Check out my site on WOOLOO

Call for Proposals
Wooloo.org
(Berlin )

Following the great success of Woolo.org’s contemporary art festival in Berlin in 2008, we are proud to present NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN 2099 (yes, 2099).

NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN 2099 will take place as official part of the cultural program for the United Nations (UN) Conference for Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark from December 9th to 18th, 2009.

To challenge the discourse surrounding our future co-existence on this planet – while simultaneously questioning the forms of governance being produced by the UN’s nation-based power structure – NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN has adopted the general theme of “2099”.

The festival curators invites artists to submit proposals for products, life styles and everyday interventions, as they could look and function in the year 2099.

GO TO www.wooloo.org to read more and submit a proposal.

Website: http://www.wooloo.org

It would be very exciting to present a workshop in Copenhagen. We really need to adopt a greener lifestyle and I provide simple ways to do that. Many people are afraid environmentally friendly living is expensive, but some of these actions save money. Always good in these difficult times.

I am currently looking at new templates and redesigning the Live More Lightly site to be more user friendly and offer more features than just a blog. Wordpress is very powerful and I am just learning how to use some of the more advanced features.

There have been some developments in my artistic practice and I invite you to check out my other site Sound+Light+Motion on www.vix.ca.

Vancouver Community College is having a celebration and I have been invited to present my workshop as part of the activities for students.

The theme of the Sustainability Fair, “Green 365 @VCC” fits in perfectly with the idea that we can live more lightly. I will be handing out my sheets with 50 things that “we each can do” on April 28th at the Broadway Campus (aka King Edward Campus) 1155 East Broadway and on April 29th at the Downtown Campus, 250 West Pender Street. Contact info and map here. Song performances will occur at noon and 12:45pm, so participants are welcome to come down and sing!

I am really excited about this opportunity and hope that many of the students will get involved.

See my previous research on environmental initiatives by electronics companies.

I have not received any funding and I have been spending so much time on this and other music projects that I have not been making as much money as I should. So I tried to be frugal and bought this camcorder “open box” at Future Shop. It was missing some parts, the proprietary USB cable and the charging and A/C cables and transformer. This has made it difficult to use because I can’t download any video from the 30 gigabyte HD without the cable. The customer support at Hitachi, particularly Tina and Lorne have been very helpful in giving me part numbers and assisting with my problems. I have now ordered the parts and when they arrive there will be a lot more video on this site.

The camera captures video in High definition Blu-ray that can be burnt on to special disks (over $20 each) or downloaded to a computer. It also acts as a still camera saving on to a compact SD card flash memory. High definition and Blu-ray are new territory for me and I am sure I will have some difficulty as I don’t have a player or DVD in my computer that is compatible. It seems I always have to get more stuff, no matter how much I already have!

It will be fun to work with the video and to be able to document my progress on this and other projects. Now I need a wide angle lens, lights, tripod and protective case — at least I can start with the camera and get some video on the site.

I am trying to wait until the last possible minute to buy a video camera to mount on the bike. Technology is advancing so that anything I buy now will be outdated by spring. I will have to take the plunge at some point, just so I can practice with the machine before actually mounting it on the Yamaha FJ1200. I am sure there will also be mounting and vibration problems, but I hope to get everything worked out before next summer.

Cell phone companies are now interested in assisting me with streaming video off the bike, for a fee of course. The streaming would be limited to areas with cell phone coverage, so the mountains and more remote areas would be off the grid. I would still like to stream to a satellite, but the concept will take more development.

With the dark days and fewer distractions, I am sure the book will advance exponentially and I will keep you all posted on the progress of the project.

The amazing thing is that I didn’t get really wet. I am wearing my summer mesh jacket over a fleecy, but if I lean on my tank bag the windshield and my full-face helmet keep a lot of the rain off my upper body. The rain brought warmer temperatures too. I thought I would get really cold in the clear night after I missed the earlier late-afternoon ferry while sitting in rush-hour traffic. When did the traffic get this bad going to the North Shore?  I never want to have a job where I have to drive in rush hour everyday, but with an air-cooled bike it was not going to work.

I used every back road trick I know and still ended up in a line-up that really worried me, especially when the bike started to smoke a bit. Yipes! I was really glad to get over the 2nd Narrows Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and cool off my distressed engine.

I caught the last possible ferry out of Horseshoe Bay to Langdale and when I got off that ferry, it was dark and misting heavily. I knew my bike would be cool at least, so I rode that twisty highway at an unhurried pace.  I arrived at the north end of the coast and met a friendly ferry worker who rides a collector-plated Bonneville. He let me go in the office and gave me tea. Bless his heart, he told me stories of riding before I was even born.

Now I am in Powell River, surprised at how warm and dry I remained. I hope my computer didn’t get too wet. It will be wrapped in plastic in future until I get my hard bags. So far, this is The Live More Lightly Tour ‘08!

Here is a brief excerpt of the teacher’s opinion of the Live More Lightly Workshop. I am delivering the DVD of the two sessions I did to try to arrange more workshops, so wish me luck.

lml_teachers

Post-Labour Day September, the cooler air and reduced traffic on the highways made the idea of a weekend trip to Seattle with my daughter seem like a wonderful diversion. I still don’t have the video camera or hard luggage, but we were only going for a weekend. This was the longest trip I had ever taken with a passenger, but my daughter knows how to become part of the bike. I felt confident that it would be safer than her last trip in August on the bus shuttle service from Vancouver to Seattle. The bus was tied up in a four hour border wait and then was hit by a semi-trailer truck in Seattle. I had a premonition of danger when I dropped her off at the bus, but I had thought it was related to the helmet I was lending her. She told me that she was going to be a passenger with a young man who had recently started riding. I was worried about this idea, but at least she had an approved helmet. After the bus incident, I have to say that I am going when my time comes and I guess my daughter is too. I was worried about the motorcycle as statistically, most accidents happen to new riders, but sometimes I have to let go and say, despite my considerable investment, “It is your life”.

I don’t push my luck though, and I was careful to purchase additional medical insurance for us both before we left. Given my daughter’s proclivity for dangerous episodes, I bought it for a year. I departed from work earlier than usual, but I wanted to wait until the worst of rush hour was over before facing the suburban traffic snarls. We were packed and mobile by 6:30pm taking the South Granville bridge and driving though Richmond to avoid the Oak St line-up. Even though it would take the same amount of time, it is time with air over the cylinders. It was windy on the Highway 99 stretch between Richmond and the border, with nothing but open farm fields and suburban developments to block the wind off the ocean. I was glad to have the extra weight on the back as we passed a few semi-trucks. With the Yamaha FJ 1200, there is always plenty of power, but I am so light I often get blown around by the wind. There were some darker clouds ahead and was a bit concerned about rain in the small mountainous region near Bellingham. We were being buffeted by strong cross-winds and the smell of rain was in the air.

As I crouched to try to keep my windblown hair from whipping my passenger, we passed a cushy Honda Goldwing with full fairing and a big passenger seat with backrest built into the luggage. The rider had a sense of humour as he gestured to my daughter that his back seat would be far more comfortable for her than mine. At 100km per hour (legal speed) it was pretty amusing. He turned off at White Rock and I climbed the big hill towards the border.

I took the Truck Border crossing because the sign said a 5 minute wait and the extra drive was worth the 15-20 minute cut in creeping line-up time. You can check the border line-up time before you leave here, but I find things can change quickly if it is between 5 and 30 minutes. Last year, when I rode to the Bumbershoot Festival, I pushed the bike through a really long line-up at Peach Arch crossing, but this time I had help. To keep the big motor cool, I turned it off and pushed, if I started it every time I had to move, I would run out of battery before I got to the end of the line. It is really hard to steer when you are pushing a bike with your feet and someone else is pushing from behind up hill, but I was glad to have the help. The line-up really was 5 minutes and the Border guard joked with us that most people crossing had at least two wheels per person. We explained we were the environmentally friendly, economy tour, only one wheel each.

On to Seattle, the truck route bypasses Blaine, so we were right on to I5 and heading south. I stopped once for gas and a stretch, but the ride became more comfortable and the wind died down a bit as we followed the highway more inland and the sun began to set. The sunset from the highway was beautiful and I slowed over bridges and clear areas so we could enjoy the view. There’s not much chance for conversation due to wind noise, so I only asked for direction when I saw the moon glowing in the sky next to the Space Needle. It was 9:00pm, 2.5 hours Vancouver to Seattle when I found the restaurant called “Bleu Bistro” in the Queen Anne District.

Our host for the weekend, Robin, met us there and after a wait at the bar, we were shown to a private nook. The entire restaurant was filled with curtained alcoves and I wondered how the servers could manage, until I noticed the webcam surveillance. The menu offered a vegan salad option that I happily chose and the food that my two companions selected was more meaty and dairy rich, but looked equally delicious. After our meal, my windblown offspring decided to travel in the car back to North Seattle where our host lived. Robin was a swift and excellent driver who knows Seattle well, so it was all I could do to follow the silver compact car through the turns without being able to remember exactly where I was going.

Robin parked in front of a well-kept suburban home in a quiet, tree loving neighbourhood. I backed my bike into the empty space and covered it up. My daughter and our gracious host went dancing at the Mercury Club and I stayed at the house to work on my Linux Ubuntu firewire problems. Robin’s girlfriend stopped by with a queen sized inflatable mattress and helped to make me a super comfortable bed. I am unused to such welcoming luxury and I soon made use of the resting place provided.

Saturday morning, we went for breakfast in the silver car, a biodiesel powered Jetta, and I left my motorcycle resting in the driveway. There were so many novel experiences in Seattle, being driven around by someone else in a car was only the beginning. We met Ivo, who gave us a tour of the heritage home he is renovating and then joined us for breakfast. He offered to take us in his Prius, and I was interested in checking it out, but we ended up in the Jetta, using biofuel. We arrived at the Portage Bay Cafe, which has one of the most delightful breakfast experiences in Seattle and a satisfying time was had by all. Breakfast was followed by a trip to Ivo’s favourite hardware store where I found the elusive low pressure tire gauge. I bought the deluxe shock mount model, my major purchase of the trip.

Photo will follow

When we returned to Robin’s house, I found that he was very familiar with the Linux operating system. The other factor that made my trip to Seattle unique started to sink in. I was never in a room where I was the computer expert — and I did not visit one place where I felt it was my duty to fix their computer/internet problems. Instead, I found people who could help me and were willing to do so. This was a wonderful piece of serendipity; part of the reason I had taken this trip was that I knew if I stayed in Vancouver I would be working on other computers and not on Ubuntu notebook requirements. More details on this in my next post about my Linux + Firewire progress with the Saffire LE Audio Interface.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries were all dead for some reason and the only photos I took on the trip were with Kyle’s enormously expensive Nikon (on automatic). Kyle Cassidy and Trillian Star were in Seattle from Philadelphia and it was their presence on Sunday that has given my daughter an additional reason to make the trip. I took pictures of the three of them and hope they send me copies. Kyle is a photographer and Trillian is his actress beloved. They met us in a coffee bar and followed us back to Robin’s house where the conversation flowed until it was time for everyone to leave.

Seattle is a beautiful city and has the advantages that a larger population density can provide. Our motorcycle trip homeward was made late in the evening and was uneventful except for our gas stop. We arrived safely home after a very quick ride north on I5 and Highway 99, with only a 20 minute border wait. The FJ1200 proved reliable, but now needs some work and I’ve got to get those bags on the bike. This was a great test-run and I look forward to a trip northward along the coast soon; before the clouds and rain take up residence.

In Canada we are lucky to have non-profit societies that are working hard on the problem of electronics disposal. Electronics Product Stewardship Canada is developing an “industry led solution” to see electronic waste properly managed. Of the four companies I am interested in, only JVC is not a member of this coalition. The organization is nationwide and has influenced policy in British Columbia so that electronics can be recycled here. Unfortunately, there is a large list of items that are not accepted, so I have to keep storing my broken VCRs until the program expands.

As part of the “Live More Lightly Project” I hope to raise awareness of these programs so that more people will utilize them and keep dangerous materials out of landfill sites. There is a fee to re-cycle electronics but there are depots throughout the province and a handy map to locate a depot near you. Other provinces have similar programs and I encourage you to use them.

Re-use of working electronics is always preferred to disposal and organizations such as Free Geek will accept equipment that is not state-of-the-art, refurbish it and donate it to a needy charity or sell it in their computer thrift store.

Some companies are putting more effort into product stewardship and environmental programs and this will influence my purchasing decision. See a short description of each company’s efforts below.

Sony

The top contender right now is Sony. Their camcorders have very competitive features and they are the only manufacturer that offers a sportcase to protect the camera. (see previous research on water-resistant cases at the bottom of this page)

Environmental rating seems quite good as they have an Eco-mini-site that explains they will collect ALL Sony products, including televisions, at no charge for recycling. Sony Canada, in partnership with Global Electric Electronic Processing Inc. (GEEP), accepts surplus electronics at depots throughout Canada or will accept materials shipped to them. The recycler must pay the shipping or drop off at the depot, but all the extraction of materials is done in Canada by specialized machinery. Some electronic “recyclers” merely ship the discarded materials offshore where precious metals are extracted and the rest is dumped in a landfill. With GEEP the disassembly into raw materials is complete and those materials are marketed.

In addition, they have a notebook trade-in program where previously loved Sony notebooks can be traded-in for a discount on new notebook computers in the Sony-Style stores. Other small items can also be dropped off at a nearby store, but larger items must go to a depot.

Sony has also been working to develop greener products and administrative practices. One of the most innovative offerings is the sponsorship of youth education through EcoKids, a fun website for young people that concentrates on environmental education and programs.

Canon

The Clean Earth Campaign is outlined on the Canon Group website and a more detailed document is available for download here. The Environmental Charter is basically a one page pledge by the president of Canon Canada, Joe Adachi, to follow eight general directives to improve environmental performance. This demonstrates an awareness of environmental issues, but is not giving any specifics as one would expect in a.pdf download. Why download a one-page document that could be displayed on the website? I expected a detailed report that explained some of the Canon Group initiatives.

Panasonic

Designing more environmentally friendly products and cleaning up their factories is the focus of the Panasonic environmental webpage. The Green Plan 2010 site gives more details of project sponsorship and other initiatives. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic parent) is a member of Electronics Product Stewardship Canada but like Canon, is not offering any special incentives to recycle products. They are making a conscious effort to live more lightly and create products that are less harmful to produce, use less power in use and are easier to recycle. These efforts are detailed on their global site.

Report Card

The report card on lifecycle management shows that Sony is doing the most to re-cycle and has the slickest promotion package detailing their efforts. Canon and Panasonic are encouraging recycling by being a member of Electronics Product Stewardship Canada, but are placing the cost of recycling on the end user. All three companies are pledging to clean up their factories, develop less wasteful products and encourage their employees to adopt environmentally sound practices. Each one sponsors worthy charitable organizations and has reserved a portion of their website to advertise their initiatives.

Electronics companies are realizing that environmental performance will influence consumer decision making in purchasing products. They have all invested in environmental initiative and have green logos and special pages to inform consumers. In Canada, Sony seems to be making the most effort to recycle existing products and that gives them a bit of an edge. The other two companies may be doing more for the future and possibly have cleaner factories or more environmentally friendly materials sources, but the information is difficult to obtain.

At this point, Sony has a small advantage in re-cycling, but I am happy to learn that all three of these companies are supporting efforts to “Live More Lightly”.

Many of the technologies I envisioned in the play have become ubiquitous in our lives. I wrote about ATM machines, the internet and e-books, but the focus was surveillance and government control. Now I read articles that confirm my fears that every moment we are in a public place, we are on camera (example). Is this something to fear or does it contribute to public security? The example article quotes Norman Siegel, who recommends that everyone carry their own camera with them so they can record their version of any event they witness. This is good advice, but sometimes events happen so fast or unexpectedly that the video camera is still in the case when the action occurs.

The idea of mounting a video camera on my motorcycle did not arise from the idea of documenting civil rights violations, or even motor vehicle traffic law breakers, although that’s not a bad idea . . . my idea came from wanting to share the experience of riding a motorcycle. When I am riding, I am part of the environment in a way that never occurs when I am sealed in the box of a car or van. With only two small patches of rubber on the road — it’s as close as I can get to flying.

Even though I know each time I go to the bank, shop, drive or even walk down the street, I may be on  video and might be on the internet. I know that there is not enough manpower to monitor every video stream; so there must be years of video stored on hard drives that has never been viewed. There are very intelligent software filters and programs that match facial features or license plates to database records, used by large organizations and governments, so humans only become involved if there is an alert. Video is often used after the fact to try to identify perpetrators or get-away vehicles. I try to be nondescript in public and pass under the radar by looking completely non-threatening. Invisible = average height, middle-aged woman.

As part of my camera research I have been looking at the possibility of using a surveillance camera for the always-on option on my bike. The cameras are small, high-quality, durable and stream directly through an ethernet cable to a computer or the internet. There is a lot of money spent on the development of these cameras and so they come in many shapes and sizes. Some manufacturers even make ones with a built-in windshield wiper, de-mister and/or heater! Some are really high quality and I will do another post on camera choices soon.  I already plan to bring a computer and I wanted to stream on to the internet, so this could give the process a jump start. This system example I got from Gary looks like it is used by plumbers to examine pipe insides. The notebook runs on Vista, but I will try to make it work in Linux too.

Carrying my notebook with me everywhere I go would be a good thing as I really do use it, when I bring it along. I need bags on my bike so I can carry it securely and not have to strip everything off every time I stop. I am working on it.

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Another connection with surveillance technology is my interest in highway-cams. On my tour, I plan to identify hiway cams and video them as they are capturing me. I talk about the artistic influences that inspired me to do this here. The ideal outcome will be if I can have a collaborator saving the highway-cam stream on their computer so that I can use the video record in a documentary.

 _______________________

There are also threats to privacy in the proliferation of spyware. A description of what these programs can do is found here on a site that sells software designed to assist network administrators to monitor computer use. Downloaded spyware can track every keystroke you make, where you go on the internet, what pages are viewed, for how long and what you are clicking on. Then, the program will send all of this information back to over your internet connection to the company or individual who invaded your computer. Computers running Windows are most vulnerable to this type of background program and regular use of Spybot and Ad-Aware are recommended to all of my Windows computer clients. Just to demonstrate how devious these programs can be, a recent invasion of spyware was caused by a company masquerading as Ad-Aware. Please ignore all other sites and download only from Lavasoft.

I have many stories to tell of those days of off-road adventures; discovering abandoned mines, riding to the snow in August and the breathtaking mountain vistas that inspire a connection with the spirit of beauty. This story is not one of mine, but a guest post by my friend and mechanic, Simon. This story is the tale of an actual ride that Simon and Mark experienced, told in Simon’s own words. Please be warned that he uses words as part of his regular vernacular that are not usually found on these pages, but that are familiar to most speakers of the English language. Due to the general nature of the internet audience, I have used some discretion, while still preserving the form.

I know it seems hard to believe, but this is what happened . . .

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Simon and his Yamaha FJ1200

Simon + Mark’s Enduro Experience

One summer’s long weekend, after my birthday in June \05, Mark and I rode out to visit my sister Jacky,who lives in the southern interior of “Beautiful BC” Where you should be!

We opted to do the first leg on the Fraser Canyon Hwy, also known as “old highway one”. We were both riding Yamaha FJ series bikes, and the prospect of a few hundred kilometers, in perfect riding weather, on the twisty turny of the canyon route, on bikes perfect for just such conditions — well, you can pretty much predict our collective mood. How do you say YEEEEHAAAAAAWW!!! . Well factor that by two, you’ll have an idea of just how much fun was had by the two of us that day. To only have gotten one ticket each, courtesy of the “Revenue Collectors Motor Patrol” is nothing short of miraculous.
Surely, at least, a testament to our maturity as riders, to have shown such discretion and restraint, in the face of such temptation . . . sheeeesh! The mind fairly boggles!

It took the better part of the day to get to Jacky’s country digs. Our arrival was not unexpected. We enjoyed a couple of drinks, sampled a plate or two of regional fare, mostly BBQ and some very palatable pot luck sort of stuff.

Seems we landed in the middle of a party amongst the locals. No mean portion of which was comprised of members of my Sisters’ extended family. The couple of hours we stayed were spent chatting with relatives, and in Mark’s case, any number of the fair sex, several of which appeared to have my associate squarely within their crosshairs.

All this, of course will tire a man out quickly, especially after a long day in the saddle. When we make inquiry into intended sleeping quarters we find, much to our surprise and chagrin that their intended solution to our dilemma is woefully
inadequate. Lastly used by, and now the final resting place for, the remains of several thousand STINK BUGS .

“Gee . . . we haven’t opened this trailer tent up since that real bad infestation. Don’t worry, it’ll air out in a bit.” Welllll . . . I don’t think so, thanks a lot just the same!

So with some hasty changes of plan, Mark and I are headed for town. Enderby . . . it’s only 30 or 40 klicks back completely unlit, mostly paved country road. The fog from the river we parallel is not altogether blinding. I did not loose count of the near misses of various hazards, live or not.

It approaches midnight as we check into the motel, waking the manager who had been sound asleep. The staff of all the local restaurants appear to be in a similar state. We are not too hungry to sleep. Good thing, ’cause f**k, was I tired!

We got up next morning, not really sure of the time.We showered and buggered off fairly quick like,thinking to be ahead of some of the already growing holiday traffic. We hit the road and don’t stop ’till Salmon Arm, where we decide to get breakfast.
“The Best Country Breakfast” or something of the sort, sez the sign. This looks good enough for our needs. We are shown to a table from which we can nearly reach the towering display case, fairly packed with desert options. The waitress asks how Mark wants his eggs. He sez “nogged” . . . I sez, “I want 3 eggs meuranged, just like on that big pie over there!” Chaos ensues.

Thinking it would be better to be home earlier, rather than later , [holiday traffic] we opt to return via the Coquihalla Hwy. We don’t mind the $5. toll at the top of the pass. The road is deceptively curvaceous. The cars do 130 to 140 most times. Things start to become stimulating when the bike gets over 200 kph. This is a freaking riot as these bikes will cruise effortlessly at 225 kph. Well we had us some fun for an hour or so. We took on fuel in Merritt and had a little rest as we planned our route home.

We decided to get off the Hwy at a Lake Resort outfit, where we had rented a cabin some years ago. We thought we would be ready for a stop by then. Hey — we’re in no big rush!

So it’s only 50 or 60 clicks to the toll booth, and before ya know it, the last exit is upon us. As we exit the highway, I realize . . . shit! we’ve taken the wrong f**king exit!

My suspicions are soon verified as we pass a sign pointing to the right for the “Played Out Pit Mine”. We go left. This route takes us under the highway and opens up where the pavement ends. We are greeted by a sign that bids us “Welcome to The Trans Canada Trail”. What f**kin trail?? We see a gravel [sort of] vehicle track going one way. The other way goes back to the highway OFF ramp. Hey, wait a freaking minute . . . just how the f**k do ya get back onto the freaking highway??? Well,we see that we can get back on if ya want to go to freaking Merritt. Now aint that just f**kin ducky! Backtrack all the way to Merritt??!! No thanks.

On the positive side, we have plenty of fuel and many hours of daylight remaining under a nearly cloudless sky. We are several thousand feet up in the mountains, so the temperature is perfect, even under the midday sun. This is all very fortuitous, we agree.

It seems our only practical choice is to see how this gravel track plays out. We believe
that there must be a loose network of these not-quite-roads. We saw some of these leading away from the Lake Resort ,where we had stayed, years ago. My best guess is that if we can go far enough to the east,via this path,we will probably hook up with a road that will take us to the Lake Resort, and so, to the highway. “The best laid plans” et al.

We take a little break while we ponder all this. I took a couple of pictures here. In retrospect, I should have taken fifty along the next few clicks. In self defence, I will say my hands were full at the time.

So, it’s “off we f**k!” We proceed down this track,which is strewn with fist sized blast rock. I’m concerned for the well being of about 400 bucks worth of rubber as we motor along, mostly in first and second gear. Our first obstacle appears in the form of a rather formidable gap in the track. It appears someone has been busy with a good sized back hoe here. They have managed to create what you could call a “yawning chasm’ for a couple of NOT trail bikes! The accompanying sign, which I confess not to have seen, allegedly said something, by way of admonition, about “No Motor Vehicles Beyond This Point”!

Well, the Grand f**king Canyon we were facing, one might think, would make such signage redundant. Not so, dear reader!! I looked down that big f**ker of a ditch and said to myself . . . self — you can do this!! Down I went, standing on the pegs with some rear brake to keep me together. WOW, the front end starts to come up, as I begin my ascent. I’m on the gas; and before ya know it. I’m back on flat ground! Unscathed, save for the belly of Mr FJ.

I turn around and beckon Mark to follow. He looks at me with a sort of deadpan expression at the same time, shaking his noggin. I’m seeing ,’ no fukkin’ way’. Mute, yet eloquent.

I shut off my bike, search for sidestand footing. Once I’m sure Mr FJ ain’t gonna go over, I scramble back, down, across and back up the other side. Having suffered an injury to his left ankle\foot this summer, this is not exactly what the Doctor ordered for my associate. I, of course volunteer to “have a go at it”. Being fresh with confidence, amassed during my recent experience, I say “piece of cake”. This trip went just about like the former. A bit more contact underneath methinks, but hell, we’re still in one piece each!

The track is looking more like a trail as we wind down towards flowing water, in the form of a creek, like salmon might spawn in. Our next obstacle comes in bovine form, a rather large brown & white sort. The critter had command of the trail, near as I could tell. Mark was on point at that time, so I bravely waited to see if our bovine interloper intended to stake any territorial claim here. Good fortune still with us, the great brown milker appeared to suddenly recall some unfinished bovine business elsewhere, in another locale, no doubt. In any case, we pressed on, no more was seen of the great brown milker.

I was not altogether pleased to see the”trail’ was moving further and further away from the highway, as it followed the natural meander of the creek . We did not need to confer vocally, the mutual pan and shrug is universal motorcyclist silent communication. Taken, in this case to mean, “What the f**k else we gonna do?” We kept going.

Truth be known, I’m not sure exactly how far we had gone here, had to be a few clicks. The trail had been taking us back in the right direction for a while. We were climbing up out of the little river valley. We found ourselves going up a fairly good rise, on what was clearly nothing more than a single track cattle path. We would not have been able to get past any of our erstwhile bovine friend’s friends. Fortunately, our outrageous good fortune was still with us, as no such encounter had befallen us, as yet anyway. As we arrived at the top of this rise, the trail emptied into a very tiny field and stopped altogether! What the f**k?? The field had an impassable fence at one end, deep bush on the right and an unpassable drop on the left! How the f**k do we get out of this mess?

A little way back down the rise, we had passed what turned out to be the only way out, so to speak. Another narrow little cow path. This f**ker goes straight down the side of this rise we’ve been climbing. At the top, we look down, Holy f**k!! That’s one long steep fukker of a drop. Pan and shrug . . . I go first — Holy f**kin Shit!! By the time I’ve said that a couple of times, I’m at the bottom and the trail is visible once more. I wonder how Mark’s gonna do this?? Man, there was rocks, roots, ruts, loose shit all the way down. I don’t know much rear brake I used to try to keep my speed down. Don’t forget, these motorcycles weigh in at close to 600 f**king pounds!!

I turn around to see Mark take the plunge! I’m cheering for him, under my helmet, as I watch him come down “clean” without so much as a single dab! Now, here’s where things get interesting.

After another distance on the path, which is just visible on the floor of what I would call a meadow, the highway is once more before us. We are looking at the side embankment of an overpass. We can see the underneath of the bridge. Now, imagine looking up the side of this embankment, to where it levels off, about 5 feet from the underside of the beginning of the bridge deck. If you’re standing at the top of the embankment, you may need to crouch a bit.

Looking ahead, there’s a flat area maybe 4 or 5 feet across. At it’s end, the embankment goes steeply down to the floor of the river valley. From where we are, the embankment looks like it’s made of some kind of stone; shale or something like that . . . Well guess what mutherf**ker ?? The f**kin trail goes straight up the side of that 100 foot embankment!! I’m thinkin, “f**k, I hope I can squeeze between the bottom of the bridge and the top of that embankment!!”

I look at Mark . . . pan and shrug. Once more “it’s off I f**k!” Well, this is the first time I’ve done a Hill Climb on an FJ . The back wheel spun all the way up, the arse end went east and west. No shortage of power, not a lot of leverage from the narrow grips though. When I got to the top, I just kept my head down. Ya can’t look straight up with a full coverage helmet it seems!

I traversed the width of six lanes of Coquihala Hwy under that overpass. I saw nothing to suggest that any other human had done so since the thing had been built. When I emerged from the relative darkness beneath the bridge, I practically cheered to discover I had come out onto a wooden deck, which led immediately to gravel then paved road . . . finally!

We had arrived at the road leading to the Lake Resort at last. We had both, it seemed lost the hankerin’ for that “outdoorsy” crap. We took a pass on stopping at the Lake Resort .

For sure, I’m gonna put a milder cam in this bike before I do any more of this off road stuff. Who knows, maybe next year.

]]> http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2008/08/simons-yamaha-fj1200-enduro-experience/feed/ 0 http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2008/08/life-cycle-responsibility/ http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2008/08/life-cycle-responsibility/#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:02:22 +0000 victoria http://livemorelightly.com/2008/08/09/life-cycle-responsibility/ Time is slipping away so fast with so many details to take care of to realize the Live More Lightly Project. One of the reasons this project is so complex is that I have taken life-cycle responsibility for the product that I am producing. The product in this case is a multi-media book, but the principals apply to anything produced. In this post, I will refer to the concept of the universal product as a “widget”. The recent rush to re-cycle widgets properly is to be applauded, but the idea of considering the environmental impact of every aspect of producing and maintaining the product is often overlooked.

My particular widget, the “Live More Lightly Songbook and Workshop Guide” will be printed using the most environmentally friendly processes available. The included disk will have to be made from virgin plastic, so the choice will be based on price, although I plan to choose a company that uses environmentally sound practices when they can. This is the point where many producers believe they have done enough, but I continue to examine my practices: can I live more lightly?

I am writing the book using a computer that I built from mostly re-cycled parts and the notebook I bought to take on the tour was manufactured by AsusTek, a leader in re-use and re-cycling of its products. I am using Ubuntu Linux on both computers (the notebook came with Vista, so it is dual-boot) because I believe that open source software is more efficient and uses less resources. This is a statement I can’t provide academic proof for, but I know it saves my resources. With Windows and Mac computers I have to spend time working to be able to afford the product, then after spending considerable sums of money, I usually have to spend hours troubleshooting. With Linux, if you can get it to work — it is yours. I want to have good karma on this project and use legitimate software only. The software I am using in Ubuntu would take me months of work to afford because I do not want to be a software pirate.

The motorcycle is very important because I will need to tour to promote my book and facilitate my workshop. Air travel produces a lot of pollution and even though carbon offsets can be purchased, my goal is to reduce my impact on the planet. I realize that this may not always be possible, but by touring on my motorcycle I can produce a relatively insignificant amount of pollution and purchase carbon offsets for that as well. It is true that a lot of recent posts have been motorcycle related, but it is all-important to realizing the tour and the documentary video.

Concert reviews are not 100% relevant to widget production, but I am trying to improve my skills as a photographer and videographer. My training as a graphic designer and music technologist does give me a unique perspective, but I am very new to this world. Many of the reviews discuss the various challenges I face in documenting my activities and I hope all of this experience will be valuable to the realization of the project. I am still trying to find out if any video equipment is more environmentally friendly in manufacture or re-cycling. To make this a more easily searchable issue, I have added a new category Video and Photography to the left sidebar to filter posts into this category.

Improving my skills as a musician and writing posts about my interactive performances, such as the Children’s Festival, may be of interest to workshop presenters. I am very interested in presenting Live More Lightly Workshops and I hope that these events will demonstrate a level of competency as a professional musician and workshop facilitator. Current research into low impact workshop practices is on-going and will be the subject of a future post.

The “Live More Lightly Project” is utilizing all of my skills and developing some of my non-skills. The original concept of the project was to focus my abilities to encourage everyone to “Live More Lightly” and that is what this blog is all about. Although I may seem to digress, the importance of “cradle to grave” widget production and maintenance or life-cycle responsibility is constantly influencing my planning. As a parent, it is of primary importance to leave resources for the future.