First Run in Portland

We just arrived in Portland, Oregon yesterday. Ferry trip down was great, no bad weather. Had a good run in Sitka. Here in Portland, no rain and a very plesent 12oC.

Went for a hard training run today in the neighborhood, and did a cool "Map My Run" thing with the GPS watch:




Ah, such a geek.

Dmitry Orlov: Social Collapse Best Practices

When thinking about issues such as peak oil, it is important to consider broader social implications. Here is very entertaining lecture by a fellow named Dmitry Orlov.:

http://fora.tv/2009/02/13/Dmitry_Orlov_Social_Collapse_Best_Practices

It's a video, about an hour an half you can watch online. Dmitry is a Russian-American fellow with a very classic Russian black sense of humour. What is really interesting about this lecture is he sees the United States on the same route of superpower collapse that the Soviet Union went on. If you listen to some of the rhetoric coming out of the States lately (particular from the far right wing), you can hear a lot of the reminiscence / anger at the loss of their former "glory" that Demitry described as happening after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The second observation he makes is how men are particularly poorly equipped to deal with social collapse.

LEED/SuperGreen Duplex - Finished Exterior

Just a couple of quick photos of the exterior of our LEED for Homes registered project. We're essentially done the outside, just a few things to finish up like the gable vent. Inside is getting painted right now and then its on to interior trim!

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

From 38 & 40 Nijmegan Road

Steam Powered Backpack

For this year's Halloween costumes, we decided to go as "Steampunk".


Always up for a challenge, I figured I could actually make "steam" as part of my costume.


So, below is a few pics of my steam powered backpack. You can see all of our Steampunk costume pics here.






Here's a few pictures of the the steam backpack under construction - and yes, it made "steam". There is a cheap Canadian Tire fog machine in the upper part of the backpack, a large inverter bolted to the top, and then a battery booster pack in the bottom half of the backpack (the black "boiler/fuel tank" part of the back). And yes, it is heavy - but its oh so cool to have a steaming Halloween costume.

Special thanks to my bros for all the goggles and other paraphernalia.

Updated Yukon Home Heating Costs

I'm often asked what is the best home heating source? Oil? Wood? Propane? Surely not electricity! This used to be quite a conundrum five or six years ago back when heating oil was $0.50/L. But now that we are looking at $1.00/L for heating fuel, and climbing, the question is much easier to answer.After a bit of nagging, the good folks over at Yukon Housing have updated thier home heating cost charts for Whitehorse. This is where to look to answer "what is the least costly heating source". Of course, the best answer is "don't use any (or much) heating energy" - if you super insulate, you are much less at the whim of heating energy fluctuation.