[caption id="attachment_10054" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Homeless binner's ransacked bike and trailer. Prior to being moved along in the alley.[/caption]
Chris Jensen's disappearance from the Fairview area on Wednesday evening was neither unusual nor necessarily unwelcome. What was unusual and what caused several of South Granville's homeless population to take notice was the fact that he went away without taking his bicycle, attached trailer and most of his worldly possessions.
Well I've just seen him -- darn the luck! Only one day missing; that wasn't much of a break, but by the looks of him he wasn't off having a picnic.
Homeless binner's ransacked bike and trailer. Prior to being moved along in the alley.[/caption]Chris Jensen's disappearance from the Fairview area on Wednesday evening was neither unusual nor necessarily unwelcome. What was unusual and what caused several of South Granville's homeless population to take notice was the fact that he went away without taking his bicycle, attached trailer and most of his worldly possessions.
Well I've just seen him -- darn the luck! Only one day missing; that wasn't much of a break, but by the looks of him he wasn't off having a picnic.
Chris Jensen has gone missing from Fairview. This, by itself is neither unusual, unexpected or unwelcome.
What is unusual is that he left behind his bicycle and attached bicycle trailer, loaded with most of all his worldly possessions.
Wednesday morning I arrived at the Broadway and Granville McDonald's by 8 a.m. and Chris' bike and trailer was in their usual spot and Chis himself was in his usual spot, muttering under his breath and gumming his way through a muffin while, I assume, he attended to his blogs.
He left before me, at about 10 a.m. and here was the first unusual thing: he unhitched his bike from the trailer and rode of eastward, leaving the trail in front of McDonald's, and he didn't have a backpack, so had he left his laptop on the trailer?
I last saw him Wednesday evening, again at McDonald's; his trailer was still where he had left it in the morning, apparently undisturbed. Chris himself appeared about 9:30 p.m., left his bike in the restaurant, leaning against the soda fountain-slash-condiments island, and went off somewhere. I left before he came back.
Next morning -- Thursday, another homeless fellow intercepts me in the last block of alley on the south side of Broadway
What is unusual is that he left behind his bicycle and attached bicycle trailer, loaded with most of all his worldly possessions.
Wednesday morning I arrived at the Broadway and Granville McDonald's by 8 a.m. and Chris' bike and trailer was in their usual spot and Chis himself was in his usual spot, muttering under his breath and gumming his way through a muffin while, I assume, he attended to his blogs.
He left before me, at about 10 a.m. and here was the first unusual thing: he unhitched his bike from the trailer and rode of eastward, leaving the trail in front of McDonald's, and he didn't have a backpack, so had he left his laptop on the trailer?
I last saw him Wednesday evening, again at McDonald's; his trailer was still where he had left it in the morning, apparently undisturbed. Chris himself appeared about 9:30 p.m., left his bike in the restaurant, leaning against the soda fountain-slash-condiments island, and went off somewhere. I left before he came back.
Next morning -- Thursday, another homeless fellow intercepts me in the last block of alley on the south side of Broadway
There's a clear pattern here: three times in a row now, or every seven years, Microsoft appears to have thrown a mediocre-to-bad version of Windows onto the market to buy time while it finishes the "good" version.
Today the problem is with Windows 8. Seven years ago it was with Windows Vista, and seven years before that the problem was with Windows ME.
[caption id="attachment_10004" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The cross street is West Broadway. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
The cross street is West Broadway. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
Shiny! From any other angle it looked like it had curled horns like a very low-riding billy goat. Click the image to enlarge it.
[caption id="attachment_9964" align="alignnone" width="497"]
One of the 95% of ATMs which NCR says are running Windows XP. -- 2fmagazine.com[/caption]
After 13 years Microsoft is about to finally turn off vital life support to the aging Windows XP operating system. But it's hard to properly say goodbye to XP, not because of love but because so many people still use it whether they want to or not.
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will discontinue automatic security updates for Windows XP. Significantly, Microsoft says it will will also stop providing the XP-compatible Microsoft Security Essentials for download.
To say that this is going to create a huge security hole in the very fabric of human civilization may not be the overstatement it sounds like.
One of the 95% of ATMs which NCR says are running Windows XP. -- 2fmagazine.com[/caption]After 13 years Microsoft is about to finally turn off vital life support to the aging Windows XP operating system. But it's hard to properly say goodbye to XP, not because of love but because so many people still use it whether they want to or not.
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will discontinue automatic security updates for Windows XP. Significantly, Microsoft says it will will also stop providing the XP-compatible Microsoft Security Essentials for download.
To say that this is going to create a huge security hole in the very fabric of human civilization may not be the overstatement it sounds like.
When I first thought of taking a photo of the above tree in Mount Pleasant today it was because I liked the upside-down "paint drips" of the thin vertical branches. Then a completely different idea came to me.
I considered how similar the photo would be to a prehistoric fossil.
The photo is created in a moment using a "cheese slice" of light and the fossil requires millions of years in a geological sandwich press to come to us as it does. The photo, depending on technology, is either particles of silver nitrate on a medium like paper or it's... complicated to explain. The fossil is made of minerals.
Neither are any more than a delimited representation of the original thing. Both the photo and the fossil are dead, flat representations of things that only live in three-dimensions. They are each stripped of significant amounts of important information. Through completely different means they have both been crushed flat.
I haven't done the statistical analysis yet but observation strongly suggests a binner's subliminal reading diet -- all the words on all the street furniture, signage and dumpsters they encounter in alleys -- consists principally of negatives: "No," "Never," "Don't," "Stop," with a rare "Please" thrown in to soften the blow.
Once the stats are in, physiologists will probably tell us this surfiet of environmental negativity in the back alleys makes for a toxic workplace -- binning-wise -- and declare us victims of a hitherto unknown type of PTSD: Pessimistic Traffic Sign Disorder Syndrome.
Street people, binners, parking attendants, traffic enforcement officers, even garbage and tow truck drivers may, in the near future, be in line for significant disability claims. In the meantime I take solace from the signage in the parkade pictured above.
[caption id="attachment_9920" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Cambie Street. In the distance things are jumping in Mordor, er, downtown Vancouver.[/caption]
This morning I work up at 8:30 a.m. to the honking -- not of geese or car horns -- but of fog horns -- slow, sonorous sounds; prehistoric; soothing... When I woke up again two hours later the fog horns were still sounding off. Too many just for False Creek I thought. Given the way fog can work on sound I might have been hearing horns from as far away as the Burrard Inlet on the north side of downtown Vancouver.
Cambie Street. In the distance things are jumping in Mordor, er, downtown Vancouver.[/caption]This morning I work up at 8:30 a.m. to the honking -- not of geese or car horns -- but of fog horns -- slow, sonorous sounds; prehistoric; soothing... When I woke up again two hours later the fog horns were still sounding off. Too many just for False Creek I thought. Given the way fog can work on sound I might have been hearing horns from as far away as the Burrard Inlet on the north side of downtown Vancouver.
I think having my index finger partially over the lens adds a touch of vérité. Some might suggest it's just not far enough over the lens. And perhaps others would argue that though I appear to be over the flu I'm still not, clinically-speaking, a well man. Click the image to enlarge it.
[caption id="attachment_9899" align="alignnone" width="497"]
A pebble-sized bit of drugs in a fast food restaurant's bathroom.[/caption]
I found the tiny package pictured above on the floor of a public washroom in Fairview. I should've put a coin down for reference or double-checked the focus but I was in rush to give it back to the guy who'd just left the bathroom -- a homeless heroin addict -- I was correct in guessing he'd dropped it.
Many people wouldn't have noticed it -- about half the diameter of a cigarette butt -- a ridiculously tiny quarter-gram of heroin which I'm told costs $35 and has the equally ridiculous "undercover" name of "pants."
A pebble-sized bit of drugs in a fast food restaurant's bathroom.[/caption]I found the tiny package pictured above on the floor of a public washroom in Fairview. I should've put a coin down for reference or double-checked the focus but I was in rush to give it back to the guy who'd just left the bathroom -- a homeless heroin addict -- I was correct in guessing he'd dropped it.
Many people wouldn't have noticed it -- about half the diameter of a cigarette butt -- a ridiculously tiny quarter-gram of heroin which I'm told costs $35 and has the equally ridiculous "undercover" name of "pants."
[caption id="attachment_9886" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Sick as a dog. Even the camera's seeing spots.[/caption]
It's awkward to be ill when you're homeless. All I wanted to do this morning was go back to bed -- forever -- but that was easier said than done.
It's easier done in the summer than the winter. In the summer you can always find a corner of a park. Today all those corners would have been sodden wet.
Sick as a dog. Even the camera's seeing spots.[/caption]It's awkward to be ill when you're homeless. All I wanted to do this morning was go back to bed -- forever -- but that was easier said than done.
It's easier done in the summer than the winter. In the summer you can always find a corner of a park. Today all those corners would have been sodden wet.
Winding my way westward from the bottle depot at Ontario Street I stopped in a parking lot that I use as a shortcut between a street and an alley. I got it into my head to try and catch the multitude of specular highlights the setting sun was bouncing off the parked cars.
I was aiming the camera at the cars like you'd aim a rock you wanted to skip across the surface of a lake. I got one shot off before I heard:
"What the @%#☄ are you doing?"
Clouds willing, and aside from today's fog slumbering on False Creek, a scene very much like this happens every morning at this spot looking north down South Granville Street.
The camera's not catching it at all -- the distant North Shore slope dripping molten gold with the rising sun; the flashes and sparkles on the buildings downtown -- you need at least $600-worth of camera. I saw it just fine with my own two eyes; I just can't show it to you -- you'll have to take my word.
A largish puddle of paint I encountered last night in a lane of condos. The paint container appeared to be upright in the bag. The lid is visible to the left.
I can only speculate how such a photogenic mess happened: Perhaps the condo owner left the container of paint on the lid of the grey garbage bin and it fell or was knocked off. Maybe it was put on the ground but someone kicked it.
Happened to glance up at the top of a fivish-year-old pedestal building one block west of Oak Street at 15th Avenue.
"That's odd," I said to no one in particular. "There's a house on top of that condo."And there is -- a little brick-red house. Doll house, dog house, outdoor loo... ? I've no idea but there it is. Click the images to enlarge them.
Cool huh? Like the reflections off a swimming pool, except there's no water... or pool. Just parked cars. Click the images to enlarge.
At fifteen minutes to eight on a Wednesday morning; rush hour on Hemlock Street is in fits an starts. Most traffic is headed to the right and north onto the Granville Bridge for downtown Vancouver. I want to continue straight ahead -- traffic allowing -- to my morning coffee. Otherwise I'm also turning right to cross at the intersection.
[caption id="attachment_9822" align="alignnone" width="497"]
With great fashion sense comes great responsibility![/caption]
This is Edem He came into the McDonald's around the corner from South Granville wearing a brilliant Spider-Man hoodie which he said he bought downtown at a comic shop on North Granville Street. Not only that... he was wearing toe shoes, which are not the same as ninja tabi-shoes but still very cool.
With great fashion sense comes great responsibility![/caption]This is Edem He came into the McDonald's around the corner from South Granville wearing a brilliant Spider-Man hoodie which he said he bought downtown at a comic shop on North Granville Street. Not only that... he was wearing toe shoes, which are not the same as ninja tabi-shoes but still very cool.
While I was stopped at the traffic light I snapped these four photos looking west down West Broadway Avenue at the intersection with Cambie Street. The four photos were stitched together using the Windows demo version of AutoStitch a program originally developed at the University of British Columbia. Click the image to enlarge it.
[caption id="attachment_9806" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Looking back at Spruce Street. About 7:30 a.m. The fog is descending.[/caption]
I'm guessing there was a light fog overnight. All I know is about the time I got up the fog was descending and by the time I had traveled four block it lay thick and wet over the entire South Granville area like a beached cloud.
Looking back at Spruce Street. About 7:30 a.m. The fog is descending.[/caption]I'm guessing there was a light fog overnight. All I know is about the time I got up the fog was descending and by the time I had traveled four block it lay thick and wet over the entire South Granville area like a beached cloud.
[caption id="attachment_9794" align="alignnone" width="497"]
An old concrete utility pole in Mount Pleasant.[/caption]
Above is a close-up of a relative rarity in Vancouver, a precast, spun-concrete utility pole; this one is in a Mount Pleasant back alley. It looks virtually brand new but it's from the 1970s. It bears a maker's label which explains that it was manufactured by the now-defunct company Spun-Beton of Kamloops, B.C. in 1979.
"Béton" is French for concrete and the French pretty much invented prefabricated, reinforced concrete beginning in the 1850s. Their engineers and companies spread the technology around the world so most major languages use the French word for concrete.
An old concrete utility pole in Mount Pleasant.[/caption]Above is a close-up of a relative rarity in Vancouver, a precast, spun-concrete utility pole; this one is in a Mount Pleasant back alley. It looks virtually brand new but it's from the 1970s. It bears a maker's label which explains that it was manufactured by the now-defunct company Spun-Beton of Kamloops, B.C. in 1979.
"Béton" is French for concrete and the French pretty much invented prefabricated, reinforced concrete beginning in the 1850s. Their engineers and companies spread the technology around the world so most major languages use the French word for concrete.
[caption id="attachment_9785" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Artist representation of unveiling with dignitaries and Harper government officials.[/caption]
The news on Friday that a giant slab of granite sits idle in a Gatineau Hills barn while Vancouver's new condo kitchen counter tops go begging was frankly irksome to me.
The granite was meant for a statue of the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. However the drive to memorialize the politician who repatriated the Canadian Constitution and gave us the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ran out of gas somewhere between now and the year 2000.
After his death that year, a "Trudeau Sculpture Committee" was formed, granted charitable status and duly commissioned sculptor John Batten. He in turn came up with a design approved by the Trudeau family and land was set aside in the former City of Nepean overlooking the Ottawa River at a spot that, according to the Ottawa Citizen, Justin Trudeau had described as perfect.
A 29-tonne slab of Canadian Shield granite was harvested deep in Vermont, then hauled to John Batten's barn in the Gatineau Hills area outside Ottawa, the capital of Canada in the province of Ontario.
All these many years later that slab is still sitting in the barn. It's disappointing.
Artist representation of unveiling with dignitaries and Harper government officials.[/caption]The news on Friday that a giant slab of granite sits idle in a Gatineau Hills barn while Vancouver's new condo kitchen counter tops go begging was frankly irksome to me.
The granite was meant for a statue of the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. However the drive to memorialize the politician who repatriated the Canadian Constitution and gave us the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ran out of gas somewhere between now and the year 2000.
After his death that year, a "Trudeau Sculpture Committee" was formed, granted charitable status and duly commissioned sculptor John Batten. He in turn came up with a design approved by the Trudeau family and land was set aside in the former City of Nepean overlooking the Ottawa River at a spot that, according to the Ottawa Citizen, Justin Trudeau had described as perfect.
A 29-tonne slab of Canadian Shield granite was harvested deep in Vermont, then hauled to John Batten's barn in the Gatineau Hills area outside Ottawa, the capital of Canada in the province of Ontario.
All these many years later that slab is still sitting in the barn. It's disappointing.
Last evening McDonald's was playing host to no fewer than eight homeless people, which was no problem in and of itself -- customers are customers, but two of them: Jonathan and Marnie were loudly chattering like magpies to no one in particular.
It can be hard to concentrate when someone else is thinking out loud. It's harder when two of them are being thoughtless out loud.
So when I left about 9:30 p.m. I gladly exchanged the hothouse atmosphere of McDonald's for the quiet coolness of a January evening.
My mind was on going eastwards to bed but as soon as I crossed Hemlock Street and crested the little rise of the alley on the south side of West Broadway Avenue I was moonstruck.
Jonathan says:“Canada is a third world country with wings.”
Don't know what it means; don't think Jonathan knows, but it's the most profound thing I've heard in a while.
[caption id="attachment_9760" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Zo you dreamt your mothzer vas a trapeze artiste? Zas ist very intervestink.[/caption]
It has been said there's a fine line between art and madness but there are no fine lines in this art at all. This looks more like therapy than art to me; like someone had to get something out of their system -- fast. Nice of them to share. Click the image to enlarge.
Zo you dreamt your mothzer vas a trapeze artiste? Zas ist very intervestink.[/caption]It has been said there's a fine line between art and madness but there are no fine lines in this art at all. This looks more like therapy than art to me; like someone had to get something out of their system -- fast. Nice of them to share. Click the image to enlarge.
Last night the fog really helped make this cul-de-sac between West Broadway and 8th Avenue look very expressionistic, like something out of the 1927 German silent film masterpiece Metropolis. At least something out in the suburbs of Joh Fredersen's mega city. Click the images to enlarge them.
"It should start up" he said as he slid behind the wheel.
It was a quite a sight. A 1928 Ford Model A; so shiny!
"Not a 1902 Model A," the white-haired owner was quick to point out. "That came first. Then the Model T. Then they started making the Model A again."
Blah, blah, blah! Cool old car; so shiny!
This blind-sided Mini Cooper was sitting off Cambie yesterday. I know it's only a car, but doesn't that look painful?
I can't stand by and just watch an overly anthropomorphized car suffer!
[caption id="attachment_9694" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Double exposed houses off 8th Avenue. Behind loom the office blocks of West Broadway.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_9695" align="alignnone" width="497"]
What I like best about fog is the way light takes on a physical form.[/caption]
I will keep blindly groping in the fog with my camera for that one great "mist opportunity," content in the notion that while I may be wasting my time at least I'm not wasting film. Click the images to enlarge them.
Double exposed houses off 8th Avenue. Behind loom the office blocks of West Broadway.[/caption][caption id="attachment_9695" align="alignnone" width="497"]
What I like best about fog is the way light takes on a physical form.[/caption]I will keep blindly groping in the fog with my camera for that one great "mist opportunity," content in the notion that while I may be wasting my time at least I'm not wasting film. Click the images to enlarge them.
[caption id="attachment_9675" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Using a power washer and a stencil is a common way to "clean" a message onto a sidewalk.[/caption]
Reverse graffiti is one of the favourite techniques of a new generation of marketing firms using "natural media" techniques to catch the attention of young, media-savvy people. It's eye-catching, cheap, and non-permanent. But, as far as the City of Vancouver is concerned, it's still graffiti, and it's illegal.
Graffiti tagging is usually done using spraypaint or markers -- paint or ink is added to a surface. Reverse graffiti on the other hand -- or "clean graffiti" -- is a way of tagging a message by "cleaning it" onto a surface, using a power washer, or cleaning chemicals, or something even simpler.
If you've ever seen a really neglected car and given in to the temptation to use your finger to write "Clean Me" on the dirty windshield then you've indulged in reverse graffiti.
Using a power washer and a stencil is a common way to "clean" a message onto a sidewalk.[/caption]Reverse graffiti is one of the favourite techniques of a new generation of marketing firms using "natural media" techniques to catch the attention of young, media-savvy people. It's eye-catching, cheap, and non-permanent. But, as far as the City of Vancouver is concerned, it's still graffiti, and it's illegal.
Graffiti tagging is usually done using spraypaint or markers -- paint or ink is added to a surface. Reverse graffiti on the other hand -- or "clean graffiti" -- is a way of tagging a message by "cleaning it" onto a surface, using a power washer, or cleaning chemicals, or something even simpler.
If you've ever seen a really neglected car and given in to the temptation to use your finger to write "Clean Me" on the dirty windshield then you've indulged in reverse graffiti.
[caption id="attachment_9652" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Grumman delivery truck braces the camera for a long exposure.[/caption]
By the colour of the photo and the thickness of last night's fog I'd say someone opened up a can of Habitant pea soup on this Fairview neighbourhood (Mmm!). If you haven't the foggiest idea what I'm referring to then you might not be Canadian. And if you are Canadian and you still don't know then, well -- no offense -- but you might not be Canadian enough.
Habitant pea soup has been sold in big fat yellow cans all my life. It's available outside Canada only in specialty food stores. Habitant (both the soup and the word) is French-Canadian which means both that it comes from Quebec and they borrowed it from France over 400 years ago -- and France never asked for it back.
Can't get more Canadian than that.
Grumman delivery truck braces the camera for a long exposure.[/caption]By the colour of the photo and the thickness of last night's fog I'd say someone opened up a can of Habitant pea soup on this Fairview neighbourhood (Mmm!). If you haven't the foggiest idea what I'm referring to then you might not be Canadian. And if you are Canadian and you still don't know then, well -- no offense -- but you might not be Canadian enough.
Habitant pea soup has been sold in big fat yellow cans all my life. It's available outside Canada only in specialty food stores. Habitant (both the soup and the word) is French-Canadian which means both that it comes from Quebec and they borrowed it from France over 400 years ago -- and France never asked for it back.Can't get more Canadian than that.
This flatbed truck appears to providing much-needed rest and recuperation for a bunch of the city's of utility poles -- and a good thing!
Their job involved nothing but standing up perfectly straight in a alley holding up wires, but they do it for years. That's gotta get you right in the small of the back, and dull? I can't even imagine how they stand for it.
I feel a lot better knowing that every so often they get to take a load off, take a break and get in a little sightseeing, Click the image to enlarge it.
[caption id="attachment_9633" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Sunlight pierces the rainscreening of a building at 15th and Alder.[/caption]
Here's another building that has, as they say, "taken the veil." Must be a hard decision and a major step in any leaky building's life.
It represents a near-lifetime commitment, or it must feel that way to the people who not only have to live under the tarps and mosquito nets for a year or more, but who also get to pay for the privilege.
Considering how many building I can see in this condition in Fairview alone, I am led to wonder: If this tarp, mesh and scaffolding arrangement is so gosh-darned waterproof, why aren't people just building this way to begin with? Click the images to enlarge them.
[caption id="attachment_9635" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Too nice a day for all that rain gear.[/caption]
Sunlight pierces the rainscreening of a building at 15th and Alder.[/caption]Here's another building that has, as they say, "taken the veil." Must be a hard decision and a major step in any leaky building's life.
It represents a near-lifetime commitment, or it must feel that way to the people who not only have to live under the tarps and mosquito nets for a year or more, but who also get to pay for the privilege.
Considering how many building I can see in this condition in Fairview alone, I am led to wonder: If this tarp, mesh and scaffolding arrangement is so gosh-darned waterproof, why aren't people just building this way to begin with? Click the images to enlarge them.
[caption id="attachment_9635" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Too nice a day for all that rain gear.[/caption]
When Microsoft executive Stephen Elop took the reigns in 2011 as CEO at Finland's Nokia he wrote a company memo that compared Nokia's predicament -- surrounded on all sides by challenges -- to that of a man trapped on a burning oil rig. In such a circumstance, Elop said, a person -- or one of the world's premier cell phone makers -- had no choice but to jump.
The memo became famously known as the "burning platform" memo. And Elop, a Canadian, was widely praised for telling it like it was.
Elop succeeded in getting Nokia to jump... into the arms of Microsoft, and he pocketed a healthy $25 million profit for his trouble (after which his old employer rehired him).
The praise has taken a turn towards Greek tragedy as Elop is frequently compared to a Trojan horse.
Now that Elop is back at Microsoft he's even been suggested as a possible replacement for outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer. That's all the more reason to suggest that he jumped from one fire into another one.
Microsoft, in fact, has several burning issues on its plate. There's the matter of finding the next great leader and the matter of making the next great operating system.
A team at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, is already hard at work building the replacement for the badly under-performing Windows 8 operating system.
[caption id="attachment_9598" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Regional Recycling is on Evans at the east end and north side of Terminal -- Google Maps.[/caption]
The Regional Recycling Vancouver bottle depot is now open at 7 a.m. every day. The Encorp Return-It depot still hasn't changed the hours on their Web site but word of the change is spreading among their customers. It was confirmed to me by an email from Regional Vancouver's manager Arlene Watson.
Regional's decision to begin opening one hour earlier comes ahead of another bottle depot's move into the area. United We Can is scheduled to move from the Downtown Eastside to Industrial Avenue any day now.
The United We Can bottle depot at 39 East Hastings Street is apparently still at 39 East Hastings Street even though yesterday ( January 15) was widely reported as the date it was to move to its new location on 455 Industrial Avenue.
Regional Recycling is on Evans at the east end and north side of Terminal -- Google Maps.[/caption]The Regional Recycling Vancouver bottle depot is now open at 7 a.m. every day. The Encorp Return-It depot still hasn't changed the hours on their Web site but word of the change is spreading among their customers. It was confirmed to me by an email from Regional Vancouver's manager Arlene Watson.
Regional's decision to begin opening one hour earlier comes ahead of another bottle depot's move into the area. United We Can is scheduled to move from the Downtown Eastside to Industrial Avenue any day now.
United We Can bottle depot hasn't moved yet
The United We Can bottle depot at 39 East Hastings Street is apparently still at 39 East Hastings Street even though yesterday ( January 15) was widely reported as the date it was to move to its new location on 455 Industrial Avenue.
Close but no cigar you dumb piece of steel! Well, okay, a little too close; I'd better change my password -- again. Click the image to enlarge it.
Nearly a week ago my friend Karen Kohagen passed away suddenly and without warning.
Karen's sister Gail and Gail's son Mark came to Fairview Sunday evening to tell me personally. I had spent two days only knowing that Karen had gone to the hospital.
They explained to me that on Wednesday afternoon Karen was at her apartment in Fairview, when she realized she was suffering a heart attack and called an ambulance. She was conscious and talking as she was transferred into the ambulance in a wheelchair.
She died a few hours later at Vancouver General Hospital from a massive heart attack. I believe she was 68-years old.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to do a bit of computer tutoring, which required me to focus on the needs of another person.
Like I say, I was lucky. For most of the day it took my mind off my sorrow.
I have things to say about Karen, how she was special, about what it meant to me to know her. How much I miss her. But the more I try to focus on those thoughts the more they just jumble up meaninglessly. I can't think about them and I can't not. I'm a bit of a mess.
I do have an awful recurring thought about the heart attack; I hope it was so massive that there was no time for panic or suffering. What a terrible thought to take refuge in. And I think about how I knew Karen for barely a year and how hard this must be on her sister Gail.
According to stipulations Karen made in her will she is to be cremated as soon as possible and her ashes are to be scattered in a special part of the city she loved: Toronto.
She is survived by two brothers and a sister and many friends and loved ones. I was just one of many. I know all of us will miss her.
I guess this is goodbye but it hasn't sunk in yet.
[caption id="attachment_2706" align="alignnone" width="497"]
"No officer, the eyes are close but my friend was clean-shaven and had smaller ears."[/caption]
I saw him slouching into the McDonald's last night dragging a giant black hockey bag. That told me lots. I knew he wasn't over here just to get some fresh air.
He didn't see me. He only came over to me because he saw my laptop. He wanted to borrow part of an AC adapter -- the wall plug part he didn't have. He was kneeling down to look at my adapter and only then looked up at me.
"Oh, it's you" he said, in his distinctive gravelly voice, more a statement of fact than anything else.
I took in the cleanness of him, the dryer-sheet smell of fresh laundered clothing and his slightly mussed appearance, particularly both his eyes -- his black eyes. The bruising had to be a few days from fresh but he still brought to mind a tall, rangy, raccoon.
He had a story all right and he told it to me. In a nutshell: room broken into and burgled; took law into own hands; arrested; homeless again after five years off the streets.
How sad, but sadly not unusual. And of course he made a bee-line for Fairview -- why wouldn't he? A fellow who had been so visibly homeless in and around the South Granville area when I came out on the street in 2004.
"No officer, the eyes are close but my friend was clean-shaven and had smaller ears."[/caption]I saw him slouching into the McDonald's last night dragging a giant black hockey bag. That told me lots. I knew he wasn't over here just to get some fresh air.
He didn't see me. He only came over to me because he saw my laptop. He wanted to borrow part of an AC adapter -- the wall plug part he didn't have. He was kneeling down to look at my adapter and only then looked up at me.
"Oh, it's you" he said, in his distinctive gravelly voice, more a statement of fact than anything else.
I took in the cleanness of him, the dryer-sheet smell of fresh laundered clothing and his slightly mussed appearance, particularly both his eyes -- his black eyes. The bruising had to be a few days from fresh but he still brought to mind a tall, rangy, raccoon.
He had a story all right and he told it to me. In a nutshell: room broken into and burgled; took law into own hands; arrested; homeless again after five years off the streets.
How sad, but sadly not unusual. And of course he made a bee-line for Fairview -- why wouldn't he? A fellow who had been so visibly homeless in and around the South Granville area when I came out on the street in 2004.
[caption id="attachment_9530" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Needle exchange kit from 2008. Tourniquet, cotton balls, cooker, condom, sterile water, alcohol swabs, needles of different gauges. Tom Huffman.[/caption]
For eight years the City of Abbotsford has dug in its heels and drawn the line against harm reduction services being offered within its city limits -- services such as needle exchange programs, medical marijuana dispensaries, or safe injection sites such as Vancouver's very successful, life-saving, Insite program.
The city appears to have changed its mind. According to a news release by the Pivot Legal Society, last night Abbotsford City Council, following a public hearing, voted to remove the eight-year-old references to "harm reduction" in their zoning bylaw; references specifically included back in 2005 to prohibit harm-reduction services in any zone of the City of Abbotsford.
According to the by-law, harm reduction use included:
Removing this language from the zoning by-law now opens the way for lifesaving harm reduction services to be legally offered within the city, such as the needle exchange program which the Fraser Health Authority has previously proposed for Abbotsford in its Harm Reduction Service Plan of 2012.
That harm reduction plan, which was pointedly predicated on the elimination of the by-law restrictions proposed a fixed-site and mobile needle exchange system -- Harm Reduction Supplies Distribution Program (HRDSP) -- including outreach services, designed in consultation with area stakeholders including drug users themselves.
Needle exchange kit from 2008. Tourniquet, cotton balls, cooker, condom, sterile water, alcohol swabs, needles of different gauges. Tom Huffman.[/caption]For eight years the City of Abbotsford has dug in its heels and drawn the line against harm reduction services being offered within its city limits -- services such as needle exchange programs, medical marijuana dispensaries, or safe injection sites such as Vancouver's very successful, life-saving, Insite program.
The city appears to have changed its mind. According to a news release by the Pivot Legal Society, last night Abbotsford City Council, following a public hearing, voted to remove the eight-year-old references to "harm reduction" in their zoning bylaw; references specifically included back in 2005 to prohibit harm-reduction services in any zone of the City of Abbotsford.
According to the by-law, harm reduction use included:
- the growing, production, manufacture, sale, distribution and trade of drugs listed in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, including cannabis marijuana, or any by-product of cannabis marijuana, or any substance held out to be cannabis marijuana;
- Methadone treatment clinics and dispensing facilities, except where administered by a Provincially registered pharmacist;
- Needle exchanges, mobile dispensing vans, safe injection sites, and any other similar uses.
Removing this language from the zoning by-law now opens the way for lifesaving harm reduction services to be legally offered within the city, such as the needle exchange program which the Fraser Health Authority has previously proposed for Abbotsford in its Harm Reduction Service Plan of 2012.
That harm reduction plan, which was pointedly predicated on the elimination of the by-law restrictions proposed a fixed-site and mobile needle exchange system -- Harm Reduction Supplies Distribution Program (HRDSP) -- including outreach services, designed in consultation with area stakeholders including drug users themselves.
I was sure I'd brought in a pathetically small load of returnable containers into Go Green, Mount Pleasant's friendly neighbourhood bottle depot. But I was prepared to trust the brand-spanking-new -- deep breath -- Point of Return (POR) Beverage Container Recycling Application touchscreen system -- ahh -- that handles the math and shows the customer a running total.
Halfway through I looked at the subtotal and thought, "Hmm. Aruba's nice this time of year. I might be able to make the plane fare."
Unfortunately this system has one glaring flaw: the operator can change the totals after they've entered them.
I couldn't complain. The final actual total would've gotten me to Surrey, B.C., with change to spare; but seeing as I didn't need to go to Surrey, I was left feeling pretty flush. Click the image to enlarge.
[caption id="attachment_9463" align="alignnone" width="497"]
1960 ad for Ohio Art's Etch A Sketch. Look familiar?[/caption]
For better or worse the baby boomer generation of post-Second World War babies are amazing. Never have so many people been born in such a short time: Seventy-eight-or-so million children were born in the U.S. alone between 1945 and 1964 -- the broadest time span for Boomerdom.
Even their dreams are amazing: so many boomers have the same dreams at the same time, they can't help but become everyone's dreams.
I'm typing this post on one of those dreams: a laptop.
Boomers didn't invent computers, they invented personal computers, to replace the impersonal kind of main- and mini-frame computers their parents invented and which they used in colleges and universities around the world -- they were the most educated generation in human history after all.
1960 ad for Ohio Art's Etch A Sketch. Look familiar?[/caption]For better or worse the baby boomer generation of post-Second World War babies are amazing. Never have so many people been born in such a short time: Seventy-eight-or-so million children were born in the U.S. alone between 1945 and 1964 -- the broadest time span for Boomerdom.
Even their dreams are amazing: so many boomers have the same dreams at the same time, they can't help but become everyone's dreams.
I'm typing this post on one of those dreams: a laptop.
Boomers didn't invent computers, they invented personal computers, to replace the impersonal kind of main- and mini-frame computers their parents invented and which they used in colleges and universities around the world -- they were the most educated generation in human history after all.
This scene is from today in the alley between 15th and 16 Avenue on the east side of the intersection with Hemlock Street.
What I was told by a resident who lives nearby is that earlier in the week a dumpster collection truck snagged a wire and caused the damage to the apartment balcony which is visible. Actually they gave me to believe the balcony had been nearly ripped off the building but that seems to have been an exaggeration.
I could only imagine this happening while a dumpster was being raised over the top of the truck for emptying, so it's not a stretch to assume the truck belonged to BFI Canada, the B.C.-based company providing dumpster service for this apartment building.
In this case the damage doesn't look all that serious -- it's not structural -- and no one suffered injury, but it can serve as a reminder what these behemoths are capable of.
I routinely see residents blithely walking around collection trucks in the back alleys of Fairview. The trucks can be stationary, moving, lifting or dropping a dumpster -- doesn't matter -- people will just impatiently go around them. Not me.
Several months ago I posted about watching a collection truck drop the dumpster it was emptying -- right into the truck. I was keeping myself nearly a truck length back and that was a good thing. In the weeks afterwards I had four collection truck drivers tell me it wasn't that uncommon and when a dumpster comes off the hooks it doesn't always fall into the truck; sometimes it bounces off the truck.
Imagine that next time you're in a back alley and tempted to scoot around a stinky old dumpster collection truck that's blocking your way. Click the image to enlarge it.
This came out of an entertaining bag of garbage -- some people in Fairview do lead colourful lives. Once I found it I thought perhaps someone had left a sort of numismatic jigsaw puzzle. But no. Click the image to enlarge.
[caption id="attachment_9430" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The new arm race: Samsung Galaxy Gear, the Pebble and the Sony Smartwatch 2.[/caption]
Before cellular phones in the 1980s, pagers were the popular mobile device with professionals: little devices with tiny alphanumeric readouts that notified you when someone called your land line. Remember? No? Ask an old person, or a healthcare professional.
Cell phones made pagers obsolete over 20 years ago, but they're back again, retooled for the social media of the 21st Century and the irony?
The simple dumb phones that killed pagers, evolved into the complicated smartphones that are giving them a new lease on life.
Today's pagers still notify you of calls to your phone number; they also notify you of incoming SMS text messages or email or any social media nods -- they're all over Twitter and Facebook notifications. Most of them can "dial" your phone, and many of them can play MP3 files, and all of them can tell the time.
And "pagers" was so 20th Century -- they've changed their name to "smartwatches."
The new arm race: Samsung Galaxy Gear, the Pebble and the Sony Smartwatch 2.[/caption]Before cellular phones in the 1980s, pagers were the popular mobile device with professionals: little devices with tiny alphanumeric readouts that notified you when someone called your land line. Remember? No? Ask an old person, or a healthcare professional.
Cell phones made pagers obsolete over 20 years ago, but they're back again, retooled for the social media of the 21st Century and the irony?
The simple dumb phones that killed pagers, evolved into the complicated smartphones that are giving them a new lease on life.
Today's pagers still notify you of calls to your phone number; they also notify you of incoming SMS text messages or email or any social media nods -- they're all over Twitter and Facebook notifications. Most of them can "dial" your phone, and many of them can play MP3 files, and all of them can tell the time.
And "pagers" was so 20th Century -- they've changed their name to "smartwatches."
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