Off to Penticton

I am off to Penticton. I have not even completely unpacked from my last trip, but that's okay: makes packing for this trip easier. I haven't been to BC for a while, and I look forward to a road trip through the Rockies and enjoying the beauty of central BC.

I have heard about the pine beetle infestation in BC a lot. But now I will see it with my own eyes. Hopefully I can take some pictures.

Other than that I will yoga it up with Geeta Iyengar at the Iyengar Yoga Assocation's AGM.

Enjoy your week!

You've got mail

What took weeks just a decade ago, can be done overnight today. I am talking about mail. I love the instant gratification of e-mail. Across countries, continents, it doesn't matter, the e-mail man delivers within just a few minutes.

It's especially useful when your family lives overseas. I have become "pen-pals" with my niece Antonia. I sent her a letter yesterday, and so that she doesn't forget Auntie Annie from Canada, I attached a current picture of me.

This morning I got this picture of her with the letter in my inbox, and it made me smile. It's definitely no substitute to a real visit, and I wished very much I could have been with her and the entire wexi-clan. But a weekend trip to Europe is just not in the cards: I would have been like a half-dead fly anyways - trying to recover from an 8 hour jet lag.

So, in between the infrequent visits to the mother country, I am grateful for having the internet, jajah, e-mails and photosharing websites (picasa or flickr): they give me a sense of staying in touch - at least on the screen and in my thoughts.

Homeless Soccer

Soccer and I don't really do anything for each other. I think I am missing some receptors in my brain, because I don't seem to get the same emotions as most other people do when watching sports. What looks like a green background with some red and white dots on the TV screen to me, results in ecstastic, excited, and loud responses in others. Lucky soccer fans!

But when Elisabeth brought the homeless soccer cup to my attention, that even sparked some interest in me. 500 homeless people from 40+ different countries have come together to play soccer for the past 5 years. The first event happened in Graz, Austria in 2003 and this year's world cup is in Melbourne, Australia. And it's more than a world cup - it changes people's lives and often is the event that helps the players to deal with the issues that got them on to the street in the first place.



Like Peter, a vendor of the street paper "Donaustrudl" in Regensburg, Germany, who got inspired to start a library business and go back to school.

Or Cheong from Hongkong, a professional soccer player, who ended up on the street because of a gambling problem, who's theme is now: "Look forward, never give up."



Or Stephanie from the US, who says:
“For the first time in a long time, I felt important. Having been a part of that gave me the confidence to face people again, to face the world.”

Pretty cool.

Today is Earth Day

"Stop worrying the planet will be fine." says the Good Human (whose blog slogan is "Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find")

"...It's us that I am worried about".

Maybe not my generation (but maybe my generation), but definitely the children of today and their children need to be concerned, whether or not there will be an environment that is supporting of human life with dignity. And unless you are an "Apres moi, le deluge" (Nach mir die Sintflut) type of person, it makes sense to think about solutions, define goals, implement strategies and tactics how to change from the destructive and exploiting status quo to a more environmentally benign life style.

I believe that it's not too late yet. Yes, there will be some consequences to the choices we have made up to now, even if we went 100% climate neutral and to sustainable resource management right now. But the human race is resilient and we are capable of great things when necessity demands it. And the time is now.

Personal choices can not be the solution, if only performed by a minority of people. On the other hand, like Michael Pollon suggests in his article "...for us to wait for legislation or technology to solve the problem of how we're living our lives suggests we're not really serious about changing — something our politicians cannot fail to notice. They will not move until we do."

And we need our politicians to move. Because it's not just about personal choices. We need to re-think our transportation systems, how we design cities, our food supply chains, energy and our raw material management. That's a big task. Oh, and the whole world needs to be on board. This issue doesn't know any borders.

Honestly, the environmental crisis can be a depressing topic. Believe me, I have taken it to my heart and I felt the pain. On the other hand, me being depressed about this situation doesn't make it any better. I'd rather approach it optimistically - by doing what I can - one step at the time. And hopefully the leaders of this world will follow. Obviously they won't follow me literally, but thankfully I am not the only one. Paul Hawken in Blessed Unrest speaks about the Environmental and Social Justice Movement as the biggest movement in human history.

So this Earth Day I will take a minute and ponder: "What kind of future do I imagine for life on Earth?" And I will be optimistic.

Walk in the Woods

This evening my mission was to find some yoghurt without sugar, starch and gelatine. I couldn't find it at the regular grocery store (meijers) yesterday, which by the way is HUGE, so I attempted the local health food store and scored.

Unfortunately my navigation skills are not the best yet in Michigan (maybe it's those damn left turns), and I got a little lost. Instead of Holland, I ended up in Saugatuck by Lake Michigan. But as it is, when you least expect anything, life sometimes offers some nice surprises:

I ended up by a parking lot by the Felt Mansion, from where several trails lead into Saugatuck State Park. Wikipedia tells me the mansion is a prison (!) since the 1970's. If I ever end up in prison, that's the one I'd pick.




The walk in the woods was beautiful, peaceful, and exactly what I needed. I forgot how much I enjoy being in the forest. I used to spend hours in the woods. Walks in the woods clear my mind, I love the silver bark of the beeches, and little squirrels running away from me puts a smile on my face. It doesn't take a lot -to make my day in the woods.

This forest grows on sand - the dunes from Lake Michigan.

Here is some GREEN! Highly appreciated after a winter in artic Calgary.

I was really surprised to find cacti and yuccas in Michigan:

Not quite like a cactus like in the Sonoran desert, but definitely prickly!

Yucca

New HQ

The first group of people has moved into the newly renovated office and I must say, it looks pretty! From the outside it still appears a little cold and unfinished, but hopefully the trees and shrubs around the building grow fast to change that. It's going to be a LEED-certified building, meaning that it has been designed and built with energy efficiency, environmental and human health in mind.

Lots of open space with lots of light in the atrium.

Outside and in the other wing: still under construction...

Michigan

I think I said it before: Michigan reminds me a little bit of St. Poelten: flat, overcast and similar flora and fauna.

Michi-gonians are a little different drivers though: less aggressive than Austrians, but they like their traffic lights (see above) and they thought of a unique way of turning left. Instead of turning left at the intersection of choice, you

• drive straight through the intersection,
• then half block there is an opportunity to do a U-ie, so do a U-ie
• turn around
• turn right at the intersection of your choice.

Why do things the easy way, if there is a complicated way!

Snowy Saturday

While Austrians are watching the flowers blossoming, Calgarians are surviving blizzards.

On top of our arctic conditions, when I got home last night the heat was off and the temperature was at refreshing 15 degrees. Damn new technology. I love in floor heating, but I love it even more when it's working. I ended up sleeping in my sweater, and thankfully it got fixed right away on Saturday morning. I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to spring.

I am off to Michigan tomorrow morning, and I was told the tulips are starting to grow there. Can't wait to see some green.

Success

I made peace with the fact that I have to do some work to earn a living. So it might as well be something that I love doing and that I am good at. In the book The Artists Way at Work they cite a survey of successful people. What successful people all seem to have in common were three things:

1. A daily reflective practice - that could be yoga, meditation, going for a run or bike ride, prayer, drinking tea and looking outside the window, you name it.
2. The ability of re-framing failure - not getting hung up on a past failure, losing a job or a partner, public embarrassment, screwing up a project, etc. Failure happens to all of us in one way or another. The question is are we taking the lesson learned from the incident and integrate this into our future decision making? Or do we beat ourselves up for having made a mistake? One option of re-framing a failure is to think "Next time I will do..." instead of "Why the @#$% did I not do...? The latter is useless dealing with the past that we can't change, the first option can potentially influence our future action positively.
3. The ability of leveraging one's own skills.

Finding my skills
We all come with a set of unique skills. We all have a certain set of strengths. But how do I know what they are?

I turned to the book Strengthsfinder 2.0 to help me answer this question. I saw this book floating around our office and people were talking highly about it, so I gave it a try. It's another personality test, so of course I am into it!

Turns out my strenghts are:

• Connectedness - my soul knows that we are all connected.
• Intellection - meaning I like stuff the stimulates my thinking and spending time with smart people.
• Input - I like aquiring new information. Thank God for the Internet - my google search bar puts only two mouse clicks between my questions and some answers.
• Learning - that might explain the many courses I have been taking since I am done school: language courses, the LEED exam, and now the yoga teacher training.
• Futuristic - I do have a vision of future, where we live in harmony with our planet. Despite of our current contradicting, destructive way of living (e.g. the majority of our electricity is produced by coal fired plants, that pollute the air we breathe and contribute to climate change), I believe that if humanity puts their energy and effort towards innovation of technologies and new ways of life styles, we can continue living our dreams while doing less harm. Hopefully this happens in my life time.

Unfortunately Strenghtsfinder is not available for free or online. You have to get a hardcopy book to get an access code to the online test, which seems a little wasteful in the era of digital information. If you end up taking the test, let me know. I am always curious to gain deeper knowledge (see above)! Apparently I work well with people with strong communication and activator skills.

Now that I know my strengths, I am on to the next step: on how to fully leverage them.

Blooming Desert, California, March 2008

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Albert Schweitzer

Who says you have to be human, to be a Picasso?

This elephant is seriously into painting. Pretty impressive.

Each movement is my mantra

On Monday I rode my bicycle to work. For the first time this year. The highlights of my ride were two seagulls on a lamp post, a coyote on the way there and a deer on the way back.

My mantra for riding to work? "Slow and steady wins the race." Slow and steady cycling is still a better work out than turning a car steering wheel or pressing the pedal to the metal. "Slow and steady..." also makes it easier at 6:30 am to prepare myself for a bike ride.

But this year I will introduce a new mantra: Fast and Easy. Once I am out of bed and on the bike path I am usually more excited about going fast and easy than slow and steady. "Fast and easy" means increasing cadence and having fun. It means the face stays relaxed and so do the shoulders (that usually requires some core strength action).

Oh, and the picture is the first one ever from the new camera. I thought the seagulls were worth it.

Icelandic Art at the Truck

melting ice

I went to an Icelandic art exhibition called Sundog at the Truck Gallery on Friday. Above is the last shot I took with my little Canon before the lens decided, it was time to retire. Ice melting on an overhead screen. Very appropriate for our times.

So on the weekend I got a new little Canon (Canon SD870 IS). They have come down in price tremedously in the past few years. This time I got one with image stabilisation. We will see, if I shoot more sharply now!

Plasticific

This is disturbing. Last week I found this picture of a turtle on The Ecologist and it wrenched my heart. Poor little baby hatchling must have got caught in a plastic ring commonly used for six-packs of beer cans. And grew into it.

They also mentioned the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in the article, which was news to me. According to the Independent it is twice the size of the continental US and it’s a soup of plastic in the Pacific Ocean.

Plastic takes FOREVER to break down. And there is currently no good recycling systems for many of the plastics. And typically toxic additives are used and toxins are released during production and when it's breaking down or being burned. In fact, plastics don't break down by exposure to the sun only. They slowly photo-degrades to a molecular level, at which point further degradation can only be achieved by burning. That means it will be sitting in the ocean for a long time. The pieces might be so small that we don’t see them, but they will still be there. These plastics are eventually getting into our food stream. What effect this has on us and the environment is little known. I have heard that some might be hormone disruptors, but either way: my intuition tells me it’s probably not good.

The garbage patch was discovered by rich sailor Mr. Moore, when he was looking for a short cut on his yacht back to LA. When he ended up being in the plastic soup for a week, he realized that this is crazy and turned into an environmental activist. I guess, even the nicest yacht is not so great anymore, if the places to discover are trashed. Mr Moore warns that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade.

...for every 6 pounds of plastic that we got, there was only one pound of zooplankton.
Captain Charles Moore

What's next? Should we lie back and watch the clouds go by and keep on trashing our environment?

I think, we urgently need a more environmentally-benign replacement for plastic.

Maybe biopolymers are a solution, like these biodegradable plastic baskets, which are claimed to degrade after 18 weeks in the ground?

In the meantime, now more than ever, whenever I can choose between plastic fork or a metal fork, I will most definitely choose the metal one.

bike-to-work

brit on bike on bike-to-work day

The City of Calgary has a draft version of a bicycle and pedestrian policy in place. It lists some good points that, once implemented, will transform Calgary into a more walk- and bike-friendly city. For example:

“Plan for cyclists separately from planning for pedestrians; the needs of the two groups are different.” Absolutely true – that will reduce the risk of running over kids, dogs, and drunks. Dedicated bike lanes in the down town core would be wicked too!


Read the policy here, and if you have any constructive comments, let the City know by sending them an email.

What we choose...

...to buy can change the course of life on this planet.

Janette

Crackberry

One thing I learned from my boss from Texas, is that if you want something you have to ask for it. So I did. I asked for a blackberry, which really is blue and really is crack. After the recent lay-offs a few BBs became available, which goes well with my interest in sustainability: re-use, the middle of the RRR.

• It allows me to stay connected with my inbox, even when I am not at my desk. I am always on time, and 50% of humanity are not: so it's useful when I am waiting for other people in a meeting room.
• And working from home just got easier.
• It's a good alarm clock too.

So don't forget to ask.

Venice Beach

Here are a few pictures from a while back - the Sunday morning in Venice Beach. Nice and hot! It's a really cute neigbourhood with a sense of community. Beautiful lush tropical plants in the front yards and palm trees along the boulevards.

Cool Architecture

Cool People

And I was surprised to see Meinl Kaffee from Vienna and Gruener Veltliner on the menue at the Three Square Bakery. It felt like at home in Austria, well ..., like Austria in the tropics.