I’ve been taking photos for many years, but usually of people, buildings or places I’ve traveled. However, I started taking photos of food a while back. I got inspired to take photos of what I eat. I managed to photography everything I ate for a full calendar year – 2009.
Initially, I wasn’t sure what to do with the photos – over 2000 of them. However, time lapse and some music make it bearable and give it some justification for my effort.
countless fruits including pears, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, oranges, grapefruit, blackberries, peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries
pounds of trail mix and corn nuts
I can’t recall what was my favorite thing – but I would have to assume it was the chocolate smoothie since I consumed almost two per day! Smoothies were probably a good thing because of the weather – it was hotter than normal in August.
I do know what the worst thing I ate – it was the instant noodles pictured above. I bought it because it was on sale for an unbelievable $0.88. I was also intrigued by the ingredients – even the beef, chicken and seafood flavours did not contain any animal products. However, they contained lots of ingredients that I could not identify or pronounce. After eating it, I felt a bit nauseous – it wasn’t tasteless, but I found most of the taste came from salt – a bit empty in terms of real taste and probably nutrition too. I won’t be eating this again too soon in the future. It was a one-meal stand.
Here’s the set of food that I ate in August. Click on the larger image to advance to the next image. If you’re on a mobile device, click here to go to my flickr set.
April Fool – Chalk Circle. A song I heard on the radio today. Shazam on my iPhone couldn’t figure it out; but I managed to somehow pull it out of the archives.
Yesterday, trying to make a hung-over friend feel better, I mentioned how beer makes one smarter by killing off the weakest brain cells like killing off the weakest buffalo in a herd – à la Cliff Claven in Cheers…
“Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”
Beers on the weekend. Click here for the slideshow or click on the image below to advance to the next image.
The 2010 Olympics are rapidly approaching; the February 12, 2010 opening ceremony is six months away, but it feels like it is only three months away. While it is only August, the available housing in Whistler has shrunk to a level that is normally seen in November when the ski/snowboard bums show up because they don’t want to waste any time or expense to pay for an extra month of rent before they find the fresh powder on the mountain.
This season, the situation has be exacerbated by property owners hoping to cash in on the Games. Many landlords are not renewing leases for the 2009/10 season in hopes of making some fast and hopefully big cash from visitors. I’ve seen properties listed for rent for as much as $20,000 per month. [Edit: here's one for $70,000 per month!]
The other problematic situation that has occurred because of the housing crunch are listing that have vacancies for one or two months in September and October because of the summer crowd moving out. Most of these vacancies will remain unfilled until the leases expire. Nobody arriving in their right mind would take one of these spots. If they did, they might have to move out of the BC lower mainland until the 2010 frenzy has died down in April.
The last unusual situation are landlords that are requiring their tenants to move out of their dwellings during the time of the Games – as seen in the above posting on Craigslist. This raises a few questions. Where will these people live? Couchsurfing may not be an option because every available couch and likely floor space will already be taken up by family, friends and long-lost acquaintances. Then there’s the 30,000 or so volunteers that will be rolling into town for the Games. Vancouver and Whistler will be bursting with homeless natives and visitors alike. Maybe Vancouver will go back to it’s roots and erect a tent city for the homeless.
The original goal was to hike/climb 7th Heaven on Blackcomb mountain – which we did. However, on the way up we started collecting garbage. We found the usual objects including water bottles, beer bottles, cans, goggles, clothing, skis, ski poles, two-way radios and the best of all, $125 (US) and a money clip. Maybe that was some good karma for picking up garbage and lost objects.
During the winter season, similar objects are found every day – especially cell phones and wallets. Whistler is a fairly good place to lose thing and have them returned. I recently left my credit card in a restaurant. I didn’t discover it missing until a few days later. When I did realise where I left it, I called and they did indeed have it. I retrieved it shortly after that without any hassle of getting it replaced.
I normally don’t carry cash with me – maybe for fear of losing it? However, banking is different that what it used to be. With ATMs and credit cards, cash is almost unnecessary in large cities and popular resorts. I can’t think of any place in Whistler that does not accept credit cards; and I think every merchant does because Visa is a worldwide sponsor of the Olympics. Even my lift pass is connected to my credit card so I don’t even need to carry a credit card with me when I’m on the mountain. Replacing a lift pass is easier than replacing a credit card or wallet. I’m not sure why people still carry cash.
The set from the day is below; click on the larger image to advance to the next one. If you’re on your iPhone or can’t see it, click here.
After hiking to Rainbow Lake in Whistler, I started to think about where our drinking water comes from and how we use it.
In 1988 when I traveled to Europe for the first time, it seemed a bit odd to drink bottled water. However, everyone seemed to do there and it was the norm for Europeans. Growing up in Canada, I drank unfiltered tap water. As the population grew, so did the strain on the system. Water treatment facilities started to add (more?) chlorine to the tap water and I could really smell it in tap water. In the summertime when it got really warm, the Toronto tap water smelled like algae. This was really unpalatable to me and I started drinking bottled water – like the Europeans. However, this was costly and also created a lot of waste. I moved to an in-home water filter system, however, this removed the bad things (chlorine, algae, eliminated plastic bottles, etc.) but also removed the good things like minerals. This was a no-win situation.
When I look at where the water supply comes from, it makes me shudder. In Toronto, the tap water comes from Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is also one of the most polluted lakes of the great lakes and dare I say it – in the world. There have been instances when periods of heavy rainfall caused sewers to overflow and have raw sewage run into Lake Ontario. Toronto, Kingston and other Canadian cites are have had similar instances. This happens worldwide and there are probably worse instances than these, but it doesn’t make it acceptable.
The treatment and necessary measures to ensure a safe water supply are required by the large concentrations of population in large cites. Even our food supply is similarly concentrated in factory farms and agriculture that also pollute our environment. I’m not sure what kinds of long term effects that this environment could cause to our health and economy, but the possibilities are frightening.
It is tough to find a healthy balance between our health, lifestyle and food choices. However, after moving to a smaller town, I have one less thing to worry about and drink unfiltered tap water with peace of mind.
The Internet isn’t new to many, I’ve had the Internet on my mobile phone for almost ten years (it sucked at the beginning). Many of us have access to the Internet via mobile phones. With the advent of smartphones such as the Palm, iPhone and similar devices, they brought mobile Internet to the average consumer. I’m not sure if this or Facebook caused our addictions.
I had some free time on the bus this morning so I though I would try to connect to the Internet from my computer via my iPhone. Without too much effort, and not very much technical knowledge, I got it to work – I just had to look for the information on the Internet!
Rogers sells a mobile internet plan for computers for about $25-$100 per month plus the fee for Mobile Internet Stick – this is mobile Internet without the hassle – for a fee. I wouldn’t be willing to pay more than I do for Internet service as I have Internet access already at home. I pay about $30 per month for 6GB of data on my mobile phone. When I had an ADSL connection, I wasn’t able to exceed even two gigabytes of data so I should be okay with this connection when I use it periodically. Now I can get Internet access where I couldn’t before!
Published from the bus while on the Sea to Sky Highway. Woot!
Some of my friends say that strangers are friends we have not yet met – I think they’re correct. A trip from Whistler to Vancouver that was delayed by five hours after meeting up a Craigslist rideshare and making a few detours along the way. 250+ images later, the result is above; entitled, Parking Lot Yoga.
Kiersten's last run on the Couloir Extreme this season
As the weather in the spring changes, people are starting to leave for the season or pack their skis in favour of their bikes, golf clubs and shorts. It’s a bit of a sad time – but many will be back – I’m sure of that.
Since the conditions aren’t the best because of the high temperatures, sunshine during the day and low temperatures at night causes some hard packed (read: icy) conditions, I decided to venture on the mountain with my SLR – which I’ve only done one or two times before this.
As I was taking photos of places I’ve been before but without my SLR, I met Kiersten. She asked me if I was going to go down the Couloir Extreme. I wasn’t planning on doing it as it was closed because of icy conditions. She mentioned that it was her last day on the mountain. I though for the season – but she said possibly forever because she said she was moving back to Holland after five years in Vancouver.
My heart sank a little; but I know that this place can’t keep anyone away for very long. I told her that I bet she’ll be back.
The last days on the mountain for several people plus some recent images on flickr. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.
I don’t have green smoothies that often as I prefer to eat my greens. After making my first one last year, they’ve grown on me and now I have them on a regular basis.
They aren’t always as bright as the one pictured above, sometimes they come out a murky green colour. The bright green one reminds me of kyrptonite – but it has the opposite effect! The colour is affected by the type of vegetable and other ingredients I use. Regardless of the colour they usually are pretty tasty (to me).
Here’s how I made the one listed above.
Ingredients
1 apple, cut into chunks (or other fruit)
handful of frozen cranberries
1/2 bunch of green kale
2 tablespoons ground flax
lemon juice
cayenne pepper (another one of those secret ingredients)
water
Instructions
Put everything but the flax in a blender and blend on the highest speed.
When well blended, add the flax.
Add more water to the desired consistency.
If you want your smoothie to be a bright green colour, substitute the flax with 1/6 of an avocado. I also sometimes add dulse too – this will change the colour to a muddy brown-green colour. Red kale does the same thing. If you want a bright green smoothie, don’t use these ingredients.
Edit [August 15, 2010]: Here is the nutritional information…
30-Day Raw Challenge, Culture, Environment, Food, Photography, Vegetarian, Video | Garry June 19, 2010 | 
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