climate change activist and science communicator; photographer; mapmaker — advocate for a stable global climate, reduced nuclear weapon risks, and safe human-AI interaction
Sorry to have been so slow in posting these. Life has involved a lot of disruption, moving from Oxford to Vancouver to Ottawa.
Crowd at the Gnawa Festival beach stage.
Marakkesh street at night
The Kasbah Mosque, in the southern part of the city.
Cascades d’Ouzoud
This donkey had the unenviable task of carrying empty bottles from the restaurants near the falls to the top of the valley.
One truly great thing about where I live: Pho Bo Ga (A-12 Lebreton Street). Two blocks from my front door is a Pho restaurant that is open until 4:00am. That means tasty, spicy Vietnamese soup at crazy times of night. You can get a huge bowl of tofu Pho for $6.25 and ridiculously huge bowls for a dollar or two more.
Of course, this would be more in keeping with my lifestyle if I were still a student – feeling good about myself if I was up before 10:00am. Even given my new salarydom, it is a valuable bit of local knowledge.
In addition to all the reading I have been doing for my first big project at work, I am finding myself well-immersed in interesting personal reading. Aside from the stack of fiction that has been oscillating in size for about a year, I am reading George Monbiot’s Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning and Harold Coward and Andrew J. Weaver’s book Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada. Simon Singh’s The Code Book is catering to a less immediately work-related interest, as is the Simon Blackburn book Antonia gave me.
It can be tough to maintain an appetite for the written word that exceeds the immediate requirements of work and the secondary need to keep up to date on current events. Of course, it is essential in order to become and remain an informed member of society.
Unrelated: Emily introduced me to a new web comic: The Perry Bible Fellowship. It is pretty random, but also quite funny at times.
My brother Mica is in yet another music video competition. The ‘Lonely Evening’ video is his first based on original music. It was mentioned here previously. Voting continues until August 10th. If he wins this grand final, it will be his fifth victory in a row.
You can see all of his previous films on his website: papaflyfilms.com.
Having corrected some errant DSL settings, I am now online. I can now properly say that I have a place to live, rather than simply an area in which I am storing my stuff.
Now that I am off the EC network and can freely access sites of a social nature, I can announce the following: Emily Horn, dashing young woman who I met at Cabin Fever 3, has a new blog emerging: thebeanery.wordpess.com. I look forward to seeing what evolves there.
During the next three weeks, in the lead-up to a friend’s visit, I am undertaking a survey of touristic sites in Ottawa. It should involve the major museums – war, civilization, the National Gallery, the small Museum of Contemporary Photography – as well as Parliament and possibly the Supreme Court. This pre-screening is meant both to familiarize me with the city a bit and to help identify places of interest to show to others.
What else might be appropriate for a three-day-visitor? Culinary suggestions are also welcome. For the benefit of anybody else who is new to the city, it may be worthwhile to know that a collection of MetaFilter members are meeting up on August 9th.
Everything that passed through the mail from England to Canada seems to have suffered a bit in the crossing, if only by taking on an odd smell. Nothing, however, was anywhere near so badly damaged as my world map. Despite being properly packed in a rigid plastic tube, it has been bent, crushed, and mangled. That is a particular shame given that it was an especially good map, and a birthday gift to boot.
Right now, the remains (held aloft by a system of cords I rigged up) are serving as a temporary window covering for the pane facing the street. I should have given it to someone in England, or left it on the wall of my room in Church Walk for the next inhabitant to appreciate.
PS. These 34 degree Celsius days (and twenty degree nights) are a challenge unto themselves. I am looking forward to the autumn.
If you want to save some money and make yourself feel like you are really on the ball, have a look at the winter clothing prices at Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC). Presumably because they have new stock coming in this fall, a lot of old stuff is quite heavily discounted. If you sense a long-term need for Gore-Tex trousers or a down parka, now may be the time to invest.
Personally, I am placing my hope in a long summer. Unless some new hassle arises, my next paycheque should finally mean the acquisition of a used bike.
The other night, I saw The Simpsons Movie with Marc and some of his economist colleagues. Going in, I thought it more likely to be a disaster than a triumph. I was pleased to find my pessimism largely unjustified. While it did involve a lot of the same awkward and improbable gimmickry of the later episodes, the film was well speckled with fully deserved laughs. It also revealed federal environmental bureaucracies for the villainous and malicious entities they truly are.
Simpsons fans avoiding the film for fear it will be terrible should gird themselves to have a look; those without a long-standing appreciation for the show will probably be better off steering clear.