Author: gfox (old content)

Ogden Ferry

Sunday I took Yoshi to the park. I had heard that the new ferry was at Ogden point, so I wanted to catch a glimpse of it. Actually, I wanted to go for a tour, but there just wasn’t enough time in the day for everything.

Yoshi and I did the tour of the park before being able to see the new ship. Meh, it looks like a ferry. Perhaps the inside is a little nicer. They are a welcome addition to the fleet though, since I know the Nanaimo, and Victoria runs are extremely busy. Being able to move more cars and people in the same amount of time is going to be great. I hope that they have a nice area on the car deck for pets, and I really hope they have somewhere to lock up bikes, not that I plan to walk on with my bike any time soon.

It was a nice walk, Yoshi had a great romp, and I got to take some pictures.

Drop Superstition

Last night was number 38 for me. The blood donation went smoothly like always. I am actually looking forward to making donation 50. If I go 5 times a year, that is still over a couple years away, and I know I won’t be going 5 times in 2008.

One of the first things the do is test the iron level in the blood. The lady that testing my iron level thought she would have to squeeze my finger a lot to get a decent drop of blood since my hands were so cold. I quipped that I bleed well so it shouldn’t be a problem. Sure enough there was plenty of blood flowing and when she dropped the blood into the copper sulphate, it sank like a stone. That is a good thing.

Recently I’ve started going after eating dinner which hasn’t had any negative effect, other than having less room for cookies. 🙁 One thing that never changes is which arm I donate with. I always, always, always use my left arm. Almost every time I go I have to wait for a bed due to this, but I don’t care. It is almost a superstition, but I have never had a problem so why miss with success?

Swampy Forgotten

I took Yoshi out for a nice walk yesterday. We ended up at Colquitz river park. It is a nice small park that I quite enjoy. The terrain is pretty easy, but there are several micro environments that are quite different. There is a swampy river estuary, a dense forested area, a wide open field, some scrub brush, and even a weird area filled with tiny trees that Yoshi loves to run through.

The grasses are dried out now, and rustle in the wind. I love their chaotic, yet repetitive patterns. From far away large bunches will sway back and forth, but up close they are such a jumble of growth.

The light was a bit weird in the forested area.  It isn’t a thick canopy but it still filtered out the light making it seem darker than it really was.  The overcast sky meant there was a nice even light on the undergrowth, which did help me out a bit.

Nearing the end of the walk we came across a beagle that was on leash. Yoshi went and said hi, then trotted off into the scrub chasing imaginary birds or something. The beagle sat down and looked toward where Yoshi had disappeared. The forlorn look on the face of this dog will not soon be forgotten.

Alert Providers

I read today about how there was a lockdown on the UBC campus recently. The CBC article I read mentioned that UBC is building a text message alert system for students (and faculty I presume).

So far only 40% of the students have signed up so far.

My thought was why is UBC building this system? Their system can only contact the phones they know of. If that person is away on vacation, and the system is activated, they will get a message. Also, how fast can UBC’s system pump out the text messages?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to get the cell phone providers to do this? They could blanket a specific area and get every phone in that target area. I bet they even have a broadcast functionality already built in too. To me this would seem way more effective and useful. Telus, Rogers, and Bell. Easy, peasy.

via CBC Website

Carcassonne Experiment

One of my Christmas gifts from Sox was a game called Carcassonne. We’ve read the rules and played a few games, and so far we love the game. It is a great two player game which is what Sox was looking for (I think she was getting tired of backgammon).

Each player takes a turn grabbing and placing a tile. It must match up with the surrounding tiles. Once the tile is down the player can choose to play a follower, then the player scores any completed features (roads, cities, or cloisters). A follower can be played as a farmer too which affect the end of the game scoring.

So far we have had some very fun games as we learn and experiment. We’ve each had a turn getting totally obliterated by the other, and last nights game ended in a tie.

It is a thinking game, which isn’t very good when either of us is tired, but it is really fun. We have each pointed out moves that the other has missed which is helping us learn. If you are looking for a new board game for home, I highly recommend Carcassonne.

Appear Falling

I did end up taking Yoshi out for a walk today. As I opened our front door I could see a few snowflakes falling here and there. The walk itself was nice and crisp. Snow fell off and on the entire time and sometimes the sun would hide behind the clouds, and other times it would appear and take the chill off slightly.

To give an idea of how fast the weather was changing, just look at these two pictures. They were taken looking toward the cruise ship terminal about 8 minutes apart.

By the time I got home I think it had warmed slightly as a light rain was falling. It was good to get out for some fresh air and exercise.

Frozen Fern

Yoshi and I went for a walk at Thetis yesterday. Victoria has been cold here for a few days but I was still surprised to see the amount of ice on the lake. In fact, upper Thetis lake was completely frozen over. Yoshi didn’t really pay any attention to that fact, and certainly had a good romp.





At one point he needed a drink, and had to crunch through the ice to get to the water. He was a little confused by that. I can’t imagine how cold the water must have felt, but there he was standing in it drinking!



The overcast sky ensured that the forest was a surreal green. I found this one old tree that was covered in moss and ferns. Very cool. I was on a timetable though, so I didn’t hang around too long taking pictures. We had a birthday party to get to!







The walk wasn’t as long as Yoshi needed, but it did the trick. Today I hope to get him out again.