The Long Road

For some reason, I just can’t seem to get motivated to write a post. Maybe because its start up time at school, or that Mich’s dad is visiting right now, or that I’m thinking about the 2, no 3, no maybe 4 hockey pool drafts I’ll be in next week. Who knows? But I do have several ideas of things I’d like to write about - I just have to find a way to get my butt into the chair and do it.
We did get our season’s passes for skiing this year today. So now I’m happy to let go of summer warmth and embrace Old Man Winter! Bring it on!!!!

Oh, and maybe I’ll take the opportunity to mention the new look. I think this might be my favorite banner picture so far. Well today it is anyway.

This shot was taken this summer at the top of Puig Carlit, part of our hike in the French Pyrenees. I’ve always wanted a shot like this; with Mich on the top of a rock that we’ve just climbed, the valley through which we hiked to get there off in the distance. I love the colors, the panorama feel and actually, the clouds in the background, nestled into the “little” divots between peaks. Anyway, details about this hike will be in a future post, one that I’m hoping Mich will be a guest writer on.

Well, would you look at that! I almost wrote a new post! I might be back in the saddle after all…

France is part of the EU. Thus, they are certainly part of the EU’s act of legislation banning the import of Canadian seal products on the basis that commercial seal hunting, notably in Canada, is “inherently inhumane”.

You know, despite this bill’s potential hit to the Canadian economy (and perhaps identity), I have basically been on board with it. I mean, as a country, we can’t expect the French to get behind something that they deem to be “inhumane” right? None of us would. So good on ‘em…. right?

Well I thought so until recently, while in France,…

I saw THIS!

WTF? Seriously?

So clubbing seals is “inherently inhumane”, but clubbing orientals is openly advocated on the French streets? As a Chinese Canadian I have to say that I’m deeply troubled by the promotion of this kind of activity. I mean up until this moment, I felt pretty safe in France. Really, we saw none of the strife and violence that has plagued the country in recent memory. So I was literally walking the streets openly; sipping tasty french coffee at the cafés without a care in the world. Little did I know the peril I was putting myself into. Needless to say, I was WAY more cautious after viewing that poster. I even considered fleeing the country before things went from sweet to sour for me, and I wokked into some trouble.

In the end, I got outta there without incident. But not without being severely troubled by the whole situation. I can’t believe this has been allowed to go on unnoticed by activists ’round the world.

So I would like to use this forum to call for the immediate ban on certain French products, starting with French Fries. That should hit them where it hurts eh? Especially when you think about how many French Fries are consumed in Canada each day. Perhaps then they will start to think twice about this activity. Are you with me people? No more French Fries! And if that doesn’t work (though how could it not!?), I say we ban berets next. That should cripple their economy, leaving them little choice but to come to us begging for our mercy! Ha, they’d probably start asking us to ramp up the seal hunt and send extra seal pelts to them so they can create seal skin berets! I seriously don’t think they know who they are dealing with here.

** UPDATED**

Um… OK, perhaps I got this a little wrong. Thanks to all of you who have written me to let me know that this “Oriental Clubbing” thing is just some kinda craze or something at the Discotheques. Wow, um, who knew?

And yes, I also NOW know that French Fries are a bit of misnomer and that they were invented by the fine folks over at McCain Foods. Well, at least the beret is a French invention!

**UPDATED AGAIN**

Thanks to all of you who emailed me to let me know that in fact the beret really has Basque origins. I mean, come on, a good part of Basque territory is in modern day France! Give me a break here people!

The Photo Geeks

The guys I’ve really enjoyed taking photographs with over the last few years, Blake, Hubert and Paul and I have started a new project together. As we are in locations rather distant from each other, (Dalian PRC, Vancouver, Kamloops) it has proven rather tough to get together regularly to shoot. So we’ve decided to give ourselves “assignments” and shoot together virtually. I’m happy to present the results of the first assignment. We had a couple of weeks to gather our shots for it and present them to the group.

The topic was “Hands”. Below are the results. I think the boys did rather well… Click on each photo to link to its album.

Blake

Hubert

Paul

Me

Please feel free to indicate your favorites via comments…

I’ll post the results of the next assignment when it happens.

Maybe I’m throwing too many pics at you all at once but…

This one was the result of fooling around one day with Photoshop filters and contrast. I guess the only knock I have on this one is that people who see it tend to think Mich looks stressed in it - like she has a headache or something. That wasn’t the idea. Oh well.

**Udated Feb.21 ** Thanks for the comments people and your critical eyes! I’m enjoying hearing what people’s thoughts are - they are diverse.

It’s pretty easy to find a good picture at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. That said, this one is one of my favorite shots that I’ve ever taken. Now for fun, I also gave it the B&W treatment (cause I wanted to learn the technique). Anyway, I’d love it if you’d tell me via comments which you prefer.

I’ve got so many shots that are sitting on the hard drive and haven’t been shared. So I thought I’d start a new category called “Pic of the Day”. Now, this won’t mean everyday of course, but when I’m going through shots and see something that catches my eye for some reason, I’m going to post it here. It’ll be pretty random, but hopefully enjoyable for you to see.

Today’s shot is a new one. I took it with the Rollei (yes, that camera uses film! Remember film?) on our recent Nicaragua trip. Paul was awesome enough to get my film processed for me in the big city and mail it up to me. This is one of the few from this roll that I’m happy with. It is of some lovely Nicaraguan street vendors hawking their bananas. We bought a bunch from them before I took this shot. They were so tasty that I had to get another bunch before we moved on.