I Can Has Budget?
You won’t generally find much in the way of political commentary on this blog, nor will you see lolcatz. However combining the two can sometimes be a beautiful thing, as evidenced Audra’s insightful analysis of the new federal budget:
Two Fun Research Studies
I recently stumbled upon two research studies that are very relevant to my daily life, since they deal with two of my favourite things: public transit and wine!
A mathematician at Harvard has done a research study which appeals to my lazier tendencies. Have you ever waited for a bus and eventually given up and walked to your destination? Scott Kominers has shown that it’s almost always better to keep waiting at the stop. Yes! My lazy waiting strategy (often ridiculed by Dan) is vindicated!
And on the wine front: Researchers from CalTech and Stanford hooked subjects up to a brain scanner and had them taste wine at supposedly different price points. It turns out that people enjoy a wine a lot more when they’re told it costs $90, than when they’re told the exact same wine costs $10.
Why can’t my research be this fun?
Lazy Sunday
Conferences are so much fun, but also oh-so-tiring!
I attended my first Northern Voice this past Friday and Saturday and had a great time. While blogging and social media aren’t really related to my personal area of study in HCI (I study people collaborating in the same space, rather than online) they are definitely areas of personal interest to me. I met lots of cool local (and not-so-local) bloggers, and saw lots of great talks.
At the conference I also realized that many bloggers aren’t techies like me, and there is definitely a market for someone who could help install WordPress or Drupal, or tweak a blog template to look a bit more original. What’s a reasonable hourly price for a blog software consultant? Because some of the prices I see people being charged for this stuff are crazy! I occasionally help friends with their sites or do a one-off project for a group I am affiliated with, but I am not very good at putting a price on my time. I am also not always the greatest at time management and am worried that freelance work would eat into thesis time. But if I could make it work it might be a good way to share my tech knowledge with others and supplement my grad student income.
Speaking of time management, today I’m trying to get my head back into “thesis” mode, as I need to finish up the final draft of my thesis proposal and put the finishing touches on the ethics application for my upcoming user study. I’m feeling pretty tired and unmotivated, though. I’m still decompressing from the conference, and I’m on day 8 of the d-tox, which is probably contributing to my low energy level. Other than having slightly less energy I’m very happy with the d-tox so far. I’ve been sticking to the list of approved foods (with the exception of a couple vodka-sodas at the Northern Voice opening party) and am feeling pretty good. Only five more days to go!
links for 2008-02-23
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An excellent McSweeney’s article that lampoons abstinence-only education
Wild Rose D-Tox
Ever since we moved to a convenient downtown location my eating habits have been going downhill. I love that I can pop over to the grocery store when I realize at 11:00pm that I need milk for breakfast the next morning, but I hate my habit of picking up a late night snack of chips or candy while I’m there. I’ve also developed a tendency to choose one of the dozens of takeout options near our apartment instead of cooking something healthy at home – And that’s not good for my physical or financial health!
When I heard about the Wild Rose D-Tox from Air, I thought it might be just the thing to jumpstart a healthier eating plan. I’m not generally into all this new-agey cleanse type stuff (There’s no way you’d ever catch me trying the Master Cleanse!) but this detox isn’t nearly as extreme. I picked up the kit (which includes daily vitamin supplements) this weekend and officially started yesterday. For 12 days I am cutting out all flour, sugar, dairy (except butter), and alcohol. There are a few other exceptions too (e.g. no tropical fruit or peanuts) but there are lots of healthy eating options.
There isn’t a ton of stuff out there on the web about the d-tox, perhaps because it’s a Canadian invention and hasn’t worked its way south yet. I did find a few other bloggers who’ve done it, though, and their reviews seem fairly positive. I was especially excited to find Haligonian Corilee Fox’s great collection of d-tox recipes. I can’t wait to try the oatcake recipe! You can’t buy oatcakes out here on the west coast so I haven’t had one in ages.
So how are things going at the end of day two? Pretty good! Tonight for dinner I made chinese fried rice and sesame-tofu sticks, both from the Wild Rose cookbook. Tomorrow night we’re going out for all-you-can-eat sushi to celebrate Dan’s birthday, where I get to eat as much wild salmon sashimi as my little heart desires. Yum. The hardest part so far is the sugar cravings, which I seem to be mostly holding at bay so far with fruit and a little almond butter.
Car-Free West End
Despite being a recently-licensed driver (I passed my road test on February 5th!) I am a big proponent of alternative means of transportation. Now that I have my license people keep asking me when I’m going to buy a car and my answer is “Not anytime soon!” We live downtown, have UPasses to get to school, and can walk or bus to pretty much anything we need. On the rare occasion when we do need a car we can always rent one. Unfortunately as a new driver I can’t join the car co-op just yet, but I’ve heard rumours that their rules may be changing soon.
Anyhow, given my views on the subject I was excited to discover that one of my good friends is co-chairing the West End Car Free Festival, planned for this summer on Denman Street. It’s part of the first annual Car Free Vancouver Day happening on June 15th, 2008.
There will be five sites in total: Cambie Street, Commercial Drive, Kitsilano, Main Street, Marpole, West End. They’re currently looking for volunteers for all sites, so if you’d like to get involved check out the details here.
Whistler weekend
Last weekend marked our third annual trip up to Whistler with a bunch of the folks from Dan’s lab at SFU. We stayed here, which was a definite improvement on past years accommodations, and actually quite affordable when split by 11 people.
I do not like skiing. I tried to learn when I lived in Banff but came to the conclusion that I would rather not pay large amounts of money to fall down repeatedly. However I do love to cook, so once again this year I carried on my tradition of being “personal chef” for the group. We did a big shop at Costco before driving up so there were plenty of provisions. The condo had a great kitchen and I had a great time preparing breakfast and dinner for a crowd every day. I’ve never cooked so much bacon in my life!
During the day, while everyone else was out skiing, I decided to venture out on some snowshoeing excursions. On last year’s trip I did a guided group snowshoe tour, which was fun but pricey. So this year I rented snowshoes in Vancouver and brought them with me to facilitate my solo exploration of the various trails around Whistler. On Sunday I snowshoed at Lost Lake, where I spent four hours on the extensive trail network and got to watch some of the Lost Lake Shuffle from my vantage point on a snowshoe trail bridge.
After spending Monday recovering (highlights of the day included board games and watching Battlestar Galactica projected on the wall of our condo), I set out on Tuesday to snowshoe in the brand new Whistler Olympic Park. Unfortunately they only have one relatively short trail at the moment (1.5 hours out and back), but it was neat to see the venue that will be hosting all of the Nordic Sports in 2010. I was able to see the biathlon range and the ski jumps, and there were event some jumpers practicing while I was there!
Tuesday evening it was time to head home. We witnessed an amazing sunset while driving along the Sea to sky highway. All in all, it was a great time. Maybe next year I’ll try cross-country skiing!
links for 2008-02-14
Stanley Park Stupidity
According to Inside the CBC, Definitely Not the Opera is planning a special on Stanley Park. They’re asking people to call the show’s phone line and tell them the craziest things they’ve ever done in the park.
While I can’t think of anything particularly crazy I’ve done, I do have two Stanley Park stories that showcase my own stupidity…
The first happened about five years ago, before I was living in Vancouver. I was in town for a conference and decided – at dusk – that I would take a stroll around the park. I was living in Halifax at the time and thought that Stanley Park was the same as Point Pleasant Park – i.e. a nice few kilometres stroll that would take a half hour at most (I walk pretty fast). So I set off on the seawall and walked… and walked… and kept walking. It was getting pretty dark, and there was no end in sight. I contemplated trying to find the bus loop, but that would involve walking deeper into the park and I didn’t even know how late the park bus ran.
It got really, really dark and I started to get a bit concerned. I worried that maybe I was going in circles and would be lost in the park all night. I eventually came across another walker – an older gentleman who assured me that I was headed in the right direction and told me I could walk out with him, as he was headed that way too. Great. Now I was stuck in an unfamiliar park at night with a strange man. After deciding that I could probably take him if something untoward happened, I followed him out of the park and everything turned out fine. But the whole lost-in-Stanley-Park experience was one of the most nerve-wracking hours of my life.
My second “stupid in Stanley Park” story happened this past September. We had recently moved to the West End and I was competing in a triathlon in the park. My apartment was very close to the race area and I was in one of the later start waves. I decided to check-in and drop off my gear in the transition area and then head back to my apartment and chill out until my race time got closer. After a relaxing half hour or so at home I headed back towards the race area with what I thought was plenty of time. Unfortunately I underestimated the time it would take me to jog back to the race area and squeeze into my wetsuit. As I raced to get my wetsuit zipper fastened I ran down towards the beach, but in my haste I left my timing chip behind in the transition area! I ran back for it and then sprinted to the beach, entering the water a good 25 metres or so behind the back of the pack of swimmers. Whoops. Good thing I don’t enter triathlons with any intention (or hope) of winning. 
links for 2008-02-06
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Improv Everywhere comes to Vancouver!