We’re currently on BC’s Sunshine Coast taking a week’s holiday. A couple of days ago we took a two-hour hike to Skookumchuck Narrows, which is where the tidal flow into a huge basin is constricted through a narrow passage and can exceed 30 km/hr.
Really cool rapids and standing waves … which the kayakers enjoy:

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Chris Forde, a documentary filmmaker, is doing a movie on Paddle to the Amazon … the longest canoe journey ever.
I’m interested in this because I read and reviewed the book Paddle to the Amazon, which is the amazing story of Don Starkell and his son Dana, who paddled from their home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to […]

I took the day off today and we spent the day at Mount Baker. Tubing, playing, feeding the birds … absolutely gorgeous:

Here’s a short video that I took while tubing … following Gabrielle down the hill:

Tags: mount baker, tubing, john koetsier

Panasonic has great tech gear, including excellent plasma screens. I’ve been considering buying one, and just today got a brochure directly from Panasonic on their plasmas.
Only problem?
They claim their TH-42PX60 model is 1080p. More precisely, their actual claim is “1080p digital processing for next-generation video sources.” The same claim is on the Canadian Panasonic […]

So Aidan wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings.
I said no, it’s too scary for 3-year olds. He disagreed, saying that he would not be scared. “I’m tough!” he declared. Teresa backed me up, telling Aidan that there were lots of parts in LOTR that she was even scared by.
He thought for a second. […]

This is a “holy mother” moment:

everyday on Vimeo
Six years of a self-portrait every. single. day.
Wow. Mesmerizing.
(And the music is great, too. I want to know where to buy it.)

I recently read the Lord of the Rings books for probably the tenth time in about 20 years. And then I watched the movies for the third time in about five years.
Now, a few years after their release, I think I have a pretty good sense of what the highlights - and lowlights - of […]

Ummm … if you want to know why NOT to go see Pirates of the Carribean, go ask a ninja
You’ll be glad you did.

We live on Glen Mountain, which is a part of Sumas Mountain, in Abbotsford, BC, and often get deer in our yard.
This spring, a young doe had two fawns which we’ve been seeing quite often. Here is a quick video taken with my digital camera of one of the young deer just below our deck:

Syriana and Thank You for Smoking.

I picked up The Legend of Johnny Cash the other day and have been listening to it ever since.
Very simple, Johnny Cash was a genius.
His song Hurt is absolutely incredible - it blows me away. The honesty and stripped-down baring-his-soul nakedness is out of this world authentic, emotionally true.
Wow.
(Teresa and I recenty watched Walk the […]

Somebody get a video of this, please, and upload it to YouTube:

The elephant is made up of hundreds of moving parts and is made largely of wood. It will thunder through streets, squares and public spaces, along with scores of performers and some large-scale puppets.

(Saw this on BoingBoing … more details at the BBC.)

Very, very, very dumb gun safety officer. Click the play button:

You have to admit, the guy’s got guts. He must be pretty tough …. he tries to continue his speech. Unbelievable.
I don’t think I’d continue my speech after shooting myself in the foot.

Just finished watching Walk the Line, the life story of Johnny Cash.
The movie was great, Joaquin Phoenix was amazing, Reese Witherspoon was really, really good. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. And the soundtrack was way too good - I couldn’t believe Phoenix and Witherspoon were doing the signing.
One thing that caught our eye […]

I watched Allan King’s documentary Memory last night with my daughter. What a heart-wrenching experience.
You are your memory. Lose your memory, and you lose your self. Memory reveals the agony of the dissolution of the identity in residents of a Toronto old age home. I can’t watch this sort of thing without thinking of my […]

It’s good to see that Narnia is doing well, very well, at the box office.  Take that, Polly Toynbee.
In the future, perhaps readers will need sickbags before reading your articles.

I watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Disney, IMDB) last night.
First impressions: really very good. Enjoyable, fun, and well done. The story was not destroyed in the making of the movie, and the movie pretty much is true to the Narnia of the book.
The actors who played the kids (Lucy, Edmond, Susan, and […]

CS Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is being released as a movie.
It’s the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia, which are almost-explicitly Christian fables that represent the cosmic struggle between God and the Devil - and good and evil in every human heart - in childlike ways. But almost […]

Just finished watching Revenge of the Sith.
I finally rented it, and yes, it was JUST AS STUPID as I thought it would be. Unbelievable. Is every single character told to “follow your feelings?” Mine change from minute to minute. Following them would be like following a butterfly. Small wonder that Anakin “follows his feelings” to […]

If you haven’t seen these two Chinese kids lip-synching yet, it’s a fairly enjoyable way to burn 3 minutes … and reaffirm that kids are kids are kids, no matter where they happen to live.