Cymbidium

Let's see ... today is February 10, that means 18 days left in this month, then 31 for March and of course April hath 30. Hmmm ... 79 days left with the possibility of real winter like we have today. I don't mean to sound whiney, we haven't had a day this year where it has been under -20C. That is a good thing! Even yesterday the wind chill was a balmy -12. So I really am grateful.

I have instituted a number of strategems to provide the feeling of warmth, a feeling that there is light at the end of the tunnel winterwise. These do not include skiing which I gave up in 1983, or Polar bear diving, which seems to be a New Years Day activity, where people break a hole in the ice and jump into the water.

No my strategies are more mundane to say the least! Taking more hot showers! Buying fresh cut flowers. Wearing long johns and a hat, to keep the top and bottom covered. Eating hot food. This has been the best winter ever.

Speaking of fresh cut flowers, our friend in the photo, Cymbidium ... can be had for about $3.50. The same price as a daisy more or less. The Gerberas cost less than 15 bucks tax included for 6. And unlike airborne Canada Geese, they are easy to photograph indoors. Actually airborne Canada Geese are difficult to photograph outdoors as well. Indoors is warm.

I still go for walks, to take pictures, to go uptown. I just make sure I limit the amount of time in the great outdoors. Yesterday, for example, I stopped in at a camera shop. And yes, it was warm in there. Besides that, it was time to take my own advice and strike up a working relationship with a photo geek. That is good advice to act upon if you are going to spend money on a camera. I have turned into a bit of a photo geek myself and spend a fair amount of time here: www.flickr.com/photos/mike_55. Flickr is a great place to learn about photography. If you are interested in photography as a hobby you might what to check it out. If you store 200 pictures or less in your site, it's all free. I pay $25.00US/ year to keep about 650 exposures of various quality.The bargain is in the people, the contacts I have made there. To keep this post short and to avoid sounding like an unpaid commercial, enough said for now about Flickr.

Getting back to the camera store visit. Besides meeting somebody who works and knows about cameras, the other reason to be there was to check out a Nikon D70s. It is undoubtedly an incredible camera. There are others too that I would like to learn about, the Canon Rebel XT. I expect to buy a camera in approximately 24 months. There are a number of reasons why that time frame exists. Let's see if I am still taking photos between now and then. If not, let's not waste money on really cool dust collectors. If I am still taking photos, then at that time I might as well turn it up a notch and get a DSLR. Hence the research. It is quite possible that the cameras I have mentioned will be discontinued by then. What I am learning is what A $2000-$2500 camera is capable of. The Nikon D70s retails yesterday at $1598.00 Canadian dollars, not including 15% tax. Then there is memory storage of some kind. Also required is a good quality macro lense, at least $300. More than likely a quality telephoto lense, another $400, I would think. A ring flash, I'll need a new tripod by then and a bag to store it all in. All told I would guesstimate between $3000-3500 tax included.

That sure is a lot of money isn't it. Someone I know intimately: quit smoking ($3600/yr), quit drug addiction (another $3600), quit drinking ($3840) AND has no liabilities, and makes at least $60,000/yr. His giving up those habits have other positive aspects besides the financial. So, in the grand scheme of things 3 grand is not a huge amount of money, don't misunderstand, it is a lot of money. I can live for three months off of 3 grand.
My friend should get into photography, he will have a lot of spare time now.

The "Prince of Pot", Marc Emery, was back here in his hometown the other week. He is a few years younger than myself. We grew up in the same general part of London and when he started going door to door for his various causes, my door was one of the ones he knocked on. Nice guy, a little unorthodox, but most achiever's are in little ways. City Lights, the used book store he started, is still doing quite well even under different ownership. The word on the street is that he expects he will spend his remaining days in an American federal prison. Apparently he expects it will be a "supermax". That way access to or from him will be practically non-existent. He has two years left in his extradition appeal, here in Canada. I believe he is around 46 years old. What an unfortunate demise of a very colourful do-er. Was he always right? Maybe not. He was the one that always had the ability to ask the hard questions, to be blunt, he had the guts to ask those questions. Sometimes people were offended by his questions despite the fact that they were a right of his citizenship.

Do I agree with what he did? No I don't. One of the crucial obligations of the right to freedom, is to obey the law. That's life.

I had a wonderful conversation with a Korean couple at the Korean market last night. They are both ministers with the United Church of Canada. He is from a beautiful island in Jeolleonambukdo(sp?), and the lady is from Jongno-gu in the heart of Seoul. I was there to get some Nong Shim hot and spicy ramyen.

Today is a good day. Have a good one. Ciao for now.