I’ve been watching on the web cam at Glenmore and 14th on and off today as they build the last bit of road to switch the traffic over to the new lanes:
Should’ve taken more captures. Oh well. It is interesting to watch them build the road in a day. And they can’t sluff either being viewable on a web cam for everyone to see.
So there I was on the 5ish pm train going “WTF? why are there so many people on this train?” We were packed in like sardines, which doesn’t tend to happen so much in the summer. Thinking on it, I noted that it had been a really long wait for a train, so naturally, it was packed as a result. Oh well, it’s a short ride for me out to Barlow Max Bell Station.
Yeah, right. It was a weird day on the train. Normally, people get off and hardly anyone gets on, so the lack of breathing room tends to clear up relatively quickly. Not today. For the first two stops out of downtown, one person got off, two people got on. That doesn’t seem like much, but we are already packed in. Oh, I didn’t mention that today was my day carrying the laptop which is a huge case on top of my small backpack, so I can’t so much as turn without wacking someone with either my backpack or laptop case.
So we get to the Zoo station where a young lady talking on a cell phone get on. Annoying loud talker type, but whatever, I’m getting off next stop. We don’t move. We still don’t move. An announcement comes over the barely audible PA: Warbel frebre door ipfre foerry. Someone is blocking the door. We still don’t move. The next PA announcement is slightly more clear to the effect of hold on while I get out and check the door.
The train driver comes walking past and I notice that the door in question is the one next to where I am squished in. They spend about 5 minutes playing Homer Simpson’s favorite game “Door goes open, Door goes closed” I don’t get it because the door seems to close. But hey, maybe I’m missing something because I’m having to crane my neck over to near breaking to see what’s going on since I can’t turn around with laptop and backpack in tow.
The train driver walks back to the front. “Good”, I’m thinking, “he got it fixed and I can finally get out of this sardine can and away from loud talker cell phone girl who hasn’t even figured out why the train isn’t moving yet because she’s concentrating so hard on her phone. Then the power goes out on the train. Oh shit. Then the power comes back on. Whew! Seems that power cycling the train is one tricks they try to get things working again. Wonder if they use M$ Windows on these-Nawww.
So now the driver comes on the PA again saying there is still a problem with the door, going to try to override it manually, sorry for the inconvenience, blah blah blah. He comes walking back again, and plays round #2 of Homer Simpson’s favorite game. Cell phone girl is still blabbing on the phone going on about how it’s just stupid that this train hasn’t gotten moving yet and she has no idea why. Meanwhile another girl opposite me is text messengering someone: “My train is broke”. Heh, heh – not everyone on the train was a total idjit.
Finally, the train driver goes walking back to the front. Comes on the PA saying that he can’t get the sensor to confirm that the door is closed, so he will have to take the train out of service and remove the train from the main track in emergency mode, so all the other trains backed up behind can get moving again. We can all get off the train and wait for the next one or two or three that it will take to fit all of us on there.
I say, “screw this” and start walking the long convoluted path to the Barlow Max Bell station. Three trains pass me while I’m walking, but I don’t care – I’m out of the train. Besides, I gots to pee – If I can’t hold it I can find a convenient bush along the way at least. I make it to the Barlow station, and as I’m passing through, the PA comes on: “Your attention please, warble mble smrset south mble themb ten minute delay mble thwe wthrn dom north east mfboe mnt delay mboe ” Well, you get the idea – evidently Calgary Transit was having other major train delays along the whole system. Evidently, the echo in the Barlow station is so sever you can’t understand dick on the PA – even though it’s loud enough in there.
So to really rub salt in my wounds, I have to make a pit stop at the Family Foods along the way (not to pee – still holding that in). Need food so I can eat tomorrow type of shopping. I get to the checkout counter, no line up (yes!) and get my stuff rung through. “I need a price check on till #1” Great. “This is gonna take a bit” says the clerk. Shit. The kid who comes to do the price check looks like, twelve and doesn’t come back. The clerk send another kid, who at least looks like he’s 16 after kid #1. I finally get my groceries and get the hell out of dodge.
Lessons learned:
1) Being stuck on a train in rush hour is worse than being stuck in traffic.
2) Pee before you go home if there is any doubt.
3) Calgary Transit PA systems suck.
4) Walking between the Zoo and Barlow takes longer than you’d think
5) Next time, take the bus, err, walk, err I guess there is no good way to get around in Calgary anymore.
Exploding whale stops traffic in Tainan, Taiwan
Well, there is only so bad that traffic can get in Calgary. At least we don’t have to contend with whales in transport exploding on the Deerfoot.
Although the concrete truck I saw overturned and spilling it’s load was probably harder to clean up.
You might not want to click the article if you’re sqeemish about guts.
Every once in a while I see something from the window of my house that make me run and and get a camera. I had stepped out onto my deck to take a look at the colors of the setting sun when I look up and go “oh man, I gotta go get a camera right now.
What I saw was this giant “X” that had been created in the sky by two plane contrails crossing each other, in the setting sun, no less.
The second plane was just passing by when I took this first picture, which gave this big sky picture it’s interesting effect.
I continued to photograph the progression, knowing it would only last a few minutes:
… and then I thought nothing more of it until I got around to downloading the pictures this evening.
Then I noticed something cool.
The second plane’s contrail was being affected by the first one
It’s times like these that I really get reminded about how cool photography can be.
So I suddenly find my self being asked permission to use my photos on some small media site, (nowpublic.com) in an article about a grandmother who was legally strong-armed by Syncrude to pull photos she had taken. I decided to check this out a little bit, to make sure I wasn’t aiding some crack-pot site/grandmother. Seems fine, other than I think Syncrude was justified in getting her to pull the photos. You see, she was on tour of the site, and they generally have bans on photos on the sites. I’m sure that taking photos while on a Syncrude tour is no different.
Well, when I pull up the nowpublic request to check it out, I find I have another email from a rental site, www.canadarentals.net. It seems the site owner would like to decorate his site with some photos of Ft. Sask, and he thinks mine are really nice. Considering what I wrote about the lack of beauty in Ft. Sask, and the general grey day I took the photos, I find this somewhat amusing, and ironic considering I thought the photos to be kinda blah.
Perhaps there is an angle here a photographer could use to make a career – find towns that have as little charm as possible and take the best photos you can there – businesses and the town government will be looking to buy your works to help spruce up their image.
Since I’m posting this rant on Flickr’s discussion boards, I’ll blog it as well, cuz, well, it’s too good not to blog as well.
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Personally, I want the “cosmopolitan” character we have now with about half the people. I’m born and bred Calgarian and let me tell you, this city is a lot more “cosmopolitan” than what it was when I was growing up.
Now as to what that word means to me, I expect to be able to go eat / drink and have a choice to partake in most world cuisines. I expect that the nightlife will also have a selection of cultural events that span the world. I expect different architectural styles in different parts of the city. I expect there to be little Italys and Chinatowns. I expect to be able to find other people with my own interests and tastes, be they common, or on the more eccentric side. And, from this site’s POV, I expect there to be endless opportunities for photos on a range of subjects.
Are we there yet? Hell no! We will never be there in some respects – New York is New York partly because it’s had the time to develop all the interesting facets it has, unlike Toronto, or Calgary. But, we do have more of the good stuff that makes a big city a tourist attraction than we had 20 years ago. Unfortunately, we have more of the problems too.
I rode home on my bicycle from downtown for the first time today during “rush hour” and I just can’t believe how stressful it is now compared to the last time I would’ve done that oh, 15 years ago or so. *Most* people are fine and reasonable, it’s the assholes and idjits that you remember, and their are enough people on the paths now that the 2% human scum factor is getting to be a real problem. OTOH, I can have a nice ride home along the Bow River (even with the idjits) and not have to fight with the traffic for a good part of the ride home. Not too many cities where you can do that, for sure.
Let me comment on Trever’s original thought, specifically
“anybody coming in that does not have a place to live and a job already, can get turned away.”
What the hell is wrong with that? He’s pretty much stating Ralph Klein’s Creeps and Bums speech in a different way – why would you move to another city without a job and a place is beyond me – but people do it all the time – and in Calgary right now, if you try it, you are more likely that not to get burned. Turning them away would be doing them a favor – there are enough people with jobs but can’t afford a place who end up living on the street as it is. The word has to be gotten out to the rest of the country that a $10/hr job alone is not enough to dig up roots and come out here – you’d better have your living space covered too, and while you’re at it, get a $15/hr job.
I remember when Melvin/Bug/Zarq brewed “Hi Honey I’m Drunk” and “Black Hole Brew”. Individually, they had serious flaws (sickly sweet and bitter beer face bitter) but together, they were something fantastical.
Well, I have discovered my own version thereof. My Halloween Brew, mixed 50/50 with my “Dirty Blonde” is actually more pleasant than either on it’s own, especially the DB brew. It comes out mixed with a subtle hop and tinge of lemon, like squeezing a lemon into a Corona and mixing it with a New Castle Brown.
My only problem is, I’m down to my last three bottles of Halloween Brew. Drat!
My current home brew I have just started drinking dubbed “Dirty Blonde” has been a bit of a disappointment.
It comes off with a strong lemon flavor, finishing on a grapefruit note, minimal hop flavor. The left over yeast has a strange “sour yogurt” type of taste, best left behind on the bottom of the bottle.
I started with a Brew Canada kit, adding Munton’s light spray malt to firm up the body. I up the sugar content too, so it’s not like I’m brewing by the instructions here.
I’m going to point the finger at the Brew Canada kit here – the flavor was not as nice out of the can, and the hops had a harsh bitter edge, not much of a floral theme, and not much in terms of malty taste either. I thought the hops was a bit coarse as well, not good for imbibing the beer with flavor.
It’s not like Brew Canada is really cheap either, it is however available in grocery stores. I would just say don’t expect killer beer from these kits, however, it might be just fine if you follow the instructions – but I wasn’t looking for that type of beer anyways – for what I’m trying to do (Belgium style light beer) it didn’t even come close.
The name I picked is apt though – the yeast takes FOREVER to settle out of this one, I find it best to leave a good cm on the bottom to prevent the icky tasting yeast of this one to come out, otherwise, it’s dirty blonde color, rather than a bright blonde. Next time, I’ll try a Munton’s light beer product for a summer beer, it might put out a better flavor than Canadian version.
Okay, this isn’t exactly about two “cities”, Fort Saskatchewan (hens forth, “The Fort” as the locals like to abbreviate) is not exactly a city, but close enough when talking about “small cities” (15K as of 2006) compared to Sarnia, of around 75K.
We are talking about two places: one that acts as the regional focal point in south west Ontario, the other a suburban annex of Edmonton Alberta. The differences, me thinks, are more due to the suburbia effect.
To illustrate with pictures, here are what I feel are the four best pictures I took in each city:
the four best of Sarnia
the four best I took at The Fort
For Sarnia, I had a hard time picking four pictures. For The Fort, I had a hard time taking four pictures. The old part of the town seems to be dieing out , with what little charm there is mostly being around the river, and downtown, such as it is. The new developments are exactly what you would see in any new Calgary suburb: a wasteland of parking space with trademark stores and big box retailers to drive between. It is sad that in ten minutes of walking I passed four liquor stores, three fast food places and not a single restaurant. Then again, I had no business walking in that parking lot in the first place. The only thing I found of interest was this: 
Calgary needs some of these rather than the flashing hand so you have an idea how many seconds before death cometh forth in the form of rumbling steel chariots to smote you down. But it certainly ain’t a pretty picture – just shows the same suburban character that you would see anywhere on the outskirts of any city here.
Sarnia had more places to eat than I could try within walking distance of my motel. The Fort had a bunch of franchise places, with a few restaurants in the downtown core. The one place I tried that looked at least somewhat promising was okay, but nothing I would want to eat at more than once in a while. In Sarnia, I found a nice classy place to eat (attached to a Super 8 motel – go figure) and a great pub with good food, good beer, good price. Try finding that in Calgary these days.
Sarnia had some nice old buildings in it’s downtown core. I’m not sure what The Fort ever had. The mall (currently deserted, to be renovated) gobbled up a fair bit of the old town area, along with some new buildings of bland design. Speaking of deserted, I decided to try the Smitty’s for dinner (being the best and only restaurant choice within 20 minutes walk) and found it to be closed due to lack of staff. When I end up hitting the McD’s for lack of better choice, I know things are grim.
Now, I’m not ragging on Ft. Sask. here in particular, Airdrie, or any suburb community in Calgary is no better – they all have these mega-shopping areas that are suited only to driving your car to, from, and between stores, with no charm, or unique character that would tell you where you are. I have no idea why people shop at these things. At least in a mall, you’re inside from the elements – here you need to shop, walk to your car, drive through snarled traffic to the next store 2 minutes away, and walk to your next store, repeat. Hell, I’m sure Sarnia has one of these shopping places tucked away somewhere I didn’t get to, thankfully.
I can forgive the lack of character and walkability for the Fort, I can forgive the liquor store on every corner (this is Alberta), but I cannot forgive the total lack of anything approaching an interesting restaurant. It just seems insane that the only way to go and have an interesting dining experience is to go into Edmonton. But perhaps that is exactly what the Fort is tailored to – literally a bedroom community where any quality time is spent back in the big city. Doesn’t do much to foster a sense of small town living, which is what these ‘burbs are supposed to be about.
A while back when web pages were new, you had bandwidth hogs – people who designed web pages that were too large for their own good. One of the “tricks” used was to use an image to display text, when plain old text would be so much smaller, searchable, and clickable.
Well, now with video online, you have people displaying text, in videos – when they could just post on their blog, or make a Powerpointless presentation. What’s scary is that some of these things actually see the light of day on Digg or MySpace (ok, nothing surprises me on MySpace).
It seems that the fixation on the latest trend in technology is about the only thing that isn’t changing in consumer level technology. On top of it, I can’t even “read” these videos at a reasonable pace, since they are set at a speed for average grade 7 reading levels.
What really sucks is I feel like the old man on the porch yelling at the kids about how we didn’t do things that way in my day, but hey, in this case, I’d have to say it’s the same stupidity, new technology, and I never did do things that way in my day, so there.
