Photography (http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/2966453), travelling, astronomy, astrophotography, meteorology, blogging, spending time with family and friends, music, films, reading, writing, being outdoors, Canada and other places with lots of lakes and mountains, dossing on the net.
Music
Loving the old (Pink Floyd, Bad Company, The Free Story, Dire Straits, The Who, Glenn Miller, Moody Blues, Roxy Music, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Blue Oyster Cult) and the new (Muse, Massive Attack, Lhasa de Sela, Michael Buble, The Fratellis, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Corb Lund)...
Movies
Hard Core Logo, Spirited Away, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Contact, Armageddon, Lord of the Rings, Labyrinth, The Pianist, Elizabethtown, Forrest Gump, Bridget Jones Diary, Dante's Peak, An Inconvenient Truth, North and South. ..
Television
Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who, Torchwood, House M.D., Extras, Futurama, Family Guy, Scrubs, CSIs LV & Miami, Trauma, and Star Trek DS9...
Books
The Dream Thief, Moonseed, Harry Potter series, Shopaholic Series, Macbeth, His Dark Materials trilogy, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, anything by Michael Crichton or James Herbert, Stephen King, Sorrows of Young Werther...
Heroes
Neil Armstrong, Al Gore, Michael Palin, and my Mum and Dad...
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver, Canada
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Major: Geology
Minor: Astrophysics, meteorology
Clubs: Astronomy club.
2005 to 2006
The University of Birmingham
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Graduated: 2007
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Master's Degree
Major: MSci Geology with an International Year (UBC) - 1st
Clubs: Part of the staff:student committee (further proof of my geek-status), Birmingham Eagles ice hockey.
2003 to 2007
Hereford Sixth Form College
Hereford, United Kingdom
Graduated: 2002
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Other
Major: A-level maths, physics, chemistry, geology, general studies.
Minor: AS: ditto + german.
Clubs: The 'Let's hang around in the computer labs all the time' geeks club
2000 to 2002
Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls
Monmouth, United Kingdom
Graduated: 2002
Student status: Alumni
Clubs: Swimming, rowing and chess club. Chess club? Should I even be admitting to that?
About me: I'm a 24 year old geophysicist working in Aberdeen. I graduated from Bham Uni with a 1st in Geology with International Study and did an exchange year at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Hopefully I'll be living in Vancouver again as a permanent resident in a few years time. Not much else to say other than that.
UBC Visually Exposed (Oh sh*t, how UBC-homesick does it make me?)
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Gerry Butler aka the perfect perving material
Who I'd like to meet: Old friends and potentially new friends! Don't be shy...
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Hiya, don't normally accept adds from people I don't know but we do seem very similar. I did my exchange in Windsor, Ontario, and loved it so much. Do you think you have any sucess finding a job in volcanology? It would be my dream but reality tells me its unlikely to happen. I hope to do my MSc in geohazard risk assessment with an applied element so I have a fall back. What are you going to Norway for? I'm off to Sweden this summer.
What up? I found this website and thought i'd tell everyone, it shows you if anyone at school likes you... I dont know how it works but its really cool, its revealed a few people who have had crushes on me FOREVER, i called the person up and it was TRUE!! You gotta try it!
Hi Hon, Congrats on your Honours, wow, we are all proud of you, you deserve it cos you've worked hard, all the best, see you soon I hope, love Auntie Michele x
Hi Hon, Congrats on your Honours, wow, we are all proud of you, you deserve it cos you've worked hard, all the best, see you soon I hope, love Auntie Michele x
This vid was forwarded to me by Chris of REBEL SPELL. Damn funny stuff. The most entertaining thing is, Colbert is spoofing O'Reilly the entire time, yet he just doesn't get it.
Professor Mohammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
I read about Professor Yunus' principles in microbanking in 2004, when Bruce Mau's MASSIVE CHANGE exhibit was at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Dr. Yunus asked, "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?"
Professor Yunus started with a small $27 dollar loan to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted.
The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than $300) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent.
The Grameen Bank is now a $2.5 billion banking enterprise in Bangladesh, while the microcredit model has spread to over 50 countries worldwide, from the U.S. to Papua New Guinea, Norway to Nepal. Ever optimistic, Yunus travels the globe spreading the belief that poverty can be eliminated: "...the poor, once economically empowered, are the most determined fighters in the battle to solve the population problem; end illiteracy; and live healthier, better lives. When policy makers finally realize that the poor are their partners, rather than bystanders or enemies, we will progress much faster that we do today."
I had a difficult time tracking down his book, "Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty" over the Christmas season. With advertising and marketing encouraging unfettered consumerism under the guise of giving, what I sought but never found, was a collection of written ideas which challenged the very concept of this modern holiday.
Professor Yunus, an agent of positive change, an ambassador of hope.
In the year of 007, and with the current release of "The Good Shephard: The Untold Story of the CIA", which spy flick do you think is the best of all-time?
My pick for 007 all-time best is still "The Hunt for Red October" (1990) a cold war classic, revolving around the defection of a decorated Russian sub driver and his state-of-the-art nuclear ballastic sub. The Tom Clancy novel was based on CIA files of real events that took place in the 1960s, which was later remade into "K-19".
My other picks include:
(ii) "Grosse Pointe Blank" (1997)
(iii) James Bond, "You Only Live Twice" (1967) Starring Sean Connery.
(iv) "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)
(v) Jason Bourne series, "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004)
2006 was a year filled with more lows than highs. Personal tragedy, broken hearts, friendships ending, financial debts and family deaths have encompassed my existence, and that of people around me. It has been a year of heavy emotion, a year in which a black arm band was the fashionable accessory of choice for every outfit.
To use my ever popular sports analogies, 06 was much like the Vancouver Canucks' last season - filled with such promise and hope in the beginning, but for a few exceptional highlights, was a dismal underachieving disappointment.
In the global context, although the local economy is booming and jobs are abundant, the war overseas has taken a dark complexion, changing from a peacekeeping mission to a combat mission. The traditional role of Canadian foreign policy has shifted to the right, and men and women are dying in the desert, in a war that is unwinable.
Sun Tzu wrote, "No leader should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no leader should fight a battle simply out of pique. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. Hence the enlightened leader is heedful, and the good leader full of caution."
We have forgotten logic and reason, and blindly followed the US "War on Terror" into the very gates of Hell, "rushing in where Angels fear to tread" (Shakespeare).
But the 12 months did not offer all Doom and Gloom. The latter four months in the start of September has rekindled the flame of possibility, as old and new companions make ready to set forth on this bold expedition into the great unknown. We pack our bags once more, and begin our collective trek writing a story of 07. Let's hope it is a good story.
I'm not as naive to believe that Peace on Earth or Ending World Hunger / Poverty is possible. However, small victories of goodness against the tyranny of man is a possibility some of us are able to achieve. Help wage a guerilla war against evil, and punch a politican in the nads.
Just completed my final exam for the 06 year. Currently, my mental capabilities are that of a drooling six month old infant. In a few moments, I will have to collect myself from this post and begin a sojourn to the Church of Consumerism, to purchase over valued material items spurned on by media advertising and the memory of the 7/11 gift at 5:45 pm on the eve of December 24th.
I just wanted to wish you a Happy Holidays, Catherine.
May your meals be gluttenous, your gifts be shiny, and the exchange/return policy or origin of purchase offer decent compensation for that "it's the thought that counts..." being thrown to your friends like a hand gernade.
yus i have discovered studio ghibli :) have you seen them all? my personal favourites are spirited away (of course!), the cat returns and my neighbour totoro. have you seen everything made be them? i have seen all the miyazaki ones though i have seen very few non-miyazaki ones so they are next on the list...and looooookie what i found mwahahaha.....
It was pretty treacherous to driving back from school last night. I passed by two accidents on Main Street, one of them fairly critical.
I don't have a problem with the snow or Mother Nature, it's the idiots who inhabit the 604 roadways I have a problem with. Driver's in Vancouver are already horribly bad. Throw in bad weather conditions - Jesus Fucking Christ! Say no more, howie. Say, no more.
After I got home, I walked to a friend's place on Fraser Street seven blocks away, with Jeremy Enigk's "Frog Queen" keeping me company for the night journey. Weaving through the side streets, I traveled back in time, returning to that Farley Mowatt landscape locked in distant memory.
I remember as a kid, and in high school, walking through the snow during that eternal midnight, layered and bundled, with the rythym of crunching footsteps to keep you company. Sounds odd, but those are some of the best memories I have about growing up in the North - being out in the cold, trekking through the snowy night, and having an intimate conversation with Jack Frost.
It was peaceful. Quiet. I enjoyed every minute of it. I had forgotten how beautiful a winter night in the city could be.
And, near the end of my journey, a stranded motorist, a Volvo stuck in the snow. I walked up and gave him a push. Keep your wheels straight. Start in low gear. Within a few moments, he was free. He thanked me. I smiled. "No worries," and moved on.
Monday. Today's rainfall in the 604 reached biblical porportions, with major arterials and low lying areas flooded out around the soggy Northwest metropolis. The gray skies and the constant projectiles of Dihydrogen Monoxide placed a damper mood to those encountered throughout the day. "Unreal City, Under the [gray] fog of a winter noon" (T.S. Elliot, THE WASTELAND).
Here's a pick-me up to relieve that impertinent case of the Mondays.
I'm working on an academic research project for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), developing a Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, focusing on:
(i) CONSERVATION of agricultural lands (ALR) and environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs)
(ii) CONNECTION into urban and non urban areas to create an integrated biodiversity network
(iii) ENHANCEMENT biodiversity practices
(iv) EDUCATION of stakeholders and the public polity
(v) COLLABORATION with governments (local, provincial, federal), quasi-governments (airport / port authorities), farmers, land developers, land owners, NGOs, stewardship groups, educators, academics and the public, to achieve strategy goals
The proposed strategy will work in conjunction with the Livable Region Strategic Plan (LRSP), Official City Plans (OCPs), neighborhood community plans (NCPs), watershed protection, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and so on.
I am focusing on biodiversity corridors within urban areas, such as greenways, eco-buffers and streamside protection. These environmental enclaves act as bio-air filters, climate control, stormwater infiltration and detention areas, wildlife habitat / refuge areas, not to mention, providing recreational amenities for local residents and natural scenic green space for the mental environment.
Part of the project involves Community Outreach, and as members on the MySpace 604 cyber community, I ask what areas would you like to see:
- a plan of action
- achieve a direct connection with an eco-urban refuge and your local community at large
- your ideas, integrated design concepts, community policies / bylaws proposed to the OCP
- urban environmental refuge, habitat and watersheds areas you would like to know more about, "the vital life support system of the entire region..."
Send me an email / comment post regarding an area of interest, a priority or an eco-concern you have regarding biodiversity within the GVRD. Any assistance in data collection would be greatly appreciated.
Actually if you go to www.pixelloft.com and click on the music videos page I was the assistant director for the 'Ben Lee Tyler - Not my Fault' video. Apparently its going to be shown on MTV base.
The guys are really good. Love what is going to be their second single 'would you wake up the sun'
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