best Christmas medley I've ever seen.

I've really not got excited about Christmas at all. I've made the majority of my presents this year, and other than a few brief visits to the mall downtown I haven't taken part in any holiday shopping. I don't really mind, I find shopping this time of year to be overwhelming... but considering that I'm leaving for Christmas vacation in less than a week, I am really not filled with the holiday spirit. I haven't really had much excuse to get in the mood. No staff holiday parties to attend... I left my old job in October, I only worked with my current position for a couple months, and the new job I'm starting on Monday doesn't have a Christmas party but some sort of winter ball in February. That's kind of exciting though... hopefully it will be a real party and not some sorry boring affair. That's still a couple months off though - I'm trying to focus on the present and get excited about presents. I've been listening to holiday music all day, a lot of which I simply could not tolerate because it was absolutely horrible. Tomorrow I'll be making chocolates at Wade's... perhaps that will be the cure to my scrooginess.

one of those nights where I can't sleep. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken a nap this afternoon, but I was tired and my bed was so inviting.

The weather has been depressing me lately, but I made the realization this evening that the shortest day of the year is fast approaching. Although it might be getting colder, and the snow won't disappear any time soon... the days will begin to get ever the tiniest bit longer.

I'm working on an idea for a photography project over the next couple of months. I have rounded up a group of models who I am planning to shoot - and hopefully, if I can get in touch with the guy who handles the rental of a local venue... I'm going to organize a sort of independent art show/leap year party. I'm hoping that we can pull something together. The concept for the show is a bit of a gag, but it will be fun nonetheless. No more details at the moment. Who knows, in the next couple of weeks the whole thing might fall apart. But I hope not.

I'm sure that if/when my mother reads this post I'm going to get an earful about this photo from my most recent photoshoot. Don't worry mama... it's in black and white so it's tasteful and artistic. My reputation is still intact.

I'm in my last week of my current job, and I'll start fresh with another one on Monday. Understandably it's a period of change. My course is also wrapping up, although I still have to finish both of my papers (which I have made a good start on but I'm in the middle of the road funk). That kind of mixture of exciting new change and inability to progress describes my life at the moment. I don't think I would be bothered by any of this if I were sleeping properly, but my insomnia seems to have returned. Thankfully, I am able to properly function on little sleep, but it is still exhausting.

As a bit of distraction this weekend I had a comedic photoshoot with a friend. The whole concept was sort of built on the initial idea of the classic Seinfeld image of George Costanza posing on a couch in white briefs and black socks. I don't quite recall how the idea came to be, but I do know that it did involve martinis and Martinis. We started out with the Costanza pose (with the intent that the photo will be hung over the couch where the photo was taken)... and then moved about the apartment and the apartment complex (including the sauna, dry tub (inoperable hottub with about two inches of some aqueous chemical mixture in the bottom), laundry facility, lobby and elevator. It was ridiculously amusing, particularly when we interacted with the other apartment dwellers and the postal lady. My favourite moment of the day came when we were shooting in front of the Christams tree in the lobby and the postal lady came down off the elevator to find us recreating Christmas morning (who doesn't open presents in a straw cowboy hat and silk robe with a dragon embroidered on the back?). She sort of stopped and paused for a moment so as not to disrupt the art in progress. I couldn't stop laughing all day... and I was laughing again while taking the photo.
"Don't worry," she said, "I've got a niece like you..."
"like what?" I challenged. "Go ahead, say it... Crazy."
As she headed out the door she turned back and replied something to the effect of, "nah, she's a grobowski. you might know her... Tracy Grobowski." With that she went on her merry way and more ridiculousness and hilarity ensued, including the recreation of some of the finer moments from Arrested Development (nevernude Tobias crying in the shower).

I have no idea what these pictures are going to be used for. They hardly exemplify my best technical work (I broke my lighting umbrella on my way up to the apartment)... I was too amused to really focus on composition... so some of the photos were not as carefully crafted as I would like. Good diversion though... I haven't laughed that much during a photoshoot in a long time.

I've posted this photo before on my blog, but I like it so much that I figured it deserves another post.

I went swimming last night... something which seems odd for me to do, since I spent much of my youth refusing to get out of bed for early morning swim practices. But I'm getting long in the tooth and my job promotes a sedentary lifestyle. My walk to work is only going to get shorter in the two weeks (three blocks instead of a ten minute walk)... so there was a greater pressure that I do something active with my life.

My return to the pool was not enitrely glorious. My cardiovascular ability has greatly diminished over the years and I was only able to manage about ten or so laps before I headed to the hot tub. Very weak performance, but I'm just impressed by the fact that I went to swimming at all. Aryn was much more dedicated... and completed his set number of laps.

In an effort to make swimming a habit, I'm attempting to organize a swim team of sorts... and make myself accountable to a group of people who will go swimming with me. I've even come up with a few names for the team, my favourite of course being the West Side Story inspired "Pool Sharks and the Jetskis". I find that associating anything with a musical makes my life a little bit better. Boy oh crazy boy... I can't wait until someone starts yelling "Chino!" in the middle of the pool.

I survived my first day back at the gym in years. I have never gone regularly in my life, but I have made feeble attempts here and there. Always unsuccessful attempts mind you. I lacked the necessary motivation to make myself go alone, and I made bad choices to go to the gym with some people who only knew how to motivate through criticism. Highlighting my laziness and lack of physical stamina are not ways to encourage me to continue with an exercise routine. I have found a new gym buddy though... and our joint exercise experience was quite pleasant. We went off and did our own thing and occassionally met up to stretch in what will always be to me a dance room (lovely sprung floor).

We made a new friend last night... a skipper who sweats profusely. He gave us some tips on how to skip with minimum effort but maximum results. We're going to work it into our routine. It'll be like dance practice all over again.

I dislike the gym.

but I'm going...

tonight.

A few years ago I bought a Wacom tablet... and it was one of my best purchases ever. I try to avoid using a mouse whenever I can. I don't know how any photographers or designers only use a mouse. Wacom also manufactures displays (the Cintiq line) that allow you to work directly on the surface, akin to working on paper. The cost of these tools has always been astronomical and I could never justify the purchase as I don't really do that much editing. I just read about a new addition to the Cintiq line though that is making me change my mind a little.

If there is anyone wanting to contribute to my Christmas/Birthday/General Gift fund... please consider giving the gift of Cintiq12WX.

I've been told that it's going to be the coldest winter in fifteen years. When I look out the window and see the flurry of snowflakes swirling every which direction... and I think how my legs were chapped and raw this weekend despite multiple layers... I believe it.

I've been knitting up a storm for the past month. I challenged myself to make the majority of my Christmas gifts and I have finished the majority of my projects. I'll admit that I'm a bit knit-out at the moment. Yesterday I finished the toque pictured above... one of the more complicated patterns that I have ever attempted, my second cabling project. Although I had to modify the pattern on the crown (I couldn't figure out the decreasing properly plus the toque was getting too long), I'm really impressed with my handiwork. I came across this pattern a few years ago, but I wasn't confident enough in my knitting ability to tackle it. I don't know what has changed recently, maybe it was the drive to make all these Christmas presents and not wanting to knit the same thing over and over. I'm a bit at a loss for what to attempt next though. I think I might try to do some sort of fair isle pattern, after Christmas of course.

I wish I had brought my camera to work today. The view of snowy downtown from my window is pretty cool. Although I doubt I could convince the people on my floor to turn off the fluorescents for awhile. I don't know how I'd deal with the reflection on the windows.

It's really started to get cold here, with temperatures getting close to minus 20 C. Basically it's cold enough that my glasses fog up when I walk into work after my short walk from home. My vision is extremely poor and rather than take off my glasses while the lenses clear up, I keep them on so I can see where I'm going. Anyone with glasses will be familiar with the way fog clears on lenses. Often you end up with owl eyes, as the centres of the lenses clear (in my glasses the centre is the thinnest part) and the outer edges take a little longer. Well, I'm waiting to get on the elevator to go upstairs and this woman looks at me and says, "ooh... your glasses are all fogged up, How cute!"

and I thought, "weirdo"

It reminded me of a clip that my sister showed me of the comedian Jiff Gaffigan (who apparently is coming to the Winspear in January). I can't access the Tube from this computer, but his routine basically went like this... you wear glasses, someone tries on your glasses, squnits, takes them off and is all "wooah, you're blind!" Would you do that to someone in a wheelchair? Say, "hey man, can I try on your wheelchair?" And then get out and be all "wooah, you're so cripple!"

That's what I thought of when the weirdo woman commented on the cuteness of my glasses. Cute is not the word I would use to describe my failing eyesight, which unfortunately is getting worse. I had a quick vision test for work and the guy advised that I get my eyes checked out. Mind you, I was wearing my contacts and my glasses prescription is stronger. I just have to compromise and wear glasses to work all the time because I spend all day in front of the computer. Oh the pain.

The arrival of the snow was unavoidable... but there is so little of it that I don't really care so much. Maybe because right now it makes the scene from my office window more picturesque. There is finally a little more than layers upon layers of beige.

Snow means ice where I come from... and that plays a big role in what footwear I walk to work in. Out go the heels and open back shoes, in come the handcrafted Italian hiking boots (eventually). Of course the problem with business casual attire it can be hard to disguise hiking boots with dress pants. So I usually have to keep a second set of shoes at my desk. The problem is, although I have a surplus of shoes... I really only have a couple pairs that are both comfortable and work with my everday business attire. One of these pairs lost a heel on the way to work the other day (not the entire heel, just the tip) and I was quite upset that I had wrecked my good shoes. For some reason, when I damage a pair of shoes I seem to forget that I can have them repaired. However, while strolling through the network of buildings downtown I noticed a shoe repair shop within five minutes of my office. How wondrous this was... a cobbler fell across my way when I most needed one. This was not the only item of good fortune that the winter wind blew my way... more on that in days to come.

I need to remind myself from time to time that most of my problems eventually work themselves out. Sometimes it may seem that things are spiralling out of control, but in a matter of weeks my situation may improve immensely. RIght now I'm in a particularly good place. I have a new job that keeps me busy and somehow I've scored a cubicle with a window and a view, allowing me to bask in sunlight all day long. Academically speaking, I've established some direction for the papers I'm writing and I actually feel engaged in the content. I've also finished seven Christmas presents and am in the process of making the eighth and ninth. In photographic terms, I've made some strides towards breaking out of this non-creative period. Over the weekend I was presented with a photoshoot challenge that I feel I successfully accomplished. My photographic subject is my new lady friend, with whom I have entered into an informal pact to provide with girly companionship (we've designated roles as each other's female bff), wearing matching outfits at the gym (yes, it's true... I'm going to attempt going to the gym, Edmonton has a brand new YMCA facility opening soon downtown) and quoting Arrested Development excessively. I think we're off to a good start.

Those close to me are well aware of my renewed interest in knitting. What started as a desperate attempt to keep my fingers warm in the Victoria rat house six years ago has blossomed into a full blown addiction. I suppose I could say that I'm a self-taught knitter, but that's not entirely true. My older and daintier sister showed me the basic art of yarning so many years ago, followed by a brief tutorial from my mother... but following these initial lessons I ventured off on my own. I might be so bold as to claim to have surpassed both mother and sister in the art of knitting, but only because I've knit more than either of them in the past few years (darling mummy probably hasn't really knit since I was still cute and cuddly and francine is too delicate to hold up the heavy knitting sticks for too long). Anyhow, the number of internet resources related to knitting has steadily increased over the years and now the interested knitter can not only find tutorials about various knitting techniques, but also find inspiration, free patterns and solidarity amongst the knitting kind. Recently, several of my knitting feeds have been referencing a site called ravelry... a social network of sorts for needlecrafters like me (and by needlecraft I'm refering to knitting and crochet). Ravelry is still in beta and you need to put your name on a waiting list in order to get an invite. It took a few weeks on the wait list before I was finally invited last Thursday. Some of you will understand what it was like to receive that email invite (sort of like being one of the first of your friends to get a coveted gmail account). Although it was one o'clock in the morning I immediately accepted the invite and set about creating my profile, adding finished projects, WIPs, and adding yarn to my virtual stash. There is quite a community on ravelry already, and thousands of patterns and projects that you can view. For me, it's an easy way to keep track of the various projects I'm working on or have completed. I haven't been very diligent about writing down the type of yarn or needle size that I've used for things that I've knit in the past, and often I have to rack my brain for any of the modifications I've made to various patterns. Now I've got a place to keep all of this information, AND it's integrated with flickr, so I can cross reference all of this data with photographs that I've taken. That's enough nerdly raving from me though. If you're a knitter I recommend that you check out ravelry, tis a nice little site that filled a much needed void in helping to sort all of the info that is available on the web. Oh, and if anyone in Edmonton wants to meet downtown and perform dark domestic arts in public at a bar/pub/club/coffee shop once in awhile let me know. I know of a knitting group that meets at a coffee shop across the High Level Bridge but I don't really fit in with the age demographic, plus it's a cold, dark walk across the High Level during the winter. I'm sure there are some youngish hipsters that I know who might be up for a twice monthly meetup or something like that. We can meet and discuss the revolution like Madame Defarge.

I saw this blog readability test on Darcy Norman's blog this morning. I thought I'd give it a whirl. The results for my particular blog are very amusing.

Darcy helpfully included this postscript...

ps. if you take the test and post the results on your blog, beware
the sneaky, sneaky person who runs the service. The HTML snippet they provide
includes a spam ad hyperlink. Not cool. So just be sure to remove that before
posting. Play safe, kids. And knowing is half the battle.

Sneaky indeed. Watch out for it. But you are all geniuses so I don't know why I'm warning you.

so much for my committment to this blog...

My last post was sometime in late September, I went away on vacation - was too busy to post during that week - I returned to Edmonton to find that my contract position ended suddenly - I spent a few weeks in a rather depressing state of low self esteem, during which time I neglected my blog. However, here I am, many weeks later, jsut completing my first week of work at an exciting new job. Things are looking up for me. I get to incorporate a lot of my creative talents in my new position... working on heritage grants, dabbling in a little bit of graphic design and photography, juggling a little bit of event planning. For now the exact description of my position will remain a secret (most of you who read this know already so I don't really feel like I'm keeping you out of the loop). In an interesting turn of events though, on my first day of work at this new job I got a call from another company who I had submitted my resume to back in September. They didn't have any opportunities that were suitable for me back then but now they're interested.

what else will the future bring?

(more relevant photos to be added later)

Yesterday I attended Career Day at the University of Alberta. It was the third or fourth such career fair that I've attended recently... this time of year being especially popular for employers and recruiters to host these type of events, all with varying levels of success. There's a bit of a misconception about the Alberta Job Market I think... despite everyone buzzing about the surplus of jobs in the province it is not necessarily any easier to find work in every field. One cannot simply walk into one of these job fairs, toss your resume to the winds, and then leave having been offered some spectacular job. Nor can you really leave one of these job fairs having made some spectacular contact that is going to get you an 'in' with some company.

Your typical job fair is not unlike the classic home and garden show or "trade show" with the exception of there being some yahoo with a Madonna mic who is trying to sell you some miracle shammy to clean out the inside of your microwave. Within Edmonton the fairs of the employment variety tend to be loud and cramped, with booths manned with representatives who seem to only speak very generally about the type of opportunities available with their company and love to hand you glossy brochures and then point to the careers website that is listed on the back.

As I walked around collecting information for my present and future clients, I noticed that larger than normal groups were clustering around the large industry reps. The hungry mob was a mix of unemployed professionals and eager university students with dollar signs in their eyes as they quietly calculated how much of their yearly tuition they could make working for the summer for one of these companies. What bothered me was that so many of the interested job seekers seemed to be there because of the appeal of salary alone. There were several instances were I overheard some individuals who clearly specialized in another field/industry altogether inquire about how much money could be made working for this particular company. At one booth, the company rep (who resembled a sleazy car salesman in his delivery) could be heard shouting, "There's not a lot of genetics in the oilfield... you know what I mean... I'm as smart as this pad here," (pointing to a pad of paper if you were so curious) "you know what I'm saying. You should stick to genetics."

How many people are fueled solely by money when they look for work? It's a question that I don't think I really want answered.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this morning, so I've decided to really dig through the archives and revisit some photos from my photostream and create an approximate yearly retrospective.


I suppose it's also fitting then that the 2005 feature photo includes Wade, during one of our many photo excursions in and around FSJ. Despite the limitations of our geography we really did manage to have a lot of fun. We had nothing to do but indulge in a little random spontaneity. This particular excursion is one of the most memorable... It was a cold, cold day... but we drove out to Beatton Park, Wade in one of his dad's old suits and me in my younger sister's prom dress (I was much skinnier then) and we each took turns in front of the camera (I should specify that we took turns in front of each other's camera, as by this time Wade also owned a digital SLR and the coveted 50mm lens).

I really need to come up with an alternate solution for carrying my camera around with me on a daily basis. I would like to have one bag that has storage spots for all of my assorted camera bits so I don't end up forgetting things when I switch from purse to purse. This morning I pulled out my camera to take a picture of some frosty grass but as I pushed the shutter I realized that I had neglected to put my memory card back in my camera. What an irritating feeling. I have two memory cards, but of course my extra card was in the large non-everyday camera bag back at home. Without my 'film' my camera cannot record anything, so instead you will just have to trust me that the juxtaposition of tall, yellowed grasses against the frosty green grass below was quite visually stunning.


Perhaps my mood yesterday evening was in some way dampened by the rather depressing sites I photographed on the way home. Although I admit to enhancing the grittiness and overall feeling of grunge in post, walking home on a dull afternoon through deserted downtown left me with the overall feeling of despair. The darkening of my spirit was more gradual... as I edited the photos, trying to bring out some of the layers of shadow and light I began to become more and more withdrawn. By the time I went to bed I was a fragment of my former vibrant self. I was a wilted flower... I was my own shadow.

Party photos after the jump. I've backdated this post for the day of the party.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

If I drank coffee, every morning I could take my cup to the window and watch the morning commuters thronging the intersection as they make their way to the downtown core. I don't drink coffee or much of anything in the morning and I don't really care to watch the vehicles and pedestrians battle it out on the crosswalks below. Instead I like to gaze at the different cloud formations that stretch over the western horizon (I realized that I'm always looking towards BC). This is how I spend my last few minutes of calm before I join the frenzy on the streets... looking at the sky and quietly contemplating.

Following a suggestion from one of the blogs I read, I listened to a couple interesting documentaries on BBC today about the school system in Finland as well as the quality of education at Westminster School and Harvard University.

In a couple weeks I'll be visiting Toronto with Aryn. I'm very excited about my trip because other than a brief visit to Vancouver and a weekend trip to Calgary my summer was spent in central Alberta. In some ways I'm glad that I didn't have a real vacation during the summer though. Edmonton is quite pleasant during the summer months and I think that if I had chosen to vacation (can I use that as a verb) I would most likely begin to feel the symptoms of winter cabin fever within the next coming weeks when snow eventually falls (it's snowed in FSJ already so it's not so unlikely that Edmonton will endure similar weather).

I'm in the process of figuring out my itinerary for the trip. Aryn's going to be busy with conference events for the majority of the day, and I'm going to be left to my own devices to explore the city with camera in hand. I last visited Toronto when I was 16 and I was downtown for all of an afternoon. It was a very overwhelming experience and I didn't particularly like it all that much. Mind you I did have a terrible cold (ironic since I had just returned from visiting my relatives in Trinidad) and the day was not a particularly pleasant one. I remember standing on the sidewalk outside of the Hospital for Sick Children and feeling pushed around by all of the pedestrians who were in a mad rush to get somewhere. Now that I'm a seasoned metropolitan traveler (and older and a photographer) I think my experience will be much different. Any former Torontonians who want to give me suggestions of what to see?

So far the only thing I have planned is going to see Beirut at the Danforth Music Hall. I came across Beirut on iTunes yesterday and I spent the entire evening listening to them. On a whim I decided to see if they might be coming to Edmonton and I discovered a Toronto tour date. What luck! My October will be full of rather eclectic and original music... mid way through the month I will also be going to see Final Fantasy. Somehow I've become a music hipster. The number of concerts I've attended is still pretty small though.




These photos are evidence of the somewhat varied performances I've attended since moving to Edmonton. One could say that I somewhat regularly participate in the 'music scene.' I don't have photographical evidence of all the performances though, much to my dismay. I find it a little ridiculous that cameras are seen as such a threat by some venues. I can understand banning the use of flash photography, but sans flash what harm can a camera really bring to a performer? I phoned ahead to the Music Hall in Toronto and I discovered that they don't have a house policy about cameras (yeah!) and with the exception of flash photography and professionals (I think SLRs are a grey area... I think the issue is more about the size of your lens) cameras are permitted. This information excites me... because as much as I enjoy the live performances I also love being able to indulge in a little rocktography.

There are times at work when I find myself completely underwhelmed by my conversational contributions. The small talk we generally make with our coworkers is often about safe and generally boring topics. It's a relief when you are finally able to hit on a topic of conversation that all parties are interested in as you do not have to feel that you are making conversation simply to fill the silence. Yesterday I chanced upon such a topic of conversation. As fall has been approaching the morning weather (safe topic) has become progressively colder. Yesterday morning I found myself buttoning my jacket up tighter and I realized that soon I would need to start wearing a scarf. The thought of scarves immediately inspires me to think of new knitting projects... and the one which was on the forefront of my mind was a scarf that I promised to make for my chum Wade I don't usually work from patterns for scarves... but this particular scarf is a unique double knit pattern (check out knitty.com for the free pattern) and I've never tried double knitting before. I happened to remember that one of my coworkers also knits... and we spent the first part of the morning excitedly discussing different yarn stores in the area and trying to find some nice knitting books. Usually we bore each other with talk about the weather. It was a happy change.

Following my inspiring conversation about knitting, later in the day I ended up at a big box book store (Indigo) with Aryn and Wade and I came across one of the knitting books I was interested in purchasing. I had checked the price online before heading out... and I was very disappointed to discover that the book in store was ten dollars more expensive. When I asked about it the salesgirl gave me some rigmarole about overhead costs. Aryn was also looking another book in the store which was significantly more expensive than online. We both left without buying anything. It was such a disappointing experience. I want to walk out the store with a book in hand... especially when I've traveled across the city to see it (side note: visiting the bookstore was not our express purpose for being in that part of the city, we were visiting some other stores in the area.) After leaving the big box I had several options. I could order from the company website (but only get the inexpensive price if I was a paying member of their discount club), order from Amazon or go to the independent book store two blocks from my house and get them to order it for me. In the end ordering from Amazon won out as it was inexpensive and should have quick turnaround.

Yes, I could also go to the library... but I like to keep these sort of books.

I started to take photos with my digital SLR around the same time as I started this blog so I feel somewhat obligated to maintain some sort of balance between the words on images on this revamped blog.

I managed to add something that resembles a menu bar to my template (piecing together code from this site). What I ended up with is not perfect but it's functional. Surely someone out of my limited audience will make note of how my makeshift menu bar highlights certain sections a little differently. The original code is set up so that when your mouse hovers over the link it becomes highlighted in blue. Two of my menu selections do not like to another page but have a dropdown selection for my blog archives or my rarely used post labels (a new feature introduced by Blogger Beta). Anyhow, while I could get those selections to highlight the same way as the rest, I could not get the "v" that showed up behind them to go away unless I got rid of the line breaks used to separate the different menu selections. I'm sure it must have been some bit of a extraneous code, but I couldn't figure out what it was. If someone wants to try to figure it out for me they are more than welcome.

Those of you who subscribe to this blog through RSS (all seven of you) may want to pop by to check out the changes I made and give me a little feedback. In addition to the new menu bar I've also changed the header image, expanded the main body post, redirected my Atom feed to feedburner and set up my publishing settings so only my post recent post is displayed on the front page. I'm trying to move towards posting at least once a day. I may switch back to the last seven posts to the front page but we'll wait and see how this works out. The single post format works better if I succeed at creating a more of a photoblog but I'm always a little heavy on the unrelated text.

I'm in the process of trying to reinvent my blog... So far I've stripped my sidebar and limited the additional widgets I have to my RSS feed and archives. Ultimately I think I'll end up linking my blog to my photography website, but I can't quite decide if I need to associate all of my personal garbage from the last few years with my so-called business. I need to be doing some more thinking about the how I want to link my various online identities.

Aryn made the comment this morning that I have turned my photostream into a blog of sorts, as I've been posting photos with detailed descriptions or stories that are inspired by the photos. I always toyed with establishing a sort of photo-a-day blog, but have never successfully run with the idea. I think that I'm going to try it now. I recently added a new lens to my collection (selling some of my old equipment in order to afford it) and I'm trying to take my camera with me everyday so I can never complain about not having a camera around to take photos.

My new lens is the ultra-wide EF-S 10-22mm (equivalent to a 16-35) and I've been using it exclusively for the past week. I thought it would come in handy for my upcoming trip to Toronto to take in wide angle landscape shots of downtown Toronto and cool distorted images of the CN tower and other such Toronto landmarks. This lens isn't just useful for architectural and landscape shots... I've experimented with it as a portrait lens and I've found the odd perspective that this lens creates to be quite pleasing.

Here are a few of the shots I took yesterday while on my walk with Aryn and Wade. Click through on my photostream to see what else I've been up to recently.

I've been self censoring my blog for months now and I don't know how to overcome it. I'm all too aware of my public presence (not that anyone really reads this blog) and I've been worrying about how what I write might be construed by curious coworkers or facebook lurkers who stumble upon my blog. It's interesting... when I first started this blog I really wanted to increase my audience, but I still wanted my audience to be anonymous. I toyed with the idea of starting up a blog that is not linked to my public profile... but I think that I should be accountable for what I put online.

I enjoy working through issues by talking or writing... one of my biggest challenges that I face when dealing with self-censorship is that I feel stifled. Instead of being able to work through things that are bothering me (in writing which I often find to be most cathartic) I end up stewing over things endlessly in my head. How to overcome this I am unsure. It will work itself out eventually.

I deliberately didn't read about the 40D when it was released. However, I couldn't help but be sucked in when I started researching other camera equipment recently. Now I'm in lust for this new and improved Canon. It's more than a little out of my reach though... Instead I'm debating about buying a small camera that I can carry with me everywhere, or getting the 10-22mm. I must think about this more... and read some more reviews.

I realize that I love photography most of all when I'm taking pictures for myself... So I'm going to sell off some of my camera equipment and invest in a little camera that I can carry around with me everywhere. I won't be selling my 30D and my more recent lenses... but my second SLR body with the kit lens, 50mm and probably the 28-135mm which I love, but don't use nearly as much as I used to. All of my equipment is in excellent condition...

Is anyone interested?

a little diversion this Tuesday morning...

Which famous photographer are you? Helmut Newton: Known for fashion and nudes illustrating themes of mass media, glamour, sex, and theater "I get inspired, in America, by a certain kind of sleaziness."

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

I finally uploaded some photos from the various networking events that I attended as both the official (also click here) and unofficial photographer.


If you're viewing in this in your feed reader, make sure to click through to view the embedded slideshow from the most recent events.


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

I'm trying not to censor myself... as I've started several posts in the past few months that have gone nowhere. I got caught up in trying to make sure that I was writing interesting things, but I don't exactly have an audience for these things so I really shouldn't care.

I'm a bit frustrated since I've recently taken on some new responsibilities in my life but without any external compensation. I feel a bit under acknowledge for the initiative I'm taking, but I don't feel like really forcing people to take notice. At least not at the moment. Personally, I'd rather be concentrating on my photography, which I do not get enough time to do nor do I take enough time to do. I read a lot of design blogs and I often find myself caught up in the romantic notion of how wonderful it would be more actively involved in that world... either as a graphic or interior designer or architectural photographer. These things don't happen all on their own of course and I'm trying very hard to figure out what I can do in order to involve myself more in these creative fields. I have family coming to visit over the next two weeks so perhaps this will be a good time to experiment with some unwilling models.

No excuses, no complaints...

Aryn and I attended a friend's wedding on the weekend where I got to play dual role as guest and photographer. It was a lot of fun, despite the intense heat (which ended up getting me in the end). The ceremony took place at the Riverdale Community Hall, a picturesque part of the city that I had never been to before. Although I continue to cling to the dream that Aryn and I will one day be able to move back to BC, whenever I come across an area in Edmonton that I find appealing I make a mental note that this is an area that I wouldn't mind living in. After reading an RBC Economics report today that said that in order to afford to live in Vancouver you must spend 70% of your taxable income on living expenses and live off the remaining 30%, I'm starting to think more and more that my vision of a coastal future is well beyond my reach.

But I'm not without hope... things change with time and for now I need to concentrate on the present. I spent the majority of Sunday working on edits from the various weddings I've shot recently. Aryn busied himself with different projects around the condo, installing the remaining kitchen cabinetry and the dishwasher (just in time for our guests who will be arriving shortly).

More photos to come as I continue on this publicly productive streak.

My birthday is fast approaching...

Those of you that are searching for a present idea... I would like this book. Find it and other books on my assorted amazon wish lists.

From Apartment Therapy...

The future of outdoor living here in NYC belongs in part to The High Line. The elevated railway has been in disuse for decades and is now being given new life by the initiatives of Friends of the Highline.

This looks like a fascinating project. I'd like to visit New York to see it once it has been completed (or once some portions are open to the public).

My sister is staying with me for a month until she gets occupancy of her new apartment. It's been nice having her around because I've been able to borrow from her wardrobe. Unlike one of my other sisters, despite my being the most sturdy and rubenesque of all the Loro girls, she doesn't complain that my curvaceous figure will stretch out her clothes. Considering the amount of lycra and other materials with such elastic properties I am not that worried either. A good launder and her shirts will snap back to fit her serpentine figure. Shoes on the other hand are another matter. My feet are what my mother would describe as those belonging to Cinderella's stepsisters... and of all the girls my feet are the longest. I borrowed a pair of flats from my sister, but wisely decided to carry them to work and allow my finger-like toes the ability to breathe rather than assume a bunion inducing curled up position inside the shoes. If only my office had a more flexible footwear policy then I might wear my flip flops freely and not have to endure the struggle of carting office appropriate footwear to and from work. Some shoes are made for walking you see, and others are made for sitting. Boring stuff I know... pointless musings... but what else do you expect from me?

It was looking to be a productive night. We cooked our first meal in the condo/apartment/house/loft (haven't decided what to call it yet), a simple meal of spaghettini and bolognese sauce (my own special concoction) and some kind of caesar salad that my sister had picked up from the grocery store the other day.Still without a fully plumbed kitchen sink or stone countertops we made do with the fine pine plywood countertops that Aryn "installed" on Tuesday and the bathroom sink. The first dinner was a real step forward for us... at least in the sense of making us feel like we're living in the loft rather than just sleeping there. We've been making minor progress towards unpacking all of our boxes, mostly due to Aryn's stellar organizational skills. Although I am still extremely wary about his choice to put the tupperware and rubbermaid containers in the drawer below the stove... somebody please weigh in on this and give an impartial third party opinion on whether or not this is a good idea. Despite the ability to microwave plastic I do not think it's the wisest idea for it to be stored beneath a hot stove. Slowly but surely more and more of the floor is being revealed and boxes are disappearing (to the hall) from the giant pile in what will become our living room.

However, after dinner the feeling of progress diminished as we encountered a slight mishap in our pursuit of bedroom privacy. Over the weekend we had installed a tension wire to hang some curtains that would allow us to close off our bedroom area from the rest of the space. We didn't have enough curtains to go across the 15ft. divide initially, so we just hung the two panels that we did have. On Tuesday I dug out the two curtain panels we had from the old apartment and added them to the line so that we could close off the entire bedroom. The wire sagged a wee bit under the weight of the curtains but the line remained intact for the next day. Yesterday Aryn picked up the additional curtain panels we required and we set about switching out the old set with the new (I'd just like to add that had I known we were getting the other curtain panels so quickly I probably wouldn't have bothered hanging the old ones). Everything seemed to be going fine until Aryn stepped down from the ladder and heard some suspicious cracking noises that seemed to be originating from the fitting on the wall. At that point there wasn't much we could do. So we all stood back and watched as the weight of the curtains tore the fitting from the wall leaving a small but rather unpleasant looking hole on our wall. I was not impressed, but we were surprised that the curtains had stayed up for as long as they had anyhow. Aryn spent the rest of the night putting around fixing the problem (thanks to a much appreciated tip from our personal construction expert) with some toggle bolts and leftover MDF. The resulting installation seems much more sound and the curtains and wire are intact.

After spending the day feeling less than terrific (Aryn and I were up until two in the morning finishing moving from our apartment, many hours behind schedule) I am finally allowing myself to be really excited about our new space. We've owned the loft for almost five months but the prospect of living here has always seemed more dream than reality. I had a picture in my mind of what the space was going to turn out like, but as we tore up the floor and knocked down walls, I became more and more disillusioned with the idea of picking up from the apartment that I was comfortably settled in, moving to this new living area that we had tore apart.

But now, as I'm sitting here enjoying the evening sun through my west facing windows I'm glad that we took the risk and went through with buying this place and renovating it. Thanks to all of my friends (and my friends through Aryn as well) who helped us tear this place apart and put it back together. Without their help I don't think I would be able to enjoy the evening sunset as much as I am now.

I'm sitting on the one remaining cushioned chair left in our apartment after a full day of moving. Despite having moved most of the large items into a storage room in the new building, our apartment still appears to be rather full. Nearly fifty boxes sit full of books in the other bedroom and our closet is still jam packed with clothes. It seems like we are never really going to move into the new place, that we will forever be living divided between two houses.

I spent a lot of the day driving though parts of the city that I don't normally get to see. As a pedestrian living downtown, my view of Edmonton is usually limited to a several block radius around where I live and work. I suppose that's not unusual for anyone. We tend to spend our days trapped in the regular pattern on going to and from work... maybe occasionally venturing outside of our safe little sphere to attend some social function of purchase something that is otherwise unavailable in the little world that we confine ourselves to. The ordinary can sometimes become boring, and boring can quickly become ugly. It was good to shake up the regular routine today. At no point could I claim to be bored or really lament about ugliness surrounding me. Instead I got to imagine the lives of the people who live in these neighbourhoods that Aryn and I passed on our drive to and from the various U-Haul locations across the city (long story short, we arrived at the south location only to discover that our reservation was in fact for another location across the city). I suppose imagining what sort of people lived in these houses helped me to ignore the increasing levels of stress related to our move.

I’m afraid though that I can find no coping mechanism for my increasing levels of stress related to my computer right now. My wireless connection is being very finicky and I can’t seem to stay connected for more than a couple minutes at a time. I think I will have to put off what I’m trying to finish today until tomorrow. I will do tomorrow what I would rather do today.

Somehow, without my knowing it, I must have pleased the gods of the housing industry (only my sister and my cousin would understand that reference) enough for them to grant me a loft as my first owned property. I don't know how it happened... slowly but surely I have transitioned into a young urban professional. All I need now is a small Pomeranian that fits in my purse that I can take to the market on weekends.

These ridiculous musings though are not serving to distract me from my high level of frustration right now. There are numerous fantastic things going on in my life... my relationship is extremely positive and makes me happy, I'm going to be living in a fantastic location in a space that I like and own... but part of me still feels stagnant. I know that a lot of it is due to this low period of productivity that I am enduring. I just can't seem to kick it. I know it's going to be over soon. I just haven't been able to concentrate.

I'm a bit upset at the moment. My sister and her friend have been planning to move to Edmonton for a couple months now. They put in an application for our apartment building a few weeks ago, and received a call that they had a suite in the building. Yesterday, the rental office called to tell them that they either needed to provide proof of employment in Edmonton or get a consignor. So I went in and signed the forms for them, thinking things were all settled and they had nothing to worry about any more. However, today they were told that their application was rejected and because the rental office had no legal obligation to tell them why they were rejected they had no idea why. This was really ridiculous. I called the office to ask for more info, since I couldn't quite understand what would have been wrong with my credit (I've lived in the same building for a year, Aryn for two), but apparently it has nothing to do with me but probably more to do with the fact that they don't have jobs yet. I was angry, and I wanted to talk to the manager, but the girl on the phone told me that she was out to lunch (which I found quite amusing but could only laugh on the inside). What I don't understand is if they were really concerned about employment status then why did they bother to ask for a consignor? It really doesn't make any sense. Basically they just denied me (a current tenant who has not been a problem and regularly pays rent) from extending my lease. As a consignor I was liable for their rent... that's the whole point of getting a consignor. Apparently though they operate differently at that office. I am truly displeased with the service of this rental office. They put my sister is a really awkward situation because since they told her that she had a suite in the building she gave notice at her current residence. Now where is she supposed to live? What is even more annoying is that this building does not require that you are employed while you are living there. The majority of the people who live there are students... and when I moved in I didn't have a job and neither did my roommate. Grrrr...

Back when I was an insomniac/night owl and I couldn't sleep, I used to edit photos or compose emails late in the evening. These activities allowed me to utilize my restless brain and eventually lull me to sleep. However, as I currently share space with another individual I can't really keep my laptop by my bed and pull it out whenever I can't sleep. Usually I will lie awake with endless thoughts running through my head, however tonight I am altogether too alert. Perhaps it is the coffee I had after dinner... coffee being a beverage I rarely indulge in (although I'm not quite sure that the caffeine in coffee would really have that adverse affect on me, an admitted Cola-holic).

Tonight, while attempting to sleep, I couldn't help but be distracted with feelings of guilt that I have been avoiding my photography lately. Sure I can claim that I've been busy with condo renos, but I've been making no effort to go out and take pictures in the past few months. Because of this lack of creative activity, there really is no mystery as to why I've been feeling rather withdrawn from some of my former online haunts. Having posted nothing to my photostream in months I almost feel like I have no reason to post comments on others photos. It's difficult even to look at other photos because it makes the lack of my own new work even more painfully apparent. There is really no way to solve this problem other than to set aside time to devote to taking and posting photos. I just have to make it a priority to go out one afternoon and take photos. I'm going to be in Vancouver on the weekend so perhaps I'll be inspired then. I'll have no other responsibilities so I will have no excuses. I've been saying this for a while though and I haven't been acting on it. Oh, this weekend I'll devote to photos, No... next weekend. And what has come of it? Nothing.

The apartment is quiet tonight. Only a few more weeks in this place and then we move to the new condo. Yesterday Wade came over to help us frame the new walls, and next week while I'm away all the mudding and taping will take place. I should be back just in time to take on my job of painting the new walls. Then Aryn and I will figure out how to install the new kitchen and then process of moving all of our belongings will take place. I will probably have a repeat of these late nights as I adjust to the sounds of the new apartment. The sounds of the street will be quieter I think (thanks to better windows). I won't be able to hear the rumblings of the motorbikes as the cruise up and down 109th at all hours of the evening. I think perhaps I have emptied my brain enough to warrant a second try at sleep. Somehow the combination of the click of the keyboard (a $19.99 wireless special from FutureShop across the street) and the gentle rocking motion of this Ikea classic (Poang chair leftover from Aryn's university days) have helped to prepare me for bed. This might be the right sleep inducing technique after all.

I looked on my photostream today and was slightly shamed to see that I hadn't posted anything since March 24th. I can make hundreds of excuses, like I've been busy with preparing for my renovations and upcoming move to the new place, but really when I've picked up a camera lately I haven't done anything with it. I seem to be experiencing a similar phenomenon with posting to my blog. I started numerous posts, only to delete them. This post might suffer the same fate if I'm not careful.

Today I'm two months away from my 25th birthday. This realization does not really fill me with any sense of nostalgia for my lost youth, or the desire to tally up my accomplishments so far in life. Instead I'm rather focused on the present, looking forward to the noon when I will rush home in the rain to eat lunch with Aryn (who has the benefit of an earned day off every other Friday). I will then rush back to work and not have the opportunity to stop and appreciate the city in the rain, although if the stench of drowning worms is still in the air I won't mind so much.

I found out about a magazine project that is starting up here in the city. The details are pretty slim, but basically the project is a new program for people between the ages of 15 and 30 yeras old. The challenge of the Project is for 10 people to produce a 48-page full color magazine in 5 months. This includes things like advertisement sales, writing feature articles, photography, interviews, reviews, media, writing and editing. Basically you do it all. However, with my adult responsibilities (property=financial obligations) I'm not as free to follow up on my fanciful pursuits as I once was. The positions are paid and full-time, but the wage works out to about $7/hr. Sure you can make sacrifices for a few months, if you take into account the experience you will garner from participating in the project, but I cannot afford to live off $7/hr for five or six months. So I will continue my journey through the non-profit world, making ends meet but not really progressing creatively. However I know that this too shall pass.

Every so often I reach a state of tiredness where one of my eyelids start to twitch. I am at that point and it is only the beginning of the week. Thanks to the help of my wonderful Papa, Aryn and I are well into the renovations of our condomaximus. My father arrived to help on Wednesday evening and what was meant to be a quick site survey turned into an impromptu demo session. We tore up the majority of the floor and started to knock down some walls. By Thursday afternoon my father had dismantled the kitchen and removed the other walls that we decided to eliminate from the space. Friday involved additional demo, including a trip to the Clover Bar Landfill to get rid of all the items that we could not find another use for. Saturday was a little more constructive, my father finished wiring the kitchen and built the structure for the kitchen wall. The days were long and my young bones ached at the end of each day. Yesterday, after a disappointing brunch at the Blue Chair Cafe (good company, poor service), Aryn and I returned to our labour and spent the rest of the day prepping our floors (a labour intensive process of sweeping,mopping, scrubbing, and scraping up the leftover crud from years gone by). We were making reasonable progress until we reached the final stage of the gunk removal, when we applied Circa 1850 to the gluey bits on the floor (as instructed by our flooring fellows). Much to our dismay, the miracle remover refused to be removed. After some vigorous attempts to scrape and then chisel the offensive junk from the floor we angrily gave up, deciding it was best to leave this problem to the experts.

Waiting for breakfast... learning new things about myself.

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I was just looking at photographer Bill Wadman's site 365 Portraits... and then suddently I started to miss my camera.

I took some photos for a friend of a friend's Doctoral Concert on Wednesday night but I haven't had the chance to process the photos yet. The conditions were less than optimal, it was a church with challenging lighting conditions. As the focus was the music I tried my best to be unobtrustive with my camera. The concert was being adjudicated for the conductor's degree, so I was quite restrained with my photography. It was fun, but because I was shooting without flash (the focus was the performance not the photography) the photos have a real grainy quality. I'm longing to shoot some photos that have a real nice crispness to them. This past winter has not been particularly productive photographically for me. Will the summer pick up?

The weather puzzles me. One moment there's snow and then overnight it disappears. I'm absolutely estatic about the change. It has been a long and dreary winter and I have been anxious to throw off the shackles of sock season.

Today is officially the day. My decision to go sockless was in part prompted by my inability to find any matching pair this morning, but also because yesterday it was warm enough that I could walk across the parkade to the Property Management Office in a pair of pants my mom brought me from Trinidad and a tank top. Unfortunately open-toe season at work has not started yet (there's a strict dress code, summer dress starts sometime in May I think), so all of my sandal type shoes have to wait a couple weeks. I hope this is the last major weather change I will have to endure for a while. I want it to start getting hotter and hotter, with perhaps some rainy days in between.

I really feel like my general mood is improving. Aryn and I will start to move in a couple weeks, just in time for the reopen of the downtown Farmer's Market (The City Market) on May 19th. Realizing how little time I get to spend in the fresh air during the week, I'm trying to spend as much time as I can out of doors this summer. So that will mean sitting outside in the park during my lunch break, going for evening walks and going to the market every weekend. I live downtown, I might as well take advantage of all the amenities I have close by.

Maybe it's spring, but green things have been popping up a lot recently. I am continually reading blog posts or magazine articles about the new 'green' fad. Yesterday I came across Colin Beavan's blog called No Impact Man chroniciling his family's year long experiment to have no net impact environmental impact while living in the New York City.

No Impact Man is my experiment with researching, developing and adopting a way of life for me and my little family—one wife, one toddler, one dog—to live in the heart of New York City while causing no net environmental impact. To do this, we will decrease the things we do that hurt the earth—make trash, cause carbon dioxide emissions, for example—and increase the things we do that help the earth—clean up the banks of the Hudson River, give money to charity, rescue sea birds, say.

The blog has been running since February 2007 and will eventually be made into a documentary (to be released in 2009 I think). I was looking through the blog yesterday and it was interesting to read some of the comments, especially the negative ones. There are lot of people out there who like to condemn others for attempting to do something different. This guy is trying to reduce his environmental impact, which I think is admirable. However, there are a number of people who feel the need to call this guy a hypocrite and try to prove that his experiment is only a publicity stunt or an effort to seek fame and fortune. It's really ridiculous how some individuals are able to find something negative in what should be viewed as an admirable effort by Beavan and his family. There are so many ways that we each can try to minimize our environmental impact - and I think it's inspiring that this fellow is trying some extreme measures in order to see what would be feasible for his lifestyle in the longterm.

After watching Manufactured Landscapes over the Easter long weekend, I'm still in shock of some of the images I saw in the film. After seeing the piles of recycling shipped to some of these cities in China (where from I'm unsure), I am interested to find out more specific details about how the Edmonton Recycling (& Waste Management) Programs work. Lucky for me I'm dating a Civil Engineer who has not only visited some of these facilities but is also employed by the City (albeit in a totally different department).

I think Aryn and I need to think more closely about how much waste we are producing. If the Beavan family can try to live with a net environmental impact for a year, we can at least try to lessen ours.

The long weekend is over and the snow is back. It doesn't seem possible that July is only three months away. How does the weather change so much in such a short time?

The return on the snow left me in such a foul mood this morning. In an effort to prevent a bout of bad weather induced depression I decided to focus on my career and try an online personality test to see if I was pursuing my true calling.

The results:

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.

I must admit that this test did not tell me anything new about myself. It didn't really improve my mood much either. I suppose that my half-hearted efforts in the photography world might count for something, but I feel like I haven't taken any pictures in ages. I brought almost all of my photography equipment with me over the weekend and nothing came of it. Blah... Oh well, there's some light on the horizon. Tomorrow I'll be taking photos at a concert with Wade and I may have another corporate photo shoot scheduled in the next couple weeks.

In other more exciting news, Aryn has started working on his LEED® Professional Accreditation today. I'm moderately jealous that he is able to do this as part of his job. Not only is this something that he is interested in, but it is also relevant to the type of work that he is planning to continue with. I would be hard-pressed to find a way to relate LEED® certification to the work that I am currently involved in. However my lack of professional development opportunities is not really the point here. I could always pony up the cash to take the exam, but that's not really an option for me at the moment. For the time being I'll just learn what I can on my own and use my darling beau as an additional resource.

It's Day Two of my visit to Fort St. John. Yesterday I was feeling a bit sick (*kaff, kaff) so I hung around the house and did a whole lot of nothing. I finished reading JPod by Douglas Coupland and watched a series of boring home movies from the family archives. My family likes to do this when our significant others are around, because our movies are really quite boring and it's our way of torturing others.

After dinner with the fam, I went with my two brothers, blonde sister-in-law and my blonde beau to the other end of town, where we proceeded to watch more television. Apparently it's what we do. It somehow became Simon Pegg night, and Aryn was introduced to the wonder that is Shaun of the Dead and we both finally got to see the brilliant Hott Fuzz. Both are not only hilarious but also very clever and I highly recommend them. My sister suggested that I watch the series Spaced, and I think I will have to follow up on her advice.

This is a short post, but potato peeling duties await. However, while we're on the subject of clever cinema,watch this short film that I found on Virb.com (the best alternative to MySpace that I have ever come across. If you're into social networking check this site out). Either watch the embedded video clip below or see the video on Virb.

Edit: The video seems to have disappeared from Virb, so here it is on YouTube instead.

I was meaning to post something tonight, but poor Aryn is sick and I've been busy tending to him with water and other such essential get-well remedies all the while entertaining him with my terrible Eastern European accent.

Florence Nightingale would be proud.

Eventually I will post my thoughts and feelings about the Alberta Ballet. Just not tonight. I must watch over my patient. It's a little odd to be the one who is healthy, that is not usually the case.

I read a thought provoking piece in the paper today about the filthy landscape of garbage and gravel that emerges in Edmonton every spring once the snow thaws. When the seasons are in transition, I often get caught up in the excitement that warmer weather is around the corner and happily join in with coworkers or fellow pedestrians on the street proclaiming how beautiful things are starting to look. But thinking about it more deeply, what we are really collectively expressing is not the beauty of the soggy grass and littered sidewalks, but rather our relief that the snow is finally gone and that warmer temperatures are on the way, for there is nothing beautiful about the ugly surface of early spring.

Scott McKeen from the Edmonton Journal writes:

I still can't accept this post-winter purgatory. Nothing's blooming. Nothing's green. The city's colour palette runs from brown to grey. And with our grimy Soviet architecture, we need colour to distract the eye.The curbs, sidewalks, power poles, windows and storefronts remain crusted in filth. Months of litter clings to shrubs, fences and mucky grass.

But the dirty appearance of Edmonton should not be blamed on the melting snow mixing with the sand and gravel that remains on the roads. Along any road or sidewalk you're apt to see cigarette butts strewn amongst flattened coffee cups, bits of newspaper and other extraneous detritus. This garbage has to come from somewhere... and it really infuriates me to think that during winter months people just decide to toss their junk anywhere leaving it to be covered by snow. This garbage may be out of sight for a few months, but come spring it doesn't melt away.

The article goes on to talk about Adopt-A-Block program that is part of the City of Edmonton's litter prevention program (www.edmonton.ca - look under Environment) that was developed to help keep Edmonton clean and attractive over the summer months. Businesses and citizens can sign up to keep a certain block clean over the summer months. It's a good program to have, but participation is key and so far the number of "city block captains" is down from last year. However, what I don't understand is what prompts people to litter. It is relatively easy to find a garbage can or recycle bin, so I would think that people could live with carrying their garbage with them for a couple blocks. Is it really that much of a hassle to carry your wrappers or empty bottles with you? I really have to wonder what people expect to get from a city that they abuse.

McKeen goes on to say,

We set a standard for this city with our collective choices and behaviours. Look at Edmonton today. Our standards suck.

Blame city hall? It's a convenient scapegoat. The sad truth is that elected officials reflect your wishes. So do developers and businesses.

And what Edmonton wishes more than anything else -- more than clean streets, public art, walkable streets and compelling architecture -- is cheap prices and low taxes.

Don't believe me? Look around you as you drive to the big-box store tonight. Look out the window of the concrete rectangle you call the office.

Blame city hall? If the majority of taxpayers wanted a sparkling city, the street sweepers would be whisking your neighbourhood right now.

City council isn't dumb. They give us the city we ask for -- the city we deserve.

Cynical pundits describe taxes as theft. I'd describe them more as The Tab.

I'm quite glad that when I moved to Edmonton I ended up living downtown. Not only has it been far more convenient for me in order to get around (I can walk to work and to shopping for my everyday needs), I also feel more connected to the city. Not being isolated in some suburb I've been able to more actively participate in the the many festivals and cultural events that are hosted in the city, either downtown or a short jaunt across the bridge. However, despite these events it can be quite obvious that downtown Edmonton lacks some of the same vibrancy of other cities, mostly due to the lack of mixed use commercial and residential developments . My current apartment building is part of a complex of four, each with their own enormous parking lot that could have been built underground, the street level surface to be used for commercial space or even green space to be used by the residents (not unlike what you see in artists' renderings of proposed developments). It almost seems like every possible measure to cut costs have been taken by developers in Edmonton. Thanks to market demand residents accept it and continue to pay top dollar for these spaces. Maybe it's the frustration with the ugly architecture that leads people to litter. When they leave their concrete pad on some grey day of winter and head to any of the various "Commons" around the city (Common is synonymous with the term "car mall") perhaps the only way they can deal with their depression is to sip on a double double from Timmy HoHos and then toss it on top the mounds of garbage on Gateway Boulevard. I can only guess here.

In other related news, San Francisco has become the first city in North America to ban the use of traditional plastic grocery bags. Read more in the CBC article. Aryn and I try to use our cloth grocery bags as much as possible, but I find that I often forget to bring some with me to work so when I stop at the store on my way home I don't have any with me. We have a surplus of plastic bags to reuse, so I'm thinking of knitting something useful with them. Just in case you were wondering how to do that, here are some instructions. One woman even went so far as to knit a wedding dress out of white plastic bags. Now that's dedication.