Category: Ottawa

Posts about Canada’s capital city, and the experience of living there

Ottawa’s mayoral election

I have never had much interest in municipal politics. For one thing, the policy areas I am most concerned about aren’t ones over which municipalities have too much control. For another, I have generally not expected myself to live in one place for long. Finally, it just hasn’t seemed worth the effort to track municipal politicians, platforms, etc.

Ottawa is now in the midst of a mayoral race between (at least) incumbent mayor Larry O’Brien and challenger Jim Watson. I don’t know much about the platforms of either. That said, I do acutely remember the awful bus strike that happened on O’Brien’s watch. I think the union deserves to be punished for abusing their monopoly power over the general population, but O’Brien probably deserves to be punished too for not managing things better.

That said, I suppose I will have to investigate the candidates more comprehensibly before I decide how (and whether) to vote.

[Update: 25 October 2010] The Ottawa Citizen has a good website with information on this election. The general sense seems to be that Watson will win the mayoral race. Another thing I’ve discovered is that it is rather difficult to learn which school district zone you live in, much less find much information about the candidates online.

[Update: 28 October 2010] While the candidates on offer didn’t inspire much enthusiasm for me, I was pleased with the physical process of voting.

Possessions are anchors

Ottawa has never been my favourite city. While I have certainly met some people here who I like a great deal, and while there are certainly interesting kinds of work to be done here, I miss the beauty and familiarity of Vancouver. I also miss the options and excitement associated with larger places like Montreal and Vancouver, as well as the unique intellectual atmosphere of Oxford.

Lately, I have also felt as though it would be a good idea to spend a big chunk of time seeing more of the world than I have so far (though there are ethical issues that surround emissions from voluntary travel).

One thing that interferes with all of these plans is my rented apartment and the few thousand dollars worth of low-cost IKEA furniture and miscellaneous materials it contains. Finding it took quite a lot of effort, as good places in Ottawa seem to get snapped up almost instantly. That and sheer force of momentum make me hesitant to give it up, especially since that would mean finding a place to store my miscellaneous possessions, as well as a mechanism for moving them to the storage location.

It is odd how incapacitating it can be to own more things than you can carry yourself. The situation certainly suggests to me that it is wise to continue renting. My present situation already renders me immobile to an extent I find somewhat regrettable. A mortgage, property taxes, repair obligations, and the additional stuff that would inevitably accompany any kind of home ownership would be even more stifling.

I am not as badly off as I could have been. I am still using the same cheap IKEA furniture I bought straight after moving to Ottawa, even though an increasing proportion of it is held together with gaffer tape and screws I installed myself. Most of the surplus income that has accompanied full time work has likewise gone into paying off student debts, building up a cushion of savings, and buying photo gear. Photo gear may be the least anchor-like kind of possession, for me at least. For one thing, it packs a lot of dollar value into a small amount of space and weight. For another, every time I use it I want to go somewhere scenic or novel or important, so as to be able to put it to better use.

Photographing and re-photographing the same few neighbourhoods is not the more enriching experience.

Renting lenses in Ottawa

Photographic lenses are expensive things, especially professional grade ones. For example, Canon’s 24-70 f/2.8L costs $1600. Their 70-200 f/4L costs $1480, with image stabilization.

And yet, the 24-70 can be rented for a weekend for just $25, and the 70-200 is $30. Renting makes even more sense with esoteric lenses which are useful for certain projects or for producing a novel effect, but which it doesn’t make that much sense to buy. A good example is the 14 f/2.8L, which costs $50 to rent for a weekend but $2790 to buy. There aren’t a lot of people out there who will shoot more than 56 weekends worth of fisheye shots.

Located at 499 Bank Street, Vistek rents all of these lenses, as well as lighting equipment and other photo gear. My experiences with them have been very good, and they charge the same amount for a long weekend lens rental as for an ordinary weekend. They also have stores in Toronto, Mississauga, Calgary, and Edmonton.

I have already tried renting the 10-22 3.5-4.5 for some day and night photos of Montreal. Some other lenses I want to rent are the 50 1.2L, the 24 3.5L tilt-shift, the 100 2.8L macro, the 100-400 4.5-5.6L, and maybe the 14 2.8L.

Free stuff in Ottawa

The following stuff is useful in general, but not useful to me. It has been cluttering up my apartment, and it seems sensible to give it to someone who will find it useful:

Things that are available now

  1. Canon LP-E5 Battery Pack: Compatible with the Canon Digital Rebel T1i, XS and XSi Digital SLRs
  2. iMac RAM:Two 1GB sticks of PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM, suitable for use with a variety of computers
  3. Logitech webcam: Not super high resolution, but useful for someone lacking one, or some sort of project

Things that will be available in July 2010

  1. Watch this space

Please note that I can revoke the offer to give any of this away at any time, for any reason, and without warning. That said, if there is something that looks like it will be useful to you, chances are excellent the we can find a way to get it to you.

BOLO 2010 photos

My photos from yesterday’s blogging event are on Picasa:

I think I managed to get a shot of everyone who read, with a few of the crowd thrown in. Some more photos are in a Facebook album. I also have photos from last year’s event.

My thanks go out to David Scrimshaw, who had the cleverness and boldness to point a couple of the ceiling-mounted house lights at the microphone, greatly facilitating the photography of all present. Indeed, there were very few annoying flashes.

If anybody wants full resolution files, they can contact me. Keep in mind, the original files are about 10 megabytes a piece, at 5616 x 3744 pixels. Also, my internet connection is in terrible shape. Getting these on Picasa took hours, and many false starts.

They were pretty much all shot between 6,400 ISO and 25,600 ISO. I was expecting the venue to be a bit brighter, so I brought my 70-200 f/4 lens, whereas my 50mm f/1.8 might have been a better choice.

Blog Out Loud Ottawa 2010

Blog Out Loud Ottawa 2010, which I mentioned before, went very well. My thanks go out to Lynn from TurtleHead for organizing it, bringing together twenty four readers and dozens of audience members.

All the night’s readings were good, but some of my favourites were:

I had heard Evey’s entertaining Bus People on the radio a few days before.

I was the only one who presented a political post written in an editorial style – Why conservatives should love carbon taxes. Perhaps next year I will have some company. After all, blogs can be turned to serve many purposes, including advocating changes in public policy.

Blogging out loud

I have attended and enjoyed a couple of Blog Out Loud Ottawa events, at which local bloggers read one selected post in front of an audience. This year, I decided to give it a try. The event is on July 7th, at 7:00pm at Irene’s Pub on Bank Street, just north of Landsdowne Park.

My contribution will certainly be outside the norm, as most people read posts that are narrative accounts of their own personal experiences. I will almost certainly select one of my posts on climate change.

The post is meant to be from between June 2009 and June 2010, but the selection is otherwise up to me. I want to choose something that is informative and accessible, even for people without much knowledge about climate change, politics, or environmental issues.

Suggestions?

Fringe 2010: Cactus – The seduction…

This energetic and engaging one man show is definitely a lot of fun. Jonno Katz combines the script with improvised interaction with the audience, accompanying his amusing portrayal of varied characters with the physical comedy that is the highlight of the show.

The show might seem minimalist, with one actor, one costume, simple lighting, little music, and no props – but Katz brings more than enough character and energy to make it feel well furnished.

Definitely recommended, though perhaps not for those who are offended easily by references to romance or sex.

Broken clavicle x-rays

Here are some photos I snapped of the x-rays taken at the Ottawa General Hospital, at various points after my cycling accident:

May 30th – a couple of hours after the accident

T+4 days

T+19 days

In three weeks, I will get another x-ray. I have been warned that I will need to avoid any intense physical activity for a further three months after that, meaning I will miss most of the summer cycling season.

[Update: 9 July 2010] Here is an x-ray from today, showing a bit more of the affected area. The biggest difference from the T+19 shot is the round area of bone forming underneath the fracture area. The doctor told me another should form later underneath that sharp protrusion:

T+40 days

[Update: 13 August 2010] Today, the doctor said they might eventually need to operate, to remove that sharp spike of bone. I am supposed to go back in three months for another x-ray.

T+75 days

[Update: 24 November 2010] I told the doctor about how my shoulder has been aching a fair bit, since it started getting cold. He set me up with an appointment for some physiotherapy.

T+178 days

[Update: 2 March 2011] This will be the final x-ray in this series, as the doctor is now satisfied that things are healing properly. He told me the bone will still be remodelling itself for at least a year.

T+275 days

ArtBank

This evening, I visited ArtBank – an institution of the Canada Council for the Arts that has been buying Canadian artworks since the 1970s and then renting them to government offices and private organizations.

The art is rented at 10% of its appraised price, for each year. The minimum term is two years, and the minimum annual expenditure per renting organization is $2,000. The price per work is capped at $3,600, meaning that some of the most valuable pieces are quite a deal to rent. For government offices, the necessary insurance is already in place. Private organizations need to provide written documentation of adequate insurance.

The collection includes 18,000 paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures by over 2500 artists. Sizes range from modest to gigantic. All told, it seems like a rather good resource. It’s certainly a place worth visiting, if the opportunity arises.