Scary movie

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Watched V for Vendetta, for the second time. It’s a “scary movie” about power and resistance.

Sculpture by Elizabeth Wynn Wood

Welland-Crowland-War-Memorial-2006-08-pic4, originally uploaded by monado.

This large outdoor monument was designed by Elizabeth Wynn Wood and executed in white granite. It was dedicated in 1939.

Live from the Pride Parade

In spite of the intermittent showers and predicted thunderstorms, Lizbot is watching the Pride Parade in downtown Toronto. She sent us a few pictures by phone.

The bike for AIDS riders:

Parents of gays:

Jack Layton, our Member of Parliament:

That’s equivalent to a Congressman in the U.S.

First open-water swim of the year: Friday, June 26

Coach Kelvin’s triathletes met at Cherry Beach on Lake Ontario for some long-distance open-water swim training. The lifeguards were on duty in spite of the city workers’ strike, because they work for the police “marine” (lacustrine) unit.

Monday  should have been the first swim of the year but I was daunted at the thought of swimming in skin and don’t like struggling into my wet suit. I shouldn’t have worried: the water was fine or so I was told. Where we swim is sheltered from the cold current along the north shore of Lake Ontario by the Leslie Street Spit, so it warms up nicely during the day.

It was fine again on Friday (21C): cold at first touch, but then refreshing with layers of warm and and streams of cold water in the lake. Just above the bottom, several feet down, the water was turbid from the rain that fell on Thursday, and the rest of the water was faintly cloudy.

I felt confident in my ability to sight on landmarks and swim in a reasonably straight line this year. So I spent most of the time acclimatizing myself to the whole open-water experience. I need distance practice more than anything. Second, I need to get used to floating in swells. Some long, gentle swells rolled in from time to time, generated by passing boats.   When I’m just floating or doing a backstroke, it’s easy to get a little motion-sick.

I mostly swam back and forth along the buoys that mark our 500m courses. I got in about 1900m: breast stroke to warm up, freestyle practice, breast stroke and side stroke to recover, more freestyle. Early on I tried to corner a couple of swans against the shore so that I could look at their paddling feet; but I couldn’t get close enough and the water was still too turbid for a clear view at a distance. So I let them go. I took lots of breaks because I am out of shape and much slower than the average swimmer. After swimming for quite a while in beach shoes I left them on the lifeguards’ dock. Just about the time I felt I’d had enough, the training session was over.

But not all days will be fine, so I need to order a wetsuit that fits.

I’ve decided not to worry about the E. coli count unless it’s astronomical. If the count is over 100 per 100ml, parents will keep their children on the beach and let them play in the wet sand where the count is hundreds of thousands.

Daily water sampling is not taking place because of the city workers’ strike.

It’s Pride Week

Thanks to Benjamin Geiger for the image!

This is Toronto’s Pride Week (or Pride Fortnight, June 6 – 30?) Ah, it’s officially June 19 -28. The festivities will be “hotting up” as we approach the weekend blow-out, when part of Church Street is  closed to become a pedestrian mall and celebration space. There’s a Dyke Parade (Dyke Hike?) and a main parade, in which the Mayor and various Members of Parliament or Members of Provincial Parliament ride.

We’re also having a strike by city workers. The pools are closed and garbage collection is cancelled. But Pride Week is going on, aside from cancelling a flag raising — no one to operate the flagpole, I suppose. The organizers will pay up to $20,000 to have private firms collect their litter.

Events include a 5km run or walk, the Pride & Remembrance Run, which raises money for worthy, gay-friendly causes, such as the hospice Casey House. Of course, some people will be running in costume. The run is on Saturday the 27th at 10 a.m., with refreshments afterwards.

Last Saturday there was an inclusive shabbat service held by Shir Libenyu congregation. Remember when “inclusive” was LGBT? That stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transsexual.” Well, now it’s LBGTTIQQ for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual,Transgender,* Intersex, Queer, & Questioning.” Free childcare is available during services.

*Some people say, “Two-spirited.”

I expect that some of the many out-of-town visitors will use their trip as a chance to get legally married.

First kids’ tri of the year

We’re back from a very brief trip to Lindsay for AthleticKid to swim/bike/run a kids’ triathlon. This is her first one of the season.

She put in a respectable time and moved up three places from her performance last year — in her estimate, measured from last place.

Basement cat

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Moroccan wedding blankets

These beautiful blankets are vintage hand-woven, traditional wedding blankets from Morocco.

All blankets were made in homes and are thought to be instilled with “baraka.” Baraka is a positive power with many meanings in Morocco, and is a source of creative inspiration. In the case of carpets and weavings, the religious faith of the weaver and her belief in the supernatural are inextricably connected with the objects she produces. The loom itself remains the ultimate symbol of magical protection. It is looked upon as a living thing and is treated as such. If the weaver takes care in remembering the number and combination of threads to produce a design, the finished textile will be imbued with talismanic power and contain baraka, acting as a “power shield” against the evil eye.

Cat door on Twitter

This is the first cute, high-tech, electronic Cat Door System I’ve seen since the Flo Control Project.

Flo Control took an image of the cat’s head and analyzed it to see if the programmer’s cat Flo was carrying prey. If she was, the cat door would not open. Voila! No more feathers and mouse bits or lizards or snakes in the house. It was quite a clever bit of programming that found its way into some image-recognition systems.

The Twitter Cat Door uses RFID tags in the cats’ collars, servomotors, and a camera to keep strange cats out of the house, but also snap pictures of the cats entering and leaving. The system keeps a log of the cats’ movements and combines it with randomly selected reasons to post the cats’ comings and goings on Twitter (as GusAndPenny) and Twitpic.

The cats do a lot of going in and out.

At night and on dim days, the reflection of a clock shows up:

Getting distracted

After reading that Dr. George Tiller had been murdered in Kansas by a Christian terrorist, I stayed up half the night reading comments and news with a case of SIWOTI.

First, I watched Forrest Gump, which is not a bad movie; I like Tom Hanks as an actor. Then there was a bit of news and a vivid and polarized discussion on Science Blogs.

I went to bed at a ridiculous hour and declined to get up at 6:30 and go swimming.