timgoos

A Visit to Scottsdale

 Travels  No Responses »
Feb 022013
 

We visited downtown Scottsdale today – to go to the market and then to see some the downtown. It is interesting to see the downtown of a city practically completely developed during the twentieth century.

There are, apparently, only about eight buildings pre-1930. So, It is a very new place and buildings get continually replaced. We had a very interesting discussion about this church we visited. It essentially became a derelict and was soon to be yet one more parking lot. It has been saved and restored – one of these eight surviving buildings.

There are few multi-story buildings downtown – most are one story buildings built in the latter half of the 20th century. To compete with the urban sprawl metro Phoenix is known for, downtown Scottsdale provides free and practically unlimited parking. It is really a very walkable town and, given the design of some of the roads, it offers real opportunities for them – such as their extensive arts district with the associated Thursday night art walks.

 

Antelope Canyon

 Photography, Utah  No Responses »
Jan 092013
 
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In the Spring, 2012, a friend and I travelled to southern Utah and northern Arizona for a week of photography.  We visited Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona one day.  We were in Upper Antelope Canyon — there is also a Lower Canyon which we did not visit.

My photo gallery is right here.

As these are on Navajo land and the terrain is pretty inhospitable, you need to hire a guide for your travels to the Upper Canyon — you travel a couple miles through a very sandy bed where it was apparent that even experienced drivers with substantial four wheel drive vehicles could get stuck.  We had about 90 minutes inside this narrow slot canyon — along with a host of other travellers and their guides.

There have been some rather famous pictures taken in these slot canyons — mine are really a weak expression of what is there.  But, it is an amazing spot.

The guide on our tour told us of the need to adjust the white balance when we took our pictures off the camera.  When you are low down in a slot canyon, the light that reaches you has bounced off canyon walls many times and the whole character of the light has changed from anything your camera sensor is used to seeing.  In many cases, the colour was very muted if I didn’t adjust the white balance — the camera was seeing all this light that had been influenced by the coloured walls and was trying to make it white.

Enjoy the photo gallery right here.

Genealogical Giant Steps

 Genealogy, Innes  No Responses »
Jan 022013
 
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This past summer I spoke with my wife’s Aunt Jean at her 90th birthday party.  A special treat to celebrate such a birthday!  I was trying to trace her ancestors in  Scotland and had found there were two highly similar families that she may have descended from.  The data I had was really inconclusive especially when you consider that years of birth etc. in the census are often out by a year or more.

Aunt Jean recalled a few names and the existence of some twins perhaps — both of which led me to pursue research more directly on one particular family.  Recently, I made some giant steps when I made contact with someone from Scotland who was searching for the relatives that had emigrated!

A few exciting things have tumbled out already.  It turns out that my wife’s mom’s family were not the only emigrants from  her family — other family members emigrated to Alberta (first) and thence moved to B.C.  And, it also turns out that this family only lived in Scotland a few generations — based on the Scotland census, it appears that they emigrated from Ireland to Scotland  in the early to mid 1800′s.

The birth   certificate of my wife’s great-grandfather is displayed below — the bottom third of the image is that of James Innes in 1870.

You can learn so many things talking with others!

 

James Innes 1870 birthcert 1870

Arctic Report Card 2012

 Arctic, Climate Change, Environment  No Responses »
Dec 072012
 

Did you see the release by NOAA of the Arctic Report Card this week?

No surprises in many ways.  Record low sea ice extent in 2012.  Accelerating melt of Greenland ice sheet.  The cryosphere is  telling us the world is changing and doing so much, much quicker than any of our models, science etc. has suggested.  Of course, our GHG emissions are growing at a faster rate than the worst case scenario presented in IPCC .  So, we aren’t just changing the climate …  we are doing it at a rate even faster than we thought we would!

One thing that is interesting in 2012.  There were few places in the Arctic during 2012 that were exceptionally warm — it was kind of a typical year albeit with more warm than cool periods but without any extreme anomalous conditions.  Notwithstanding that, the melting of sea and glacier ice was record setting — the environment has kind of been ‘pre-conditioned’ over the years so the ocean is warming and the ice is thinner and ….  So, even near ‘normal’ years weather wise can have significant melts.  Essentially, it is further evidence that we are fundamentally changing the system — our actions over the past decades will continue regardless of whether we reduce emissions.

It will be interesting to see what impact the changing Arctic has on our winter this winter.  There are suggestions that the changes in the Arctic are enabling more substantial and stable incursions of cold air south in the winter — creating the kind of winter cold that Europe saw last year.  Here is western Canada, we have had an early start to winter and the two seasonal predictions I have heard on the radio speak of the expectation of a cooler than normal winter.

10000 Steps

 Reflections  No Responses »
Dec 042012
 
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Daily activity for Dec. 3, 2012

After a summer of riding bikes and being active outside, I knew I needed to maintain activity through the winter.  I don’t do so well at going to the gym and I haven’t been particularly good at either skating or skiing.

I recently ordered and received a new pedometer — a Fitbit ONE.  A small device that just clips onto your clothing it records your steps and your stair climbs.  It has a small digital display of the count and,  when I am near my Mac or iPhone, it synchronizes my data with a personal web site where I can review the statistics — daily, weekly, monthly.

If you tell it when you go to bed and when you get up, it also gives you an indication of when you were “awake” during the night.  Really, it is recording motion so it is a bit of a proxy for sleep/waking times.

This reference provides a medical perspective on the issue of steps/day vs. activity levels.  It suggests less than 5000 steps/day is a sedentary lifestyle.  So far, my experience is that most days would be below 5000 — a typical day with no exercise is around 4000 for me while a busy day with multiple shopping trips etc. can get up to 6000 or even 7000.  It suggests over 10000 should be considered active while over 12,500 is classified as highly active.  Most days, I find I need to spend an hour or so at a decent walking pace to get over 10000.

I have my current daily goal set at 12000 steps and 15 stair climbs; the latter is much easier to get than the former.

Sometimes, I am a bit of an “Inspector Gadget” — looking for the latest gadget.  Kind of sad but true!  Will this gadget help me keep a reasonable level of fitness??  To be determined ….

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Sleep pattern for Dec. 3, 2012

Such tools for personal monitoring are going to be much more available.  There is now a case for an iPhone that makes it an EKG monitor — not yet approved for use.  I have a free app on my iPhone that will give me instantaneous heart rates and keeps a database of them.

 

What do you do to motivate your fitness actions?

Galleries

 Photography  No Responses »
Dec 022012
 
Imagine

I have added a new section to my web-site to enable me to post more of my photos more easily.  I stopped paying for flickr service some time ago as I just wasn’t finding it valuable.  I now use it as well as 500px and Facebook just to post a few photos.

It will take some time to load my photos.  The system to load the photos is actually very efficient — I simply mark them appropriately in Lightroom and they are they automatically published to the web site.  The time required is for me to review the photos, make necessary adjustments and then give them a small description.

I have begun with our most recent trip –New York — and will slowly add others as time/energy permits.

 

Night shots in New York

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 292012
 

While visiting New York, I carried a small Canon camera during the evening and used it to capture a few night shots.  It has much better low-light sensitivity than my oldish Canon XTi SLR.  And, it is much easier to slip in a pocket when you are for dinner or a play or …  Sometimes, it was a bit hard to hold the small camera steady …

 

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Street Art in NYC

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 282012
 

 

The Kiss.jpg

While walking through New York, I took a few images of some of the striking art on the walls etc.  Some of this is in the wanted art category (i.e. it was a desired addition to the building) while some was very much in the unwanted art category (typically called graffiti.)  To my eye, there are examples of good and poor art in both the wanted and unwanted category.  Every city struggles with the unwanted art that is added to walls in the city — particularly when the art is such many people don’t find it pleasing.  Lets face it, not all artists are like Banksy.

Anyway, here are a few images of street art that I enjoyed at some level.

 

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Walking the High Line

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 232012
 

 

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A truly memorable part of New York was walking the High Line.  This is an example of urban renewal done twice.  First, the High Line was built to take traffic off the surface train tracks — the tracks were elevated 30 feet in the air creating smoother traffic etc. on the ground.  After decades of service, the train was not being used as much and fell into disuse and disrepair.  Local community activists lobby for it’s renewal as an elevated park space.  Actual work began in 2006 to create this park space.  One final section awaits renewal and all that is saved will be open to the public.

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For us, it was simply a grand space to walk and see views of the city that we would otherwise have not seen.  At any of the stairs or elevators up,  you can descend to explore the local restaurants, shops etc. including Chelsea Market.  

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We need to pay attention to our urban infrastructure — not only for what it is today but for what it can be in the future.  I am not suggesting the former Rat Hole in Edmonton would have been worth saving …  but I love the continued use of both levels of the High Level bridge.

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MoMA: Museum of Modern Art

 New York, Travels  No Responses »
Nov 212012
 

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While in New York, we visited MoMA:  The Museum of Modern Art.  There are things to be seen throughout but the 5th floor is quite amazing.  Something incredible in every room.

After we visited, I read of the recent lawsuit regarding admission prices to the MoMA.  The ‘crystal clear’ signage is that the admission of $25/adult is actually voluntary — legally, the Museum must be pay what you will/can.  For me, the fifth floor along justifies this price to someone who can afford it but I truly hope they make the voluntary notion of this admission clear to those less fortunate.  It is really not clear that they do.

This is one museum that allows you to take photos (no flash) of the pieces in their collection — but not of the pieces that are visiting and not part of their collection.  A decent approach.  I never understand exactly why photos are not permitted in galleries — it is hardly the case that a photo can represent anything near the original and, presumably, visitors are sharing these representations which is promotion for the museum.

My images are mostly representations of the reality — creating an abstract version of an abstract image.

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Homage to J. S. Bach

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