From Suncor to Telus, indoors

Last night just after posting I got these action shots of sunset clouds. This one is dressed up in Snapseed a bit. The wind was so strong you can practically see the wind streaks.

Injury recovery is always a bit of a two steps forward, one step back thing, and today seems to be a bit of a half step back. Things are feeling a bit creaky. It was a long day in the office chair, struggling with a really tedious spreadsheet. No run tonight, but I'm planning to go downstairs for a core workout and some stretching. As soon as I finish this glass of wine...

The highlight was going out for a longer than normal walk at lunch. As I was walking through the park behind the TCPL building I noticed how the bell tower spire lined up with the vertical members of The Bow building and had to shoot it. Then I noticed ordinary people walking through the +15 and had to try it. The building is still under construction, and I don't know that anyone has actually moved in, but parts of the lobby and +15 are open. I strolled through one way, taking a couple shots in plain view of the security guards. Then came back and took a few more, in plain view of the security guards.

Then this dink from the second floor tells me "I can't let you take photos in here." I asked him where the signs were, and who said so, given that it's a public space (if still under construction and some areas taped off, and no complaints about that). He just said his orders were to keep people from taking photos. I muttered "I was just following orders" under my breath, and said to him, "You're the only one saying so." Arrogant piss ant bully. He's probably got a little dick.

Until then, I wasn't sure how many of the inside photos I would put here, but because he objected, you get them all. Screw you photo bullies! What is it about taking photos and video that sets bullies off? Lately it's been the cops objecting, and I know what they are afraid of. That if the ordinary public sees how poorly many of them do their jobs, there would be a lot more noise about civilian oversight for cops.

Here's the view from the outside. Just behind me is that bit of semi circular +15. This park often has people doing Tai Chi in it. I've always meant to learn that, and never have. One thing that is really striking about the building is how well the glass and structural supports set each other off.

From the Suncor building towards the east. This used to be a blank wall, and now you can see into the bridge.

Here's the view from the +15 out into the plaza in front of the building. They are putting up some huge sculpture. I'll take a pic when they're done, if that jerk security guard isn't hanging around.

This is the entry into the +15 lobby. I hadn't realized there was so much space between the glass skin of the building and the actual innards. You can really see that in the last couple photos. Supposedly some of those office windows will open, and most of the staff will have window offices. Nice. Hey Graham buddy, I'm sure the time is coming where we have to have a meeting in your office.

This is from the Telus building looking back towards the Bow building, which you can just see through the glass off to the right.

Here's inside looking up. The perspective is a bit weird, I admit.

Here's another looking up the other way. Just as I took this the security guard yanked my chain.

And lastly, to balance out, here is Celina.

#bikeridefail

I'm fine, well, at least no worse than I was.

Short swim this morning. Left shoulder very cranky about recovering and stretching forward. The water was very thick, and stayed that way for 30 minute swim and some core.

My back has been feeling much better. So much better that I thought I'd try some easy spin on my bike just to see how it feels. Not right is the answer. I could feel my back muscles pulling slightly, some of the muscles around my right hip sending complaint notes right away, and there was no strength in my legs at all.

Even so, I thought I'd go around the block a few times, nice and gently to see if I could warm into it. This on a day where it's 29 C out, and I did some stretching beforehand.

That only lasted for 1.4 K, and there was a loud bang from the front tire. Oddly enough, that's the second flat in a row on the front tire. But this one was in a really weird place. Right along a seam on the inside, right next to the rim. I checked the tape really carefully and it's fine. The tube is from last year at least, maybe older, so I'm guessing the rubber just got tired of life. I won't even try to fix it; I just threw it away.

All that said, it gave me a chance to play with my new bike toy. Check out the stand!

Here's one of my favourite pieces of street art. It's right outside a wine store on Stephen Avenue. I hadn't seen it in a while, though maybe I just haven't noticed. Excuse enough for a photo.

Last week the big TV screen was near Banker's Hall, now it's down by the Glenbow. This was taken at the hight of lunch time, and you can see the interest. More people watched when it was at Banker's.

I know some (many?) of you follow the Olympics with passion and zeal. Maybe it's best if you skip the rest of this post. Since I started training for triathlon I have a whole new respect for what the athletes do, and how hard it is to peak at just the right time. My problem is not with the athletes, oh no.

It's with the IOC, and their deal with the devil sponsor agreements. Telling ordinary people what they can and can't wear into the stadium to protect some voracious corporation's "brand" is complete overkill. In Calgary they had the nerve to tell The Olympic Flame restaurant that they couldn't use that name. They told the IOC to bite their butts and suck on it, seeing as how they had been in business for decades, and a court backed them up. Corporations are not people, and don't deserve to be treated that way. What with the tax breaks they aren't really paying for the games anyways, since it's a shell game with their tax money. The accountants get richer, and the government is out tax dollars.

 I'm sick of the nationalism, and the medal counts, and weeping and wailing and breast beating about how many medals we've won, and how many we should have won. I hate the commercials and commercialism. I hate the pablum they put on the air to fill the time, and the inane commentators.  I would rather not watch the sports achievements than wade through all the dreck and filth to get there. There are some sports that shouldn't be in the games. Anything involving animals, for example. If the horse got the gold medal, there might be something to it, but as it is, we are not comparing apples to apples. Where equipment is used, it should be as nearly identical as possible for each competitor. The point is to measure the people, not the corporate sponsor's technological prowess.

I'm fine with the federal or provincial governments giving the elite athletes a stipend that they could actually live on so they could train properly. They could start by taking it out of the multimillionaire professional sports players, but I don't mind some of my taxes going to that. It's better than the graft supporting political parties and the blood suckers of the public tit like Bev Oda and her $16 orange juice. Don't get me started on Allaudin Merali, and his hundreds of thousands of dollars of "expenses".

Maybe if the stipend was a reasonable number we could cut the corporations out of the loop entirely. I think this building newer and grander facilities every time at enormous taxpayer expense, to say nothing of the IOC bidding process, is a complete and total boondoggle. We should build some standard facilities somewhere, call it international territory, and hold the Games there all the time. Every country pays an entry fee to support the facilities. Countries that don't send equal male and female representation don't get invited. Build a standard screening process to ensure that athletes meet qualifying standards, and start the doping tests essentially as soon as they are identified. Do the same for the various officials.

My idea, and it's mostly serious, is to bulldoze the Vatican, since it doesn't do anything useful or relevant to today's world, and build state of the art facilities, where the various qualifying and world competitions could be held whenever needed. It's one of the few plots of land that doesn't actually belong to a country. It's close to a big airport, there is public transit of a sort, it's near sea level, and there are times of the year that the climate is quite nice. Plus Italy could use the hard currency.

Or put it in Greece, as a symbol of the history of the Games. Make them give up some land so it's international territory again. They could really use the currency.

If we're going to do medal counts, why don't we do it on a per capita basis? That would balance out the big rich countries buying their way to the top of the medal counts.

There's more, but I need to start winding down, or I won't sleep tonight.

Humans and their robots

Having Curiosity land on Mars has sparked some thoughts. I am still amazed that the landing worked. When I saw the first concept film of what the landing would look like, I thought they were out of their minds. Everything would have to go perfectly, and there are nearly an infinity of things that could go wrong.

Some people say the space program was a waste of money. That's the subject of a good rant right there, but I'll content myself by saying "medical diagnostics", and remembering what my Grandad taught me about arguing with idiots.

Since the beginning of recorded history humans have experimented with making things. Then when it broke they would figure out why it failed, and try again. And again and again and again as long as the religious fruit loops or threatened aristocracies didn't stop them. That process worked brilliantly with aircraft, which is why it's one of the safest ways to travel. Far, far safer than by automobile. (I'll get there.) Figuring out why an airplane crashed usually involved going to pick up the pieces, getting data from the flight recorder, and statements from witnesses, some of whom were going to die very soon and yet were still trying to make the plane fly while talking about what was happening.

Then a few decades ago we started playing with rockets. Failure meant a loud noise and shower of metal confetti. The only way to figure out what was happening was to put telemetry on the rocket and have it send signals back to earth. We take it for granted now, but it's a hard thing to do.

Then we wanted to put people at the top of those rockets and send them to the moon. Failure was no longer just an expensive fireworks show. It would kill valuable, highly trained, extremely skilled people that were very difficult to replace. It was imperative to figure out how to build a rocket so that everything would work properly, first time, every time. Every component, every rivet, nut and bolt, screw, wire, switch, circuit, sensor, everything had to work. It took quality process and management to an entirely new level. This sort of work is one of the reasons are cars are so much safer now. (I'm getting there.)

Then we wanted to put instruments on Mars. A difficult target. Let's think about Spirit and Opportunity. They were designed with the intent to last 90 sols. Spirit lasted 2210 sols. To save you from doing the math, that's nearly 25 times the design life. Opportunity is still going strong, more than 3100 sols later. That's more than 34 times design life. If only our cars could do so well. My buddy Leauxra sent me a link to a cartoon about Spirit. We can't help but humanize our creations, and I'm sad that Spirit is no longer functioning, but proud that it lasted so much longer than we thought it would. Eventually humans will get to Mars, and little Spirit can be put in a museum.

Curiosity has some big shoes to fill, but the mission is starting out well. With human and earth computer help it flew to a tiny square at the top of the atmosphere, then on it's own it flew down to a safe landing within 2 Km of the aiming point, after more than 350 million Km of travel. That's about 35,000 times more accurate than a human aiming for a parking spot downtown, and I have daily evidence that some humans can't manage it.

Which brings me to a news item I saw recently. Google just passed 300,000 Km of testing a driverless car without a single collision. The only time a car with the driverless system was in a collision, a human was driving it. This is better than the average American driver.

Now, I have to digress for a brief moment. I'm death on people saying "car accident" in my hearing. I won't put up with it. The word accident implies that there was nothing that could be done, and that is BULLSHIT! Almost every "accident" is attributable to driver error. Some driver screwed up, either by not paying attention to the task at hand, or by being under the influence of drugs, or driving beyond the limits within which they could control the car which under most circumstances is another failure, since the car is probably still controllable by a real driver. These collisions cost our economy billions and cause untold heartache from untimely deaths and injuries.  

The sooner we stop allowing humans to drive, the better off we'll be. Back to Google. Driverless cars have been a staple of science fiction since the early days. Now Google has done it although there is still a long way to go before its commonplace. They have to teach the system how to deal with snow, and construction detours, and no doubt how to deal with the remaining dangerous cars on the roads, the ones with a human at the wheel. A human that believes that he (almost certainly a he) can drive better than any computer (he can't) and that nobody can take away his God given right to drive (we should, preferably now).

They will base their emotionally over wrought argument on obscure and unlikely circumstances where a prepared human might do better than a computer. Maybe. I suspect that the computer won't be taking risks that lead to those circumstances in the first place, and is far more likely to take corrective action much sooner than a human could. I remember reading about someone ranting about daytime headlights.  They were incensed by the thought that they couldn't control the lights, and thought that they should be able to control every aspect of the car's performance. Naturally, they thought automatic transmissions were the work of the devil. I wondered if they wanted to manually control the subtle and complex interactions between fuel and air supply that happen many times a second to make the engine produce the required amount of power.

There is no shortage of evidence that most drivers are not up to the task of safely driving an automobile, even when they are in the so called prime of life. Don't get me started on geezers. Everybody says that more frequent testing should start at an age about 10 years older than they are. I say, everybody should be tested more frequently, and be tested much more rigorously, preferably using car simulators to save the carnage as they fail. My license renews every 5 years, (next in 2015), and I'd be perfectly happy with every 3 years, with a test. My question is, if you know what you're doing, why fear a test?

I'm pretty sure that a computer driven car will behave more predictably than a human driven car. I'd like to find out if all the processing happens on board. I suspect so given that some of the testing territory is pretty remote. Can't wait for it to happen.

Another example of a really simple robot. The spit on my BBQ. It worked for lamb roast tonight.

Very yummy! No formal workout today, just a good stretch session. I can now touch my toes again and relax into it! Yay! One side is still tighter than the other, but my back is almost back to normal. Can you say weekend bike ride? Core included front, side, front, side, front, side, front, side, front plank.

started good, then turned slacker

The good start was getting to the pool shortly after it opened. Nobody in it again. Wonderful! The lifeguards told me the synchro girls would be coming in so please swim in the far lanes. Which is fine, since that's where I can see the clock.

Today I wanted to warm up, then push some 50 intervals to see where I was. The answer is not where I'd like to be, that's for sure. My rule was to swim on 1 minute, and keep going till I was slower than 50 seconds. Well, that turned out to be 4. Three was a hot wet mess, I could feel my stroke coming apart, and my body getting all pissy with the water. I made it, just barely, then got it together for 4. By the end of that something was going twinge in my shoulder and I decided not to push it. Did some backstroke to cool down. Then some water core. In the water about an hour.

By then the synchro swimmers had started. There's one drill where three of them hold a rope out of the water and eggbeater kick their way down the pool surprisingly fast. I've never mastered eggbeater at all, probably for the same reason I can't do breast stroke effectively. As I was leaving the pool they had a formation where a group of them form a base and they throw one of the people up and out of the water high enough for several flips. If only the music they were practicing to wasn't so terrible!

The rest of the day was slacker city. Yes, I did some stretching, long slow stretches, breathing into that muscle. My back is feeling pretty good, almost back to normal, but my neck and shoulders are still grumpy. Napped after.

Lets see. Linda had some rack of lamb marinading in a mango chutney so I did that on the BBQ. Wonderful! And I'm sure it will be even better tomorrow for lunch. Sooner or later my office roomies are going to clue in and I'll need an armed guard.

I did some paperwork for a research project I'm involved in. I was planning to pull together all my business tax paperwork, but I didn't. I know I'm not going to do it tonight. I just want to sit and read. The current book is The Alienist, and I'm mostly enjoying it. I'd seen the trailer for Cloud Atlas, and got the book out of the library. Except it's a different book called The Cloud Atlas.

Along the way I read about Curiosity touching down on Mars, and was thoroughly boggled at the whole darned thing. Why is it we can do something so jaw droppingly amazing, and yet can't live in peace with our fellow beings? As a point of comparison, can anyone explain this Chick-Fil-A thing to me? I've read about it a bit, but there's something fundamental I'm not getting. Yes, the owner's views are antediluvian at best, but it's the reaction to them I don't understand. The USA has become a very, very strange place during my adult lifetime.

Cat faces fascinate me. Well, cats in general do. Most people think of cats as being emotionally cold and aloof creatures, but that isn't true at all. Those people just haven't taken the time to pay attention to a cat. They have enormously expressive little faces, especially considering they are covered in fur. Partly it's the eyes and ears, but their whiskers and mouthes tell a story too. Normally it's pretty easy to tell what a cat wants. Here's Curtis sound asleep. Normally he hears me pick up the phone and moves, but not today. I think the heat has made him all sleepy. Me too.

The hum of hybrid bike tires

Saturday was a busy day, with no workouts at all. We started in Inglewood, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Calgary. They were were having a sunfest street fair, and by golly they had the sun for it. It was clear, cloudless, relentlessly sunny, and high 20's. Perfect weather in other words. We got there a bit early, knowing the parking situation would get out of hand later in the day.

The main attraction I wanted to see was a 70-some year old master knife maker from Japan doing his thing, along with a few of his students/fellow workers. He does not look 70, I'd have picked him for mid-50's and certainly no older than 60. They had a charcoal forge set up and started showing what they do. I've seen this sort of thing before, but it was interesting to watch them gradually creating a small kitchen knife. All this was in front of Knifewear. If there is such a thing as kitchen knife porn, these guys are the main supplier for Calgary.

We strolled the rest of the fair, with lots to see.

Chatted with my buddy Lori G. Watched the buskers. Enjoyed the small show and shine. Browsed a few booths. On the way back we succumbed to temptation. Our kitchen knives date back to about the time we moved into the house, and were an inexpensive set. They've been sharpened a bunch of times but are beginning to show their age. We've been talking about getting some nice knives for a while.

It's hard getting good pictures. These aren't glossy shiny like polished stainless, but even so they still catch light reflections. By shop standards, these are mid range knives, and near the bottom end for hand made knives. They didn't have the ones I really like, but I'm not, I'm really not going to drop $1600 on a kitchen knife. Even if it is a work of art. There were others that we were initially attracted to, and really, seriously, all of them are actual works of art, but it came down to balance and hand feel. Can't wait to cut something up.

There is a small park that has some sculpture on display. I quite liked this one, but I'm not sure why.

There was enough time to get home and hydrate. I stretched a bit. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with some friends. So nice and relaxing. The pulled pork and potato salad were awesome! We ate on their front porch with a light breeze, in the shade, with no bugs. It was wonderful to sit and chat.

The astonishing part of the afternoon was a photo of me, posted mainly to please my mom, not that any of you readers actually want to see it. There's a bit of a story.

Several photos were taken of me and much to my surprise one turned out really well. Photos and me don't normally go together. It will seem strange to many of my readers, but there are actually very, very few photos of me as a small child. Probably fewer than a dozen of me younger than grade 5. There was a house fire. Even afterward there aren't many photos. Cameras were rare and expensive, and that film thing was tricky. Who would waste expensive film taking pictures of a gawky kid?

Even when point and shoots became cheap and popular, we would often forget ours. Getting the film developed was always a surprise. Or I'd hide from the camera. And for some reason, Linda's photos are often a bit blurry. Even if the photo itself was ok, I usually didn't like how it looked. As a result there are very few photos of me that I actually like, and this is one of them.

Nobody looking at this would ever know I have a small child on my lap.

Sunday I slept in, then went for a long easy run in the heat of the day. Heat for Calgary. I was hoping to beat the dog walkers and mostly managed that. I've never seen so many bikes though, it seemed like one was whizzing past every few minutes. There were several other runners out as well, proving I'd picked the perfect time to start.

I ended up running 90 minutes down into Fish Creek out and back, trying to stay relaxed and enjoy the heat. My shoulders felt a little stiff, but my breathing and legs were good. By the hour mark my breathing was a little harder and my running was a bit clunkier, but still moving along. My knees were getting tired, but like the other day, no owies or niggles or sore spots. I made it back to about 500 m from home when 90 minutes came up.

The last 30 minutes I was beginning to feel the heat. Normally it's like the heat sweeps up from my chest and neck, into my face, then it's like I'm running into a wall. Today I concentrated on keeping my breathing deep and even, and my feet turning over quickly. Much of Fish Creek was in the shade, but the last 20 minutes are up a hill out in the sun. Sweat was pouring off my face, but it never felt like a wall forcing me to stop. I walked it in to cool down a bit, and did some stretching. I'd drunk an entire water bottle with Nuun in it during the run, finishing the last bit as I was coming up the driveway. Ate, stretched for a long time down in the cool of the basement, then had a long cool shower.

I felt great afterward! It used to be that heat would knacker me, and even walking in temperatures like this would leave me headachy and exhausted. To run for 90 minutes steady in this heat, even if it is an easy pace for me, makes me feel good. I can't help but think that the more I do this, the easier it will be to run off the bike in the heat. I only wish I could get on my bike and go for a long ride.

There are two wine kits now racked and stabilized. I'll probably bottle them Labour Day weekend. They smell great now, and the little slurp of wine I got from the siphon is very promising.

Sorry if this makes real runners grumpy

Today was the best run in a long time! Not crazy fast, but on the faster side of things for me, especially recently . Let me tell you about it. The day started rainy, but the forecast said it would get nicer as the day went on. So I did inside stuff in the morning, and sure enough, things were clearing up by mid afternoon.

I was all set to start when I realized it really had cleared up and sunscreen was indicated. That and some limbering up happened. Then I ran. It sounds so simple, but I was was in a groove within a few steps of starting. My feet and legs felt light, my posture was good, my breathing was regular and even. It stayed that way for 45 minutes, starting easier and then going faster. No niggles, no owies, no twinges, no nothing. Just a nice steady pace. Even up the hill out of Fish Creek was pretty good. It turned out to be 7 K almost exactly.

I could easily have kept going but I didn't want to over do it and ruin a good thing. One of my neighbours was there to chat as I was doing a cool down walk. Stretched really well after.
It was warm and sunny without being too hot. There was a bit of a breeze. I ran down through Fish Creek and have to say it smells just great with the recent rain. I don't think I was having the elusive runner's high, but it was getting close. I felt great!

Now if only I could be getting back on my bike and having it go at least not badly. I'l be trying Sunday. Saturday is a street fair that looks like fun, then BBQ at a buddies place. Real BBQ. Can you say pulled pork? What's that you're saying? What? Oh, where, you said. I couldn't hear you. Gotta go.

Start of a weekend

This is sort of weird to be sitting at home on a Friday. Once upon a time I got every other Friday off and that was pretty good. During the summer I get the Friday before long weekends off. Four day weekends are nice.

Acupuncture on Wednesday went as expected, helping things loosen up. Did some yoga and light core when I got home.

Thursday I was in an empty pool. Totally empty, as in nobody at all. One of the lifeguards came and talked to me he was so bored. Swam 1000m in 19:20 or so, taking it easy on the turns and not pushing too hard. Then some dolphin kick and pull. Then a pair of 50 m pretty hard, 42 and 45 seconds, blowing the turn on the second one. Stretched in the water and did some core. Total 1 hour in the water.

It's raining so no walk at lunch. You could fire a shotgun through the office and not hit anyone. At least a couple offices I walked past had Olympic stuff going. *I* didn't, I was good, diligently working away on my spreadsheets. (Stop laughing!)

It was still raining when we got home, and I was totally in a mood for watching video and finishing off the guacamole that Linda had made for a work brunch thing. That and drinking wine, let's not forget that.

Today is an easy start to the day, catching up on Facebook while the laundry machines run. The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised that there isn't a shrine to washing machines in every town and city. Just think of the amount of time they save! Dump your stuff in, add a bit of detergent, press a button, and walk away. Beats pounding your stuff with rocks in the river where you get your drinking water.

Our washer is now 26 years old, and the dryer a mere 14. We had bought an el cheapo dryer second hand when we moved in together, and it lasted and lasted and lasted. Only the dishwasher is older, and the only reason it's lasted so long is that we hardly ever use it. I find very soothing to wash dishes by hand, and most of the time there's hardly anything to do.

We are not looking forward to replacing the washer and dryer. The new ones now are these front load things in bright designer colours. They take forever to do a load, just forever. They might be efficient, but they're slow. And once they start, there's no going back to add that sock you dropped on the way. Or the sock that a cat (I'm looking at YOU Celina!) stole from the pile and dragged off for some debauched purpose.

Here's a slightly dressed up picture I took at lunch time earlier this week. I like the different angles of walls and roofs.

I found this in the building where I work. A second set of hand rails. On me they are knee hight at best. I haven't the slightest idea of what they're for. Do you?

The coffee order arrived! Here's our supply for the next little while. We're looking forward to trying the Guatemalan one, and the other two are old favourites. Check out Crickle Creek yourselves, you might find something you want to try, and they deliver to your door in Calgary and nearby towns to the south west. How cool is that? They also ship further afield.