Planning for our Zap Your PRAM conference is coming along well. We have a great line-up of speakers. We’ve posted a tentative schedule including most of the speakers and some of their topics. Keep an eye on the conference weblog for updates.
We still have room for more, so let us know if you are interested.
Since my day-to-day life is already quite a bit like what most people would consider a vacation, taking an actual vacation isn’t something I do very often. This year, I decided to take a week, pack up some book, and take to my parent’s cottage in Stanhope, Prince Edward Island.
My parents built this cottage with my grandparents back in the early 1970s. I spent most of my summers here as a child. As a teenager, I came to associate the cottage with boredom and a lack of television channels (ironically, now the cottage here has way more channels that I have at home). Now, it’s exactly what I need.
Only on Prince Edward Island would someone take a vacation at a cottage that is only a fifteen minute drive from their home. However, it’s not so much the location that I was looking for (as beautiful as it is), and the fact that it was somewhere else. I needed a break in routine and a change of scenery (both literally and figuratively).
I’m pleased to report that I actually feel like I’m on vacation. I was a little concerned that I’d get bored after a few hours and just go back to work. That won’t be a problem.
A few observations from living on a dial-up connection for a few days:
I’m only half-way through, but I’ve already got a load of vacation photos up in my gallery. The one advantage of tourists feading the foxes in the National Park is that the foxes will walk right up to your car (bad for foxes, good for photos).
Oh, and if you would like to rent my parent’s cottage next summer, let them know.
The Zap Your PRAM Conference previously discussed now has a weblog of its own.
We (we being myself, Dan James of CEOBlues.com, Daniel Burka of silverorange, and Peter Rukavina of Reinvented) are organizing the first ever Zap Your PRAM Conference in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada – October 24-26, 2003.
The idea is get a small group (max of 40) of interesting people together to share ideas and talk about what interests us (weblogs, technology, design, etc.). We have some really interesting people on board so far including Buzz Bruggeman of ActiveWords fame.
What the hell does “Zap Your PRAM” mean? Read all about it.
Attendance is by invitation, but if you are interested, then chances are you are also interesting — so drop me a line and request an invitation (steven@actsofvolition.com).
All of the details of the conference can be found at ZapYourPRAM.org.
Pat Martael from CBC Radio PEI did a quick interview with me today for the morning show tommorrow (Tuesday, Sept 9). I’m not sure what time it will be on – probably between 6AM and 8AM – before I get up.
We spoke about how weblogs are being used, or could be used, by polititians. I understand the story will focus on the unusually personal weblog of Jean Tingley, who is running in District 18 on Prince Edward Island for the Liberal party (warning: website plays stupid music).
If, by some chance, I’m awake – I will try to record and post the segment.
After resisting for months, I finally gave into peer-pressure at work and bought a digital camera. I couldn’t justify spending the better part of $1,000 (Canadian, that is) since I really just use the camera as a toy. I opted for a refurbished 2-megapixel Canon Digital Elph PowerShot S330 from a shop called Carman’s Foto Source via eBay.ca.
The price was right and I’m quite happy with the camera. Now, thanks for my friends at silverorange, I have a photo gallery. This new found photo publishing power has brought up some interesting questions about permission and privacy.
When I take photos with close friends and family, there is implicit permission for me to post the photos online for anyone to see. They all know I have the gallery and generally trust in my discretion as to what gets posted online and what stays private.
This gets a little more complicated when the circle of those photographed expands beyond this close group. If I go to a party (which I may, someday) and snap some group photos, with friends and friends of friends (aka, strangers), may I post these photos online? Must I ask permission of all those photographed?
I don’t link prominently to many photos, but security by obscurity just doesn’t work in the age of Google. Even if you prevent search engines from indexing your photos, a link from another site (by a human being) can put a photo of an unsuspecting friend at the top of Google when you search for their name. After posting about a set of photos from a recent para-sailing excusion, I got an email from man England wondering where I got my leather shoes – as he was in the market for a pair and liked what he saw (they were from Payless). Apparently, people are looking at these photos.
So far, the tack I have taken is to use my own judgement and discretion. If I think a person might have a problem with a particular photo being online, I either don’t post it, or I ask explicit permission (explaining the implications).
This is really just an extension of the dilemma many webloggers face when writing about personal issues or other people in their lives. This hasn’t been an issue for me on Acts of Volition as most of my writing does not focus directly on personal issues or other people in my life. Having a digital camera, though, has brought the issue to my attention, as many of my photos are of friends and family.
I’m curious to how others are dealing with this issue. Do you always ask permission? Do you avoid posting any photos online for these reasons? Do you have a story about photos posted online showing up in awkward ways?
Daniel Burka’s first annual silverorange Frisbee Golf Tournament for Charity was a great success. Over 50 people on 9 teams played 18 “holes” (poles?) of Frisbee golf and raised over $1,000 for Habitat for Humany on Prince Edward Island.
Daniel did a fine job of organizing, and I was pleased to see that his requests for sponsorship or donations were answered quite positively. He was able to secure enough volunteerism and donations that the registration fee ($20) went entirely and directory to Habitat for Humanity.
I’ve posted my photos from the tournament in my gallery.
The Morning News is running an interview with Douglas Coupland. He designed the cover of his latest book, Hey Nostradamus!, himself (and did a fine job). I recently read All Families Are Psychotic (an apt title that is both timely for me and absolutely true). Microserfs is one of my all-time favourite books. I look forward to reading the new book.
The following are some quotes I’m liberally swiping from the interview at The Morning News (pushing the limits of fair use). Thanks to the Morning News for the fine interview and for being a fine site all around (despite breaking my cardinal rule of bullet lists).
When asked why he didn’t seem concerned with theorizing about the cause of shootings like this, Coupland answers:
“I think the killers get far too much attention.”
When asked about the international perception of Canada in light of our recent legal moves for marijuana and same-sex marriages, he opines:
“We went from being boring little Canada to a sexy country of sin overnight? We are not used to being trendy or hip.”
He also tells a remarkable story about how an ATF agent described the sound of cell-phones ringing at the Columbine scene as sounding like “tropical birds”. Coupland turned the idea into a powerful performance art piece during some of his speaking engagements.
“Yeah. So without telling anyone in the audience why, I said ’Okay, who’s got a phone’ and called them up. ’Now go to your neighbor and find out their number and phone them and they’ll phone you back or whatever. House, could you dim down the lights?’ Everybody thought it was ’hee hee, really funny.’ Or whatever, David Byrne-postmodern. And then it went on for a minute and it had its own texture. And then the lights came up and the phones turned off and I told them what I was basing this on. And there was this reaction like everyone had been kicked in the gut. Then in Paris, at the Parisian Literary Festival, I did the same thing except I told people in advance why I am doing it and they did it and then the lights came up and everybody was in tears. There was this gasp of astonishment. Like how often do you hear the singing voice of the human soul? That’s one of the few instances where visual stuff and written work have dovetailed so neatly.”
He calls The New York Times “the paper Google” and describes The Simpsons as “a New Yorker cartoon that goes on for 13 years”. He says that Law & Order is “like drinking. You know how you are going to feel. When you watch Law and Order you know how you are going to feel.”
On the state of creativity:
“If someone decides to be a musician now, it means because there is no hope of money at the end of it, it means they really want to be a musician. And if someone is writing now, there is no hope for money at the end of it.”
My brother’s bachelor party gave me the opportunity to go para-sailing. I had thought of it as some kind of extreme sport. It is neither a sport, nor is it extreme. That said, if you ever get the chance, try it.
We floated 500 feet above the water on the end of 1,000 feet of cord. It was surprisingly quiet and peaceful. The view of the New London bay around was wonderful.
In keeping with my mission of a world in which each person has one, and only one, pair of shoes, I wore my stylish leathers up into the sky – oh, and I took my camera up too.
UPDATE: I’ve writen a more complete and up-to-date review of the Toyota Echo Hatchback after having owned it for seven months. Read the full review: silverorange stuff review of the 2004 Toyota Echo Hatchback
I’m as much a conspiracy theorist as the next guy. However, I tend to think the slow adoption of electric vehicles has more to do with consumers (like myself) being cheap/lazy/stupid/greedy than it does with an evil oil oligarchy propping up the traditional auto industry.
That said, let’s take a look at hybrid cars. I consider myself a lazy/opportunistic environmentalist. That is, I’ll make the better environmental choice if it is easy and obvious. I’ll even spend a bit of extra cash, but it doesn’t go much further than that.
I had looked at the latest round of hybrid gas/electric cars and was generally disappointed. First of all, they are mostly absurdly designed (they look stupid, with the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius roughly equal in their ugliness). This is improving. The next model of the Prius (2004) is much better looking (though still odd), and Honda made the seemingly obvious, but oddly unique, move of making their Civic Hybrid look exactly like a normal Civic.
On top of being ugly, they are very expensive. If you’re Mr. Moneybanks and want to save your soul from 20-years of driving a giant Cadillac, the price of a novelty hybrid may not bother you much. However, the hybrids so far are compact cars. The base price (MRSP) of a Honda Civic is $16,000.00 (Canadian funds) while the Civic Hybrid weights in at a hefty $28,500.00. This isn’t a totally fair comparison (the hybrid has a fancy transmission and other features not available in the ordinary Civic) – but still, and extra $12,500? I could buy a Kia for that much.
Enter the 2004 Toyota Echo Hatchback. It is not a hybrid – but it is very good on a gas. This table shows how the Echo hatchback stacks up against some of the hybrids:
| mpg city/hwy | |
| Echo Hatchback (2004) | 37/45 |
| Civic Hybrid (2004) | 47/48 |
| Prius Hybrid (2003) | 45/52 |
| Honda Insight (2003) | 61/68 |
IMPORANT NOTE:
When originally posted, I listed the Echo Hatchback milage as 42/54 mpg (city/highway). I got this info from the Toyota.ca website. However, it was misleading and innacurate as I posted it in comparison with the other figures. The Toyota.ca figure was using imperial gallons while all of the other model figures were using US gallons. An astute reader corrected me in the replies to this post. I have updated the figures to to US gallons so the comparison to the other models is accurate. While these more accurate figures show that the Echo Hatchback is less fuel efficient than I had originally though, I think it is close enough to the hybrids that my original point stands. Sorry for the confusion.
The fuel economy of this generation of hybrids is not yet worth (to me) the premium.
So, for now, I’ve leased a silver, four-door, 2004 Echo Hatchback. See some photos, and a 360° QTVR. I’m also pleased to report that it has a CD/MP3 player that is not ridiculously designed, as most are (photo).
