Normally, riding up chairlifts is what it’s all about – but that’s in wintertime. In the summer, its better to ride down chairlifts because of the view. Above is a time lapse from Blackcomb Mountain – from the top of 7th Heaven to Blackcomb Base. Recorded July 15, 2009 when it was nice and dry. This summer might be a different story as the top portion of the mountain is still under a layer of snow – more than 2 metres in some places!

June 15, 2010:

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.

Bon appetit.

Recorded from November 14, 2009 to May 24, 2010 with a digital camera that took a photo every 30 minutes; the film is comprised of over 8000 images. It was taken from the taco-cam perched on a windowsill above the deck in the house that I live.

East to west; from Barrie, ON to Whistler, BC in about four and a half minutes. Recorded October 26 to 31, 2009.

First tracks on the Hortsman Glacier on Blackcomb Mountain

That’s how much snow fell in the month of November in the alpine on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. At one point in November, it snowed everyday for two weeks. The result of it all was 560 cm – 18+ feet of snow! As I described at the start of the season, this was going to be an epic winter. Hopefully this turns out to be true for the rest of the season!

There was full coverage of snow from the first day and rocks were almost all covered. It was mid-season conditions in November. We got a few days of rain in the village, but it mostly turned into snow in the alpine. There was a bit of a fright on the day before US Thanksgiving when it rained up to mid-mountain. Thankfully, the rain stopped there. The high alpine the following day was great – especially on Blackcomb Mountain (as seen above).

Hopefully the snow keeps coming – with some sunny days in between!

Here is a time lapse of the month as seen from the Batcave…

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.

On this day when the greeting card, florists and confectionery companies (and society in general) tell us we should be together and happy – many of us are probably alone. However, when my friends tell me they are lonely – I usually tell them to go outside – there are six billion people out there. However, the video (above) showed me that I’m wrong – we don’t need to go outside because we are never alone.

Even though I live more than 3000 km from where I did three months ago; I still phone, text, email, skype, facebook, blog, twitter, yelp, IM or [insert your technology of choice] with my friends from my former hometown more than daily. It’s like I never left.

When I’m skiing, (I do this almost daily) I meet and speak to someone new on an hourly basis. They are a captive audience for about 10 to 20 minutes when we ride the gondola, chairlift or t-bar. People in ski resorts are generally very happy and glad to be there (regardless of the weather) and most are glad to talk. Sometimes I’m their captive audience. Occasionally, we end up skiing a run or two and even end up at the pub for après.

Personal interaction is so much better than any technology could try to emulate. I’m not sure what these technologies are achieving; but it make me yearn to be alone.

Instead of going outside to avoid being loney – maybe we need to go outside to be together.

According to the mission statement on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) website,

PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

What this means is that they produce materials and campaigns that get people, companies and organizations to take note, talk and write about what they are doing.

A recent example is the ‘banned’ Super Bowl commercial, (video above). I don’t think they meant or wanted to have that aired during the Super Bowl. If it did happen, it would have cost PeTA $3 million; or roughly 10% of their operating budget. Not the best use of money as the viewers are likely not their target audience. However, by getting the spot banned, it caused countless news organizations, bloggers and other media types to write about it as well as creating a general hubbub around the spot.

PETA is one of the world’s best marketing organizations and knew exactly what it was doing when they submitted the spot to NBC. They’ve done this before and none of spots have been aired. However, because of the interest, they’ve been viewed millions of times – far more effective than spending $3 million.

The target audience of PETA is actually quite small because when people realize the connection between the treatment of animals and their dinner plate; many cannot deal with that and become quite defensive or are in denial about their food choices. Many never get beyond this point.

Regardless, the PETA campaigns are meant to shock – so they are quite effective. They are probably more effective than mainstream advertising because the effects of their campaigns last in the (emotional) minds of people for years. PETA does piss a lot of people off, including vegetarians, but I don’t know of any vegetarian that would start treating animals poorly or revert to eating animals again because of it. PETA takes the bad with the good.

The good is that they have made someone notice – that’s their first goal. Their second goal is to get people beyond that point. Most will never get beyond the campaign; however, a small percentage will and read further. The third goal is to get people to provide support (money) to carry out their campaigns.

Mainstream marketers can only wish they could have this kind of impact.