Pugwash after 15 Years

I worked with six of these fine people years ago.

This past summer, I visited the summer camp that I spent summers '89, '90, '91, '92, and '94 at. The last three of those, I was a staff member where I counseled junior, teen and blind campers, taught silk screening, rang the bell, washed dishes (the only guy among several girls), snuck out at nights, learned video editing (thanks to Frank Spangler), played taps and reveille on the trumpet (when Peter would let me) made sand sculptures, canoed and kayaked, played guitar at campfires, participated in skits, led in water follies activities, taught computers (on really, really old Macs), cleaned cabins and bathrooms, and most profoundly made some great friendships.

The Seventh-Day Adventist Camp at Pugwash was a great place to grow up. I actually went on my first date there when I was a camper. A girl asked me out to the banquet. When I was a camper, my mom volunteered so I and my sisters got to hang out at the camp for 5 weeks.

It had been 15 years since I drove away from Pugwash in 1994 and moved to Alberta. It's remarkable how little the place has changed - I noticed there were fewer people, a few new buildings, and the rose bushes by frisbee golf hole 6 have been cut down, but other than that it hasn't changed a bit.

My son even found a girl to drag him around.

Berries

This is a post long overdue . . .

While in New Brunswick, we were treated to my fathers berry patches, bushes, and trees. We picked blueberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries, cherries, and some things I don't even know what they were called. Berries are almost all primary colors when they are ripe and they look so good against the green backdrop. How could their Creator not have meant for them to stand out against their backdrop only once they are ripe.

Wordles

I stumbled upon wordle.net today and it ended up consuming about two hours of my afternoon. It essentially is constructs word art by associating the size of the word with the number of occurrences it has within a particular text. What you see above is a compilation of the first 472 entries of this blog.

Click on the images for larger versions.

The Lord of the Rings text.

All U2 lyrics.

The Early Christians book.

The Cleanse

Last night, I took my final two capsules a month long, natural colon cleanse and organ detoxification regimen from Renew Life. It involved taking two tablets in the mornings thirty minutes before breakfast and two other capsules three hours after supper. There were some other recommendations like drink more water, eliminate dairy, wheat, and sugar while adding some strange grains, exercising, etc., but I wasn't about to give up eating cheese.

Over all, I think it went quite smoothly. I recommend it - it won't hurt at the very least as it is quite gentle. I didn't feel hypervitalized, but I did feel better knowing toxins were leaving my body more efficiently. Can't beat the price either - only $35.

First Snow

My feelings exactly.

We had a few wisps of snow on roofs yesterday morning and nothing on the ground, but this morning, the snow continued to fall and the sky stayed grey and the temperatures didn't cool and the furnace stayed on and I stayed inside.

I'll wait 2 weeks before putting snow tires on in a feeble attempt at extending autumn.

The Whole Night Sky*

Tonight I stole my son to go star gazing with some junior high students from my school. My colleague, Mr. Schneider, managed to gather a few astronomers with their impressive telescopes in our back field at the school. He gave a short talk and presented about 10 minutes of a video about God and the majesty of the celestial bodies.

The sky managed to stay clear enough despite a drifting haze from the burnings of pine (because of pine beetle infestation) in Canmore. What I saw in the heavens was absolutely astounding. The four main features are pictured above:

• Earth's Moon
• Jupiter and its four main moons (Io, Europe, Ganymede, Callisto)
• M13 Hercules Star Cluster
• Ring Nebula

If Blaise didn't get cold and tired, I would have stayed out for hours staring at the sky. Truly glorious.

*So, the title comes from a song from Bruce Cockburn's The Charity of Night album, but the blog really shares nothing with the song aside from the moniker. Plus it's cool to put a star next to the title. I should note too that I didn't take these pictures. Maybe one day.

I took this photo in New Brunswick and was pretty proud of it.

Happy Bike to Work Day

I cycled to work today for the 6th time this month. When I woke up, the radio announcer said it was walk, bike or take public transit to work day (or in some places it's called curb your car day). I thought, now I have even more of a reason! I'm cycling tomorrow and Friday too this week.

My commute isn't too far and we even bought a house specifically so my commute wouldn't be long and so I could cycle on occasion. We live 8 km from my work so it's not too bad - 22 minutes there and 27 minutes back (more hills and against the wind). I average 22 km/hr. Since we have only one car, it's handy for Amber when I cycle too (and I don't have to bum rides from other teachers).

I geared up my bike a bit more on Sunday after stopping in at MEC (the first time I've been to the Calgary branch since the Bike trip in July, 2003). Since I go in before it's fully light out on Fridays, I picked up a set of lights and an ankle reflector. I also needed some standard bike care equipment, so before I knew it I had 6 items when I meant to get 2. But it's cool.

The one real hassle of biking to work is having to maintain a wardrobe at the school. It's quite time consuming to get changed before and after school (though I save time throwing on my shorts and jersey at home).

The best part of cycling to work is how amazing I feel. I drink more water. I have so much more energy. I'm more cheerful. It's pretty awesome.

Blogged about 400 Flicks

So in less than 2 1/2 years I've managed to watch 400 movies and write a few thoughts about each one on my blog. I'm glad I'm doing it for a few reasons. It forces me to write and try to write critically. As I watch films, I think about what I'm going to take away from it. I eye the editing, camera operator, writer, actors and directing more than I would if I knew I wasn't going to write about it later. I also have a comprehensive list of the best films I've watched over the past couple years.

I only wish I had gotten started earlier.

Bon Cinema!

Air Guitar Champ 2009

Air Guitar World Champion 2009: Sylvain "Günther Love" Quimene from OMVF on Vimeo.

I think the whole world should rock out.

Prince Edward Island

Traveled to Prince Edward Island yesterday. I made a quick visit about 4.5 years ago in the winter to visit some friends, but otherwise I hadn’t been in more than 20 years (I think). The bridge is less than 45 minutes away from my father’s house.

Our first stop was Green Gables. I wasn’t keen on paying $7.80 to walk the grounds of a fictional character, so I didn’t. Plus, it's not like Megan Follows is wandering around. Amber’s sister April went in and we hung out on the lawn with the kids. April confirmed that I didn’t miss much.

We continued our trip to North Rustico where Amber had determined that there was a festival happening with lots of activities for FREE. (Yes, I’m cheap) (One of my spiritual gifts is voluntary poverty) We ate at a local pizza joint called Amanda’s Restaurant. I tried fried clams for the first time. The festival was a great discovery. The kids did a treasure hunt, had their faces painted, won prizes, painted oyster shells, played in the sand, enjoyed a children’s performer and the playground. Blaise even got on stage during the performance on his own to get a secret code name from Michael Pendergast (he's the nephew of Father Pendergast according to a guy I sat next to).

We returned to Prince Edward Island National Park to see Cavendish Beach. The beach itself isn’t as nice as our local one de l’Aboiteau, but the red cliffs and dunes are gorgeous.



Instead of eating supper with the family, I spent an hour at Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Some amazing stuff for sure – and some sad stories too, like the one about the tallest man and the people who traveled around as freaks.

What is still amazing to me is the Confederation Bridge that spans 12.9 kms from NB to PEI. I think it is just one of the most beautiful structures ever built.

Le Pays de la Sagouine

We visited Le Pays de la Sagouine on the weekend. It’s an Acadian heritage park with dramas, live music, cooking demonstrations, kids activities, tours and historic buildings. It is located in Bouctouche on the east coast of New Brunswick.

Our tour began with a ½ hour account of the history of the Acadians complete with a demonstration of how to play the spoons and the reason for the quinquennial Congrès Acadian.



We then walked the boardwalk to the little island that houses a village on stilts. We tried poutine rapée, listened to some Acadian tunes, watched a drama put on by the chicaneuses, and toured the little shops and demos.



It was wild hearing the strong Acadian accent being used in a public forum – I’m used to it in private conversations, but publicly it’s pretty hilarious with all of its idioms and contractions.

New Toy: Nikon D90

My gracious wife granted her grace on this extravagant purchase after we reviewed a few of my friend Justin's pictures that he had taken in Guatemala. I went to Black's Photo and got the Nikon D90 with a couple lenses: 18-105mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR and the 50mm f1.8D. I've been clicking pictures ever since.

bee in calgary

cherry over citadel

getting pushed by grandma

settlers

pepere's beans

the fingerpuppet stands alone

Blaise cranks out moves at 4.5 frames a second

Hopewell Rocks

A mixture of clay and gravel stand against time, wind, and pounding waves to support giant figures complete with evergreen hair. 

A wonder of the world in the Bay of Fundy.

Proximity

My Mémère (grandmother) feeds some feral cats on her front porch. Some of the other wildlife take advantage of the free food too. This skunk and raccoon have very little fear of humans (they won't let us pet them, but they don't run when we're just a few feet away) since they've been feeding on cat food and scraps.



She also has bird feeders set up above the cat food. I see humming birds, blue jays and lots of small birds out the front window. The jays are super messy and mean.



My father has flowers planted in manicured beds around the house and garage and in the yard, but near the garden he has let the wildflowers flourish yielding black-eyed susans, daisies, queen anne's lace, and a bunch of other flowers I can't name. They are absolutely stunning.

Cakes by Salomé

Fortunately for us, my sister Salomé has been in town to make amazing cakes for our children's birthdays. My son turned 4 a couple days ago and this was the cake he got.

Salomé used to work at a bakery and I think she should start her own cake decorating company. I could be her, um, promoter on my blog?

She made giraffe for my daughter back in April.

Plage de l'Aboiteau

It rained for the first few days we were in NB. We made it to the beach about a week later. 

The beach 15 minutes away is a provincial park in Cap-Pelé. It is shielded on one side by a sand dike and has a long and beautiful sandy beach that runs into the water for a few hundred metres that you can walk out to at low tide - perfect for little people.

Blaise kept himself busy with sand toys and Acadia slept. I didn't bring anything to do, so I burned - and I enjoyed it.