David Pritchard's Personal Website
periodic personal perceptions
Hallowe’en was my first attempt at zombiehood. I’ve still never seen a zombie movie (unless the Army of Darkness movies count), but Eric’s so fond of the genre that I decided to join him and others in costume. Kathryn hosted the party, which was quite fun.
I don’t have any of my own pictures to contribute, but I’ll just point to a few pages with other Kommunists’ coverage of our Hallowe’en costumes (Eric’s comments and photos, and Hendrik’s photos.
So, I took a week’s vacation last month, and the haircut was midway through that. I’ve been really sluggish about uploading photos from that vacation, but I’ve got the first few batches up on Flickr, at any rate. The main part of the trip was a visit to Edmonton to visit my brother Mike and his fiancée Jasmine, who just moved to a new apartment downtown. (Note: to see many of those photos, you’ll need to create a Flickr account and get me to add you as a friend.) That was fun – I’d never seen the centre of Edmonton before, and I had a fun time drifting around on bike. It was surprisingly easy to take on bike – calm backstreets, and pushbuttons at the arterials on many bike routes. I suspect it would be a lousy place to walk or take transit, though: there’s just too low a density, so there’s nothing in walking distance.
Mike and I then drove four hours to Jasper national park, next to the BC border. We did a nice hike through the Tonquin Valley, despite substantial paranoia about bear activity. We didn’t get to do the complete hike – a little too short of time, and it would have required a car at either trailhead – but we saw the Ramparts, which were definitely the highlight of the trip.
Mike went back to Edmonton, and I was planning to catch the train from Jasper in the afternoon, but I had enough time to do a quick hike through the Maligne Canyon, a spectacularly deep canyon carved through limestone bluffs.
I’ll post again with the second half of the trip once I’ve uploaded the rest of the photos.
It was time for a dramatic makeover. I’ve had long hair for about seven years; the look had run its course, and the hair was starting to thin out a bit too much anyways. The biggest fear: reaching 35 with some awful haircut, like the Japanese peasant look (long hair, but totally bald on the front of the scalp).
There’s no easy transition from long hair, though. It had spent too much time in one position to act natural, and I had no idea how a normal haircut would look. So, I took the dramatic approach – break out the clippers and give it a #2 all around.
I like the new look much better. Now to experiment a bit…
I’ve been looking around for a new set of panniers to replace my current beat-up pair. (For the uninitiated, panniers or “saddlebags” are bags that strap to the rack on the back of a bike.) Since I bike everywhere, having good bags is critical – I need to move around groceries, papers, and my computer from A to B, and I need to do it during typical Vancouver drizzles and downpours. I was a backpack man for a long time, but I needed to carry more goods, and panniers were fantastic for avoiding that sweaty back.
My biggest problem has been the computer, which is too big for my current panniers, and really needs a waterproof container. I have a Targus computer backpack that keeps the rain out, but it’s heavy and sweaty on my back. Enter Ortlieb – beautiful German-designed panniers for typical commuter purposes, although at steep prices. I finally bit the bullet, though, and picked up a $170 office-bag for the computer. It’s a real marvel of design: a roll-up top like kayaking bags for some serious waterproofing; a nice shoulder strap for carrying off-bike; and not too much of that bike-geek look. They’ve got some other good bags too, including one designed for shopping and two backpack designs.
I do own a lot of bags now. I guess it’s part of being car-free – I don’t take my own 3300L storage space around with me everywhere, so I need a few 50L bags for different purposes. (That figure is for a Saturn, with 2850L passenger volume and 450L trunk volume.)