A familiar pose. Riding the Revelstoke gondola. Photo by Jae from South Korea.
The number refers to how many days I want to spend on the mountain this season – on skis. I’d also like to take photos. Maybe self-portraits or maybe just of the scenery. I take photos everyday anyway so hopefully this won’t be a bother for me.
The season has gotten off to a slow start so far. The weather has been a bit unusual in the past month. First it was too warm and not enough snow. Then it became too cold when there was an arctic flow of cold air. This caused the temperature to dip to -25c at the peak of Whistler mountain on some days. It was also about -13c in the village on some days. The weather is starting to return to normal now. It’s snowing more frequently and the temperature is almost normal – which should be in the range of zero to -10c on the mountain.
My ski days for December will only be six – not much considering I’ve been in the mountains for the greater part of three weeks. The weather has been a factor – if it had not, my count would probably be 20 by now. I look forward to January and the rest of the season!
My daily photos from the album 100 days on flickr. Click the image to advance to the next image.
As I was going through some things tonight, I ran across two posters that I had forgotten that I had. The first one is of Björn Borg as he won the finals at Wimbledon in 1978. This was a pretty famous image in its day. I got it autographed in the 1980s when he made a promotional appearance in Toronto. The poster has been rolled up in a tube since then. I was lucky enough to watch the finals live at Wimbledon in 1988 when another Swede, Stefan Edberg defeated Boris Becker. I’ve been to Wimbledon (twice), the French Open and the US Open. I’ll have to complete the grand slam in Australia soon.
The other championship that I watched was the Whistler World Cup in 1995. Me and some friends traveled there for a weekend to ski and watch the race – but we all know we like to watch it for the wipe outs. We stationed ourselves at a corner where many skiers lost it and sometimes hit and bounce off a snow fence in midair like Spiderman might do. It’s a crazy sport, but it’s fun to watch. I was at Whistler in 2008 for the World Cup race but it was canceled due to fog. Hopefully the weather will cooperate in 2009.
This was the first thing I saw when I arrived yesterday morning in Whistler – a bare mountain. It was 8c and raining.
This was my first visit where I did not ski – for an obvious reason. It was still a good day for other reasons. I’ll cross my fingers that there will be snow on my next visit!
I recently read some articles about the imperative for businesses to become green. It still seems that being green is still a fad among most people and that short term benefits and cost is a major factor – despite the potential savings over the long term.
Being green has been always been a focus for a small segment of the population because of the inherent desire to consume only when necessary, not be wasteful and ultimately save money. If all consumers had these ideals in mind when consuming, we likely would not be in the predicament we find our planet in today.
Lack of Awareness – people claim they do not have enough information
Negative Perceptions – green products are less effective
Distrust – people do not trust the message of government and business
High Prices – people do not understand the long-term benefits
Low Availability – business do not really want to sell these products
It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg game. However, the Internet is a wealth of knowledge and consumers can find the information with some effort. Consumers must also decide on their own what is right for them rather than wait for the market to decide what is right for them. Otherwise consumers will be at the whim of marketers – the very ones that help put us in the position we find ourselves.
Businesses that take a leadership role in such areas will be rewarded by loyal customers and not have to catch up when the mainstream realizes that being green is better (and essential). Whole Foods Market did this in the 1990s by stocking organic and local produce as well as other environmentally-friendly products. They are now a leader in the grocery business with strong growth by attracting informed customers.
I’ve worked in the retail business for more than 15 years (almost all of my working life) and I’ve seen what attracts customers. In North America, consumers are addicted to cheap stuff – period. We are intent on obtaining the best deal and not necessarily the best value or product. That’s why Wal-Mart is so popular.
Europeans are more concerned with obtaining the best value or product and not necessarily the lowest price. The North American strategy does not retain customers as they will flee once prices are not the lowest. However, the European method retains customers because of the value delivered through a superior product.
Unfortunately, marketers have created this problem because of the short-term pressures. Hopefully they can dig us out of this problem without more consumption. The actual answer is through reduced consumption.
A McKinsey & Company chart that illustrates that perception is very different that what is effective in reality. A surprising point at the first position is driving a more fuel-efficient car; driving less is at the fourth position. However, the biggest and most surprising gap is with eating beef – consuming less is the third most effective action people can take – vegetarians have know this all along.
I notice recently that I’ve been cropping some of my images to a square or 4×5 format. I find that the 3×2 format of 35mm and D-SLR cameras don’t always work for what I’m shooting. I never used to crop my photos because I was framing the subject to fit in the camera viewfinder but it did not work when I viewed it on paper or on the screen.
However, I noticed that when I cropped some of them, it gave them a new life and changed the perspective of the photo. I’m sure I learned why in school, but my brain is like a sieve and I usually forget such minute technical details. I normally would shoot, process the levels and then post – maybe I could not be bothered to crop photos before.
Now that I think about it, why isn’t all film/digital in a more square format? Lenses are round and if film is not, there’s a lot of wasted space. I will guess that it started with some film manufacturing executive fitting into the manufacturing process or something like that. I’m going to a camera show on the weekend so I’m sure some people can let me in on the secret.
Enough talk, here are some pictures. Two of my favorite images, one square, one 4×5. Ironically, both from NY – maybe that’s what changed. Click on either image to jump to my flickr set.
Slideshows of the sets; click on the larger image to advance to the next one.
It all started one day in July when I made up my mind to go to New York in August for a weekend of parties at the NYC Couch Crash Festival.
When I arrived at Pearson airport in Toronto, I found out that my flight was delayed by two hours because of inclement weather in New York. After an hour, I was told that my flight was canceled. American Airlines found me a seat on the previous flight – that had already been holding for over three hours. Passangers actually got on the aircraft before they were told some time later to get off because the delay at the other end was undetermined. While in the waiting room, I called AA to ask if I could get a refund because of the delay – the agent indicated that I could – before I could say yes, they announced that we could board the plane again. Instead of getting a refund, I got back on the aircraft – where we sat for another hour and then were finally able to take off for New York. I did eventually get there, but about five hours later than I expected at about 2:30 a.m.
It was fun while I was there; I met lots of new people, some old friends, made some new friends and had lots of fun too!
I was only in New York for about 36 hours until I had to leave for the airport. I missed one of the trains to the airport. That created a chain reaction that caused me to end up at the airport with 25 minutes before my flight was to take off. I could have made it if I had my boarding pass. However, I didn’t have access to a computer and printer for the weekend that caused me to have to wait in the lineup at the airport. When I did reach an agent, they told me that the next flight was in an hour at LaGuardia airport – unfortunately I was at JFK airport. He offered to put me on the next flight which was at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. I declined and purchased a bus ticket and headed to the bus station.
On the way back to the city bus station, I decided to call American Airlines to tell them of my situation. Even though it was my own fault for missing the flight, they offered me a credit for my missed flight which I promptly accepted. There was no arguing or protracted phone call. It took about five minutes while I was waiting for the train back to Manhattan.
This is either really good luck on my part, good customer service or poor fiscal policy of American Airlines. Regardless, I’ll be going back to NYC to continue my current love affair with the city. Beware of what you ask for because you might receive it.
I wasn’t exactly sure what a hipster was until recently when I visited New York City. I found out through a free newspaper that they live in Williamsburg, an area of Brooklyn just over the river from Manhattan. Apparently they aren’t well liked by some because they over-pay for Goodwill fashion, drive out good-value restaurants, hang at dive bars and drive up housing prices, especially lofts!
Elise Thompson, an editor for the LA blog LAist defines hipsters as people wearing “expensive ‘alternative’ fashion[s]“, going to the “latest, coolest, hippest bar…[and] listen[ing] to the latest, coolest, hippest band.”
People are starting to emulate them in other cities – including Toronto as seen here in gbalogh’s (a flickr contact) photo stream.
Hopefully we won’t need to reinforce our doors to keep them out in Toronto – and hopefully they won’t invade Sneaky Dee’s!
Here’s a funny video of hipsters in action in Brooklyn.
Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society being interviewed after a screening of the Dan Stone documentary, At the Edge of the World at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society enforces international maritime law under the United Nations World Charter for Nature – despite having no official mandate or authorization to enforce any legislation. They target Japanese vessels that continue to hunt whales despite an international ban. The poachers exploit a loophole that allows killing for scientific research, but the whale meat usually ends up in restaurant kitchens. Sea Shepherd’s goal is to stop the slaughter, even if it requires aggressive actions against the whaling pirates.
Ten years after I first visited Yankee stadium, I returned for a final visit in the last season of the current Yankee Stadium. They will be playing in a new stadium starting in 2009 – also called Yankee Stadiium and the old Yankee Stadium will be demolished.
Although there is a lot of history in the current stadium, it is an old style stadium. The seating is old, the walkways and washrooms are cramped and there are not many amenities. Skydome/Roger’s Centre in Toronto is quite spacious in comparison.What I find most interesting about Yankee Stadium are the fans that visit the games. They are the most lively, boisterous and out-spoken – true New Yorkers. The Yankee fans may taunt you because you’re a Jay fan, etc. but everyone can still be friends because we’re all baseball fans.
I’ll probably go back to visit the stadium before it is demolished but this will probably be my last Yankee game in the House That Ruth Built (or the Stadium, the Big Ballpark in the Bronx, the Cathedral of Baseball).
On a related note, while in NY, I met a guy from Toronto that has the goal of watching every Toronto Blue Jay game in 2008 – at home and on the road. He worked out a deal with his company to work part time – when he was in town. His enthusiasm seem to be waning when I talked to him – but that’s understandable because he has been watching baseball games daily on his own for five months and counting. As Homer Simpson knows, baseball isn’t that exciting most of the time (when sober). Ryan’s website, is Baseball Odyssey – he stopped blogging at the end of June – perhaps that’s when he contracted baseball fatigue.
Here is my Flickr baseball set. Click on the larger image to advance to the next image.
At the beginning of August I followed through on my promise to attend Slideluck Potshow XII in New York following the event in Toronto in May. SLPS was held in Brooklyn – specifcally Williamsburg a trendy area of Brooklyn – just over the river from Manhattan. It was held NY-style. There were about 1000 attendees, a giant potluck to match, a DJ, festivities, beer and wine vendors and, last but not least, a slide show of photography, video and art on a giant screen.
The wading pool before the show – or maybe this is the show.
The food – lots of it!
The after parties went until dawn…
This was also my first visit to NYC in ten years. It was such a good trip that it spurred me to go back in August – it will be a total of three times by the end of August. The final trip of August – if all goes as planned – will have me doing approximately the same things as ten years ago – a Yankee/Jay game and attending the US Open tennis tournament. I wonder how it will be the second time around.
My flickr set from SLPS XII, click on the larger image to advance to the next one.
100 days, Banner Image, Blogroll, Couchsurfing, Culture, Environment, Photography, Recreation, Skiing, Travel, Whistler | Garry December 21, 2008 | 
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