Category Archives: Society

Japan, Society, Sustainability, Travel

Air Travel Piling Up this Year, Guilty Feelings, Too

We’ve kept our air travel down for many years, as it’s one of the most carbon-intensive ways to move around our suffering planet.

But we’ve got several trips lined up this year, and while I’m excited, I’m also feeling guilty.

We haven’t visited Yumi’s parents in Japan for many years, so that’s on the agenda.

We have a friend in the UK who will be travelling later in the year and who says we’re welcome to use her apartment. Wow.

And there’s a bunch of us in-laws hitting our sixties this year, so there’s another travel-intensive gathering planned. .  .

And we have not one, but two, family weddings this year in eastern Canada, which shall require travel from here on the west coast.

I have an aunt who often laments the days of family all living in one village, within steps of each other.

Yup.

Yeah, there are carbon offsets. And yeah, we are probably one of the most enviro-friendly families around.

But still . . . We’re gonna have a huge carbon smack this year. Sigh. . .

Photography, Society

SFU Coastal First Nations Art Tour

I greatly enjoyed touring First Nations art at Simon Fraser University today on Burnaby Mountain. Thanks to John Preissl for guiding us!

There are a lot of good things happening on campus in making First Nations students accepted, safe and cared for.

We have a lot to learn from the first human inhabitants of where we live, and I try to recognize that and play even a small part.  Each and every one of us, as we are able, in whatever capacity, can play small parts….

SFU First Nations art

Photography, Society, Travel

Skytrain & Seabus Xmas Ramble

We covered a good chunk of the Skytrain system, heading up to Lonsdale Quay on the north shore, then all the way out to Aberdeen Centre in Richmond, back downtown for some lights, and then home to Burnaby. A long but fun day.

windfall tree Byrne trail
The recent strong winds brought this tree down across the trail behind our place. I made a good choice in not going for a ravine walk the other day!

cormorants
The usual gang of cormorants at Lonsdale Quay had an interloper.

mountain woman
Mountain woman! Reflection on Seabus terminal window.

yumi toy helicopter ride
Yumi squeezed into this kids ride at the quay. I should have dropped a coin in : – ).

paul unclaimed throne
And I found an empty throne and claimed it. . .

vancouver youth philharmonic
We enjoyed a few pieces by the Vancouver Youth Philharmonic at the Aberdeen Centre.

xmas tree aberdeen centre

canada place christmas colors
Canada Place sails in holiday colours.

Business, Society, Technology, Writing

Hitting 10K Tweets on Twitter

This was not planned, but I just hit 10,000 Tweets within days of my 10th anniversary on Twitter.

I recall it took me several attempts to get into the flow, starting and stopping several times the first year, and then it just kept rolling.

I have no idea if this is near average, low, or high. Don’t really care, just find the nice, round 1K/year average interesting.

Cipywnyk 10,000 Tweets

Society

Fascism Is Worming Its Way Everywhere

So a day after Remembrance Day, someone that I follow on FB posted a Mussolini quotation, with zero qualification or explanation.

The hoary old “day as a lion vs lifetime as a sheep.”

Hello? He was a a fascist dictator.

Don’t people read ANY history?

You know all those ceremonies we had yesterday? All those men and women who died to protect our freedom and democracy?

One of their key opponents was Mussolini’s regime, eh?

Books, Society

Trying to Turn Around Falling Book Consumption

My consumption of books has dropped dramatically over the years. Twenty years ago I’d read 100 books a year no problem, but in recent years sometimes I barely get through a book a month.

There are a number of reasons that added together have put that big dent in my consumption.

  • The rise of social media, which eats up way too much of my time. Gotta put some limits there, eh?
  • The end of the confining tyranny of network TV. Now with NetFlix, specialty cable channels, cable on demand, etc., it’s just too easy to find all sorts of interesting stuff to watch for hours in front of the tube, er, screen. And PVRs add to the media flow by storing a backlog of stuff I want to watch.
  • An inability to say NO to volunteer commitments. I’m now down to being active on three boards, which is freeing up some personal time.

I noticed that following the injury to my ankle/foot recently, I read nearly a book a day over the last week. Hm. So it can be done!

It was also interesting to enjoy the interaction of reading. Active? I’m the kind of person who underlines, makes notes in margins. . .

With TV it’s more in one eye and out the other : – ).