Summer's Ending

It's Sunday, August 30, summer's almost over, Brett started grade 11 last Thursday. We had very little summer weather in Calgary. We're getting some now. We took 2 weeks off in August and travelled to Tofino, Salt Spring Island and Penticton in British Columbia and had a very nice time.

It was very nice to travel with Barry and Brett. We road-trip well together. We take our time. Barry does almost all the driving, I read, Brett reads, we stop and check out some sights, road-side attractions, have snacks, only travel for 8 or less hours per day, some days only 4.

Itinerary:
Calgary to Kelowna
1 night Kelowna
Kelowna to Vancouver
2 nights Vancouver
Ferry Vancouver to Nanaimo
1 night Nanaimo
Nanaimo to Tofino
2 nights camping in Tofino
Tofino to Salt Spring Island
3 nights cabin Salt Spring
Ferry Salt Spring to Victoria to Twassen
1 night Chilliwack
Chilliwack to Penticton
5 nights camping in Penticton
Penticton to Calgary

Saw Orcas, Grey and Humpback whales on a hotsprings zodiac sightseeing 7 hour trip from Tofino - awesome!!! Golfed and visited market and Fulford Day on Salt Spring - beautiful and relaxing. Rented boat and enjoyed warm beach time in Penticton. Fabulous Vacation!

Tim Packer Art

I was in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa for 15 days for various reasons. While in Ottawa I stumbled upon this Canadian artist's work in a gallery. I really love it. I think I will get one eventually for the final spot in our house that needs a piece. Tim Packer site.

Anyways, back to life....

Am now part of a startup.

I'm very engaged. It's exciting to wake up and work for yourself for a change.

Had a startup/spinout, Nial Systems Limited from Queen's in mid-80s wound down in 2005.

Worked for not-for-profits: Alberta Research Council, iCORE, Cybera for 22 years.

Now creating VrSTORM with partners.

This line caught my eye while reading it last night:

"The edge of her anxiety had receded, not quite past the horizon but sufficient to have restored her curiosity." - William Gibson, Spook Country, 2006 pg. 172

up the misty mountain where the eagle takes the wind

Becoming an entrepreneur and working for myself for a change.

I am now up the misty mountain where the eagle takes the wind. - Ferron

Facebook Quizes

There are lots of Facebook quizes these days where you answer a few questions and you get your profile. Here's some of mine:

Which colour is my Aura - RED

The more excitement they experience the more alive they will feel. Reds are practical, action-oriented, love to achieve results and be successful. They have an insatiable urge to win and create something valuable and important in their life. Their strong will power and intense, almost unlimited physical energy allows them to be extremely active, persistent and successful in virtually anything they do.

The Scorpio/Rat

The rattiest of all Rats, this Scorpio can weasel its way in and out of any deal. They are clever people whose wit and wisdom combine to create an unbeatable agenda. They think on their feet and often conceal ulterior motives. Sexy? Yes. By fits and starts.

THE DESIGNING MASTERMIND

A sharp-tongued, wily magpie if ever there was one, the Scorpio born in a Rat year will be chatty and cutting. This person is generally lithe and agile as well as quick-spirited. He or she will probably enjoy all manner of graceful sport and prove able at competitive games. The Scorpio/Rat is an amiable fellow. People like him or her straight away and never guess that behind the ready smile is a rare drive for power. He wants to hold the most potent place in whatever area he has chosen as his own. This Rat's private life is often fraught with betrayal. Like other Rats, the Scorpio born is the marrying kind. But his marriages sometimes grow shaky if too much pressure is exerted on this highly strung person. Caresses and tender gestures keep this Rat's nerves calm. Should endeavor to team up with romantic partners who are not afraid of intimacy.

What legendary Pokemon Character are you ?

Arceus

You are Arceus! You are kind to everyone and love to help bring balance to any situation. You love to brainstorm and come up with ideas and you never put anyone down. Your imagination flows wild and your kindness is boundless.

What drink are you?

Red Wine

You're a sneaky one! With all that food around you innocently slip in and before you know it WHAM! Because you provide some health benefit you are a hard habit to break. Easily justified you share the distinction with the "oldest profession" as the oldest libation known to man! Even the Bible condones you! Lucky Bitch!

Mexico

 Back from 1 week in Mexico. First time ever at an all-inclusive. Barry and Brett loved it - food, drink, waves any time. 1 week was enough for me. It was nice and relaxing and easy and enjoyable to be all together and not have to do any work. Just sit and read and do nothing! What a concept. Good food, a large variety of icy drinks, fun people, beautiful weather, rode a mule, ziplined, rappled, and parasailed.

The Wombat & Extraordinary Moment

Some number of years ago I started getting interested in the connectedness of all things...

I'll even go back even further before I even start.

(And, as an aside and a self-referential point, I can hardly have a linear communication anymore)

Up one level. I was going to point out that after paying off student loans from University undergrad, I backpacked thought Europe and randomly at a hostel picked up and read Edith Hamilton's classic short book on Mythology. I was 22 and that was 26 years ago. After reading the book, I asked myself, "which figure from Mythology do I most relate to?". My answer, "Prometheus", the God (well Titan really) of Foresight. Later I named my Volkswagon van Prometheus. My current car (2004 Mazda sport) is named Grok.

wikis refs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok

Another possible aside is how and when Grok popped into my head and captured a lot and it is a boring story and has to do with developing performance metrics that should be groked as one in a multi-dimensional dashboard not individually...

Still another aside is that my current favorite book is Guns, Germs and Steel and it recently beat out Godel, Escher and Bach (which really got me into self-referentiality and almost got me too interested in other things to complete University (in Math and Computer Science) but I did (just barely)). And maybe I just like patterns of 3s because I now like the sound of Portals, Hubs and Clouds (maybe I should write the book!), and my lucky number because I was randomly born on that day of the month is 27.

Main point for this blog is that I just watched a neat video (The Tree of Life at: http://www.wellcometreeoflife.org/) that was suggested to me by a Facebook friend and it reminded me of this very early web "animation" called
The Wombat http://www.globalcommunity.org/flash/wombat.shtml
and Extraordinary Moment http://www.globalcommunity.org/flash/ex.shtml

Life is wonderfully complex and connected and there is even stuff between the connections.

Lack of Accountability for Negative Externalities

Heard that title phase at a lunch lecture that I attended on Friday about the Economic Impacts of Information and Communications Technology. This is a good thing to try to understand. Look under the hood and really try to understand or model in some way the pervasive and multiple impacts. "Green IT" is very hot. There are a number of things to consider:

1. First order effects is the energy consumption.
2. Second order is that ICT can help control manufacturing plants etc.
3. Third order is that ICT can be used to do research in medicine or oil& gas exploration

One Green theme being explored is locating data centres at Green, carbon zero sites.

"Follow the sun" compute.

The famous Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith may be relevant here.

Jevons Paradox and Green IT

I just heard about Jevons Paradox today. More details at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox . It describes the paradox that, as the efficiency of a technological process goes up, the more it is used, not the less. By making something cheaper, it becomes more usable. This paradox was first described in 1865 when the use of coal became more efficient/cleaner and led to more use of coal, thus more pollution.

We are moving to the need to consider Green IT. IT may cause about 3-4% of energy consumption, similar to the avaition industry. IT use will go up. It is becoming a bit greener, but not nearly enough. Check out the Green IT and Cyberinfrastructure blog http://www.green-broadband.blogspot.com/ for more info. Bill St. Arnaud from CANARIE in Canada is one of the leading thinkers in this area.

Tempe and I seem fine

I am now in Tempe Arizona for 5 days.

I have been through personal hell for the past 6 weeks. More later.

The US, International, and Canadian markets have been hit almost as hard as the great depression. I am getting c.v.s sent to me by former colleagues and the news keeps reporting how bad it is. There was a massive overexposure of debt, primarily in the US, that led to a huge bubble of consumerism. The bubble popped, the ice caps are melting, Green is now in, things have not even reached bottom. But life goes on.

Tempe is a suburb or part of Phoenix. The 5th most populous city in the US. Tempe is a University quadrant. I arrived here today for five days of a conference for leaders of state/province advanced networks. Originally the only network was the research network, before about 1993 when the internet became commoditized. Now the advanced network exists as CANARIE in Canada, CyberaNet in Alberta, Internet 2 and Lambda Rail in the US, ... , others world-wide. I'm here to find out where it's going and to chill out if I can.

It does not look bad out on the streets of Tempe. Housing prices in Phoenix were always fairly reasonable, got inflated for a while, now are cheap. But things still look good. Maybe I can't tell if the cranes have stopped like they do in Calgary mid-build whenever a recession or bust hits.

So I need to chill out. Try to get the crap out of my head. I now have a coach to help me be nicer. Become a "facilitative leader" rather than a "leader leader". It sometimes makes sense to me, but sometimes gets me all twisted. I can understand that acquiring new leadership skills is a good thing and gives me more range and more tools. I'm having a hard time forgiving B and his selfishness, though. He tried to get rid of me by making me look bad, bringing up unsubstantiated allegations and messing around with Cybera without a lot of context. He was away for 3 years and now that he's back, he wants to be in charge. So, although I understand the benefits of coaching and can also see that facilitative leadership might be appropriate in some aspects of leading Cybera, doing the coaching is like rubbing salt into my wounds. I think my strenghts are my leadership leadership, so why handicap that? Plus, why can't B let me lead - he's had his turn.

Leadership

Work is still complex. Tectonic shifts at the provincial level. Uncertainty at the Universities. Staff confusion. But I am the leader of Cybera and must find a good path through this. I have support and will find a way.

Seven Habits

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a book written by Stephen R. Covey.

Be Proactive.
Begin with the End In Mind.
Put First Things First.
Think Win/Win.
Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.
Synergize.
Sharpen the saw.