Archive for May, 2004

I just heard on the morning news that there is supposed to be a government announcement today of a big bundle of cash for OC Transpo, the folks who run the O Train here in Ottawa. Seeing as it’s O Train week on my blog (and I’ve neglected it the last couple days) I figured I’d let you know what that the plan is. Service is to be extended south to the airport and along an east-west line, the track is to be twined and we’re supposed to get new electric trains. Lot’s of fun for users of light urban rail in Ottawa.

Oh, and to correct a misunderstanding from a previous train post, I didn’t find the service of the London Underground to be disappointing at all. I’ve been to London a few times and have enjoyed using the tube as my primary mode of transportation each time. The frequency of service is top notch – you hardly have to wait three minutes for a train and there are stations absolutely everywhere. I just compared the lack of clocks on trains (and in stations too) to that of the O Train. I figure that public transport should also be a public clock — just so I don’t have to start wearing a watch.

So, a little before four o’clock this afternoon I started poking around for something that I could base my next project on. I had an idea of what I wanted to do — after poking around on a website I mentioned a little bit back (that’s a hint.) So, I found the base for my project and then the inspiration hit, you know how it does. So, I’ve got this awesome plot and I started working on it and I’m already learning new things — oh, it’s great! But this time I’m going to try to keep it a secret until it’s ready.

Here’s another hint…

Last night we had our small group Bible study from Church. We happen to meet at my house, but it’s lead by another fellow and for the past few weeks another guy has been leading us in a course similar to the Alpha course called Christianity Explored.

Our group had just started to get good while we were going through a selection of the Psalms a while back. More people were starting to speak up and we were having some good conversation and I thought we were getting to know each other a little more. We’ve been seven weeks into this new study, and it seems like we had to start fresh with the discussion. Granted, we’re learning how to lead this course, so we skip over a lot of potential discussion for the sake of covering the material — just so you know.

Anyways, last night we actually started discussing things again. One of the topics we touched on was “what does it mean to deny yourself?” I had a thought that I shared with the group and it was misunderstood. I didn’t bother to explain myself because the point wasn’t really important to the evening’s course and because one of my practices of denying myself is not to exercise my right to defend myself when I’m misunderstood. But it made me notice something…

These people really don’t know me. They’re comfortable around me, we have a good social time together, they often count on me to “close in prayer,” but they must not really know me and how I think. If they did, my little point about the value of the attitude behind the action wouldn’t have to have been corrected. It kind of bummed me out for a bit because I thought that I had made some headway in making some friends. I even went so far as to later mention, when I was asked to read a passage from Isaiah, that I had written an essay on one of the verses in Bible college — so much for not defending myself.

To make a dull story more positive, by the end of the night, I was feeling much better about our relationships. Three of the people at small group were deacon/trustees and they interviewed me for membership after the study. I think they got to know where I came from a bit and it felt like they got to know me a little better.

PS: Make sure you take a good look at the title of this post.

Continuing in the vein of Train Week with my blog I’d like to direct you to carfree.com. I first found this site six years ago when I was going to school in Minneapolis. It explores the idea of car free cities. There aren’t many of them in the world — Venice, Italy is probably the most well known. It’s odd that I’d be drawn to such a concept seeing as how much I enjoy my VW Bora TDI. But I’d love to live in a good car free city. Hey, wandering around Europe, especially Munich and Amsterdam was great, and I love riding my bike around Ottawa, even downtown. Maybe it’s not that long of a stretch.

I forgot to mention yesterday that on the train they had a digital display. It wasn’t as cool as on the ICE which has a speedometer but it did tell the time (which is more than many London Underground trains do) and destination station. There was even a bilingual woman who would say “Next stop, Carlton. Prochain arrette, Carlton.” She had an English accent and even spoke with it for the French words.

Take a look on the left for a map of the O Train route. I’ve found that it’s website has some good maps of the stations too. On the north end is Bayview, then south to Carling, under the canal to Carleton University, along to Confederation (with all the government offices) and finally Greenboro at the south.

I don’t often just come out and plug websites — or bands — but today, I’m going to do both. And, I’m going to do both at the same time. Pleaserock.com is the website of a band called Y-O-U. They sound great and have a couple of quirky videos on their website. The first is a flash cartoon for their song L.A. Lindsey and the other is a three-part mockumentary on a professional jump rope team a la This Is Spinal Tap. Nice stuff indeed!

It didn’t clear up much this morning, but it wasn’t raining, so I went for my O Train ride today — as I can prove with my ticket. I took some photos for fun, but since I’m not digitaly enabled yet, you’ll have to wait until I develop, scan and upload them before you can see them.

I rode through downtown and a bit beyond to the Bayview station of the O Train line. As I arrived, the train was boarding. I watched it and waited for it to depart. I bought my ticket (two bucks) at the vending machine and looked at the map as I waited. The O Train runs on the CN lines. At the north end of the line it branches off the main line and stops at the station. There’s a stop sign at the end of the track. The train has a engineer’s cockpit thing at both ends, so it doesn’t need to turn around, the engineer just goes to the other end and the train heads off in the other direction when it reaches the end of the line.

When the next train arrived — there are only two trains on the line and they run every fifteen minutes — I wheeled my bike on board and since the train was mostly deserted, I walked to a seat near the front where I could see out the driver’s window. The train started slowly, but once it was well out of the station it picked up speed. It felt like it was going a little slower than a London Underground train goes. It might be the same speed, but the O Train ride is smoother so it was hard to compare.

The first stop was Carling station, a little north of Dow’s Lake. My bike was still safe on the mostly empty train. There were probably less than ten of us riding. I’d estimate that the train could hold about a hundred people sitting and another twenty or thirty standing. After leaving this station we headed underground — and under water. The O Train travels under Dow’s Lake and the Rideau Canal to the Carleton University station.

At Carleton, the track splits and there are two platforms at the station, one for the northbound train to Bayview and one for the southbound train to Greenboro. The two trains meet at this station every fifteen minutes, so that’s why there are two tracks here. We continued through the campus and then over the Rideau river, just south of the Hog’s Back falls.

There was one more unremarkable stop at a huge government area before the end of the line, Greenboro — a big park and ride lot, bus station and shopping centre. The CN line continues south, but the O Train doesn’t. The engineer just switches to the cockpit at the other end of the train and heads north. I got out (with my bike) and and watched the train depart.

When the train returned, I got back on board, rode the rails to Carleton University and rode my bike home. Hooray for urban light rail!

… as seen from Monday morning.

I try to take notes on Sunday morning, to help me absorb the message that I’m hearing. Yesterday, my notes turned into a comic. I guess me and my humour weren’t on the same wavelength as the preacher. When I showed my cartoon to him after the service, he seemed a little stunned and lost for words. I wasn’t trying to challenge him or anything, I just wanted to share my comic.

A few of other church-related thoughts… Does anyone else feel bad about dropping crumbs on the floor during the Lord’s table? And have you ever woken up singing “Flipper, Flipper, Fliiiii-per. There’s just something about that name?” Probably best if not.

Oh, and get this, I’m milling about the crowd prior to the service and there’s a guy wearing a 25,568 t-shirt! So I walk up to him and say, “Hey! That’s my t-shirt! I made it! Where’d you get it?“ Gee, that sounds like I was accusing him of stealing it. Anyways, his name is Brian and apparently he used to live in Thunder Bay and he got the t-shirt at the First Baptist Missions Conference a few years ago with Keith Price. Small world, eh?

And it’s raining this morning, so I’m delaying my bike ride to the O Train station until it clears up.

Before I get to my big announcement about Train Week, I’d like to tell you what a wonderful day it was here in Ottawa. This, besides the fact that our new neighbours upstairs are worse than the basket ball playing neighbours I had above me at the Pickwick Apts.

Sunny, warm, no breeze at all. Jenn strapped on her inline skates and I got on my bike and we headed down the canal to the Hartswell Locks. Hazel hits the canal just a couple blocks above the Pretoria Bridge — for those of you with a map. The tulip festival began this weekend so there were lots of folks out (especially on the other side of the canal and Dow’s Lake.)

We split up at the locks and I headed into Carlton University to see if I could find the O Train (I know, a terrible name) station. No problem and as I got there the train was just pulling out going south. The O Train is Ottawa’s light rail transport — think GO Train but make it smaller, sleeker and more European looking and sounding. I followed the tracks north because I figured that the train must go under the canal just north of Carlton. I found the tunnel — cool! I also found out that it’s only two dollars to ride the O Train!

So, this week is going to be Train Week on my blog. Tomorrow after I take Jenn to work for 8:00 a.m. I’m gonna hop on my bike and ride past Parliament Hill to the northern terminus of the O Train then I’m going to hop on board and take the ride south through town out to the other end &mash; near the airport. I’ll take some photos and post about the train all week and then I’ll do it again on Friday and let you know what insights I have.

Just to finnish up on my afternoon outside — I hit the trail continuing south to the Hartwell Locks, checked out the Rideau Canoe and kayak Club, saw a car accident, rode around looking for more O Train stations (found one,) rode back to Hog’s Back falls and then home. Jenn was waiting in the front yard and we sat outside, read, drank fizzy water and talked about our future.

PS: Sorry, Doug, if this was one of those “What I Did Today” blog posts that you dislike so much. I could have told you my insights I had at church today — heck, if you ask me, I will!

Well, I could probably keep going with this Unfriendly Giant cartoon forever and still not have it quite perfect. I suppose it’s like any creative endeavor — it’s hard to know when to let it go, when it’s fit for consumption.

When is a song finished? When you start practicing it with the band? When it’s played live? How about when it’s recorded? Same with a publication. Is it really done when it goes out to print? How about a computer program — are they really done when they’re released? If so, why is there version 2.1?

So, while there are many, many things that I’d like to tweak with the cartoon, I think I’m going to let it be as it is. I could animate the legs, eyes, do proper mouth animation, add dumplings, keep the animation cycling at the end, fix the giant’s arms — tonnes of stuff. But, I think I’ll move onto my next project instead and try to incorporate the things that I’ve learned from no doing in this project.

Oh, and I had a good time at basket ball practice and bought chicken nuggets for lunch. No, wait, I didn’t.

I was riding my bike to Jenn’s office at lunch and went by “Esthaus Zum Doff-Kung” and in English it says something about a ”Chicken Boy” and German cuisine. Any idea what it means? Tom?