When I look back at my undergraduate days and do a mental inventory of the courses I took, a select few really stand out.
One of them, which was an elective, was a second year mathematics course called "The Mathematics of Finance".
Of all the math courses I suffered through (calculus, linear algebra, statistics), this one was by far the most useful one I've taken. Mortgages, declining balances, amortizations, simple and compound interest, stocks, bonds, coupons, strips, and so on.
Over the years, this course has been worth its textbook's weight in gold (probably literally) in helping me make smart decisions about money. It has saved me literally thousands of dollars on my mortgage (a tale unto itself).
Recently, I've begun working with a professional financial planner. I know about stocks and bonds, and to avoid mutual funds like the plague, but there is simply too much inherent complexity in the system for a retail investor like me to deal with intelligently - at least if I don't want to simplify my life with just investing in an index ETF.
My financial planner calls me about once every two weeks or so and he's been educating me about the markets on the whole. Jim educates me about the markets for two reasons - one so that I feel confident in his recommendations, and two so that if he's feeling bullish on a particular investment idea I have to be able to understand what the idea is. Because as he says, if I don't understand it and he can't explain it to me, then it might not be such a good idea after all.
Thanks to that math of finance course, I can make intelligent decisions with Jim's help. That is an amazingly useful tool.
25 September 2007
22 September 2007
On Making Sausage
Today I made sausage for only the second time ever. The first time was at the tail end of the Dubrulle "serious amateur" 6-day advanced culinary class.
My cousins Anita and Karlheinz from Germany are visiting my parents and so I took the adorable granddaughter to be doted upon and took up Karlheinz's offer of showing me how to make classic German bratwursts (his rendition of them naturally). He'd made a batch before our trip out there last weekend, and they're really awesomely good.
I brought along my KitchenAid stand mixer as it has a stronger motor than my dad's, and after lunch, we set to work.
First is the meat (all pork) - the ratio is 8 parts shoulder to 2 parts belly. If you want slightly moister sausages you can go 7 to 3. You want the meat ground coarsely - I learned that commercial ground meat is actually twice ground, but as a general rule for sausage you just want it run through once.
Then after mixing the secret seasoning recipe (secret = I'm not going to post it) you sprinkle it over the ground meat (we had 6.5kg of it), you knead it. Like bread dough. Aggressive, hard, making sure you mix in all the seasonings well and thoroughly. And you know what - if you want to see how the taste is, to make sure the seasoning is right, you taste it. Raw.
Now, I'm sure lots of people will freak out - but that's because we've been conditioned to avoid raw meat, especially chicken, as if it were radioactive waste. But let me tell you something - it was GOOD. So good in fact, that last week I spread some of the "we ran out of casing" sausage meat straight onto bread. Mmm mmm mmm. It's really no different in any fundamental way from steak tartare.
Once the meat has been worked, it becomes quite firm, very much like bread dough when it's ready. The proteins in meat have the same reaction to the kneading as the glutens in flour.
We let the meat mixture sit for about an hour to let the flavours infuse (that, and we went and had lunch). After lunch, we went down and set up the KitchenAid with all the attachments and got to work.
Slipping sausage casing onto the end of the nozzle where the meat comes out suggests and looks exactly like what you think it might, and no doubt contributes to the notion that those who love the law and sausages should watch neither being made.
Once the casing was ready, you need two people - one to feed the meat into the machine, one to deal with the extrusion of meat into the casing. To process 6.5kg of prepared meat took us about 40-45 minutes. I joked at the start that I would probably get the hang of it about the time we were almost done, and I was right.
It was interesting to me that we did the links only after the casing (about 2m long) was filled. At Dubrulle we made the links as we went along (using artifical collagen casing), but Karlheinz did it after the fact and showed me the easy technique to do it - at least it looked easy, kinda like how an old Italian grandmother makes fresh pasta look easy.
After the sausages were in links, they were hung to dry. The sausages "settle" into the casing, and also change colour. The sausage recipe we made is very flexible. You can cook them as bratwursts of course, but you could also let them dry out in a cool room and in about eight days they'll go from fresh to coated in white (salt) to turning red (cured). You can also cold smoke them (aka Mettwurst) and then cook them or spread it raw on toast (sprinkled with a little bit of onion, mmmm...).
The local JN&Z deli said any time I want sausage casing I can just book ahead, and that if I like they'll make me 50lbs of sausage to whatever recipe I like. I might just take them up on that, especially as I'm not getting a side of pork this fall.
My cousins Anita and Karlheinz from Germany are visiting my parents and so I took the adorable granddaughter to be doted upon and took up Karlheinz's offer of showing me how to make classic German bratwursts (his rendition of them naturally). He'd made a batch before our trip out there last weekend, and they're really awesomely good.
I brought along my KitchenAid stand mixer as it has a stronger motor than my dad's, and after lunch, we set to work.
First is the meat (all pork) - the ratio is 8 parts shoulder to 2 parts belly. If you want slightly moister sausages you can go 7 to 3. You want the meat ground coarsely - I learned that commercial ground meat is actually twice ground, but as a general rule for sausage you just want it run through once.
Then after mixing the secret seasoning recipe (secret = I'm not going to post it) you sprinkle it over the ground meat (we had 6.5kg of it), you knead it. Like bread dough. Aggressive, hard, making sure you mix in all the seasonings well and thoroughly. And you know what - if you want to see how the taste is, to make sure the seasoning is right, you taste it. Raw.
Now, I'm sure lots of people will freak out - but that's because we've been conditioned to avoid raw meat, especially chicken, as if it were radioactive waste. But let me tell you something - it was GOOD. So good in fact, that last week I spread some of the "we ran out of casing" sausage meat straight onto bread. Mmm mmm mmm. It's really no different in any fundamental way from steak tartare.
Once the meat has been worked, it becomes quite firm, very much like bread dough when it's ready. The proteins in meat have the same reaction to the kneading as the glutens in flour.
We let the meat mixture sit for about an hour to let the flavours infuse (that, and we went and had lunch). After lunch, we went down and set up the KitchenAid with all the attachments and got to work.
Slipping sausage casing onto the end of the nozzle where the meat comes out suggests and looks exactly like what you think it might, and no doubt contributes to the notion that those who love the law and sausages should watch neither being made.
Once the casing was ready, you need two people - one to feed the meat into the machine, one to deal with the extrusion of meat into the casing. To process 6.5kg of prepared meat took us about 40-45 minutes. I joked at the start that I would probably get the hang of it about the time we were almost done, and I was right.
It was interesting to me that we did the links only after the casing (about 2m long) was filled. At Dubrulle we made the links as we went along (using artifical collagen casing), but Karlheinz did it after the fact and showed me the easy technique to do it - at least it looked easy, kinda like how an old Italian grandmother makes fresh pasta look easy.
After the sausages were in links, they were hung to dry. The sausages "settle" into the casing, and also change colour. The sausage recipe we made is very flexible. You can cook them as bratwursts of course, but you could also let them dry out in a cool room and in about eight days they'll go from fresh to coated in white (salt) to turning red (cured). You can also cold smoke them (aka Mettwurst) and then cook them or spread it raw on toast (sprinkled with a little bit of onion, mmmm...).
The local JN&Z deli said any time I want sausage casing I can just book ahead, and that if I like they'll make me 50lbs of sausage to whatever recipe I like. I might just take them up on that, especially as I'm not getting a side of pork this fall.
11 September 2007
Nostalgia for Sale - SOLD!
In my last year of high school, I became best friends with "the new kid". Mark's step dad was the manager at CKDA, 1200AM, the local rock station. AM radio was still cool in those days, albums vinyl things you had to flip over half way through and came with covers with cool artwork and liner notes. CD's were on the cusp of becoming mainstream, and mp3's and iPod's weren't even a glimmer in Steve Jobs' eye - heck, he and Wos were still selling Apple IIe's.
One of the perks of being the manager of the local rock station was free concert tickets. One of the perks of being best friends with the son of said manager was getting to go to the concerts with him (until he got a girlfriend, but then that's how these stories go - I still remember her breaking up with him just before Dire Straits was in town the day "Money For Nothing" hit #1 on the charts, so I got to thank her for that ticket).
It was March of 1985, and Mark said "Hey, my dad got me some tickets for the concert this Saturday, wanna go?"
"I guess so. Who's playing?"
"Al Stewart."
"Who's he?"
"I dunno, never heard of him."
"Ok!"
I need to mention that this was the first "real" concert I'd been to - ever. I loved music, had tons of LP's, but I'd never been to a rock concert.
That Saturday, my musical landscape changed. Al and his band totally blew me away - and Mark too for that matter. I didn't stop listening to the bands that I'd always listened to before, but something had definitely changed - an appreciation for the sense of musical craftsmanship was born. It was a musical epiphany, the like of which I did not experience again until I heard the Comedian Harmonists (through the biopic The Harmonists on New Years Eve 1999).
As Fate had it, I was looking on eBay yesterday and I stumbled across ... the promotional poster for that 1985 concert. It was being sold by one of the guys who was on stage that night, Steve Recker.
I bought it. It was obviously meant to be.
09 September 2007
Book it Danno
We've been planning a trip to Europe for a while and we've finally booked our tickets. We used Aeroplan points to do it - 180,000 points and $849 later, we're all set for next April/May.
$849 might sound like a lot, but the regular fare would have been $3187.78. We can spend some of the over $2K savings on good food and wine while we're over there.
$849 might sound like a lot, but the regular fare would have been $3187.78. We can spend some of the over $2K savings on good food and wine while we're over there.
05 September 2007
Pumping Iron
Well, for the past four weeks I've been working on Lisa's "100 program", and today I did 5 rounds of sets of 20, or 100.
Yay me!
So, because it's nerdy, and annoys people who know that it doesn't work that way, I rowed 4,000 lbs, pressed 3,500lbs, and squatted 23,900lbs.
Yay me!
So, because it's nerdy, and annoys people who know that it doesn't work that way, I rowed 4,000 lbs, pressed 3,500lbs, and squatted 23,900lbs.
27 August 2007
The 2007 First Annual Slow Food Cycle Tour
This past Saturday, the Vancouver Slow Food folks organized a cycling version of the Circle Farm Tour in Agassiz.
My darling wife and I packed our car, put the bikes on the rack and after leaving our delightful daughter with her doting grandparents in Chilliwack, arrived at the starting point and were on our bikes by 9:30am.
It was a splendid way to spend the day - we visited the eight sites on the tour and had a pleasant spin through the pretty countryside in Agassiz. It was almost completely flat too. Five hours later, pleasantly sated and with pannier bags full of goodies (mostly fabulous cheese from Farm House Cheese), we headed back to my parent's place.
The finale on the tour was the Valedoorn Farm dairy, the twelfth largest dairy in BC, with 400 cows, half of them milkers, the other half everything from new born calves to pregnant cows. They produce about 14,000 litres of milk a day.
Every cow has an ear tag, and the tags use RFID chips to talk to the milking machines, which in turn provide all manner of data to the farmer; and the daily report gets sent to his Treo.
Three people run the farm, and it's a 24/7 operation. Our "tour guide" told us he's up every day at 4:30 and by the time the last rounds are done, he's up until midnight.
The weather was mostly nice, though we did get caught by a little drizzle, but it was a fun experience. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.
My darling wife and I packed our car, put the bikes on the rack and after leaving our delightful daughter with her doting grandparents in Chilliwack, arrived at the starting point and were on our bikes by 9:30am.
It was a splendid way to spend the day - we visited the eight sites on the tour and had a pleasant spin through the pretty countryside in Agassiz. It was almost completely flat too. Five hours later, pleasantly sated and with pannier bags full of goodies (mostly fabulous cheese from Farm House Cheese), we headed back to my parent's place.
The finale on the tour was the Valedoorn Farm dairy, the twelfth largest dairy in BC, with 400 cows, half of them milkers, the other half everything from new born calves to pregnant cows. They produce about 14,000 litres of milk a day.
Every cow has an ear tag, and the tags use RFID chips to talk to the milking machines, which in turn provide all manner of data to the farmer; and the daily report gets sent to his Treo.
Three people run the farm, and it's a 24/7 operation. Our "tour guide" told us he's up every day at 4:30 and by the time the last rounds are done, he's up until midnight.
The weather was mostly nice, though we did get caught by a little drizzle, but it was a fun experience. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.
18 August 2007
Flatlining
I took this week extra easy. I did go to the Y on Tuesday morning for spin class, but that was mostly to help me recover from the Saturday ride. I'll make up the missing pieces of my 100 workout next week by going every day I'm not doing the spin class.
I took my bike to the shop this morning to repair my broken spoke, which they said would run me about $25.
I took a look at my fitness "spreadsheet" which mostly keeps track of my weight and after 27 weeks, the graph looks pretty flat. It's down from where I started, but to misuse an analogy, if it were a stock in my portfolio I'd sell it for under performing.
Of course, all the good food and beer and wine I've been drinking can't possibly be contributing to my lack of weight loss progress *koff*koff*. Ironically, it's not escaped my attention that in the past, when I've taken weight off, it's been in the fall or winter, when summer's party's, my summer preference for beer, my love of ice cream, and so on, are much more easy to forgo.
Oh well. As a good friend of mine says, fit comes in all shapes and sizes - and a good thing that's true.
I took my bike to the shop this morning to repair my broken spoke, which they said would run me about $25.
I took a look at my fitness "spreadsheet" which mostly keeps track of my weight and after 27 weeks, the graph looks pretty flat. It's down from where I started, but to misuse an analogy, if it were a stock in my portfolio I'd sell it for under performing.
Of course, all the good food and beer and wine I've been drinking can't possibly be contributing to my lack of weight loss progress *koff*koff*. Ironically, it's not escaped my attention that in the past, when I've taken weight off, it's been in the fall or winter, when summer's party's, my summer preference for beer, my love of ice cream, and so on, are much more easy to forgo.
Oh well. As a good friend of mine says, fit comes in all shapes and sizes - and a good thing that's true.
12 August 2007
The 2007 MS Vancouver Scenic City Bike Tour
For the second year in a row, I signed up for the MS Bike Tour here in Vancouver. They changed the route from last year, no doubt in part because of the mess that Stanley Park is still in, so instead of 60km it was 65km. It was also a LOT of hills. A lot of them. Fortunately, on the whole, they were not as nasty as the steep monster down Slocan.
For the record: 3h 13m to do the ride this year, and my heart rate monitor claims I burned 3,102 calories. I didn't eat that many calories at the best event bbq ever after the race, which is put on by the Terminal City Club.
My company's team came in 2nd for overall fund raising, at a little over $6,000, of which $2,188 was me (not including the extra amount everyone on the team received for group activities like the 50-50 draw we ran last week). If I were a "team", I would have come in 7th.
My darling wife and beautiful daughter were on hand at the finish line, and my daughter rode her tricycle alongside me through the finish line, wearing the "Club 1000" cycling jersey I received for my fund raising effort. She looked really cute and many photos were taken.
I'm definitely signing up again next year. :-)
For the record: 3h 13m to do the ride this year, and my heart rate monitor claims I burned 3,102 calories. I didn't eat that many calories at the best event bbq ever after the race, which is put on by the Terminal City Club.
My company's team came in 2nd for overall fund raising, at a little over $6,000, of which $2,188 was me (not including the extra amount everyone on the team received for group activities like the 50-50 draw we ran last week). If I were a "team", I would have come in 7th.
My darling wife and beautiful daughter were on hand at the finish line, and my daughter rode her tricycle alongside me through the finish line, wearing the "Club 1000" cycling jersey I received for my fund raising effort. She looked really cute and many photos were taken.
I'm definitely signing up again next year. :-)
20 July 2007
The 100 Plan
Today's personal training session with Lisa featured two things. One, that she's taking the month of August off, and two, since it'll be about five weeks before I see her next, that I get to do the "100 Plan".
The 100 plan is deviously good. You start small and work your way up. To wit, my new regime is:
Each week, add 2 repetitions to each individual exercise (i.e. 12, 14, 16, 18, 20). By the last week in August, I'll be doing five rounds of 20 each, or 100 of each per workout.
Scary. Cool. Very cool.
The 100 plan is deviously good. You start small and work your way up. To wit, my new regime is:
- 10 standing bent over rows
- 10 ab crunches on the exercise ball
- 10 chest presses on the bench
- 10 squats on the leg squat machine
Each week, add 2 repetitions to each individual exercise (i.e. 12, 14, 16, 18, 20). By the last week in August, I'll be doing five rounds of 20 each, or 100 of each per workout.
Scary. Cool. Very cool.
16 July 2007
The 2007 Vancouver Folk Music Festival
After a week of being on the Sunshine Coast on a lovely vacation, we returned just in time to spend Saturday and Sunday at the Vancouver International Folk Festival.
The Saturday was amazingly hot and I managed not to get burned, but I sure did get a lot of colour... Sunday was nicely overcast and being right by the water, it was lovely and cool.
I have to freely admit that while I always have a good time at the Folk Fest, pretty much none of the artists at the show are on my normal music radar. The music they play there is the kind that is really enjoyable live, especially when two or three different bands/artists are in a collaboratory set and jam together, but for the most part doesn't really translate well as something you'd listen to at home. In part it's because at a concert venue, you're actively engaged with the artist and the music, but at home music is often relegated to the background.
My wife had a lovely definition for folk music, that goes something like this: folk music is music that is consumed by the people who create it. It's a lovely definition that works on several levels.
I was talking to one of my good friends who has been volunteering at the Folk Fest for over a decade now about how the festival runs and learned some interesting things. For instance, the festival does not pay its performers (one of the few if not only major festivals in North America to do so), and as such, they usually don't know until about May what the final lineup will be. Hence why, unlike say Mission or other festivals, they don't post the schedule/lineup until June. Of course, the few "big name" groups/artists are usually booked as much as a year in advance, but until the whole lineup is known, the schedule can't be published.
Anyways, to cut to the chase, I had a lot of fun at the festival this year, and we bought three CDs:
The Saturday was amazingly hot and I managed not to get burned, but I sure did get a lot of colour... Sunday was nicely overcast and being right by the water, it was lovely and cool.
I have to freely admit that while I always have a good time at the Folk Fest, pretty much none of the artists at the show are on my normal music radar. The music they play there is the kind that is really enjoyable live, especially when two or three different bands/artists are in a collaboratory set and jam together, but for the most part doesn't really translate well as something you'd listen to at home. In part it's because at a concert venue, you're actively engaged with the artist and the music, but at home music is often relegated to the background.
My wife had a lovely definition for folk music, that goes something like this: folk music is music that is consumed by the people who create it. It's a lovely definition that works on several levels.
I was talking to one of my good friends who has been volunteering at the Folk Fest for over a decade now about how the festival runs and learned some interesting things. For instance, the festival does not pay its performers (one of the few if not only major festivals in North America to do so), and as such, they usually don't know until about May what the final lineup will be. Hence why, unlike say Mission or other festivals, they don't post the schedule/lineup until June. Of course, the few "big name" groups/artists are usually booked as much as a year in advance, but until the whole lineup is known, the schedule can't be published.
Anyways, to cut to the chase, I had a lot of fun at the festival this year, and we bought three CDs:
- The Carolina Chocolate Drops: old time music from North Carolina. Fiddle, banjo, percussion, and very fun.
- Tapia eta Leturia: a Basque ensemble encompassing accordion, fiddle, keyboard, and tambourine. The tambourine player is unnatural - I've never heard or seen it played like that before. Has to be seen to be believed.
- Ndidi Onukwulu: This fine Torontonian has an amazing voice and an incredibly fun stage presence. She spans all manner of genres, and has endless energy.
05 July 2007
Progress
My personal trainer has been working with me for about four months now - we meet every three weeks or so, which has felt like the right amount of time. She refreshes my workout plan, and then I execute the plan just long enough to feel comfortable with it and ... I do something else.
So what's the prognosis so far?
Pretty good I have to say. When I started, I was doing an indoor cycling class twice a week. Now I'm still doing that but adding two Lisa-designed workouts, and now that the weather is finally nice, I'm cycling once a week - if only to prepare for the 60km Ride for MS in mid-August.
So let's see... in four months I have...
However, onward and upward - all progress is good! It's summer and fresh fruit and veggies about, and I'm getting enough sleep and sunshine to get me to the gym four times a week, and that's all very positive for me indeed.
My current workout, for anyone interested is...
I'm looking forward to what Lisa has planned for me next time.
So what's the prognosis so far?
Pretty good I have to say. When I started, I was doing an indoor cycling class twice a week. Now I'm still doing that but adding two Lisa-designed workouts, and now that the weather is finally nice, I'm cycling once a week - if only to prepare for the 60km Ride for MS in mid-August.
So let's see... in four months I have...
- distinctly improved my overall fitness level.
- distinctly improved my posture.
- strengthened my back and abs (those core muscles you always hear about).
- almost doubled the weight I can lift/push/press/pull around the weight room.
However, onward and upward - all progress is good! It's summer and fresh fruit and veggies about, and I'm getting enough sleep and sunshine to get me to the gym four times a week, and that's all very positive for me indeed.
My current workout, for anyone interested is...
- Three sets of 8 each on the rowing, chest press, and hamstring curl machines.
- Three sets of 12 each lunges with weights (front, back, and side), or 108 in all.
- Between all of those, in sets of three to coincide with above, crunches and obliques working out to about 115 crunches and 120 obliques all told.
I'm looking forward to what Lisa has planned for me next time.
04 July 2007
Red Burrito
I'd heard good things in passing about Red Burrito, on the southwest corner of Commercial and 1st in Vancouver, but finally had the chance to try it out today.
There's a joke about fast food that you can choose any two of fast, good, and cheap. Red Burrito is a place where you get all three.
The place is small, but very functional. Lots of nice small bar height tables as well as eating bars along the windows.
The service is excellent - the two people behind the counter worked harder than the entire line in any fast food place you'd care to name.
The menu is nice and simple too - burrito & burrito fajita (with peppers and onions instead of beans) are the main two items. They also had taco bowl salads and a couple other items.
In order to keep their business model simple, what you pay depends on the meat you choose. You make your choice of item, decide which meat you want (chicken, beef, veggie, etc), and then you get your toppings/fillings.
And how is the food? Excellent. I had a burrito fajita with chicken and guacamole (extra charge for guac - and here a sidebar rhetorical question: why is guacamole always extra? It's not like avocados are that expensive). It was very big and left me quite stuffed.
Ambience: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Food: 7/10
Price: $
Total score: 14/20
There's a joke about fast food that you can choose any two of fast, good, and cheap. Red Burrito is a place where you get all three.
The place is small, but very functional. Lots of nice small bar height tables as well as eating bars along the windows.
The service is excellent - the two people behind the counter worked harder than the entire line in any fast food place you'd care to name.
The menu is nice and simple too - burrito & burrito fajita (with peppers and onions instead of beans) are the main two items. They also had taco bowl salads and a couple other items.
In order to keep their business model simple, what you pay depends on the meat you choose. You make your choice of item, decide which meat you want (chicken, beef, veggie, etc), and then you get your toppings/fillings.
And how is the food? Excellent. I had a burrito fajita with chicken and guacamole (extra charge for guac - and here a sidebar rhetorical question: why is guacamole always extra? It's not like avocados are that expensive). It was very big and left me quite stuffed.
Ambience: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Food: 7/10
Price: $
Total score: 14/20
02 July 2007
Nerd Games
I've been an avid board gamer for over a quarter century. I played the usual games when I was young, my dad introduced me to chess when I was only three or four, and when I was a kid Monopoly and Risk and Clue were the games that ruled my household.
Then in 1980, I discovered Dungeons & Dragons (the old Basic set in red and the added Expert set in blue), and not long after moved to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. That was also the year I was introduced to Ogre and it's been an unrelenting succession of board, war, and role-playing games ever since.
The other day I was in Imperial Hobbies in Richmond buying Chicken Cha Cha Cha for my daughter to try out, and the guy behind the counter made a comment about getting kids hooked on "nerd games". I thought that was a great term.
Over the decades, my interest in games and gaming has waxed and waned to various degrees. At the moment, it's in a waxing state - for the past six weeks I've had a lot of board games hit the table. Hopefully that will continue all summer.
Then in 1980, I discovered Dungeons & Dragons (the old Basic set in red and the added Expert set in blue), and not long after moved to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. That was also the year I was introduced to Ogre and it's been an unrelenting succession of board, war, and role-playing games ever since.
The other day I was in Imperial Hobbies in Richmond buying Chicken Cha Cha Cha for my daughter to try out, and the guy behind the counter made a comment about getting kids hooked on "nerd games". I thought that was a great term.
Over the decades, my interest in games and gaming has waxed and waned to various degrees. At the moment, it's in a waxing state - for the past six weeks I've had a lot of board games hit the table. Hopefully that will continue all summer.
13 June 2007
Organic vs Local
It's been in the news a lot lately.
Now that "organic" groceries have become "mainstream", more and more companies are busy slapping the organic label on their products. A lot of the time, those same products come in conveniently pre-portioned pre-wrapped pre-packaged portions; let's also not forget that they come from thousands of kilometers away too.
As much as I disdain the "100 mile diet", the authors have a good point, one that I still think Nabhan is better at making, that you should know where your food comes from.
It makes no sense to buy "organic" strawberries from Mexico, when conventionally grown local ones are available.
Here's something the pro-organics movement doesn't want you to know - farmers hate using pesticides. You know why? Because it's expensive. Even when they do spray, they use as little as possible to keep expenses down.
My local farmer's market had a survey last summer and people overwhelmingly said they wanted to see more organic produce at the market. I don't. I want to see stuff I can't get at Safeway, and stuff that's fresh. Organic doesn't really matter to me.
So here's a radical idea - buy local produce. Don't worry about the organic label (but hey, if you prefer and can afford "organic", great - go for it).
The truth is that if it's local fresh and seasonal, it'll taste better than that imported from Mexico organic stuff.
Now that "organic" groceries have become "mainstream", more and more companies are busy slapping the organic label on their products. A lot of the time, those same products come in conveniently pre-portioned pre-wrapped pre-packaged portions; let's also not forget that they come from thousands of kilometers away too.
As much as I disdain the "100 mile diet", the authors have a good point, one that I still think Nabhan is better at making, that you should know where your food comes from.
It makes no sense to buy "organic" strawberries from Mexico, when conventionally grown local ones are available.
Here's something the pro-organics movement doesn't want you to know - farmers hate using pesticides. You know why? Because it's expensive. Even when they do spray, they use as little as possible to keep expenses down.
My local farmer's market had a survey last summer and people overwhelmingly said they wanted to see more organic produce at the market. I don't. I want to see stuff I can't get at Safeway, and stuff that's fresh. Organic doesn't really matter to me.
So here's a radical idea - buy local produce. Don't worry about the organic label (but hey, if you prefer and can afford "organic", great - go for it).
The truth is that if it's local fresh and seasonal, it'll taste better than that imported from Mexico organic stuff.
12 June 2007
I recently was invited to join Facebook by a friend of mine, and I decided I'd give it a try.
Like most new users, I quickly invited everyone I knew, checked to see if some old lost friends and acquaintances were "out there" and experienced some of the obsessive-compulsive feelings I had when I was a kid collecting hockey cards. Look at how many friends I have! Collect them all!
But Facebook has a bit of a darker side too. I scoffed when my friend quipped that he refused to sign up because he didn't want to be on it when the stalkers came, but now I'm reconsidering that. My boss joined a work related group, and quickly jumped off because he didn't want to read all the rants and negative comments some people were leaving. (Making comments about your workplace online in a public medium is naive at best). I've had colleagues who I don't really know, except that they're on the employee roster, add me as friends.
My wife is on Facebook and she told me to make sure to check my privacy settings. I've pretty much locked my profile down, and I've even limited a bunch of people to only have access to my limited profile. I think though that what will ultimately happen is I'll be dropping people - the acid test will be, "would I invite this person over for dinner?"
If my answer is no... poof!
Like most new users, I quickly invited everyone I knew, checked to see if some old lost friends and acquaintances were "out there" and experienced some of the obsessive-compulsive feelings I had when I was a kid collecting hockey cards. Look at how many friends I have! Collect them all!
But Facebook has a bit of a darker side too. I scoffed when my friend quipped that he refused to sign up because he didn't want to be on it when the stalkers came, but now I'm reconsidering that. My boss joined a work related group, and quickly jumped off because he didn't want to read all the rants and negative comments some people were leaving. (Making comments about your workplace online in a public medium is naive at best). I've had colleagues who I don't really know, except that they're on the employee roster, add me as friends.
My wife is on Facebook and she told me to make sure to check my privacy settings. I've pretty much locked my profile down, and I've even limited a bunch of people to only have access to my limited profile. I think though that what will ultimately happen is I'll be dropping people - the acid test will be, "would I invite this person over for dinner?"
If my answer is no... poof!
31 May 2007
A Random Haiku
My poppies are in bloom in my garden (and I saw fields of them at van Dusen Gardens last weekend), and while I was at home today, this popped into my head.
Orchid's only rival
Poppy's red origami
Blooms make me happy
Poppy's red origami
Blooms make me happy
29 May 2007
Phases of a Thesis
Tell me why I want to do thesis papers again?
My darling wife, who's been through both a MS and a PhD, told me that by asking that question I was at the "it looks like an insurmountable peak" stage.
I asked what the other stages were.
Apparently, next comes the "work like a demon" stage, followed by the "I don't care anymore" stage.
The weirdest one is the "I can't believe I got away with that" stage. That's the one that happens after convocation.
In between the "I don't care anymore" and the "I can't believe I got away with that" stages comes the "I'm too blotto to form sentences stage"...
... that's the one that happens after a successful defense.
I have lots of good wine in my cellar for that!
My darling wife, who's been through both a MS and a PhD, told me that by asking that question I was at the "it looks like an insurmountable peak" stage.
I asked what the other stages were.
Apparently, next comes the "work like a demon" stage, followed by the "I don't care anymore" stage.
The weirdest one is the "I can't believe I got away with that" stage. That's the one that happens after convocation.
In between the "I don't care anymore" and the "I can't believe I got away with that" stages comes the "I'm too blotto to form sentences stage"...
... that's the one that happens after a successful defense.
I have lots of good wine in my cellar for that!
26 May 2007
Fencing
No, not the fancy footwork kind with epee or rapier, the more banal kind with posts and cedar panels with latticework.
When we bought our place in 2003, the fence was given "a couple more years" by our realtor. Our neighbours to the north who own several properties in the neighborhood concurred.
Over the winter, our fence finally showed its age and one of the board kept popping out of its panel. I finally did some makeshift repairs to hold that in, which prompted the stress on the fence to show in another place and soon the side was sagging and looking disorderly.
We conveniently had a Home Depot flyer in our newspaper back in April that said they would come and give us a free quote, remove the old fence and dispose of it and then install the new one.
A brief digression - we have debated many a time to push the fence out closer to the sidewalk, but several things made us decide to replace the fence exactly in place:
Well, we thought about doing it ourselves, but the price was very reasonable (much lower than we expected) so we booked it.
Yesterday, they came and installed the fence. It took them all day, as they hit a snag. The owner before the one we bought the place from had poured concrete in the back yard (torn out by the previous owner, and further reclaimed with a grass installation last year by us), which meant they had to jackhammer out and dig a trench to remove the gate posts. Lesson learned, aside from relief that we'd hired professionals, was that it's easier to install a new fence from scratch than to replace an old one.
The new fence is a thing of beauty. The old one was 4' tall and had a bracework of crossed bamboo poles for the Japanese hops we had to create privacy in our back yard. However, the hops are aggressive plants that in the spring grow as much as 6" a day or more, and further go to seed in the fall and die off until the spring, so there's always a mess to fix.
The new fence is 5' tall, and it's just the right balance between giving us more back yard privacy and less maintenance. I expect more back yard time this summer.
As a final comment - AIM Cedar Works rocks - they came when they said they were going to, did a great job of removal of the old fence, installing the new one, and cleaning up before they left. On time, professionally done, and on budget. I would happily recommend them to anyone.
When we bought our place in 2003, the fence was given "a couple more years" by our realtor. Our neighbours to the north who own several properties in the neighborhood concurred.
Over the winter, our fence finally showed its age and one of the board kept popping out of its panel. I finally did some makeshift repairs to hold that in, which prompted the stress on the fence to show in another place and soon the side was sagging and looking disorderly.
We conveniently had a Home Depot flyer in our newspaper back in April that said they would come and give us a free quote, remove the old fence and dispose of it and then install the new one.
A brief digression - we have debated many a time to push the fence out closer to the sidewalk, but several things made us decide to replace the fence exactly in place:
- the Telus box that was in front of our fence was nice and small, but in February Telus came and replaced it with a huge box (for Telus TV among other things) about three times the size, which meant any previous plans for fencing around it would have to be redone.
- we would have had to move the garden over.
- any space we'd gain would not really be a net benefit. Notwithstanding that we have essentially a postage stamp sized back yard, we have several parks and playgrounds close to us, including one literally half a dozen houses down the alley, so any theory that the back yard would be a good play space for our daughter would not be fulfilled.
Well, we thought about doing it ourselves, but the price was very reasonable (much lower than we expected) so we booked it.
Yesterday, they came and installed the fence. It took them all day, as they hit a snag. The owner before the one we bought the place from had poured concrete in the back yard (torn out by the previous owner, and further reclaimed with a grass installation last year by us), which meant they had to jackhammer out and dig a trench to remove the gate posts. Lesson learned, aside from relief that we'd hired professionals, was that it's easier to install a new fence from scratch than to replace an old one.
The new fence is a thing of beauty. The old one was 4' tall and had a bracework of crossed bamboo poles for the Japanese hops we had to create privacy in our back yard. However, the hops are aggressive plants that in the spring grow as much as 6" a day or more, and further go to seed in the fall and die off until the spring, so there's always a mess to fix.
The new fence is 5' tall, and it's just the right balance between giving us more back yard privacy and less maintenance. I expect more back yard time this summer.
As a final comment - AIM Cedar Works rocks - they came when they said they were going to, did a great job of removal of the old fence, installing the new one, and cleaning up before they left. On time, professionally done, and on budget. I would happily recommend them to anyone.
11 May 2007
$1.234
I bought my fuel efficient Tercel in 1998. At the time gas was $0.399/litre for regular gas.
Yesterday, I filled up and the price was $1.234/litre. It cost $42 to fill up, the most I've paid for a fill up on my car since I've owned it.
I'm glad I have a gas sipper rather than a gas guzzler!
Yesterday, I filled up and the price was $1.234/litre. It cost $42 to fill up, the most I've paid for a fill up on my car since I've owned it.
I'm glad I have a gas sipper rather than a gas guzzler!
04 May 2007
Missing the Point - Incandescent Bulbs
The minister did not reply to me, but my MP did. Her reply was:
I did send a reply:
Thanks for your message about the proposed phase-out of incandescent lightbulbs.The most common replacement for incandescent bulbs currently is the use of Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs). I recognize this is not always the perfect replacement for the phasing out of incandescents though.I also want you to know that Paul Dewar’s Bill to phase out incandescent lightbulbs, as it is being drafted, does not specifically recommend the replacement of incandescents with CFLs. We recognize the new technology is being developed all the time, and hopefully we will soon have a solution that addresses all our concerns.The phasing out of incandescent light bulbs is one of many alternatives that can help place Canada on the path towards ensuring environmental security and sustainability.Thanks again for taking the time to write and share your concerns.Sincerely,Libby Davies
I did send a reply:
Dear Libby,Will keep all y'all posted...
With all due respect, the point I was making, and which bears repeating, is that banning incandescent bulbs does not generate a desired result.
If the desired result is to reduce the power consumption of light bulbs, then the answer is NOT "let's ban incandescents", but rather "light bulbs must not consume more than x watts per y lumens".
To once again use the example of California, they did not ban internal combustion engines, instead they set emission standards.
THAT is what I am advocating our government do.
So don't ban incandescent bulbs, set power consumption standards. THAT will achieve the stated goal.
Thank you.
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