Earth Hour...

Today is the day... or rather, tonight is the night.

"On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town."

You can read more from their web site: Earth Hour.

What I'll do tonight at 8PM? Mhhh... I'll be at home. Already, I don't keep much lights on, so I won't have much to shut off. If it isn't too obscenely cold, I'll bring a chair on the patio and observe the sky... or more likely the neighborhood. :)

Cheers,

-E

Carbon tax and Fluevogs... :)

Thanks to my cable provider, I'm getting their "western feed". In other words, TV channels from Vancouver British-Columbia, and with these TV channels, their local news. Talk about living there.... by proxy!

Note: Partly sunny, +10C . Flowers are already blooming upthere. This beats our -20C this morning and 4ft of snow on ground. :)

I still miss my morning jogging in Stanley Park... oh well. Someday, I'll live there... *full* time. Ok, I'm terribly digressing, but it's my blog, am I allowed? Merci! :)

The other day, it was budget time for the province. After Québec, British-Columbia is the 2nd province to come up... with a carbon tax.

I'm highly skeptical it will do anything. If Québec's experience is of any indication... indeed we saw the impact at the pump... and not much else happened. So much for being "green". Time will tell...

However, sharp-eye and fellow blogger Clevergirl has noticed the real newsworthy event about this budget. As it is customary, the finance minister was wearing a new pair of shoes. However, this is no ordinary pair of shoes. We're talking of Fluevogs shoes, no less. :)

Ok, I'm a guy, so there are things which... will always escape me, and I have to accept that. :)

Sure, they are nice shoes and they please my eyes too, but I don't understand the craze about Fluevogs. Oops. Heresy!!!

Ok, it's time to hide in my igloo! :)

Cheers,

-E

The joy of the Slingbox: Being in Montréal by proxy !

Greetings from Seattle! It's about 9AM Pacific time when I'm typing these lines. We're having a mix of sun and clouds (not bad, considering they usually have lots of rain!)

For about a month, I have a Slingbox. What it is? well you can watch TV... on your computer. Any computer that is plugged to your internet router. A router with Wi-FI, it will make a laptop shine.

To keep an ear on Keith Olberman's Countdown when I'm doing my dishes, it's kind of cool. :)

But it can also work... over the internet. I had to fumble a little bit, as it was the first attempt to do so... 5000km away from home... and Bingo! Of course, the images aren't as sharp as at home, but who cares! I'm in my hotel room in Seattle, and I had Montréal on my laptop!

(I think that I'll repeat that stunt in January when I'll be in Paris with my family. I'm the computer geek, so a computer geek has to impress his host with geeky stuff. Right? Right. :)

Here are some computer screen snapshots, as they appeared on my laptop. I'm watching MétéoMédia (The French-speaking side of the Weather Network).

I was there, watching their images in complete disbeliefs. 40cm up to 50cm of snow for today, Sunday (that's 14 inches to a 16 inches of new snow on top of what we already have!).

One word:

WHAT ?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

(Sound of jaws being dropped here!)

Gee whiz, great timing for leaving Montréal! Supposedly, Seattle is extremely rainy at this time of the year. So far, it has rained a bit, but we had a bit of sunshine too!

Temps are in the mid 40s, (between 6 and 8 Celsius) and of course no snow on the ground. Heh!

Look at the screen shot on the left. Hint: -12 Celsius is in mid 10s Fahrenheit.

All in all... I maintain my words:

Ahhhh!!!! Balmy Seattle!!! :)

(At the blogfest, one asked me: You must had quite a dose of special brownies to utter Balmy Seattle. Gee whiz, our winter has been so crazy so far, I wish I had those brownies!!! That's the point!)

Cheers!

-E

Blog Action Day: Save The Environment!

Like a bird, I have traveled a lot. Especially this year... I was on both east coast and west coast.

Since I was a little kid, I have enjoyed nature, whether being at sea, whether being in the forest, whether...

Photography is my passion. This is my way to show you with my own eyes how I love nature, how I find my balance. To tell you how this world is so inspiring, so... pretty, if we care to preserve its pristine state...
On this day... I am pensive.

Pollution is everywhere in our environment, it is poisoning ourselves, whether in the food that we eat, the air that we breathe.

We're so used to it that we don't even pay attention...

For instance, few people would raise an eyebrow at the sight of Mount Rainier seemingly lost in the smog.

To the photographer, it is the frustration of being unable to take great photos, the air being so dirty that it blurs everything that is at some distance...

And yet few realize that this is the same dirty air that we breathe... and we wonder why some of us are sick?

Climate change...

Late November, it was unusually summery on the east coast, while at the other end of the country... usually balmy Vancouver was hit by a one-of-a-kind snowstorm, followed by a one-of-a-kind severe wind storm combined with strong arctic air, which rarely occurs this early in the season.

It did make great photos... but it pains me to take photos which "we" have to be held responsible for the damages done to our environment.

Legacy...

I wish I could pass the baton to the next generation...

My love for nature... how beautiful, inspiring, nurturing..

I wish I could tell to the next generation how important it is...

... to cherish and preserve our environment.

We all live on a very small planet, after all...

Cheers,

-E
____

Photos: All these photos are mine and are copyrighted. Please ask for permission before copying. Thanks. :)

From top to bottom:
1) A seagull, from the ferry, somewhere between Vancouver and Victoria. June 2007.
2) Stanley Park (Vancouver BC). June 2007
3) Sunkenmeadows Beach, North Eastham (Cape Cod, MA). September 2003
4) Mount Rainier, photo taken just outside Seattle, WA. July 2007
5) Snow covered English Bay Beach in Vancouver BC. November 2006
6) My neighborhood. Montréal, October 2003

October 15: Blog action day... for the environment

My friend and fellow bloggerTantrika on FC has tipped me about this event.

What's all about? From their web site:
-What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

-On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic.


As a good net citizen (and nature lover!), there are some actions that deserve supports. :)

So, I have officially registered this blog for the October 15 blog event. Knowing FC, wanna bet their system will go bongo when you needed the most? I prefer to err on safe side. Blogspot seems more reliable. :)

Spread the words, and see you on October 15th!

Cheers,

-E
Link: http://blogactionday.org/