2012 at the Peanut

Continuing the tradition, here's a wrap-up of the year for anybody-want-a-peanut.blogspot.ca ...

To summarize: productivity has fallen. I had 20 fewer blog posts in 2012 versus 2011. However, with the new management philosophy here at the Peanut we do more with less, and in spite of the drop in posts we had a 25% increase in traffic. As a result of meeting our targets for the year I have awarded myself a massive bonus, and the rest of the staff was given 256kb USB 1.0 flash drives for their efforts.

In media-related things, I went on CBC Radio in March to talk about golf courses.

I had some more blog posts printed in the Winnipeg Free Press: Donor fatigue, Water Park, Building trends, Dogs and suburbanites, System-bred criminals, and Mayoral pay. This past Sunday they also printed my post on #IdleNoMore in the dead-tree paper, but they did not put it on the internet. I suspect this is either because I posted a rant about fluff Free Press coverage the prior day, or because I called Terry Nelson a "grand standing buffoon" in the post. In hind sight that was probably unnecessary as I haven't heard a peep from him regarding Idle No More. (update: I've been told that it was only an oversight that it wasn't posted on the Freep web site.)

I was invited to a media night at IKEA prior to the official opening and got a glimpse of what it's like to be a journalist, with free-flowing champagne, smoked salmon on biscuits, special discounts and awesome gift-bags of swag!

And of course I was on Winnipeg Internet Pundits, this year more as a regular guest, taking to the airwaves approximately every four weeks.

New Winnipeg-ish blogs

The Power Of Words is written by former Winnipeg Police Sergeant James Jewell. James has written some outstanding posts with insight into the crime and the police service. Highly recommend you check this blog regularly.

Fellow pundit Greg Gallinger has an eclectic little blog greg.g. Some posts are little more than photographs, while others are more extensive, like his post on leaving downtown. Due to the minimalist nature of the blog I can't even tell if it's new this year, but it's new to me, so .... 

Everybody knows Bryan Scott's photo-blog Winnipeg Love Hate, but Bryan also started a tumblr page this year cleverly called "Bryan Scott" that features fantastic photos of many other places in addition to Winnipeg.

With something like 68 posts in less than 3 months, and often lengthy ones at that, it's hard to keep up with WpgNewsReview. Arthur Mira does a lot of digging through 311 stats and other publicly available documents and provides some interesting insight in many of the posts. In others he may say things that you disagree with, like that thing about Theo Fluery which I won't mention again, but the blog is what it is. He doesn't try to be politically correct.

Twitter personality Stefanie Cutrona writes at stefspeaks. This blog is not affiliated by the Mafia.


Former Winnipeg Free Press journalist and newly minted Macleans magazine contributor Lindsey Wiebe started a tumblr page, which is primarily a photo-blog. We here at the Peanut wish Lindsey well in her new job in The Centre Of The Universe.

I'm sure there are more, but it didn't seem to be as active a year in the bloggosphere. If you know of any good new blogs by all means let me know.

Also, I should mention the Spectator Tribune -- a new Winnipeg-centric web publication, featuring former Free Press and Uptown writers, among others. Perhaps a glimpse at the future of journalism as mainstream papers slash their original content.

Top posts from the Peanut

Our most popular posts this year were*:

CMHR Part 1: Project Management

Waterpark: 7 reasons to say "no"

Put a steak in the Kane rumours

Firehall land swap absurdity

Moving the CP rail yards

*My Blogger stats conflict with my Google Analytics stats. As both are Google products this confuses me slightly. I don't trust either, but I went with the latter for this list.

Those were most popular in terms of hits. In our opinion, our best posts of the year were:

The Winnipeg golf course series:
Overview
Action Items Part I
Action Items Part II
Wrap Up

Confusion Corner redesigned and unconfused

... and of course ...

The Adventures of Johnny Oduya!

Top search terms

directions to vimy ridge
ray rybachuk - Boy, this guy has really pissed some people off ... like whoever created this blog. 
evander kane rumours
sam owns an acre of land on red river. the government dams the river. a lake forms behind the dam, covering sam's land. does the government owe sam anything? - I'm serious. This is a question on some stupid LSAT or FSAT or something, and every time I put this on my year-in-review post I move up the Google hit list. I now populate 3 of the top 15 Google hits for this question! How do I make it stop???? Next year, no matter what, I am NOT putting this in my year-end post.
cool helicopters - who doesn't love cool helicopters??

Quirky search terms

are you a peanut blog - Well yes and no. See, it's not about peanuts per se, but ... ah forget it...
boobs touch - Tell me more ...
do people who wear keeping it riel shirts know who he is - Good question. I ask the same thing about those Che Guevara shirts ..
draw a peanut fast - OK -------------------- >
fuck you montreal police - Ya, fuck you!
how about our crooked mayor in winnipeg???????? - Winnipeg small talk: "So ... how 'bout our crooked mayor?"
hugh mcfayden who is he and why pee in mouth - Only Hugh can answer that question.
leah hextall feet - ummm ...okay.
manitoba hydro good place for a terrorist attack - Hello, CSIS?
maths blog still model maths park model - .... what?
me to you bears - I don't even know where to go with this one.
rod black ruins figure skating - Rod Black ruins everything.
sin like a mother fucker in edc - Where is this edc place, and how do I get there?
the used condoms - New indy group?
what a fuckup - I'm a little bit insulted that this search found my blog.
we want beer protest - #EmptyNoMore
what does a yellow yield sign mean - I'm beginning to understand why drivers are so bad.
who are the hookers in edmonton what do they look like and what are their street names - It's good to do your research before you travel somewhere.

Have a great year everybody!

See also:
Slurpees and Murder - an A-Z poem.

The quiz master

My responses to Bart Kives' Sunday quiz:

What is Giveaway Weekend?
  > Encouragement for hoarders

What is the official mission statement for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service?
  > Get the fuck out of our way.

What is the preferred alignment for the completion of the Southwest Transitway?
  > Trick question. It will never be completed.

What will Winnipeg Jets fans do if the 2012-13 National Hockey League season is delayed by a lockout?
  > Hate Gary Bettman even more, if that's possible

Which of the following productions would you be most likely to see next year at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival?
  > Apocalypse Now: The Joe Mack Story

Which baseball team will the Winnipeg Goldeyes face in the final series of the American Association playoffs?
  > Wichita Wingnuts. Go Goldeyes!

How far will the University of Winnipeg's downtown campus eventually spread?
  > It is a warm spring day in the year 2086, as Lloyd Axworthy looks down upon his sprawling empire from the top floor of the CanadInns tower. Suspended in a glass tube filled with protein jell, Axworthy has grown tired. "Success," he thinks to himself, "is not as fulfilling as it used to be." Though the Axworthy Institute of Higher Learning, formerly the University of Winnipeg, now fills 80% of the space inside the perimeter Highway, his heart is empty. In actuality, is heart was removed many years earlier and replaced with a neutrino pump, but his *soul* is empty. There is a hole that cannot be filled with shiny new buildings. "Perhaps ..." he thinks .... "perhaps it's time to stop."

What can the Winnipeg Parking Authority do with the empty, shuttered and structurally sketchy Civic Centre Parkade?
  > Swap it with Shindico for a 1/2 acre parcel of land off Wilkes Ave.

*****

Just to give you an idea of the kind of lucrative prizes at stake in Bart's quizes, I won this puppy for a previous entry:

Yes ... that is the old City of Winnipeg logo. Pretty awesome, huh?

Winnipeg Roof Tops

Due to a lack of time, this week's blog post has been substituted with a photo of downtown exchange-area roof tops.

Close-up: "The Agitations"

A quick Google search shows that The Agitations are a Winnipeg band: http://www.myspace.com/theagitations  The may want to review their advertising strategy.

How to draw a parrot

Ever since Bob Ross passed away there has been a gaping hole in the art world that is aching to be filled. This blog post oughtta do the trick ...

Draw a circle

And another ... and another ...

Now erase everything except this:

Draw another smaller circle

Erase 3/4 of the circle, and add another smaller circle

Add a big oval shape
Make the oval pointy on the bottom

Draw another curve joining the head to the wing

Erase the extra bits

Add a triangle and a circle

Erase the bottom of the circle

And now you have a parrot!

If you wish, colour in the parrot and add a quote:

Oops. I accidentally drew Pat Martin's parrot!

Dang parrots. I apologize for the profanity.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of ... whatever it was. Join me again next month when I'll show you how to replicate Monet's Woman with a Parasol.

We miss you Johnny!

We do! Did you see how the Jets played last night without you?

Man ... I can't believe Winnipeg Jets management did this to me. A guy pours his heart and soul into a comic strip, orders 1,000 ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY ODUYA t-shirts, and banks his whole future on the success of this new enterprise ... and the next thing you know the lead character is traded to the Black Hawks.

Reaction to the trade has been mostly positive, with a 2nd and 3rd round draft pick coming in return, while at the same time picking up another D-man off waivers to fill a spot on the roster. Yet, getting draft picks for a proven performer (feel free to debate how good the performance was) always seems like a step back when it happens.

We here at the Peanut would like to wish Johnny well in his new adventures in the Windy City, and we shall pick ourselves up off the ground, dust ourselves off, and figure out what our next time-wasting enterprise will be.

"Tim Stapleton vs. The World" has a ring to it.

New Winnipeg Forum / Photo Radar Photo Op

Get in the Zoom

A new Winnipeg discussion forum has sprung up, not to be confused with the New Winnipeg discussion forum. This new forum called Winnipeg Zoom was started by former New Winnipegger Munchkinguy (Gabriel Hurley) to fill the void left by the defunct NW forum.

How big that void is remains to be seen. There is lots of competition in the internet time-wasting market, not the least of which is the ever-growing and ADD-enhancing Twitter. In fact, as I typed that 3 more tweets hit my feed, and now I have to go check it again. Hang on a sec ...

.. Okay I'm back. Oh that Rav Gill is such a card. I wish he was mayor. Where was I .. Oh right: do check out Winnipeg Zoom. It is brand new and still building momentum (or "mo" if you're as cool as I am), but hopefully it gets to that critical mass needed to sustain interesting and dynamic discussions like New Winnipeg once did. I do like the layout, I'll say that.

Get in the photo

Wise-Up Winnipeg is organizing a photo op Saturday morning at the sight of the controversial Grant and Nathaniel speed trap where they say inaccurate radar tickets are being issued. That's what they say. I say it's just a hot spot for minivan drag races.

Anyhow, if you want to support the cause, contact Todd Dube at mediascene@mts.net
to let him know you'll be there and then show up 11:00 am Saturday to get your free sign that looks something like this:

That sign doesn't do much for me but I'll show up if you can give me a sign that looks something like this:

2011 blog in review

Although my number of blog posts dropped this year, party as a result of a career change and certain lifestyle adjustments, it has been a pretty good year for the Peanut.

Some of the highlights:

This blog had a couple pieces published in the Winnipeg Free Press Sunday Xtra's regular Blog of the Week feature (and got one other mention courtesy of The Cold Cold Ground.)

I joined Twitter.

Campus radio talk show Winnipeg Internet Pundits continued to build momentum under the guidance of "Top 30 Under 30" starlet Tessa Vanderhart. Yours truly was invited on a couple of times to assault the air waves. That was fun. For me at least.

I have heard rumours and stories about bloggers getting free stuff, but sadly I was always left out of the party ... until this year. Finally all of my hard work paid off with a small amount of schwag, including some movie passes which I was able to share with readers through our first ever caption contest.

I did another interview, this time with Green Party leader James Beddome. I get very positive feedback on my interviews, but damn .. they're more work than you might think. I'll look to do one or two more in 2012, but with no major elections coming up I'll have to think of another excuse.

Best new blogs

Not only has my post count dwindled, but so has my available time to read blogs. That said, here are some new Winnipeg-area blogs that caught my eye in 2011:

The aforementioned Cold Cold Ground is a great new urban-issues blog.

Winnipeg Girl started Love Me, Love My Winnipeg bright and early in 2011, and since posted some excellent thoughts about life in the North End and Winnipeg in General.

The Winnipeg Rag Review has picked up momentum to the point of writing 25 posts in December!

Westerner doesn't post a lot at The Land of Ice and Grain, but when he does post it is usually well thought out and worth reading.

Little Grey Bird is a nice blog written by an ex-pat Nova Scotian, and I admire the clean aesthetically-pleasing look also.

The Manitoba provincial election inspired a new set of 'coloured rods' to spring up in the bloggosphere. Many were short lived, but The Purple Rod and Rod Rouge have stuck around. Congratulations, guys! (Girls?)

Top blog posts

A recent poll showed that most people consider the return of the Jets to be the biggest story of the year. My hit counts corroborate that, as my top 2 posts were both Jets-related:

Winnipeg's new NHL team unveiled: this was my world-wide exclusive unveiling of a prototype jersey for Winnipeg's new NHL team:

New Jets logo, tweaked: I critique the actual Jets logo and suggest a slightly different version.

Thoughts on Hydro CEO Brennan: this was a bit of a surprise, as it was a pretty unremarkable post in my opinion. Some people obviously found it interesting.

2011 Manitoba provincial election platform: here I unveiled my hypothetical election platform. I'm glad this one drew some eyeballs because I actually put a little bit of effort into it. In fact, I strongly recommend that potential Liberal and PC leadership candidates give this post another look as your respective parties attempt to regain relevancy. What you're doing is not working. You need new ideas.

Winnipeg radio: FM station correlation: this is my analysis of the overlap amongst Winnipeg's lame mainstream FM radio stations. Traffic was aided by a link from a music industry blog.


Those were my top new posts. There are some old ones that still get decent traffic. Top of the list is How to get to Vimy Ridge from 2008 which still draws hundreds of hits throughout the year. I think this is pretty cool, as any Canadian who is in that area of Europe ought to make the trip if they have time, and if I can help a little bit then awesome.

Top search terms
(not including obvious ones like "anybody want a peanut" or "cherenkov")

leah hextall - I'll save you the trouble: I do not have nude pictures of Leah.
cool helicopters
find your fetish - in retrospect it was probably a mistake for me to publish the fetish post. That was a time when this blog was still trying to find itself.
phil sheegl - I'll save you the trouble: I do not have nude pictures of Phil.
how to get to vimy ridge

Honourable mention:
sam owns an acre of land on red river. the government dams the river. a lake forms behind the dam, covering sam's land. does the government owe sam anything? - I got 31 hits from this. Apparently this is a practice exam question for Applied Law in the U.S. I can just imagine the frustrated law students stumbling upon my blog. Sam Katz? Riverside Park Management? What is this? Sorry guys .. this is for the advanced course: How To Bilk Taxpayers Out Of Thousands Of Dollars.

Oddest search terms

The moment you have all been waiting for! A selection of this 2011's odd-ball search terms that somehow led to this blog.

boobs touch in bus - I'm listening ... tell me more.
buzz lightyear mulroney - Ha. Ya, they do kind of look the same, don't they?
did hugh mcfadyen rape girls - What??
hihiihhi - Hi!
jack motherfucking layton - Now now, don't Google angry.
safeway can burn in hell - My, what an angry readership I have. Do they even allow grocery stores in hell?
stephen hawking thingy - Oh, you mean gravitational singularities in space-time within the framework of general relativity? That thingy?
thank you universe anybody want a peanut? - Aw, shucks ...
why is winnipeg so poorly planned - insert your own quip here: __________


Other year end wrap-ups:
Slurpees and Murder - Alphabet Poem
One Man Committee - Looking back
The View from Seven - A few thoughts
Progressive Winnipeg's - Google searches.
Winnipeg .. One Great City - Good riddance
West End Dumplings Top Posts and Disappointing story of the year.

Thanks to all my visitors, and all the best in 2012!

TMNT like you've never seen 'em!

OK ... no more posting about politics for a little while ... like two years or so. My subject matter today is, I think, much more appealing: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Enjoy:

***

I have been following a collective art blog called Gorilla Artfare for a while now. While I pride myself in being able to doodle better than at least 30% of the general population, I have mad respect for those who are truly talented. I also think that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are one of the best cartoon concepts ever; and this is where Dave Raposa comes in.

Dave, who contributes to Gorilla Artfare under the alias Mr.Delicious, started on a series of TMNT fan art a few months ago and has produced some stunning work. Please click on the links to see the pictures in full size, and see the rest of his GA portfolio here. For some reason he has not posted the final two Turtles, Raphael and Michelangelo, on GA, but you can see them on the previous link to his personal web site.

New Winnipeg send off

If you haven't already, I encourage you to read Shaun's summary of the demise of the New Winnipeg internet forum if you were ever one of the NWers.

Read it? Good. Now I don't have to write all of the same stuff.

NW was a good time waster for the slow periods at work, but it was also the source of a great deal of insightful and passionate discussion. I echo the thoughts of the guys on today's show over at Winnipeg Internet Pundits that it would be a shame for all of that intellectual capital, if you'll allow me to call it that, to be lost for good. There seems to be some sort of archive feature here but I can't seem to make it work.

For all the good things that happened at NW, it was also the cause of this blog's rise from the internet's primordial mud. I created this blog during a prolonged NW outage and my very first post was about NW. I met many good folks at various NW meet-ups, and like the discussions themselves, it would be a shame to lose contact with all of those people, most of whom I only knew through the forum.

Happily there is a movement afoot to arrange one more get-together. Credit goes to Gabriel (aka Munchkinguy) for getting the ball rolling. Shaun has jumped aboard with his blog conceitedjerk.com. So if you're a former forum member, or perhaps just a lurker or autograph seeker, contact either of them, or feel free to contact me (cherenkov *at* live.com) and we'll try to figure out a time and place to meet. We'll get some discussions going, have a few drinks, maybe toss around ideas of what if anything can fill the void and bring fresh discussion that involves thoughts greater than 140 characters in length.

Hope to see you all soon.

related:
Old Chum
One Man Committee

Who's donating to who?

This is a phenomenal resource for nosy people:

Federal political party contribution map

You can zoom right in and look up your neighbours to see who they're donating to. You can look up your favourite politician or local minor celebrity to see who they're supporting. Or you can randomly click on spots in Tuxedo like I did when I stumbled across Gail Asper:

Gail has donated thousands to the Conservatives, thousands to the Liberals, and even $1500 to the Green Party, but nothing to the NDP. This is only federal of course. I don't doubt that she has tossed some pesos in the hat of the provincial NDP party. From this, a person could infer that Gail is really a Greeney at heart, but gives to the Tories and Libs for strategic reasons.

Not that it's any of my business. Nor is it yours, I don't think. Yet, here it is, in convenient map form with little coloured bubbles, making it ridiculously easy to find. All the data is provided to the public by Elections Canada, so Elections Canada must think that it is our business.

I suppose a case could be made that it is. There should be a way to find out if the government is being 'bought'. If contracts are being awarded to people who have monetarily supported a party for instance. Or, to borrow a phrase from Marty Gold, if governments are supporting the pet projects of millionaires who happen to donate thousands of dollars to them. But it just seems really odd to me that I can have such easy access to the political donations of random private individuals.

I love this stuff though. I like maps and I like data, so interactive maps with data embedded in them is like cat nip. It's also awesome how Wolseley is so totally NDP. Nothing but brown dots.

h/t David Akin

I can't find my crocodile!

There is this new thing on Facebook where you are supposed to replace your profile picture, which might look like this:

with a picture of your favorite cartoon character from when you were a kid, which might look something like this:


The point is to show support for violence against children. Or to not show support for violence against children. Or something having to do with beating up kids. I don't know ... I'm sure it's a good cause.

As I was looking for a picture of my favorite character, I was beginning to think that he never existed. That I may in fact be a wee bit senile. It's my fault for not eating fish when I was a kid ... I know that now. I didn't realize that Omega 3 fatty acids were so important that I wouldn't be able to remember cartoon characters properly when I was older if I failed to eat my fish sticks. Now I have to come to terms with the devastating consequences of my mal-nutrition.

Here's how I remembered him: He was an alligator or a crocodile that had a strong resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock. His chest was sort of puffed out, and he took a deep breath before he began speaking. I believe he wore a tie. He was not the main character in the cartoon, but more like a recurring guest star.

Does that sound familiar? No? Ya, I thought not. I did Google image searches on "Alligator Cartoon", "Loony Tunes Crocodile", "Crocodile Alfred Hitchcock", etc .. and I had no luck whatsoever. I found Wally Gator, but that's not the guy.

On my Google Image journey I found endless amounts of other stuff, like this:
and this:

and this:

and even this:

But no Alfred Hitchcock Crocodile. I almost gave up when I realized that I had not done a search on "Alfred Hitchcock alligator". HA! There he is! Alfy Gator! I'm not insane!


He couldn't have been too popular. Even a Google image search of "Alfy Gator" only turns up about a dozen images of him, along with hundreds of unrelated pictures including (unsurprisingly) cheerleaders. He does not even have a Wikipedia page. The Yakky Doodle Wiki page refers to him as a "secondary villain". A YouTube search turns up nothing.

I am sure I could look up Hanna Barbera cartoons on YouTube and find videos with Alfy in them, but I'm not sure I want to. I remember seeing part of The Dark Crystal again as an adult and thinking This is crap! Why on Earth was I so infactuated with this movie as a kid? I would hate to have the same experience with Alfy. I think instead I may just leave my fond but fractured memories alone. Although I can't remember the names of the people that I had dinner with last night at the Christmas party, at least I know that I'm not making up memories of cartoon characters in my brain.

Waywayseecappo to Winnipeg

Just for fun, here's a time-lapse video that somebody posted of the drive from Waywayseecappo to Winnipeg, with a little Madonna to keep you company.

This is a public service announcement ...

... with FISH!

When you think fresh, tasty fish in Manitoba, what do you think of? When you go fishing in the Whiteshell for something to cook up over the fire with a stick of butter, freshly squeezed lemon, and a sprinkle of pepper, what are you trying to catch? Jack fish? Didn't think so. Pickerel? Ya, that's more like it!

Well I've got news for you, buddy. That wasn't a pickerel that they served you at Fude the other day. The fish that everybody calls pickerel in these parts isn't pickerel at all, but walleye. At one time, I thought pickerel was just another name for walleye. In fact, I was so sure of it that I put money on it. I lost my money. A pickerel is a completely different fish.

So if a pickerel isn't a walleye, what is it? A pickerel is a member of family Esocidae, the family that includes the muskellunge (a.k.a. musky) and the dreaded jack fish (a.k.a. northern pike, or you might say, northern pickerel). Yes: a pickerel is a version of that ugly bony fish that you always throw back in the lake -- after taking a picture of it because it's the biggest thing that you've pulled out of the water since that incident with your drunk friend at the pool party. There are different types of pickerel -- the chain pickerel pictured below seems to be the most common -- but it's rare to catch any of them in Manitoba.

Here is a walleye (a member of the perch family):

Here is a pickerel:


Why do we call walleye pickerel? I don't know. We're not the only ones who do it, though. I saw "pickerel" on the menu of a restaurant in Saskatoon. Also, apparently in some circles walleye is called "pike" which is almost worse than calling it pickerel. However, I saw "walleye" on a menu just south of the border, so I think it's mostly a local quirk.

So there you have it. Now get your license and go out and catch yourself something to eat this weekend.

Windmill math

Let's see ... I have 15 minutes to kill before I go to work ... What should I do? Relax with a coffee? Read the paper? Masturbate? Oh what the heck, let's do some math!

I see that Manitoba Hydro has finally signed on to a deal to build another wind farm. Is it a good deal? Hard to say because the details were not released. What we know is that Hydro is giving Pattern Energy a 20 year loan for $260m, and that Bob Brennan says that "Hydro stands to make a small profit" on the loan.

Small profit, eh? Ok. Let's suppose then that Hydro is lending them the money at a sweatheart deal of 5% interest -- slightly more than the rate they're paying on a Series 10: 5-Year Fixed Rate Manitoba Hydro bond. $260m amortized over 20 years would require Pattern to make payments back to hydro of about $20.9m each year.
Now: this wind farm is rated at 138 megawatts, but the capacity factor of a wind farm is between 20-40% (source) so we can count on this thing generating about 30% of 138 mW or 41.4 mW. At that rate, in order to cover the cost of the loan, they would have to be able to sell the electricity back to Hydro at at least $0.058 per kW.h. But .. they also have to cover their own $95m investment. If they were to finance that in a similar way, then the break-even price jumps to $0.079 per kW.h. More likely Hydro's buying the power at something like $0.10-0.12 per kW.h because their financing costs are probably higher and they need a profit margin.

I pay $0.0625 per kW.h on my hydro bill each month.

Ahhhhhhh that was fun. Anyhow, just back of the envelope calcs ... there are lots of variables.

~~~

related:
how the name "Pattern Energy" came about.
Pattern press release.

Seine: the forgotten river

Winnipeg: where the Red and the Assiniboine meet. The two aquatic giants of the great plains, colliding at the historic Forks; the place where Manitoba was born. Everybody knows about those, but there is a third river in Winnipeg...

The Seine begins who-knows-where south of the city (actually David Watson probably knows where), somehow crosses the floodway, and meaders its way through south east Winnipeg, eventually joining the Red on the North edge of Old St.Boniface. Much of its journey through the city is framed by wooded areas with paved and unpaved paths. In the summer you can canoe on the Seine or fish in the Seine, but it's the winter when I enjoy the river the most. You can walk on it, ski on it, or bike on it. There are smooth patches that you might even consider roller-blading on, if you could find blades with studded wheels.

The last weekend of February was a great weekend for spending time outdoors, so I got off my ass and went for a little bike ride. As I rode down the Seine I saw dozens of other people out with their kids or their dogs or themselves enjoying the spectacular last real weekend of winter. Looking out at my neighbour's grassy yard, it's hard to believe that I took these pictures just a hair over two weeks ago...



At one point, I found old street lamps strung up across the river like Chinese lanterns:


Is that up to code? I don't know, but I'll bet it looks wicked at night.

Productivity Killer

Have you checked out the new shot tracker feature on the pgatour.com web site? It's pretty cool. And if I say something's cool ... well ... you might want to get a second opinion. If you're a golf geek I'm sure you'll agree, at least.

There are different views that you can go to, including a visual representation of the leaderboard:


But my fave is the Group Close Up:


Anyhow, between this and the Falcon Cam, etc.. my computer workspace is starting to get a little cluttered:


I think I need a bigger monitor. How do I explain this to my boss?

The group to watch

I know what I'd be doing if I were in St.Louis:

The same group tees off tomorrow (Saturday) for 36 holes due to Thursday's round being cancelled. I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday than watching these three fight it out.

edit: they did not play together on Saturday. Just Friday. I misread the text on the PGA site.

Woo hoo! Long weekend. I cut outta work a little early today. I'll have to check out Darcy's Friday Night Blues and Beer selection of tunes a little bit later, because I've got international hockey on the tube right now. Canada up by two after an awsome goal by Green. I've been trying out a few new beers lately, but have gone back to one of my fav's today:


I've got to say that I'm I a pretty upbeat mood, despite all of the devastation in Asia and the fact that killing a hooker nets you only one day in jail (if you beleive the headline). I am formulating some thoughts on Waverly West and will stick them up here soon. There have been some stories lately about the insatiable appetite for housing, which makes me wonder why we can't push through geothermal energy and proper road infrastructure as originally planned. There's more than one way to reach equilibrium in a market, but the little ticky tacky house makers will tell you that there's only one: more quantity.

Anyhow. Enough about that. Time to relax and watch Canada bury the Swedes. Have a good long weekend everybody.