hands were becoming a little sore from snapping fingers so much. At least it's a fun song, hope it doesn't stay stuck too long!

Dragonboat couples

Not sure how it started, back at the sea can after dragonboat monday I thought I overheard Cyrus telling his friend that actually many couples have hooked up in dragonboat and gone on to serious relationships. I jokingly called "what?! how come it hasn't happened for me then?!" But at that moment, I realized that I completely meant it, and felt something like anger. It was a bit weird, different than a normal conscious feeling, a colder burning. Anyways, his friend joked about being alone steering or surrounded by beefy engine room guys, then all headed off and went home and tried to forget about it.

Boat Patrol

Since our canoe got stolen, we have to call boat patrol to bring our dragonboat to dock. So now I have "heaven move me move my soul, here comes the boat, here comes the boat patrol, we will dance, we will dance..." stuck in my head (it's a Starship song actually "Beat Patrol")

City Chase

Didn't know if I'd be in town, so I waited. Then when I knew I could do it again, looked for a partner, but couldn't find any. Former partners the Jay and Jay-son were unavailable. Tried to get ahold of Jay-me, have always thought he'd make an awesome partner actually, but we've lost touch. Even asked Jay-net (ok that's stretched the pronounciation too far) but another no go. A few other misc non-jay attempts failed. I even considered taking a teddy bear in a backpack as my partner, that would be awesome too, but I remember some challenges actually require two autonomous people.

I probably could have found someone if I had tried harder, but perhaps fate was sparing me some pain, as the forecast is about 4 degrees and snow for city chase day. We know winter and I don't function together.

Fart noises

Time for some semi-mature thought on an immature topic. I remember some George Carlin skit discussing how important the fart noise is to us as kids, as we find so many ways to replicate it. I was goofing around today, and realizing that as we get older, not only do we get more repressed about the topic, we actually become physically less capable of reproducing the sound! Ones that require lips only can still be done pretty effectively, we just become out of practice. But how about some others. The one using just the two hands sealed together doesn't seem to work anymore, as the knuckles become more bony and leave small gaps between fingers preventing the seal. The hand-in-armpit one we simply avoid most of the time because it's now yucky, could be sweaty or have some substance put on to prevent sweating. However, this one still works well in the shower or fresh out of the shower. The mouth in the elbow doesn't seem to work as well anymore, biomechanically. Then there's perhaps my childhood favorite, the heels of the hands together, palms face towards your face. Hands are too big now, doesn't work so well. Though one handed is somewhat possible. I'm sure there are others that are no longer coming to mind. Overall though, it seemed interesting that as our need for this skill fades, so does our capability. I think I should apply for an NSERC grant to research it further.

Lastly, if you're reading this and find yourself attempting to make these noises, I applaud you, relax and have some fun!

Prairie view

Hiked prairie view today. Nothing too interesting. Perhaps the most interesting thing was thinking about spider webs... sometimes you find one floating in the middle of the trail, with about a four foot strand to a tree on one side and a 3 foot strand out to a tree on the other side. How did it start it?! Sure, once there's the 7 foot strand across the path, you can walk out midway and make a web. But how does that initial one start? It would be like me building a 200 metre rope bridge across a gorge by myself. I doubt that it sits in one tree branch and then fires out a 7 foot strand all the way across to the other tree. Yet the more likely answer is still pretty implausible, that it makes a long thread just hanging down and waits for it to get blown in such a way as to connect to the other tree on the other side of the path, without first getting tangled in other branches of the starting tree. And I don't picture it making the strand, attaching it to one tree, then walking over on the ground and climbing the other tree to attach it over there. Still, whatever the method, it happens, and quite a lot actually. I try to avoid destroying them if I can help it.

Anyways, threw some snow balls at the drive-in movie screen (from the few remaining snow piles that almost seemed there just for that purpose), hung out at the fire lookout a while, then continued back via jewel pass. Was longer than I remembered, but a nice walk in the woods. I felt stupid talking out loud to myself just for the sake of making noise.

Trend?

2 practices, 2 times getting the boat, 2 times returning the boat.