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The Blog Stream

30 Years in the Making

I was in highschool or younger when I first heard about Corbet’s Couloir. My Dad told me yet another story about my incredible Uncle Barry and the this ski run in Jackson Hole named after him. It was some crazy notch in the rocks with a hellish monster of a cornice drop into a steep […]

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The Blog Stream

That Day I Nearly Died

Some of us have nine lives but few realize how important just one can be when it is nearly taken away from you

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The Blog Stream

Google Found my Phone in a Snowbank after a Month

After losing my Google Pixel5 on a ski hill, a series of unbelievably unique events trapped me in Whistler Village during COVID with no ID, no proof of Vaccination and no means of payment, not to mention no way to call anyone. I became determined – even obsessed – with recovering it. And it all started at the tail end of an epic snowstorm that dumped tons of fresh powder on Whistler Mountain on a Sunday when a world of people were trying to leave town after Christmas

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The Blog Stream

The Rick Steeves Walk in Vancouver by Whistlerborn

Where to start? The Rick Steeves reference may require some explanation. He’s a travel writer from the age of paper travel books. An explorer who has cross-crossed Europe uncovering secret courtyards, ancient passageways and historically significant neighbourhoods in the world’s most famous cities. From the catacombs under Paris to a hidden mews in London, he […]

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Uncategorized

A Saturday Afternoon in the Mountains

I was slow to wake up Saturday morning. Slept well. I notice it feels a little cold over by the edge of the bed. Who told the dog he could sleep right across some part of bed I need? I shifted around a bit. It feels a little chilly. Wait a minute, is my nose […]

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The Blog Stream Uncategorized

Did You Get The Wasabi?!

How a tube of Wasabi turned me and my dog into cat burglars on New Year’s Eve

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The Blog Stream Uncategorized

Vegan Vitriol

Vegan vitriol in the middle of a Friday afternoon walk

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The Blog Stream

Summer Vacation Redux

Great successes and spectacular failures from a Dad who loves packing the trunk and loading the car ahead of a summer roadtrip

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The Blog Stream

Grey Matter: A Tale of Funding, Bankruptcy and Graphene

Sig and his childhood buddy fall from failure to the greatest opportunity of their lifetimes discovering fame, fortune and immortality. And one of them eventually meets an alien…

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The Blog Stream

Zombie Apocalypse The First Week

The internet shows its limits, Tiktok explodes and CNBC eats it all up

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The Blog Stream

Welcome to the Zombie Apocalypse

So-called COVID Weekend marks the moment when the #coronavirus
was upgraded to COVID-20

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The Blog Stream

10 Again

A beach game like no other. To play, you only need a ball and two or more players for this simple beach game anyone can learn.

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Uncategorized

The Secret Beaches of West Vancouver

Taking the dog for a walk is a great excuse to get outside for a hike and some fresh air but after a while the same routes get old so I started exploring some of the Secret Beaches of West Vancouver and discovered a few real gems

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The Blog Stream Uncategorized

Westcoast COVID Roasted Chicken Recipe

A quick and easy recipe if you have a BBQ with a rotisserie. A little oil and spice, onto the spike and it cooks by itself in less than an hour.

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Economics & Finance Uncategorized

When Will Humanity Meet the Virus that is Better than Us?

Humans are just like a virus. Invasive. Destructive. Relentless. And totally dedicated to neutralizing any and all threats so we can dominate the planet. Or perhaps not “so we can dominate the planet” but that is the inevitable result of our growth. Our spread. Our dominance.

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The Queue to Oblivion

You cannot see the other end of it. They make sure of that. A small forest of metal stanchions tied to each other with vinyl straps guides the shuffling masses. I find the entrance to the maze and am about to enter when I am gruffly re-directed down toward the other end of the Arrivals Hall. They must be sending us to another entrance that has a shorter line, great.

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Tesla

Understanding a Tesla Begins with the Windshield Wipers

Understanding the engineering mindset behind a Tesla begins with the windshield wipers. Or rather, the control that makes them automatic.  Many cars have automatic wipers, Tesla just has one of the worst systems. It doesn’t work very well and that fact is well documented on Twitter.  Solutions exist to upgrade Tesla’s automatic wipers so they […]

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Uncategorized

Storm Warning Results in VERY Local Skiing

When 5cm of snow falls in Vancouver it’s a big deal.When another 15cm falls ontop of that – people lose their minds The predictions were all there “Winter Storm to Hit Lower Mainland”. Living on the side of a mountain in Canada it should almost be expected that you’ll get covered in snow every winter, […]

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Economics & Finance

A Solution for Google, Facebook and the Billions of us Who Need Them but don’t Trust Them

What is your digital footprint worth? Did you know you have one? Your search history is part of it of course, but most of us are shocked when we actually go in and look at what data Google captures on us.

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Uncategorized

When Someone Arrives Home But it’s Not Tracy

It’s Thursday night and I finally arrive home to watch the Seahawks game – tape delayed. I planned to be home for the start at 520pm but at 515pm I was still in the office so it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. In the days leading up to the game I even invited […]

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Uncategorized

Three Kids No Nanny

Three Kids No Nanny… And I’m a Dad  Trying to keep track of my own schedule is challenging enough, but three others. And at least knowing what my wife is up to. I definitely dropped the ball a few times along the way.  One time I got a call at 534pm from a number I […]

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Uncategorized

It Seems to Have Worked so Far

A parenting philosophy from a parent still figuring it all out (See also “Happy to be Final Lasts”) You can read books about it.  Amazon will deliver one in an hour by drone; or at worst, in a day.  Advice on parenting can be found everywhere. Sometimes it is hurled at you unwanted, but that […]

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Uncategorized

King for a Month

The crazy, weird and utterly unbelievable life of the chief of a Big Oil refinery in some gawdawful place you would never choose to go Chapter 1 – You Have Arrived I did alternating 28 day tours in a Big Oil refinery somewhere in the world you would never normally choose to be.  Where exactly? It […]

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Uncategorized

Happy to be Final Lasts

A friend of ours wrote a touching article recently that brilliantly juxtaposed the firsts in life with the lasts. As parents we all remember so many firsts: the first time we changed their diaper, saw them ride a bike, watched them go on a date or drive the car. But the article fixed on lasts: […]

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Uncategorized

Is There a Parent Here?!

What I did in grade 12 but could never imagine allowing my kids to do today Early in my life as a parent a buddy told me a story about parenting his kids that left an interesting impression on one of his neighbours. And me.  He was a little ahead of us as far as […]

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Economics & Finance

#9 – Google Just Made a Huge Move Into the Insurance Business (And Nobody Noticed)

As driverless cars, or Autonomous Vehicles (“AVs”) get closer to becoming a reality on our highways and city streets, questions arise about the ethical programming of these cars. Specifically, how will an AV be programmed to respond in a situation in which it knows an accident is unavoidable?

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Tesla

#8 – The Ethics of Driverless Cars – Who Lives and Who Dies?

With the introduction and growth of Driverless Cars (or Autonomous Vehicles) a pressing ethical question has arisen over how to program these cars in situations that will clearly result in an unavoidable collision. Faced with the choice of saving the “driver” (or the occupants of the vehicle) by plowing into a group of pedestrians, or sacrificing the occupants for the greater good, should the AV be programmed to save as many lives as possible?

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Tesla

#7 – Why you can’t Win a Formula One Race without an Electric Engine

It takes technology, of course, to win a Formula 1 race and in today’s world tha means an electric motor, not just a gas powered engine. The combination of torque and immediate response from an electric motor with the high top speed of a gas powered engine with gears is unbeatable.