Trip Archives: 2002

More from the archives and saving stuff from deletion with the demise of my Geocities site.

In 2002 our first daughter was born and I wrote a thesis. I didn't go very far that year, nor did I go very often.

Night Paddle. Late August, 2002. Several friends (Rob, Joel, Kevin, Larry?, who else?) & I did a paddle from Beaver Creek (Fred Heal Canoe Launch) back to Saskatoon on the South Saskatchewan River by the light of the full moon. There were 2 canoes and 2 kayaks, each with a glow stick on the bow and stern so that we could see where the others were in the dark. We left around dusk (9:30 pm?) and arrived back at the boathouse by about midnight. This was an excellent experience. It was a beautiful night. We were surprised by a few beavers along the way. Imagine, your gliding gently along, able to see only the faint outline passing shoreline, the only sounds the hushed "blip .... bloop" of an unhurried paddle stroke, when from less than a metre away you here a giant KAPUCH! as a beaver slaps it's tail and dives. Visibility was not normally a problem, though we did find ourselves running aground occasionally on sandbars, but that happens almost as easily in full daylight as well.

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Solo Hike to Grey Owl's Cabin. Early November, 2002. Prince Albert National Park. The weather was cold with a bit of snow on the ground. I hiked this 40 km trip over 3 days, with just my dog for companionship. Leaving in the mid-afternoon, I hiked about 2/3 of the distance the first day and set up camp at Sandy Beach. Kingsmere Lake was open with a bit of ice along the shore in some areas. The second day I hiked the rest of the way to the cabin at Ajawaan Lake where I spent some time taking in the area, reading the guest book and exploring. Ajawaan was frozen solid, but I opted not to take a short-cut across the ice. I returned to camp late in the afternoon then headed back to the trailhead the next morning. Much of the time during this trip a cold breeze was blowing off the lake making it seem colder than it really was (-5C to -10C). On the return trip I cut across the ice and along the shore in the southeastern part of the lake over to the Southend campsite.

Shortly before I embarked on this trip I had something of a mishap. I was up on the roof of my one story house using a water hose to spray out the gutters while the temperatures were near or just below freezing. The ladder was set-up on the painted wood deck, which was now wet and possibly icy. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this and I stepped onto the ladder to descend. Predictably, the bottom of the ladder slid out and I came crashing down, landing on my chest. I had hollered on the way down, bringing neighbours and my wife running. Once I hit the ground, the wind was knocked out of me and I was unable to make any sound. That was a novel experience for me and thankfully I was able to breathe again after a few seconds. I got up right away, but quickly determined that remaining prone was best. An ambulance was called and the fire department was the first to show up. I was immobilized (an experience that put me at the wrong end of all that Ski Patrol training I had received), loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital. After being checked out, it was determined that I merely had cracked or bruised ribs.

It was a few days later that I decided to head up to PANP for some hiking. I had done a day-hike the day before in the hills near Little Red River Park and found that I could hike all right and manage the pack. Sleeping on a thermarest provided some discomfort, but wasn't too bad. However, I began to develop something of a cough over the weekend out. That gave me some grief on the trip, but it wasn't until I was home that things got bad. I developed a bad case of bronchitis. Bronchitis, with cracked ribs is something I hope to NEVER experience again, nor would I wish this on my worst enemy. Every time I coughed, which was most of the night for a week or more, it was like being slammed hard in the chest with a 2x4. The doctor gave me some prescription cough medicine stating that the over-the-counter stuff is pretty much useless. The prescription stuff she gave me contained codeine which at least helped to knock me out for a while.

Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design

Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design : Keynote address at the 4th National Design Convention at Istanbul on 8th October 2009.

Prof M P Ranjan

Prof M P Ranjan has been invited to deliver the keynote lecture at the 4th National Design Convention at Istanbul that is being organized by the Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. This gives us an opportunity to look at the forces that are influencing design today and those that have helped shaped it over the past five to eight decades since the Bauhaus and the Hfg Ulm schools in Germany. My lecture looks at the ethical dimensions in design and I am quoting the abstract of my paper below along with a couple of models that I shall be using to explore these dimensions in my lecture. It is supported by case studies that we had researched for the sustainability posters that we had designed for the World Economic Forum in January this year as well as some of our own work at NID that could illustrate these ethical dimensions as we go forward from here. The various ethical dimensions have been grouped into the three orders of design that had been written about in a previous post on this blog and the list of books from my design bookshelf is also quoted below for immediate reference.

Image01: Title page of the visual presentation titled “Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design”

Abstract:

Keynote lecturer at the 4th National Design Conference between 8th and 9th October 2009 at ITU in Istanbul, Turkey at the invitation of the Department of Industrial Product Design at Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and the conference co-sponsors, Koleksion A.S., Profilo and the ITU.

Our understanding of design has been evolving steadily over the past 100 years and in recent years there has been a rush of new research into a variety of dimensions and Ethics is one the many dimensions that have received research attention. In this paper we look at the various dimensions of design and at current and past definitions to see the contemporary understanding of the subject as we see it today with the aid of models that the author has evolved over several years of reflection and research. We then trace the evolution of design as a natural human activity and restate this history in terms of the major stages of evolution from its origins in the use of fire and tools through the development of mobility, agriculture, symbolic expression, crafts production and on to industrial production and beyond to the information and knowledge products of the day. This sets the stage to ponder about the future of the activity and of the discipline as we see it today.

With the use of a model the expanding vortex of design value and action is discussed with reference to the role of ethics and value orientation at each of the unfolding stages through which we have come to understand and use design over the years. Beginning with the material values of quality and appropriateness we explore the unfolding dimensions of craftsmanship, function, technique, science, economy and aesthetics that has held the attention of design philosophers and artists over the post renaissance period. In the last fifty years our attention has shifted through the work of several design thought leaders to aspects of impact of design on society, communication and semiotics, environment and even on politics and culture with some discussion on each of the major contributors in this ongoing discourse. The further developments that lead to systems thinking and on to the spiritual levels are introduced to place the ethical debate at the centre of the design discourse at each of these levels of engagement.

Some critical case examples are introduced to exemplify the arguments that have been made to establish the various levels of ethical actions that design has discovered and with these the author will argue that design is evolving to a more complex form that will require new kind of integrated design education that is already being experimented with across the world in the face of a series of crisis that we have been facing in industrial, economical, social, and most visibly at the political and ecological levels. These ethical lessons are still diffuse and disconnected in the fabric of design action across the world and we will need to find ways of bringing these to the hand, head and heart of design education if we are to find a new value for design that will help us address the deep crisis that we are facing today.

The full paper addresses the following six questions by expanding on each as we go forward with the discussions that each question entails.
1. What is Design today?
2. How did Design evolve from being a core human activity to become a modern discipline with a significant future?
3. What are the unfolding dimensions and orders of Design that we can call the “Ethical Vortex of Design”?
4. Who are the thought leaders who have anticipated these expanding dimensions of Design particularly from an ethical perspective?
5. Are there some critical cases in this broader filed of Design that could provide clues for our journey forward at each of these ethical nodes towards an “Integrated Design of the Future”?
6. How do we move towards a new Design education that can “Create the Unknowable – the future for all of us”, in an ethical manner and still be in tune with the needs of our times?
~

Image02: Three Orders of Design: Model showing the expanding dimensions of the vortex of design thought and action.

Thought Leaders in Design: List of books that shaped design thinking in India.

Image03: The Ethical Vortex of Design with the Three Orders overlapped showing the placement of design thought leaders from my personal view and reading.

Design Theory related books which I call the “Design Bookshelf”.

1. Bruce Archer, Design Awareness and Planned Creativity in Industry, Office of Design, Trade and Commerce, Ottawa and the Design Council, London, 1974

2. John Chris Jones, Design Methods: Seeds of Human Futures, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, London, 1970

3. John Chris Jones, Designing Designing, Architecture Design and Technology Press, London, 1991

4. Johannes Itten, Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, Thames & Hudson, London, 1963, 1975

5. Josef Albers, Interaction of Color: Revised Edition, Yale University Press, 1971

6. Paul Klee, Pedagogical Sketchbook, Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1953, 1962

7. Paul Klee, Paul Klee Notebooks Volume 1 The Thinking Eye, Lund Humphries, London, 1969

8. Paul Klee, Paul Klee Notebooks: The Nature of Nature Volume 2, Lund Humphries Pub Ltd, 1992

9. Lazlo Moholy Nagy, The New Vision: Fundamentals of Bauhaus Design. Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Daphne M. Hoffmann, Dover Publications, New York, 2005

10. Nigel Whiteley, Design for Society, Reaktion Books Ltd, London, 1993

11. M K Gandhi, Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings, in Anthony J. Parel (Ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997

12. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, Harper and Row, New York, 1965

13. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, HarperCollins, New York, 1969

14. Robert Prisig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, Bantam, New York, 1984

15. R Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path, St. Martin's Griffin; 2nd edition, New York, 1982

16. Otl Aicher, World as Design, Wiley-VCH, Berlin, 1994

17. Thomas Maldonado, Gui Bonsiepe, Renate Kietzmann et al., eds, “Ulm (1 to 21): Journal of the Hoschule fur Gestaltung”, Hoschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm, 1958 to 1968

18. Tomas Maldonado, Design, Nature, and Revolution: Toward a Critical Ecology, Harper & Row, New York, 1972

19. Gui Bonsiepe, Interface - An Approach to Design, Jan Van Eyck Akademie,Netherlands, 1999

20. Christopher Alexander, Nature of Order, Book 1 – Phenomenon of Life, Book 2 – A Vision of Living World, Book 3 – The Process of Creating Life and Book 4 – The Luminous Ground, The Centre for Environmental Structure Publishing, Berkeley, 2001 to 2004

21. David Pye, The Nature of Design, Studio-Vista, London, 1964

22. David Pye, Nature and Art of Workmanship, Cambium Press; Revised edition, London, 1995

23. Norman Potter, What is a Designer: things, places, messages, Hyphen Press, London, 2002

24. John. Heskett, Industrial Design, Thames & Hudson, London, 1985

25. John. Heskett, Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002

26. Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Pantheon Books, New York, 1971

27. Victor Papanek, The Green Imperative: Natural Design for the Real World, Thames & Hudson, 1995

28. Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, Volume 2, University Of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1983

29. Stafford Beer, Platform for Change: A Message from Stafford Beer, John Wiley & Sons Inc, London, 1975

30. Charles & Ray Eames, Eames Design: The Work of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames, in John Neuhart, Marylin Neuhart and Ray Eames (authors), Abrams, New York, 1994

31. Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Freedom from the Known, HarperOne, New York, 1975

32. Richard Buchanan and Victor Margolin, Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies, University Of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1995)

33. Victor Margolin, Politics of the Artificial: Essays in Design and Design Studies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2002

34. Victor Margolin and Richard Buchanan, Idea of Design: A Design Issues Reader, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1996

35. Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Books, New York, 2002

36. Donald A. Schon, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Basic Books, New York, 1983

37. Bruno Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., USA, 1987.

38. Bruno Latour, Politics of Nature: How to Bring Sciences into Democracy, (tr. by Catherine Porter), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA, 2004.

39. Hazel Henderson, Beyond Globalization. Kumarian Press, 1999

40. Hazel Henderson, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006

41. Bryan Czeck, Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train: Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop them All, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000

42. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, Harper Perennial, New York , 1996

43. Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon, Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet, Basic Books, New York, 2002

44. Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon, Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. Basic Books, New York, 2002

45. Klaus Krippendorff, The Semantic Turn: A New Foundation for Design, Taylor & Francis CRC, New York, 2006

46. Wolfgang Jonas and Jan Meyer-Veden, “Mind the gap! on knowing and not-knowing in design”, H.M Hauschild GmbH, Bremen, 2004

47. John Thackara, In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, MIT Press, 2005

48. Harold G. Nelson & Erik Stolterman, The Design Way: Foundations and Fundamentals of Design Competence, Educational Technology Publications, New Jersey, 2003

49. Bryan Lawson, How Designers Think, Architectural Press, New York, 1997)

50. Bryan Lawson and Kees Dorst, Design Expertise, Architectural Press, New York, 2009

51. Kees Dorst, Understanding Design: 175 Reflections On Being A Designer, Gingko Press, Berkeley, 2004 & 2006

52. Peter G. Rowe, Design Thinking, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1991

53. Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. University Of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1972

54. Frei Otto, IL20 TASKS, Institute for Lightweight Structures, Stutgart, 1975
~

Download full paper titled "Hand-Head-Heart: Ethics in Design" here -PDF file 360kb Full Text
Download visual presentationas a pdf file here - PDF file 4.8 mb visual presentation screen resolution

Download visual presentation at print resolution as pdf file here - PDF file print resolution 14.8 mb

Prof M P Ranjan

Reports on the lecture at Istanbul; have started coming in and these will be pointed from the links here below:

Designophy link: 8th October post on Designophy about the keynote lecture with images

Trip Archives: 2001

Yahoo Geocities is shutting down in less than a month and my site there will be deleted. Therefore, I've got to move some of my trip reports before they are deleted. Over the coming days & weeks you'll see them show up here at pawistik.blogspot.com.


Prince Albert National Park, Fish Lake, May, 2001. Four of us (K., Mike, Laurie, Bryan) hiked into Fish Lake in the South end of PANP.

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The weather was cool and it rained early in the weekend which chased everyone else away after the first night in the campground. After everyone left, the sky clear

ed and it ended up being a pretty nice weekend. If I'm not mistaken, this was our first time that we met Mike, or perhaps it was merely the first time we really got to evaluate him!

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Churchill River - Stanley Mission to Nistowiak Falls. June, 2001. Easy 4 day trip. Bryan, Rob, Rod & Jay, The inaugural NorthStar Expeditions trip! We were hit by a squall just after reaching our campsite on "Camp Island". We took shelter from the hail and downpour sitting underneath a tarp draped over a large log. Camp Island is a convenient, if rather small, camp spot several kilometers from Nistowiak Falls. A few meters away was "Shit Island", which is where you had to go to take a crap since there was very little room for that on Camp Island. You won't find these neames on anybody elese's map by the way. Nistowiak Falls was amazing, I highly recommend paddling there at least once. I think this would make an excellent destination on skis too.


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Churchill River - Devil Lake, Barker Lake, Rapid City. July 2001. Tandem Whitewater Course, Level I (3 days). Course was offered through the Saskatoon Canoe Club and instruction was provided by Horizon's Unlimited.


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Kingsmere Lake, Prince Albert National Park. September 2001. K., Bryan, Laurie & Mike. We went back to PANP, canoed into Kingsmere Lake and paddled the "Bagwa route". I think this might have been the time we saw a moose in the channel between Pease Point and Bagwa Lake.

Canoe Tripper Personalities

The following is slightly edited and taken from http://www.adventures.wildrec.net/general_info/The Canoe Tripper.htm. I can see myself, for better or worse, in some of these folks. I also see aspects of the people I trip with in the list.

The Canoe Tripper
Which describes you on a trip?

Flatulent Fred: Who gasses out the start of a portage with a massive release caused by a Harvest Foodworks curry dish. I mean, we’re outside… how can anyone be that toxic?

Tipsy McSwagger: who can’t manage more than an inch of water in the cook pot from tips and spills on the way back to the campsite from the shore.

Lord of the Manor Lyle: Whose tent is so big you feel like a tenant farmer in yours. And he still manages to drape, prop and dump his equipment all over the site!

Day One Dan: Who does his carefully calculated share of the chores in the first day and then waits and watches as others catch up.

Hypochondriac Harry: Every scratch turned into gangrene; every noise in the dark a bear with rabies. He boiled his water for half an hour to kill bacteria and parasites, but still had giardia cramps the entire trip.

Whining Wilbert: "Aren't we there YET" ..."how much longer", " this canoe is too tippy and its too slow" "you keep leaving me behind".

Fashion Show Freddie: Who has all the best and most expensive gear and just loves to talk all about all his shiny new stuff, while pointing out whats wrong with my old canoe and assortment of other battered and bruised items. Sometimes seen on a portage, snickering as I struggle past. Oddly enough, every year I overtake Freddy on the portage while he fiddles and adjusts things to make it easier(?) to portage.

Floral Flora: Scared of the dark and / or bush. Leaves the perimeter of campsites littered with white 'flowers' and other undesirable offerings even when there is a perfectly good thunder box just down the trail.

Clean Carl: Has to shave and have a bath daily. Not a bad thing but rinsing all his soap off in the water immediately in front of camp is.

Mr. Type A: Always trying to organize the perfect trip.

Garbage Bag George: Who packs "all" his gear in thin cheap plastic bags.

Bugged out Betty: Freaks at any insects around and constantly whines about bites...like we all need to be reminded that we are getting eaten alive!

Where did it go Willie: the guy who can never find his mug or flashlight (that he just had in his hand) or his TP or his plate etc. And he can't find them cause he just leaves all his stuff lying around and then forgets where he left it or it is dark. Of course...he borrows yours and them loses it!

Burn-it-all Bob: This is the guy who loves a raging fire and towards the end of the evening throws on ALL the wood you scavenged so there is not so much as a stick left for the morning fire.

Phantom-Paddle Phil: Whose stroke rate matches yours, but as for water displaced, it consisted of placing the blade in the water and allowing the forward motion of the boat to move the blade towards the stern.

Tip-it-in Tim: Who has to launch boulders/logs/ rocks down the edge of whatever cliff you are sitting on, so that all the wildlife within a 40 km radius is silent or gone by the time the echoes die down.

Early-Morning Earl: Who has to rattle around in the pots etc while it is still dark outside so he can have that morning java ready before its really morning.

Loud-Laugh Lenny: Who is always in the next site across the lake, and who can't discuss any topic without braying his irritating laugh like a donkey so that everyone on the lake can hear.

Cagey Camper: Who knows the duty roster off by heart. They can tell you who did what on which day - back five days and forward six. But the odd thing is - it's never their turn to do anything, it’s always somebody else’s.

Beer bottle Bob: He really likes beer, you meet him on the portage trying to make it across with 24 beers in the bottom of a sleeping bag slung over his shoulder, only to find there’s no way to keep it cold, then wishing he was British before giving up.

Gear Junky Jim: Always has the nicest and latest gear, but has absolutely no experience or know-how to use it! But he always looks good in photos.

Coffee Cal: Has to make his coffee as soon as he gets into camp. Makes only enough for him, and then of course has to drink and savour it real slooooooowwwwwwww, while camp is being set up and dinner is being made. Of course he never notices, even when told directly.

Buck Naked Ned: Alienates all other trippers on the route by being au natural as much as possible. Blissfully unaware of double entendres when asking other parties to join yours for a lunch. "Want some sausage and bagels?" He says while wearing nothing but a hat?

Raging Ronny: Totally out of control when they get mad; throwing packs and gear around on the portage and then later wondering "Gee this pot has a big dent in it. I wonder how that happened?"

Sour Puss Paul: If the slightest thing doesn't go their way...the rest of the trip is ruined...for everyone.

Fisherman Freddie: The one who does nothing around camp but has time to fish from dawn to dusk.

Lippy Louie: The one who keeps talking even when there is wildlife to view, never shuts up when relaxing by the fire.

Snag Boy Bobber: The one who is always decorating the surrounding trees for Christmas with his lures.

Photography Pete: We all love pictures, but photography Pete brings SLR + backup, 30 lbs of lenses and accessories, and will be busy getting a picture of a yellow billed Canadian prairie chicken instead of paddling.

Tired Tom: You've made breakfast and packed everything but the tent and his sleeping bag by the time he rolls out at 10am. See also Al Khaholic and Lonnie the Lolligagger. I may fall into this category occasionally. It is vacation after all!

Al Khaholic: Makes a habit of imbibing a little to much, and all your meals to/from the put in have to be at liquor serving establishments.

Forgetful Fred: You're bringing the stove, right Fred? You end up cooking over campfires. You always bring the really important items when going with this person.

Lonnie the Lolligagger: You tell Lonnie to meet at your house at 10:00 to leave. You tell everyone else 10:30, and he's still the last one to roll in.

Charlie Cheapskate: You get this, and we'll settle up later, right? Or, Well yeah you drove, gassed up and its your canoe, but I bought Tim Horton's on the way up! You think back to him grimacing when you got a large coffee instead of a medium.

Experienced Eric: 2 different types - Offers unwanted/unwarranted advice, and dumping or grounding is always your fault. "you should use a modified semi-J stroke and we would have cleared that hidden rock", OR "yeah I have paddled blah blah". Runs you up against a rock in class 1, and then dumps you with a perfect upstream lean.

Toilet Ted: The one who has to go to the washroom when you look his way to help with any chore.

Starvin Marvin: Checks the food barrel with increasing frequency as the trip progresses and becomes increasingly aware of (your!) portion size with each passing meal.

Boris Boolsheet: The guy who comes on the trip based solely on his professed years of backcountry experience and expertise. Only too late will you discover that his years of backcountry experience all took place 30 years ago in camp Sog-Ghee-Can-Vas, and that he is expert only in exaggeration.

Mal Lodgement: Mal tires quickly and wants to stop at the first place that he deems a “good place to camp” – this could be a dank, swamp-like bog area with no dry ground, mosquito hell or the side of a steep, rocky hill. Mal wouldn’t recognize a good campsite if one bit him in the arse, and the idea of paddling around the next bend or point to see if there is something better is anathema, Mal will go no further.

Talkative Tessie: has never heard a bird sing, the breeze in the treetops or a distant loon call. Mostly because Tessie has never stopped talking. Tessie can spend 45 minutes blathering on and on about some minutia in her life – a brake job on her car, her redecoration plans, her annoying coworkers (just imagine how they feel). The urge to whack Tessie in the head with your paddle is almost overwhelming.

Hopeful Hank: "Let's just go a little further, their could be a better site ahead" he says as you pass a site with sandy beach, flowing well, just enough onshore breeze to keep bugs down, & firewood the previous tenants left. You end up spending the night in a bug filled swamp on the only piece of land six inches above the water table for miles.

Tippling Tim: Has to stop at every Tim Horton's on the way to the put in, and after you take out, always looking for that last perfect cup of coffee. The only problem is, 30 minutes later he has to pee again, and therefore demands another Tim’s. After he empties, of course he fills up again!

Battling Bob: everyone is packed up and ready to go, and he has to clean out and sort his wallet, empty his entire pack looking for a safety pin, etc. It is a battle to get him on the water at any time, when everyone else is ready!

Gus Gottagetback: Says he can make the 3 day trip but then when he shows up he mentions about and hour into the trip that he has to be back early the last day forcing the rest of the trip to be rushed.

Phil Foodsucks: The guy that looks at the food you've prepared, packed and cooked for the large group and complains. Of course the same guy doesn't offer to carry anything other than his paddle, thermarest and sleeping bag on the portage, doesn't offer to help cook or do dishes.

Soggy Sam: The guy with the tent that leaks and inadequate rain gear. This wouldn't seem as bad if he hadn't shown up on the last trip with the same collection of cheap, crappy or poorly maintained gear. Usually found in camp holding a pair of charred socks (his only pair) over the fire on a stick.

Ted Trustfund: Ted has the best of everything. Carbon fiber-kevlar canoe, graphite paddle, four-season tent that cost more than my car.

Update: I found the source of the list on the myccr.com forums. It was written by a group of forum participants folks several years ago. It's an 8 page thread so read through it and see how the conversation went!

If 40-knot gales aren't enough for you....

...how about gusts to 50?

Thar she blows!

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, has a dry sense of humor as befits federal agency whose name sounds the same as that of the only guy who survived a flood of Biblical proportions. But its current statement, by NOAA standards, is positively hysterical:

"Gale force," in this instance, means 40 knot winds. (One knot is 1.15 miles per hour, so 40 knots is about 46 mph.)  If you want to know what that looks like, check out the Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System: 

That's right; the forecast for Monday includes 16-foot waves on the Michigan side of the lake--a prospect exciting enough that Chicago paddlers are already arranging carpools.
Meanwhile, consider this fair warning that our days of warm surface water are numbered.

Big East Fork of the West Fork of the Big Pigeon...No its not a joke.

Big East Fork!

This trip started on Monday with a classic Asheville drive session looking for something low enough to run. The funny thing is that when we left the house we knew it was going to be like that. It felt like it rained 97 inches over the weekend and it almost did in some parts of the south. Sometimes this can turn into a frustrating proposition but we had an awesome crew that was just interested in getting on the water and not worried about finding the absolute perfect thing. We focused on one watershed for the most part, the Big Pigeon area near Canton, North Carolina. We started with a quick run down the Little East Fork of the Big West Fork of the Big Pigeon. I know, I know, sounds like a joke, but its real. It's a hike up section that starts with a bang and ends with a fast paced continuous class 3-4 race back to the cars. With a closer inspection during the hike we saw lots of wood and very very high water for the top part. That's where the humility kicked in. "Wow that looks high!", we thought amongst ourselves. The word comes down from the upper reaches..."its really high!" "Hey do you guys want to put in here below the big stuff?" "Sounds good to me".

Driving

and Driving

We went on to do a short stretch of the Middle Prong of the Big West Fork of the Big Pigeon and paddled on into the Big West Fork that same day. More of the same put on below the big rapids and bounce and smile down fluffy class 3 and 4...without any eddies.

You don't necessarily ever come away from a day like that feeling like a hero but a little wood removal and some hiking with boats makes you feel like you have done something.

Put In at Skinny Dip Falls

Tuesday on the other hand was set up ideally. We knew that rivers would be dropping into perfect levels all over western North Carolina so we drove up higher into the Big Pigeon watershed to look at the Big East Fork. After a short conference with some other paddlers we decided it was a great level and off we went. I love the fact that we start this paddle off of the Blue Ridge Parkway and probably start actually paddling above 4,000 feet which in the southeast is pretty high altitude. The put in parking lot has great views of the Blue Ridge and a nice granite dome called Looking Glass. From there we hike in along a lush trail crossing a small stream and the fork at the put in Skinny Dip Falls.

The first part of the run is small and a little manky. There is a trail down to the first confluence which cuts out the shallow stuff makes the river much kinder but walking into the falls the put in are nice enough to endure the 1/4 mile of mankdom. On my first time down this part of the run was high enough that this section was moving right along. It made for an exciting but manageable day on the high side of good.

Once we gained the water of a couple side creeks the volume was enough to float most of the time and at the first significant rapids we were psyched with the water levels.

This run is a lot like other stuff in the Smokies, its very continuous, with small eddies, and fun technical rapids thrown in all the time. Throughout the run we probably scouted 5 times with lots of buddy beta scouting to keep the group moving along. The complete run from car to car was 4 1/2 - 5 hours.

Lil A Hole

Adriene had a fun little surf in this hole. I think I will call this the Lil A hole. It was a sweet little rapid. You come down from an eddie above the first drop in the background of this photo which is a little boofy boogie water then get river right for this sweet slide drop into a fairly stout hole that is pocketed out. Lil A came in angled and the drop stopped her quickly. I took time to get a couple shots at the beginning of the surf but it was looking a little rough so I reached down and pulled her out. That was fun.

Real Purty and Continuous

This place is beautiful

This is one of the cooler drops on the run. At the top of this rapid you came around a couple big rocks, big enough that you couldn't see anything and then dropped through a series of small drops and then down this technical section. Adriene had jumped out to scout and we ran on her beta so it was a fun way to roll into this rapid.

First Drop of Triple Drop

Gabriel is entering the biggest drop on the run in this shot. The rapid is called Triple Drop and comes in just after Greasy Cove Prong comes in on river left. This rapid is really sweet because of the different moves that are entailed. The first drop above is a tight bouncing drop. With a decision to follow immediately afterwards. Go left and deal with some power or nice boof on the right that is a little touchy to get to.

Second Drop of Triple Drop

This is the right side of the second drop. You can see the left side opposite of Gabe. You land in a moving pool just above the final drop which is about an 8 foot drop with major consequences over on river right which is very much in play because a good portion of the river is pushing right.

After Triple drops the run continues steeply for the next mile plus with very continuous boulder garden drops that for the most part could be run by eddie scouting and read and run but with the thoughts of all the wood we found the other day we scouted pretty much anything we couldn't clearly see completely. This section was probably my favorite of the day because the one right after the other the drops were coming at us constantly and we would take turns jumping out and giving beta, and that gave me the chance to take a bunch of photos.

Rapid Transitish Rapid

Nice entrance to Fan Rock Rapid

I call this one "In Over Your Head"

Lil' Gorilla

The Tunnel at the Take Out

I can't imagine a better day to be on this river. It takes so much water to get this thing running you pretty much have to be there when its raining but this day we had blue skies and crystal clear water because it had been running for several days.

Here is the slide show of all the shots I took that day. Later Shane

How to Find Work at Home Job through Freelance Job Boards

There are a lot of opportunities for work at home jobs but not all people know where to find them. If you have access to the Internet then you can easily search for your dream work at home job by looking at the various freelance job boards that are offering all sorts of work at home jobs.

The world has indeed become smaller due to the Internet. A freelance writer can easily get a job assignment from the United States, United Kingdom or even from Japan. He can travel the world in an hour just by surfing the various places in the world for his work assignment using the Internet.

Freelancers are no longer limited to finding work in their base locations because freelance work at home jobs are aplenty and they are posted in freelance job boards.

Looking at the job offers featured with the various freelance job boards can be daunting especially if you are a first timer. To do this, your have to use your search engine and type in the terms freelance work at home jobs or something like that. You will get several sites that offer freelance work at home job boards and you should choose the sites that are credible enough.

You will know when the site is credible because first of all, they do not ask you to pay them offhand even before you have found a freelance work at home job through their services. Most sites will offer free registration for freelance writers and you can register for as long as you have an email address where they can send the confirmation link.

Once you have registered successfully then you can start looking for the present freelance work at home opportunities and bid on them. But not all freelance work at home job boards requires bidding. Some job boards will ask you to send your resume and they will contact you if you made the grade.

There are a lot of advertised freelance work at home opportunities but the safest you can get if you do not have established contacts yet are the freelancer sites that only require a five to ten percent commission for every project you undertake. These sites also make sure that you get your payment through escrow, paypal or other payment modes.

However, if you consider freelance work at home jobs as a fulltime occupation and not just a sideline then you should not limit yourself to advertised job posts. You should also submit your proposal to the various sites that may be looking for freelance writers.

Concentrating on the advertised job posts will only limit your opportunities. If you want more work then you should look for work and not be content waiting for the job boards to post their vacancies.

The Internet is a world that is open to a lot of opportunities especially for people who want to work at home. However, the Internet is open to all people who have access to the Internet so you should also be careful in dealing with possible employers who may dupe you into doing something for them without paying you in the end.

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Serious butt-in-boat time

We love playing in the waves and practicing rescues, but last Friday we decided to simply paddle. In fact, we decided to paddle from Evanston to Indiana and just glide by Chicago's entire shoreline.

Hello, Chicago. Sharon paddles by without stopping.

We put in at Juneway Terrace Beach (technically a block south of Evanston) around 10 a.m. and headed south. We passed the familiar beaches of Chicago's north side--Leone, Wilson, North Avenue--and the still-quiet harbors--Montrose, Belmont, Diversey. By noon, we were around Navy Pier, and boat traffic was picking up. We exchanged greetings with visitors on the tour boats and paddled on.

Still life with Alec and tour boats.

As we got to Hyde Park, the wind and waves were picking up. We continued on, past Rainbow Beach, past the water filtration plant, to the Calumet channel.

The smokestacks of Indiana are closer and more beautiful than ever....or something like that.

That's when we realized we didn't have time for the final two miles. We had arranged to meet our kids back at 63rd Street at 5:30. So we turned around and paddled those last couple of miles in the wrong direction (from a making-it-to-Indiana perspective) but the right direction (from a meeting-our-kids perspective).

Arriving in the 63rd Street harbor.

We learn something every time we get on the water. This time, we learned that some of our clothing causes chafing, that it's easy to forget to take enough photos, and that it's fun, once in a while, to paddle past Chicago without setting foot on shore.

Steve Earle at the 2009 Ottawa Bluesfest · CBC Radio 2

Steve Earle at the 2009 Ottawa Bluesfest · CBC Radio 2 - Concerts On Demand

I'm finally getting around to listening to this concert that first aired on CBC Radio 2 earlier in the summer. Like most everything I've ever heard from Steve Earle, it's fantastic. In this concert he plays a healthy selection of Townes Van Zandt songs, no surprise at any Steve Earle concert, but even less so since he recently released the album "Townes".

"Townes used to say that there's two kinds of music, there's the blues, and there's zippity do dah. And this aint zippity do dah."

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Stuff we love, part two: Cags!

Of all the regular denizens of our day hatches, one has a special place on our gear list: the cag.

Sharon models a cag.

Its formal name is "caguole," a British term for a lightweight anorak. (An anorak is a hooded parka but, interestingly, also a British term for a person who is obsessively involved in a hobby. Hmmm.....)
The cags we carry are lightweight, hooded garments with a bungee hem that can sretch to fit over a cockpit coaming. We've only used them once on the water when a student seemed to be getting hypothermic, but we frequently pull them out on land and often put them on people who are getting cold and miserable. They fit everybody and have room for everything they might be wearing, including a PFD.
The effect is immediate, thanks to the combination of windbreaking and solar heating (particularly with our black one).
We could go on and on about how much we love our cags, but we don't want to be anoraks.

Taking advantage of a wavy day

Mariners and coastal dwellers consider nor'easters trouble. Paddlers on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan consider them a gift.
The forecast for today was NE winds 15 to 25 miles per hour and waves 4 to 6 feet building to 5 to 7. That's the kind of geeky weather detail that lights up the message boards and clogs up bandwith on Chicago paddlers' iPhones.
So yeah, we went down to the doggie beach/water trail launch site at Montrose. The waves were big, frequent and chaotic. But the water was still warm and friendly, so in addition to playing in the waves, we took the opportunity to practice swimming our boats in to shore.
We knew (or believed) a few things going into this: That boats travel more slowly upside-down than right-side-up, that you always stay upwave of your boat, that it's best to hold the end toggle and avoid putting a finger inside the loop, that anything loose would soon be gone, that breaking waves would cause the boat to lurch.
Some observations:
- Even though Alec was prepared for the boat to lurch in larger breaking waves, one wave managed to tug it out of his grip. It tumbled upright and waited for him and he was able to catch up with it.
- Sharon found it best to swim off to the side behind the boat so that she wasn't hit in the face or thrown on top of it by a breaking wave.
- Alec found that holding the paddle was easier if he kept it below the surface of the water.
Both of us were surprised by our lack of desire to come out of our boats in breaking waves. It seemed to go against everything we've worked on--the ability to stay in our boats and in control, particularly in challenging conditions.
But that's exactly why we did it, so that if it happens in the future unintentionally, we'll have some experience to fall back on.

Woof!

A lifetime of paddling adventures

A lifetime of paddling adventures - Winnipeg Free Press

Don Starkell, author of Paddle to the Amazon and Paddle to the Arctic, and a prominent figure in the books Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak and Journals of the New Voyageurs, claims to be a few kilometers away from having paddled the equivalent of three times around the world. See the link above for an article from the Winnipeg Free Press.

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Outsourcing Cad,cam,cae,aec Projects, Autocad Jobs, Freelance Work, Cad Symbols

Computer Aided Design (CAD) outsourcing has definitely become one of the trends in generating more business for CAD professionals nowadays. During a period of economic and financial crisis companies from the construction, manufacturing and other industries are realizing the benefits of using freelance CAD drafters instead of maintaining a permanent CAD work force. Cost efficiency and strict deliverability have become their primary concerns for solving their CAD needs. This ensures that the demand of freelance CAD drafters and the availability of online CAD jobs and CAD projects increase daily.

Survival in the CAD industry is guaranteed only if you are willing to dedicate your skills, expertise and professional experience to the B2B CAD outsourcing market. Working as freelance CAD drafter is a potential option for you to increase your income and extend your CAD business. You can search for CAD projects and CAD jobs in search engines but it is far more efficient to use special sites that offer CAD work and CAD community.

If you are planning to become a freelance CAD drafter, here are some of the things you might want to consider:

1. You should set up your online presence by creating an extended CAD profile. You can do that either by creating your own website or by using professional online services. Bear in mind that even though you have created your own personal web page, this does not necessarily mean that companies will find it and thus award you CAD freelance jobs and projects. You will have to list your business in professional CAD directories.

2. Create a good portfolio. Your portfolio is your presentation in the market. If you want to go freelance in the CAD industry, your portfolio should reflect what you are marketing. Always remember that your portfolio is your "calling card," make sure that you build it well. Some of the good qualities of an effective portfolio are organized, clear, and professional looking. Make sure that you include your best most presentable works.

3. Try to build and maintain good working relationships with your clients. Working online makes it harder for people to create and maintain good working relationships. You shouldn’t let this prevent you from developing harmonious relationships with your clients. All you need to do is to maintain good communication with your clients and be there when they have questions or clarifications.

4. Get work by promoting or marketing yourself. You can do this by signing up with an on-line marketplace, by building your own website, by creating a self-promotion piece, program or design, or by networking

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Mathcad Download from CADDIT, Joins PTC

Sydney, 10 September 2009 - Parametric Technology Corporation (Nasdaq: PMTC) Asia Pacific Channel has formally enlisted CADDIT for service and support of their engineering software portfolio. This takes place as new staff join the CADDIT central office in Liverpool, Australia. PTC Mathcad can now also be downloaded directly from CADDIT in Australia, with a bonus pack of seven industry add-on modules.

Mathcad offers a unique "What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG)" calculation whiteboard for visually solving complex engineering, scientific, medical and mathematical problems in algebra, trigonometry or calculus. Resulting 2D and 3D graphs may be arranged as the user needs along with original formulas, text, notations and graphics. Mathcad is better suited than average software such as Excel for documenting important technical or mathematical concepts. Mathcad is used by a large number of Fortune 1000 companies including Boeing, General Electric, IBM and Kellogg.

CADDIT.net offers an easy-to-use website for quickly comparing and buying CAD design and engineering software in Australia. Special pricing for Mathcad student/academic version as well as business and enterprise license discounts are now offered directly on CADDIT as well. “We are very fortunate to have recently acquired new staff who truly understand this software, and we will shortly be hosting a series of live webinars demonstrating how Mathcad can be a very inexpensive way for industry to solve common problems” states the company director regarding their new support of this powerful scientific and visualization software tool.

Selected preview sections for the upcoming scientific webinar series can be seen on the CADDIT forum.

CADDIT is currently offering Mathcad with a bonus pack of seven add-on modules: the full electrical, civil and mechanical engineering libraries, Wavelets and data analysis extension packs together with the Mathcad image and signal processing extensions. A 25% discount on single pc nodelock commercial licenses is available from the CADDIT.net website (for Australia only).

Download Mathcad for a free full-function demo from CADDIT.net in Australia HERE (Australia only).

Karrnnel

Karrnnel is my sister-in-law's brother. My sister-in-law and niece are featured in this video!

Canadian Please

CANADIAN SING-A-LONG!

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please
Even if in winter things tend to freeze
We've got the world monopoly on trees
And our country's bordered by three different seas

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please
We invented the zipper, we've got expertise
We made insulin to combat disease
Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

CHORUS
Brits have got the monarchy
The US has the money
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese
Koalas chill with the Aussies
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

Et si ce n'était pas assez
On a deux langues officielles:
L'anglais et le français
Ooh la la

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please
Where else do you find mounted police
Or go to the hospital and not pay fees
Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

And when freshwater is in high demand
We've got the world's largest supply on hand
So you know that we could make a pretty good friend
But it's even better if you can be...

CHORUS

So you're thinking to yourself,
"How do I live in this beautiful country?"
Well we've got some steps for you to follow...

STEP 1: Lose the gun
STEP 2: Buy a canoe
STEP 3: Live multiculturally
STEP 4: You're ready, there is no more!

We got beavers, caribou and moose
We got buffalos, bears, and Canadian goose
And we're sorry about Celine Dion
But she did do that good song for James Cameron...

CHORUS
Brits have got the monarchy
The US has the money
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese
Koalas chill with the Aussies
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The Greek chilled out with Socrates
Can't build a wall like the Chinese
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

In Kenya they have safaris
We've missed lots of other countries
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

A weekend without kayaks

This past weekend we headed up to Devils Lake, Wisconsin. We didn't bring boats. We didn't bring bikes. We didn't even bring camping gear. But we did bring family: the four of us, plus Alec's parents and his brother and sister-in-law.

Devil's Doorway. Alec's brother and sister-in-law are in the foreground.

An opportunity to take photos with a non-waterproof camera.

We stayed in the lovely Willowood Inn, hiked in the park, played lawn games (bocce, horseshoes, baggo, ladderball), and indulged our love of exploration.

Hannah samples the local flora: a morel mushroom, sort of.

Alec and Hannah playing bocce with Alec's mother and father.

Travel has always been a way for us to reconnect. We go somewhere with a plan; some of it works and some of it doesn't. Everybody has to be flexible and figure things out together. And in the process, we discover things about the place we're visiting and about ourselves.

On the way home, we stopped at Dr. Evermor's Art Park.

Hannah cuddles up to a scrap metal creature.

We all prowled the scrap yard next door.

We've included this post even though it isn't about paddling because travel, exploration and self-discovery are ( as it says in our blog tagline) "related passions."

progeCAD-Deutschland releases first free progeCAD Tutorial Software

This announcement is in English and German (German version below).
Weimar-Germany, September, 6th 2009 – progeCAD-Deutschland has launched the release of free tutorials for progeCAD Professional in German language. The tutorials are supposed to assist CAD beginners as well as advanced users in working with progeCAD effectively. The tutorials come in the form of an E-Book.

The first part is entitled "progeCAD-Tutorial 1". It addresses the absolute CAD-Beginner and is intended to make the start with progeCAD Pro as easy as possible. In 9 brief chapters basic file and drawing functions are explained. The examples contain also command sequences, which can be tested out immediately in the progeCAD command line. For better understanding many screen shots were added.

"progeCAD-Tutorial 1" can be found unter this web location: http://www.progecad-deutschland.com/training/progecad-pro-tutorials . This is also the location where additional progeCAD tutorials can be found in the future.

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Weimar-Deutschland, 6.September 2009 – progeCAD-Deutschland hat mit der Veröffentlichung von kostenlosen, deutschsprachigen Tutorials für das Programm progeCAD Professional begonnen. Die Tutorials sollen CAD-Anfängern als auch fortgeschrittenen Benutzern dabei helfen, progeCAD Professional effektiv zu nutzen. Die Tutorials haben die Form eines E-Books.

Der erste Teil trägt den Titel "progeCAD-Tutorial 1". Er richtet sich an den absoluten CAD-Anfänger und soll den Start mit progeCAD Pro so einfach wie möglich machen. In 9 kurzen Kapiteln werden grundlegende Datei- und Zeichenfunktionen erklärt. Die Beispiele enthalten auch “Befehlsfolgen”, die sofort mit der Befehlszeile in progeCAD Pro ausgetest werden können. Zum besseren Verständnis wurden auch viele Screenshots eingefügt.

"progeCAD-Tutorial 1" ist unter dieser Url zu finden: http://www.progecad-deutschland.com/training/progecad-pro-tutorials . Hier werden auch später die weiteren progeCAD Tutorials zu finden sein.