Month: April 2010

Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2010 Photos

On Saturday the 24th I attended the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2010 – I’d been to the event a few years ago, and back then it was much smaller. This time around, it was huge! It was also a little expensive – $25 at the door per person, and that didn’t get you anything more than in the door. It was a fun event, though it seems like they had too many people for the amount of space they had – it was crazy busy! It was really cool to see all the comics, action figures, graphic novels, famous people, and people dressed up as any number of different characters from comics, fantasy, and sci-fi. Lots of photographic opportunities if you were courageous enough to ask the people to stop so you could take their picture (sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t).

I took my Panasonic GF-1 to the event, but I really should have brought my Nikon D300. I thought I could get away with the nice and small GF-1 – especially after I stopped on the way to the show and purchased a 14-45mm lens (which is 28 to 90mm on the GF-1) – but ultimately I was really disappointed with the quality of the images from it. The GF-1’s images turn to crap noise-wise at anything past ISO 800, and I’m so used to shooting with the 20mm f/1.7 lens on the GF-1, it was an ugly transition for me to start shooting with an f/3.5 to f/5.6 lens. Picking up a new lens and having no practice with it is never a good idea, but at the time I thought I’d stand out too much if I brought my big iron (Nikon D300 + f/2.8 24-70mm lens)…there were plenty of others with big DSLRs there, so I should have just brought the damn thing.  The lighting was predictably awful, so more often than not my shots were ISO 1200 or ISO 1600 (since I abhor flash photography). Here are a few of the shots I took…

(Yeah, that’s Brent Spiner, AKA Mr. Data, above)

The Story of Bottled Water

“The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry’s attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.”

People who know me understand that I’m not a hyper-environmentalist, but I do believe that we are stewards of this planet and need to honour the gifts that it gives us. This video is extremely well done and cements what I’ve thought for a long time about bottled water: except in rare circumstances, it’s something best avoided. Well worth watching the video!

If You’re a Parent of a Young Child, or Plan to be Someday, Read This

“The current trend of over-parenting began in the early 1980’s when baby boomers – who ended up having fewer children, later in life – started having kids, and it has continued down the line. At first, Baby on Board signs in car windows proudly announced “precious cargo” inside. Today, however, it is not enough to wait until the baby is born. While pregnant, parents start their single-minded search for ways to create an über child – and there is no shortage of products to help them, including ‘prenatal education systems’ that claim to give Junior an intellectual, social, creative and emotional advantage. Once the baby is born, the race to keep him or her ahead of the pack intensifies – with baby videos, baby ballet, gymnastics before they can walk, and parents’ near-fanatic devotion to finding the right pre-school.”

I really like documentaries – though I don’t watch as many as them as I’d like – and when I find one that impacts me, I feel compelled to share it with others. This is one such documentary – it’s called Hyper Parents & Coddled Kids. Years before we had Logan, I’d feel a sense of bafflement watching the extremes that some parents would go to in order to get the very best for their kids. Sure, you love your kids, but does it really make sense to financially strain yourself to the point of breaking in order to get your kid a marginally better education or a vocal coach for what amounts to a hobby? Or how about spending $4000 on a birthday party for a one year old, as shown in the photo above? And thinking that turning one is, in the words of the mother, a “milestone achievement”? Talk about a warped perception of reality – making it to one year old isn’t an achievement in our modern world, it’s an inevitability. Aging is a biological certainty, not an accomplishment worthy of lavish praise. Celebration, yes. Praise for something that happened without effort or sacrifice? No. There’s a big difference between the two.

Now that I’m a parent, I understand more keenly the desire to provide the best options for your child, but I still think there are limits to how far parents should go…and when it comes to letting your kids go through the bumps and bruises of life to learn independence, I’m in complete agreement. As a parent, I want to make a big deal when Logan accomplishes something – but making it to age one isn’t one of those things. I love my son unconditionally, and will tell him so every day, but I won’t lie to him and puff up his ego to the point where he feels like he’s the Chosen One every day of his life.

Anyway, if you’re a parent of a young child, or one day plan on being a parent, I’d highly encourage you to set aside 45 minutes to watch this documentary. It’s truly fascinating because it shows the impact that this style of parenting has on the kids as they grow into stressed out, needy, dysfunctional young adults who can’t cope with life on their own after being conditioned for decades that they’re special, wonderful, and great at everything they try. If you like the documentary, or this post, share it with others.

Wondering What Happened to Wealthstreet?

If you’re in the Calgary area and have had any dealings with Wealthstreet or Dave Jones, the President and CEO of Wealthstreet, the above notice of bankruptcy of Wealthstreet Inc. tells you where the company is at now. I get a few emails a month asking me what’s happening with Wealthstreet, and now it’s official. I’m not an accountant, but according to page two of this document, there are $3.2 million in unsecured creditors, $942K in preferred creditors, for total liabilities of $4.2 million dollars. The asset side of the equation shows $40K in accounts receivable, $4.4K in cash, and $1K in furniture. Somehow this company that dealt with millions of dollars in investment money only has assets totaling $45K. Interesting how that worked out, isn’t it?

The sad part of this document is the list of unsecured creditors; there are 136 individuals and companies on that list – most of them individuals – who are owed large sums of money. $50,000…$100,000…one couple is owed $228,167! Entire life savings were wiped out, which I find disheartening. I feel very fortunate that we were able to escape losing virtually nothing directly with Wealthstreet, instead having the bulk of our money locked up in the battle with the now-defunct Concrete Equities – a battle that seems to be nearly won last I heard. I received a copy of this document because apparently we have an unsecured claim with Wealthstreet of $1…despite what the cover letter says about a minimum $25 claim. I certainly never filed any claim with Wealthstreet.

Worth noting is that the single largest unsecured creditor is by Rachel Poffenroth in the amount of $658,874. Why is that worth noting? She was the one-time President of Wealthstreet – she held the position when Ashley and I started dealing with Wealthstreet. Also noteworthy is that the second biggest creditor, this time a preferred creditor, is one Dave Jones, claiming $650,000. Given the corporate assets of $45K, I think they’re both out of luck. It’s a strange world we live in…

Anderson Silva: You’re Bad for the Sport of MMA

If you haven’t already watched UFC 112, stop reading this post right now.


First, a disclaimer: I try not to be too much of an “armchair fighter” – with no background in fighting myself, I really have no idea what professional MMA fighters go through in and out of the ring, and I think there’s a limit to the amount of criticism one can dish out when one hasn’t experienced anything remotely similar to what these fighters face. Just stepping in the ring earns my basic respect, but I’m so ticked off about this, I just have to write about it…

On Sunday, I watched UFC 112 with a friend of mine. It’s one of the first times I recall watching an event and feeling utter disgust and contempt for one of the fighters. That fighter is Anderson Silva. If you haven’t heard what happened, read this article first. What Silva did was beyond disrespectful; I think by now we’re used to seeing him dance around when he fights (he’s a prototypical counter-puncher if there ever was one), but he used to finish the fight. He used to knock guys out. He’s had some tremendous highlight reels, and he’s truly a gifted athlete. The way he moves and strikes makes him one of the best fighters on the planet. But the past few fights he’s lost his aggression, instead choosing to dance around his opponent. On Saturday at UFC 112, he crossed the boundary from being a bit of a showboat into the realm of being bad for the sport of MMA. Every fighter is an ambassador for the sport, whether they like it or not, and the sense of honour and respect that 95% of the fighters show in the ring is one of the reasons I enjoy the sport.

Anderson Silva spent the first three rounds of the fight toying with Damian Maya, putting on a ridiculous show that looked more like Cirque du Soleil performance than an MMA fight. He could have, and should have, knocked Damian Maya out. The next two rounds he danced around Maya, hardly throwing a punch – it got so bad that the referee threatened to take a point away from Silva for a lack of aggression. At the end of the fight, Dana White didn’t even put the belt around the waist of Anderson Silva – White gave it to Anderson’s trainer and walked away. Joe Rogan asked Anderson Silva one question, then ended the interview. The disgust from everyone who watched that fight was palpable.

Anderson Silva needs to re-think why he’s in the sport of MMA and change the way he fights the next time he steps into the ring.

UPDATE: This video below is quite interesting in light of what happened in the Silva fight. Irritating buzzing throughout the whole video though…

John Mayer Live in Calgary

On April 3rd I had the pleasure of seeing John Mayer rock out live in Calgary, and I captured a bunch of video, assembling it into a mini-concert, and I also took a bunch of pictures. I was shooting with my little Panasonic ZS3, so the quality isn’t great when you look at the full-sized images – but it sure was good to have the 12x zoom! We were in row 24, so anything less than 12x wouldn’t have cut it. The opening band was Michael Franti & Spearhead.

John Mayer Live Calgary

The Story Behind My Epic Photo Book Review

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I spent nearly my whole day on Tuesday promoting – via email, Twitter, forum posts, etc. – the longest article I’ve ever published. The topic? A 12-way photo book review. It weighs in at more than 15,000 words, has 87 images on it, and 12 videos. It’s the result of 7 months of work, and took every ounce of effort and willpower for me to complete. I’m one of those people who finds it easy to start projects, but sometimes finds it hard to finish them – and when you’ve got a project this big, with this many spinning plates, pushing through to the end can be a real challenge. One of the unfortunate themes for me in 2008/2009 was “review overload” – I took on too many things to review, said yes too many times, and as a result had far too many things on my reviewer’s to do list…and with this photo book review, I didn’t want to be the guy who requested samples from 12 different companies then doesn’t finish the review. Real artists ship, so I gritted my teeth and pushed through to completion. It was hard – really hard – but I’m glad that I made it through to the end. Continue reading The Story Behind My Epic Photo Book Review

Michael Franti & Spearhead, Live in Calgary

I shot this at the John Mayer concert last night; this was the opening band, Michael Franti & Spearhead. Not really my style of music, but really tight musicians. Good stuff. Be sure to look at the girl on stage using her phone – likely texting – while the fun is going on all around her. If there was ever an indicator of the problems some people in our society have of disconnecting and living in the moment, this is it.