I came across a very well done video on youtube of a stop Gateway rally held in Delta on March 31, 2007. I'm impressed with the production qualities of the video as well as its content. The director of the video is Damien Gillis.
So is the Gateway project a done deal or can it still be stopped?
It was a sunny weekend and my wife and I went to Saltspring Island. We left on Friday and returned on Sunday. On sunny summer weekends you expect line-ups at BC Ferries. But having to wait hours on "stand-by" while others who have reservations and arrive after
you but get on makes the waiting more aggravating. Not good for those of us who want to make semi-spontaneous decisions on when we plan to go. By the time we decided to go the reservations were already sold out. I assumed there may still be a chance for us to get on without a reservation if we got there in advance. Apparently BC Ferries allows up to 100% of the spaces available to be reserved on their routes. If they had that information clearly stated on their website we at least would be better informed on our chances.
I guess most regulars going to the gulf islands know enough to pay the extra $15 to reserve a spot. But fair weather travellers like ourselves and a few people from Alberta who couldn't predict when they would arrive were stuck waiting in stand-by purgatory.
After a few hours waiting we made it onto the pokey ferry run that stops at some other islands first before reaching Long Harbour on Saltspring. Once we arrived we had a fine time on the island. Returning back we decided to come via Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. BC Ferries has limited runs at awkward times coming back from Long Harbour and talking to someone who travels to/from Saltspring often the rumour is that BC Ferries deliberately is giving poor service to make the case that it can shut down that route.
I have just moved and had some adventures with Telus.
We had arranged ahead of time with Telus to setup our phone service at
the new location. Frustration number one: I was not able to keep my
old phone number, yet I was given the option almost 3 years ago when I
moved from Richmond to Burnaby. But I was not allowed to keep it now
when moving from Burnaby to Burnaby. Frustration number two: Telus
needed to visit our place in person to setup the phone as this is
a brand new place and the first time a phone has been setup for
it. They don't work on Sundays which was when we moved in. So we
setup a time at noon on Monday. My wife was busy with other tasks
so I took a day off work to unpack and wait for Telus to arrive.
Monday, 3:15 PM and Telus still had not showed up and we still
didn't have any dial tone. I used a cell phone and called into
Telus' customer service and had to deal with an annoying "Voice
Recognition System" designed for maximum customer hostility. Rather than
a touch tone menu system where you are prompted press 1 for this, 2 for
that, a recorded voice asks you to say what your problem is. And then
letting you know that it can't understand what you are saying.
The call quality on the cell may not have been the best but the system
was fouling itself up. It interrupted itself before finishing giving
its spiel to say that it didn't understand what I was saying. After
Today was the Spring Convocation for Science and Education graduates
at SFU's Burnaby campus. I was there to watch my wife receive
her Masters of Science Degree in Chemistry.
Various banners and flags are put up high to hide much of the grey
concrete. The graduends wear robes with coloured vests and the funny
hats with a tassel. Before the ceremony begins robed graduends and
their friends/family are scattered around taking pictures of the
soon to be graduates. Many of the women are carrying bouquets of
flowers. A smart entrepreneur was selling them in a stand by
the parking lot.
A website mocking the campaign funding scandal of Federal Liberal
Leadership candidate Joe Volpe has been shutdown.
There's conflicting information on what basis this website was shutdown -
The Canadian Domain Name Services (CDNS) registrar thought it was defamatory
or was it because of incorrect information given when the domain was registered?
A mirror website has been setup at:
http://www.youthforvolpe.no-libs.com/.
Is this credit card:
- Your Mommy's?
- Your Daddy's?
CBC is reporting that the free commuter paper Dose has been killed off by CanWest. It's website www.dose.ca will live on.
CanWest MediaWorks has stopped the presses on Dose, its youth-oriented free newspaper launched barely a year ago in five cities.
When "Road Calming" gets angry.
This speedbump in a residential area needed to be extended with big
rocks to stop drivers from detouring around it.
From March to March, ridership on Lower Mainland public transit is up just over six percent[...]
I think many of the extra riders are cramming in during rush hour
rather than during off peak hours. The bus I take to/from work is
getting more full and "pass bys" where it doesn't stop to pick up
passengers because it's already at capacity are more frequent.
Doing the translink shuffle, "everyone please move to the back",
is not fun. It's unpleasant to be standing up in crowded conditions
and a struggle when trying to get off the bus.
Most graffiti is annoying and stupid. This sign caught my eye as relevant in more than one way.
After 20 years of ongoing agony a 7 year managed trade deal was reached
on the heals of a deadline for the US to appeal their latest NAFTA
trade dispute panel loss.
From the Globe and Mail's Canada, U.S. reach softwood lumber deal article:
The Bush administration was anxious to get the deal done by Friday, the day after a deadline passes for the United States to request a final appeal of a NAFTA panel ruling that rejected the basis for punitive countervailing duties on Canadian lumber imports.
We'll see how this all turns out - will Canadian lumber companies be able to cut down all the Mountain Pine Beetle infested trees in time to ship them to the US market before their housing bubble collapses? Will the rising Canadian Dollar act as a new brake on Canadian exports? Stay tuned.
