Paul Cipywnyk's Blog

Sunset Near Byrne Ravine Park

Late this afternoon I got out for a loop of Byrne Creek Ravine Park in SE Burnaby, and got a few sunset shots on my way back up the hill.

The view down the hill over the Green development.

Along Byrne Park Drive.

Olympics? Bah, Humbug… Er, Dang But I’m Smiling

I have counted myself among Vancouver 2010 sceptics, but darn it if I don't feel a spring in my step and a smile twitching on my face. We headed downtown today to check out the street scene, see if any pavilions were open, and had a great time. The only pavilion we entered was Northern House, and it was fun. While we don't have tickets to any events - damn hard to find and expensive - I will certainly be checking out more pavilions and other free stuff.

Yumi owns the podium!

Paul goes snowboarding. OK, if I look stupid, I admit I've
never been on a board in my life!

The outdoor skating rink at Robson Square.

With inukshuk at Northern House.

Yumi with muskox.

The "video postcard" at Northern House was a great hit.
You can select videos of northern scenes and activities
and have yourself superimposed upon them.

Feeding an eagle a bit of Japanese crepe on Robson St.

Eagles, Crows on Marine Way

While my wife was picking up some cat food I got some shots of eagles and crows near Marine Way in Burnaby. At one point there were six bald eagles soaring overhead, with some sort of hawk or harrier joining in for a moment. There were also several crows patrolling the parking lot.

Money Collecting Machine

So where can I get one of these? :-)

Burnaby Board Environmental Sustainability Forum for Business

The Burnaby Board of Trade's inaugural Environmental Sustainability Forum for Business last night was a big success, with a stimulating panel of speakers who provided inspiration and examples to help companies get on the road toward reducing their environmental footprints while boosting their bottom lines.

Held at the magnificent Electronic Arts campus in Burnaby, the panel featured Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation; TJ Galda, chair of the Electronic Arts Green Team; David Moran, Director of Public Affairs and Communications for Coca-Cola Canada; and Maureen Cureton, Green Business Manager, Vancity. The speakers and ensuing Q & A were ably coordinated by facilitator Coro Strandberg, principal of Strandberg Consulting and author of the Small and Medium-Sized Business Environmental Roadmap for Industry Canada.

The event appeared to be sold out. The auditorium was packed, and the speakers were well received by a responsive and appreciative audience. The panel was a good mix in terms of age and experience, and represented senior corporate management, staff, and NGOs. The overall message was that the green-blue wave is well underway, and companies of all sizes must understand environmental sustainability, and implement it, to hire and retain excellent staff, and develop and maintain optimal relations with their supply chains and customers.

Advice? While you have to have commitment and support from upper management, imbuing an organization with the values of environmental sustainability requires that everyone gets on board. Simply setting up a sustainability team or section will not change behaviour - it will alleviate personal responsibility as staff think "I don't have to do anything, that other group will take care of things."

An interesting resource that was mentioned was the David Suzuki Ambassadors program that provides workshops for businesses "interested in greening their practices." That was another theme that was repeated by several speakers - there are plenty of NGOs out there that businesses can partner with to work together on environmental goals.

Warmest January on Record in Vancouver, Eh?

Well, look what I found outside our door today:

I also did a quick patrol for salmon fry in Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby. Didn't see any yet, but back in 2005 we spotted fry on Feb. 8, so with this year's warm winter they ought to be popping out of the gravel soon!

BC Artist James Koll Posts New Works to Website

I received an email from BC artist James Koll today about new pieces posted to his website. Coincidentally, the topic of art came up on the Editors' Association of Canada email list recently, with people sharing info about artists whose works they'd bought. I mentioned Koll and his website, and here are a few comments:

"Koll's work is beautiful and, from the photos, exceptionally well crafted. The next time I'm back in B.C. I'll make it a point to see some of his work; I'm in love with it, even via the Internet. A new slant on Internet dating?"

"Thanks so much for sharing this link."

"I like his Burrard Street at Night--lovely."

"Ooo--another great site."

Dell U2410 Monitor

Received the 24" Dell U2410 LCD monitor today that I got for around 33% off the regular price - about C$500 compared to C$750. My first impressions? This is one bright, sharp, gorgeous screen. It's clearly head and shoulders over the 20" Dell 2007FP that I have it paired with on my desk, and it leaves the old 19" Benq FP931 that it replaced in the dust.

The 24" screen with its native 1920 X1200 resolution is impressive, but it's the underlying technology that really makes it shine. It's an IPS monitor, designed for high-end graphics work, and it's colour-calibrated at the factory with sRGB and Adobe RGB presets. No matter how much I fiddle with the settings on the Dell 2007FP, I can't get it to match the U2410's fidelity and clarity. I'm just eyeballing the two screens side by side, but I suspect that even with colour-calibration gear, it would be tough to get the 2007FP looking as good as the U2410.

I'm look forward to developing photos on the new screen, along with having significantly more space for document editing and desktop publishing work.

Cleaning Bird Boxes at Burnaby Lake

A call for volunteers appeared in the local papers to help clean out bird boxes at Burnaby Lake Regional Park for the spring nesting season, so Yumi and I drove over this Saturday morning to check out what the Burnaby Lake Park Association was up to.

Led by the irrepressibly passionate and knowledgeable Joe Sadowski, the 30-40 folks who showed up were divided into three or four teams and spread out to do some housecleaning. Despite the overcast, drizzly conditions, people's spirits ran high.

And a lovely Wood Duck couple, perhaps looking to move
in to the newly cleaned housing :-)

Rainbow on Vancouver’s North Shore

On the way home from shopping on the north shore, we saw this rainbow. I grabbed a few quick shots from the side of the road near the Cargill grain terminal with my pocket camera, but unfortunately the rainbow began to dissipate before I could find another vantage point. It must have looked magnificent from further south, say Burnaby Mountain!

Upcoming Burnaby Board of Trade Environmental Sustainability Forum

As a member of the Burnaby Board of Trade Environmental Sustainability Committee, I have been asked to forward this invitation to people in my business network.

-----------------

January 21, 2010

On behalf of the Burnaby Board of Trade, I would like to personally invite you to attend the BBOT's inaugural Environmental Sustainability Forum for Business on Wednesday, February 3, 2010. This event will showcase a distinguished panel of speakers who will discuss strategies for reducing your environmental footprint and the economic benefits of sustainability.

The objective of this forum is to create an open dialogue within the local business community to explore the business case of going green. The panel includes:

• Peter Robinson, CEO, David Suzuki Foundation
• TJ Galda, Chair, Electronic Arts Green Team
• David Moran, Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola Canada
• Maureen Cureton, Green Business Manager, Vancity

Facilitator: Coro Strandberg, Principal of Strandberg Consulting and author of the Small and Medium-Sized Business Environmental Roadmap for Industry Canada

Event Details
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
5:30 pm Registration
6:30 pm Panel Presentation
Electronic Arts Canada, Ltd.
4334 Sanderson Way, Burnaby BC
$30.00 + GST
To register, please RSVP to 604.412.0100 or email admin@bbot.ca by Friday, January 29, 2010.

Word Press Founder Mullenweg on Work

Ran across this great article on Inc. about Matt Mullenweg, founder of Word Press, on how he works and runs a virtual company.

I really like this quotation in the article:

People write a lot of comments on my blog, and I actually read and manually approve every comment before it gets posted. I think the broken-windows theory -- that a broken window or graffiti in a neighborhood begets more of the same -- applies online. One bad comment engenders 10 more. I'll happily approve a comment from someone who completely disagrees with everything I believe in, but if I get a positive comment with a curse word in it, I'll edit it out. My blog is like my living room. If someone was acting out in my house, I'd ask that person to leave.

I think that's a great approach, and I wish some major media outlets would get their monitors (do they even have monitors?) to follow it. When comments deteriorate into slanging matches, I'm gone.

Clearing the Decks for the Olympics?

All the newspaper and flyer boxes have disappeared from Edmonds Skytrain Station. Is it part of security measures for the Olympics? Beautification? A move to curb litter? I don't miss them, just curious. The mailbox is still there. . .

Wrestling Yellow Fish at Edmonds Skytrain

Several years ago, Byrne Creek Streamkeepers marked rain drains (aka storm drains) around Edmonds Skytrain Station (among other areas) in southeast Burnaby with yellow fish to remind the public that nothing other than rain should go down these drains because they lead directly to fish habitat.

The other day I met my wife at the station and took some shots of an apparent, ahem, pissing match. Excuse my language, but it really reminds me of territorial scent marking by canines and other beasties :-).

You can clearly see the cute original fish painted over by, to my eye, the rather blimp-like, mean-looking latecomer. From Translink? Why mark already marked drains?

Cumulative Effects of Watching TV a Killer

From an article in today's Vancouver Sun, sourced from Agence France-Presse:

"Relax in front of the TV much? Be warned, each hour you spend there boosts chances of a premature death by 11 per cent..."

So, math wizards, how many hours does it take to ensure death by TV?

Later on the article makes a bit more sense:

"... an hour of television time a day delivers an 11-per cent higher risk of early death..."

But even this is ridiculous. What about an hour a day of sitting and reading? An hour a day of sitting at a desk and working? An hour a day of any sedentary activity? Why only TV?

Hm, and then the article slips back into weirdness yet again:

"People who watch television four hours a day see their increased rate of death from any cause by 46 per cent, and from cardiovascular disease it soars by 80 per cent." [And no, I did not miss any words in that quotation.]

Huh? People who watch television see their increased rate of death..? I thought they saw various programs :-).

ADD:  And as an editing colleague points out, isn't the "risk of death from any cause" already 100%?

My Stream of Dreams ‘Measurable Results’

As with many non-profits, the Stream of Dreams Murals Society struggles with how to provide "measurable results" to potential funders. The fact that we have taught 100,000+ schoolchildren about their local watersheds -- how they function, and how to protect them -- and that those kids have painted over 100,000 Dreamfish that have been installed as schoolyard murals, never seems to be enough.

As president of the society's board of directors for several years, I write reports for each board meeting. Those reports have varied in length, and just for fun I graphed them the other day.

So, with tongue firmly in cheek, here are my measurable results:

As you can see, my productivity has increased sharply to start 2010!

National Post dumps ‘The’ with Ukraine, Kiev finally becomes Kyiv

As one who has supported the usage of "Ukraine" alone, I am pleased to note that in today's National Post, "senior editors have ruled that 'the Ukraine' is verboten. And the country's capital is now to be given as Kyiv, not 'Kiev.'"

Collapse of Soviet Union Put Danube, Dnieper Rivers on Diverging Courses

A sobering article in the Washington Post. While many countries have come together to clean up and revitalize the Danube, there has been little progress on the environmental devastation to Ukraine's Dnieper perpetrated under the communist regime.

iPod Navigator

For a couple of months now I've been trying to catch this gizmo on sale at Canadian Tire. It plugs into the cigarette lighter on a vehicle to power an iPod, and it also transmits music from an iPod using a selectable FM band. (Our faithful and stalwart '98 Subaru Outback has no aux input for its stereo. . .) Such devices are often in the $40-70 range, but this no-name brand has been available at Canadian Tire for under $20 off and on, but has always been sold out when I get to a store.

Well, I finally found one during Boxing Week sales at a CT for $14.95. It's pretty flimsy, and it sticks out so far that I cannot put the vehicle in park without removing it, but hey, it works! When I finally saw one, I turned it over and over, wondering at its cheap appearance, and a fellow came along and said, "Hey, works great, I've got three of them!"

I just realized that I badly dated myself - does anyone call them cigarette lighters anymore? I believe the politically correct term now is auxiliary power outlets.

Getting Into Hot Water

In response to a series of negative posts regarding on-demand water heaters on a mailing list:

While we have a gas-fired tank hot-water heater in our townhouse, I'm a bit surprised at the number of negative anecdotes regarding on-demand heaters.

As mentioned, they have been in widespread use for decades in Asia and Europe. I had several apartments in Japan with on-demand heaters and never experienced running short of hot water, or being subjected to spurts of cold water. And no matter what the outside temperature, it never seemed to take more than 10-20 seconds to get a steady flow of piping hot water -- certainly not any longer than it takes now for us to get hot water in the upstairs shower from the tank heater in the basement.

My wife's parents' place is in northern Japan, and it gets bloody cold up there for 4+ months each year, yet the suitcase-sized on-demand water heater in their house has never exhibited any such negative behaviour in 20 or more years of use.

If I may be so bold, I'd also venture that Japanese are among the greatest lovers of hot water in the world, and most have a tolerance, nay, an affinity, for soaking in water so hot that simply dipping a foot in it makes me want to scream :-).

Many Japanese shower/baths have faucets with a colour-gradated blue-red dial, accompanied by degree C markings. The top end of the red zone abuts a safety interlock button, which one can depress to be able to turn the faucet even further.

I wonder if some of this can be chalked up to a lack of experience in NA? I admit that when our hot-water heater died several years ago, we replaced it with another tank heater, but that was mostly due to the limited availability and greater initial expense of on-demand heaters here, combined with seemingly little knowledge or experience with them in local stores and among local plumbers.

Frosty Ramble 'Round Deer Lake

Combating the seasonal overeating, Yumi and I trundled all the way to Deer Lake and back, doing the route in a bit less than three hours. It was a frosty, cloudy day, but I worked up a good sweat, fell on my butt on the icy Sperling stairs, and got a few decent shots, too.

View from the canoe dock

Frosty mooring cleat

Yumi testing the ice near the beach

Frozen cattails near the beach

Foggy view of Metrotown from the north shore of the lake

Spotted this little furball sneaking through tunnels of grass
near the trail - a vole?

Frozen dew

We were surprised to see a salmon carcass in
Buckingham Creek near the beach parking lot.
We've never seen salmon in the Deer Lake area.
Unfortunately, we were unable to get at it to ID it.

Foggy New Westminster Quay, Boardwalk

A stroll along the quay and boardwalk in New Westminster on a socked in, foggy afternoon produced some moody photographs.