An Election Gone

Oh woe, broken electoral system... voters were turned away... I have been working the federal election and I got to see firsthand people being turned away from the polls. Our system of confirming peoples residency in the riding is a piece of crap. How many folks would have the gumption to try to vote in several ridings? They would have to have several pieces of official id, as we do check the list of voters for duplication.

Anyhow, I have been working 7 days a week the last little while as I try to create a museum opening exhibit, get some NDPers elected and write a teacher's guide for a multi-media performance based on environmental and social justice.

Wowie.

Now, a municipal election is on the way and no rest for the wicked.

Wettermelon

A new and improved variety.

78s are hard to play...with a standard player...

Check out this colletor's legacy: 78s.

Moved house and busy

No internet here...
but anyhow check this crazy cartoon out... what's it called and where can I get the whole episode (s)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqi5F5MqqTQ&feature=related

Time Flies

Yesterday spent a whole 12 hours in Langley learning power equipment and bbq product knowledge. It's the beginning of the season for the Homme Dee. What can I say though, except that as time went by I was getting more and more interested in mowing the lawn or indeed investing in a fine toothed hedge trimmer. Bad news, spending so much time around power tools.

I think I'll recommend nothing but reel mowers and organic gardening supplies from here on in.

Moving!

I am moving from 1830 East Pender... which begs the question, do I maintain the blog as such or change the name? That's the challenge.

Also I have been working too much at the HomeeDee, making money and eating too many m&ms on my breaks.



I drive forklift now. (note the Albertan vernacular - no need for an article).

It's an art.

Girly Man, Man, Man, Man... ad infinitum

Tweed.

New Bike, Colon Nuggets

A tip off from a friend led to a new bicycle yesterday. She's the right size and yellow. It needs a new bottom bracket pin. But she works!

Pedaled her to work and back, stopping at Fujiya on the way...


I have sampled these "biscuit nuggets" and hope that the name has no literal origin.

Slide Guitar Project

About a year-and-a-half ago I started to daydream about dream jobs. The frustrating lethargy that affects many Vancouver transplants, in my case, related to a feeling that there will never be space or capital to create. So I bought a router at the Sally Anne; a drill press from Canadian Tire; a palm sander from a pawn shop and wood from Windsor Plywood.


I started making my own slide guitars. The one above is a prototype made from a fir two-by-four.

Now, they are still unfinished, and I have moved, losing the drill press along the way. But now that I am back here I feel like the guitars could use a little energy.

Maybe you'll drop in one day to find me sanding or finishing these mahogany beauties.

Tegan and Sara, Sara and Tegan...

Thanks to Luke for sharing with Catherine who shared with me. Yes, Tegan and Sara are lovely vegans:




lovely vegans


Check out the sweet music video courtesy of Uncle Rocky of Langley. Watch it! Let's go hunting.

Unsettling Underground Up-ending in UK: Urbanites Ululate

From the BBC:
David in Alrewas in Staffordshire said: "The birds were flying around like it was daylight.

"It was quite severe. I experienced the Dudley one and this was more severe.

"I went outside to see if the roof had collapsed. I could see the furniture in the room moving, it was like it was on a jelly mould."

To my British friends, I hope your chimneys are in good repair and you are in good health.

So Naked

a Genoese bike race goes through the main piazza

So I've returned to this country after a year's hiatus, back to the city that I know so well from seven years of cruising its alleys...
Now no cruiser, no bike, leaves me naked. Plus the crappy hack job hand-me-down bike that my friend gave me is more trouble than good at the moment... no tools!
Crikey! I am nakeder without tools without bike!
Worse yet, I have no helmet!

Huh, enough said. I'm heading back to Alburda in May, so I'll pack the Tercedes full of goodies from my parents' place.

Just another note: according to my Italian students, the apostrophe in the service of possession follows the rule of Saxon genitive. Hey, why didn't I learn this in school? Sure would make understanding my own language easier...

A forgotten memento

From a Korean souvenir bought 8 years ago... Zen buddhist comics. Good koans, and simple drawings. Might have to add some zen to my life soon: an indoor sand mandala?

I guess there's more... teepee lights

Some chinese paper lanterns from a place on Pender today. They're on a switched extension and plugged into a light socket converter. Usually the teepee wouldn't be so lit from within, except that I adopted a halogen flood lamp and I can't resist playing with new toys.

How to Build a Teepee - Part Two

The continuation of the indoor teepee.

I decided to continue work on the teepee yesterday afternoon. The cloth needed to be cut into two big triangular pieces.

But to make the circular footprint I used a piece of string the same length as the bamboo pole I needed to cover (plus 4" or 15cm so I can tuck it under). A safety pin in the corner and a felt pen taped to the string - voila: a compass! Catherine's scissors might be a little dulled from the subsequent snipping.

The sliding-bamboo-on-hardwood-flooring problem is being mitigated (temporarily) by putting the foot of the poles in shoes I am not using. My steel toed Wellingtons and bike shoes, precisely.


A few strategic safety pins later, and the first section went up. Then, as is always the case... I had only enough fabric cut to cover half the surface... even though from my calculation half the fabric should've sufficed... Don't worry I bought extra. And I managed to cut a whole other side out of it.

Like a Big Pizza Pie!

Come potrei vi dire? Le pizze canadese non sono pizze. Poveri italiani che vogliono un fette come a casa loro... non esiste qua. Invece siamo adatti alle pizze artistiche, e qua a Vancouver abbiamo il grandissimo Zio Fatih. Da lui potremo prendere una pizza al formaggio blu e manzo, fette coperte di pollo e peperone, pizza al pesto (po' come a Genova), pizze per quelli chi piace l'aglio, le salsice, il carne o il formaggio greco; sopratutto quelli sapore e profumi: c'e la pizza alle patate.

A mi mancanno la marinara, pizza con pesto autentico, o l'altro fatto con carciofi... al fondo della piazza dell'erbe. Ero cosi viziato...

I was so spoiled in Genova. We had pizza with artichoke hearts, and soft mozzarella made from buffalo milk. Thin crusts baked in infernal wood ovens. But here! Here in Vancouver, we are so lucky: pizza with pesto, a slice with chicken and peppers, or greek feta. Better yet, we are most privileged to have something the Italians daren't do: potato pizza!

How to Build a Teepee - Part One

I am building an indoor teepee.

Don't ask why, come over and see it!

Well anyhow, how do you build a teepee?

I seem to remember the one-off fieldtrip to the bush in grade 6 or 7 when my elementary school went on Indian sensitivity training. Or if you prefer First Nations cultural learning day. Too bad we only got to go the once in my entire educational career. Anyhow, Mrs. Beaverbone showed our group how to put up a teepee. It had 4 poles I think, one for each direction, 4 more, to hold the skin more round-like and two to hold open the smoke hole.

Now, how do I reckon how much covering I should use? Apparently, the surface area of a cone can be expressed as (1/2)(s)(C) where "s" is the slant height and "C" is the circumference of the circular base. Anyhow, I had the geometry figured on scrap paper on my lunch at Home D.

To double check, I went to Mr. Google. It makes sense, circumference times height=cylinder surface. Divide it in half you have a cone. Ok, I just had to reason it in my mind.

Now, on the other hand, what about the smoke hole? Should I make the overall shape more cylindrical? Chop the top of the cone off? I think so, I have to accomodate twelve bamboo sticks lashed together.

The material is a painter's drop cloth obtained from Home D... sadly. My original intention was to use felt, about 1/4 inch thick. But I figured it would cost too much. No research went into this assumption. So anyone with info can berate my unscientific conclusion here.

Armed with my trusty Corsican penknife, je coupe la ficelle that holds the bamboo in a bundle.
There's a brilliant essay on the comfort of having a penknife in your pocket, in French, by Phillipe Delerm. I wonder if it's translated?

Some quick boy scout lashing later, and the basic tripod is set. I discovered that bamboo slides a lot on hardwood flooring, I may need to make the "feet" of my poles sticky somehow (pieces of punctured bike tubes?)
Covering a rectangular bed with a round structure is not the simplest task. I think I'll get some foam and cut my own mattress after I get paid...

GMaps Pedometer

A friend of mine showed me this sweet ass app for GMaps. Too cool. Anyhow it struck me the other day riding down to the Roundhouse Community Centre for work that the city (knuckleheads) have totally neglected the basic principle of wayfinding on the seawall: signage. There is no indication of the various streets that you pass as you ride around. I am thinking to just make em and nail em up. Why not? Shit I'll write a letter too, while I am at it. Say something about all the Olympic voyeurs going awry trying to get back to their reconditioned DTES rooming houses. Hey, if I'm going to be bitter, might as well use the O-games as a way to get my way.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

The Fluff Biography

I wonder if I'll ever actually write a biography one day that digs into my list of guilty pleasures or dresses casual instead of dressing up. Like an archaeologist enjoys understanding a people from garbage, you get to know that I enjoyed wasting two weeks one summer watching "Dead Like Me" seasons one and two back-to-back on my computer. Or that I enjoy mediocre cheese products on occasion for the salt content. I don't wear undergarments from time-to-time, and I have a cryptic sense of humour and forget punchlines. I read Jean McAuel's "Clan of the Cavebear" series and enjoyed it. My epitaph: "He sure did".

How come

the jobs you really want are always so unattainable? A two hour interview seemed like a good sign. Of course I could tell I was losing the interest of one of the architects. He was zoning out and frowning while I talked. What can you do? They sprung a lot of great questions: "Why aren't you in the field of your study?" "Where is your life taking you?" I should have expected such important life assessing interrogation. It just always surprises me what I will say when I say it. I don't like shmoozing. I guess continually being the long-shot candidate has made me cynical, but I never can quite play up my skills without sounding like I am joking around. Anyhow, I won't be a fabricator for a design/architecture firm. Not this time around anyway.

There it is moodily lit and sparse.

Inauguration

Last night's housewarming made this my home. Invited and unexpected guests braved the snow, that here in Vancouver seems to be a cataclysmic climatic event. I made smarmy remarks to a poor kiwi in my empty-stomach drunken belligerence. That's a person-kiwi and not the fruit luckily.