Ingmar Lee - Tip of the Fedora · Tuesday March 25, 2008 by colin newell
To call Ingmar Lee a professional protester is like calling your dentist a practitioner of pain for payment.
Ingmar, a Victoria area resident and (I am pretty sure) taxpayer, is the darling of University (and College) students, the unwaged, the working poor, and those, it seems, too unworthy of living on Bear Mountain… or in the Uplands… or in any privileged enclave too sacred to house the many (and seemingly teeming) population of unwashed on the lower Island.
Because hey, you are either pro-development or your not…
As if it was that easy to pick one side or the other.
But to dismiss Lee as a professional protester and his associates as Welfare bums and Hippies illustrates the utter contempt that most pro-development types feel for Activists of conscience like Ingmar Lee (and, by the way, anyone that doesn’t drive a Hummer or live on Bear Mountain).
Call me crazy but when was it such a big deal to throw up your hands and say: Hey, hang on a second here! How about some open discussion about what is going on around us?
Protest , the last time I checked, was not a crime.
Anyway – The CBC surprised me with an article on Ingmar this morning. It seems that he has taken out a permit on mineral rights for the Bear Mountain region.
Which for a Bum (not my words) like Ingmar — is utterly brilliant.
And we need to take a moment, regardless of our orientation on the subject of development… and credit Ingmar on his stroke of pure genius.
To put aside our differences… just long enough to think a little more clearly.
And think about… where we live. And remember that big development does not have to be painful, is not always necessary and like the dentist should be something we all attend to… when we need to.
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Mother Nature is your friend · Tuesday March 25, 2008 by colin newell
With Easter comes the tradition of visiting Tofino, British Columbia and the Middle Beach Lodge. And with this adventure comes the risk of strong weather…
Picture at left – A six foot two Blogger stands in a fresh fall of snow… in Spring
And not the kind of strong weather we associate with a mid-March West Coast; lashing waves, wicked winds, driving rains that feel like tornado driven acupuncture needles…
But winter weather; snow, sleet and horizontal hail the size of rosary beads… less forgiving as well.
But this is Spring – albeit early Spring. And the fact that Easter is at an unusually early juncture for this year; March the 23rd… and apparently it has not been this early since 1066 or something. The next time Easter will be this early will be in the year 2030… and hopefully by then I will be piloting a Hover-Honda between Victoria and Tofino…
Because this year, our little Honda Civic was a little life saver on the winding stretch between the West Coast and civilization. It was snowing. A lot.
Between the Tofino-Ucluelet junction at the Pacific Rim highway and Sutton Pass some 1400 feet above Sea Level and 25km from Port Alberni – this neck of the woods can be mighty unpredictable this time of year. And so it was.
Our little Honda sedan cruised confidently through a moderate snowfall, somewhat effortlessly, up to the summit – by which time there were 4’ snow drifts on the sides of the road (about 1’ of fresh powder) and maybe 1/2” of snow on the highway.
With the Honda wearing a fairly healthy pair of All Season Radials (read SUMMER TIRES), it is risky business to attempt this kind of hill climb. But we did it.
And it wasn’t blind driving. Oh no. I was watching the oncoming traffic for signs of a more intense conflagration… i.e. bloated snowmen mobiles… but this was not the case. The cars coming towards us were dusted lightly. So we pushed on and we were rewarded with clearing skies as we passed over the peak.
We arrived in Port Alberni within 45 minutes of the alpine experience and decompressed at Tim Horton’s with Maple dips, black coffee and some much maligned roll-up cups
The rest of the trip was uneventful except, ironically, for one mini-van driving bonehead that we encountered on the approach to the Langford turn-off (near the proposed Spencer exchange and Thetis Lake) who was dodging between lanes and cutting off drivers more unpredictably than a pin ball. He cut in front of us so close and so swiftly as to cause a minor shock wave as he blocked the wind in our path.
This is why people kill each other on our highways.
Anyway – it was a wonderfully romantic weekend at Tofino. We re-experienced the joys of married life – communing with other romantics, people watching, weather watching… and hoping for safe travel in the future.
Coffee - It's not your computers friend · Wednesday March 19, 2008 by colin newell
I spend a lot of time in cafes… of all shapes and sizes. I also work on a University campus – that has numerous cafes and lounges.
And there is a common list of ingredients in University, College and City Cafes:
Hot coffee. Students. And expensive lap-top computers.
Two of my colleagues, who I have coffee with, tell me this tale several times a week. Students are always bringing in their shiny new laptops; apples, PC’s – it makes no difference. They are now deep into their degree, or their Masters degree or their Phd and their life is on their laptop.
And they have spilled hot coffee into the thing. Hot coffee. Into a lap top computer. And while it is running. Coffee and laptops make for a lethal combination almost 100% of the time. Ok. Maybe 90% of the time provided you are lucky enough to be drinking black coffee.
Organic. Fair trade. Bird friendly. It makes no difference. If you spill anything, including water, into a lap top computer, it is almost always a death sentence. Good bye data. Good bye thesis. Good bye dissertation.
My two coffee buddies are, by the way, Apple certified technicians – and they see an endless stream of coffee related tragedy.
For us, at coffee time, this rich hot zippy beverage is a God send. I love coffee. They love coffee. We are surrounded by coffee lovers.
And if you are a student, coffee is the fuel that gets you through those never ending all night cram sessions.
But their MacBook Pro’s hate it.
One mouthful of Ethiopian Sidamo and I am singing. Four fluid ounces of Arabica coffee poured into an i-Book generally results in tears. I kid you not. We have seen more than our share of pouty faced girls and sad-sack boys whose second biggest academic investment (next to their tuition) has just gone up in a puff of smoke… and a very recognizable scent of Starbucks.
And the only thing that fixes it is a call to Mommy or Daddy… or not.
A student asks: “My computer is dead… I spilled my coffee into it… I have the extended Apple warranty on it… Is it covered?”
Technician Mike or Al replies… “This is a warranty program, not an insurance policy…”
And yet the average college or University age person who has invested almost 2000 dollars in their computer and software feel that they are covered. But they are not. And for good reason. The other recent enemy of the delicate laptop is the physical abuse it gets on the way to and from the cafe or dorm. Imagine getting stuffed into a pack-sack 3 or 4 times a day. Picked up. Dropped. Squished in next to your lunch… or into tight spaces. No warranty covers abuse. Try and remember that kids!
Coffee (or Beer) spilled into your 17” Dell is a sure fire ticket to the loans office. There is no second chance. Coffee, by itself (black) is an almost certain path to mother-board melt-down. Add cream or sugar and there is no chance of survival. Why? The fruit acids in coffee eat through the delicate circuitry faster than airplane glue through styrofoam – and the liquid (water content) shorts stuff out guaranteeing permanent death – sorry, no coma! There is something in milk (Lactose) that reacts with the motherboard resulting in something with the processor power of a slice of burnt toast! Not good.
So what is the fix? Well. There isn’t one. When I walk into Victoria area cafes (especially ones that have wireless access) – almost each and every table has someone at it with a lap top computer – and a tall mug of joe… in close and dangerously flirtatious proximity.
What do we, the technicians, do? Well, we preach and preach – if we see a student with an open lap top near a steaming mug of mud, we let them know the stats – even if we come off as worry-wart geezers.
Frankly, I would rather not have to work on someones fried MacBook pro – because in the end run, there is only bad news, sadness… and tears.
All for the love of the coffee bean.
Colin Newell lives and works in Victoria B.C. Canada at a local University – Coffee is his best friend… but he knows that coffee has a mortal enemy… called the lap top computer!
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The cost of War - Iraq during election time · Tuesday March 18, 2008 by colin newell
With America’s mind on election time, I think, for the most of us (Canadians included) that we are spending more time looking South (and inwards) than to the Middle-East.
But at what cost?
The American media (and government) insists that we are at War.
The reality is – we are not at War at all (since no formal declaration of War has been made in Canada or the U.S.A.)
Yet the American media and government has consistently reminded us that there is a War on – and if we speak against it, we are:
Un-American, Unpatriotic, Un-Canadian, Liberal, supporting the terrorists.
Liberal. As if that is a dirty word now.
But what are the actual costs? Actual costs that touch us as individuals. As Families. As Communities.
Sure, the U.S. has spent 1.2 Trillion dollars on this War effort…
1.2 Trillion would pay for a national health care program. 1.2 Trillion would end child poverty in America. 1.2 Trillion in Cancer research would take us light-years closer to a cure. The same goes for AIDS research. Hey. 1/100th that amount could have rebuilt New Orleans a year ago.
And yet we dump 10 billion dollars a month into this all important war on Terror.
But what are the individual costs?
Ask a parent whose child, son or daughter has gone to War… and not returned. Or returned with pieces missing. With no hope of Peace. No closer to Peace.
Ask a spouse who sleeps fitfully every night wondering… if their loved one will come back – and what they are really fighting for. Ask them.
Now ask those that beat the drumbeat of War; in the media, in the Government, and within the mechanism of the Military-Industrial complex – Ask them:
Have your children gone to War? Chances are, they have not.
Of the most strident voices in American Conservative media today, the broad majority of those personalities have never been enlisted in the Service and have never seen a moments action In Country. Ironic huh?
Ask yourself and your friends and your co-workers; what is the cost?
Do not be afraid of being called a Liberal… or worse.
Our future and the future of our children is at stake. Today. And Tomorrow.
