Starfruit

One of the issues here in Canada is obtaining fresh and healthy food. It's mostly very hard if not impossible because Canada has very limited sources of vegetables and fruit. Variety of vegetables are imported from the US, Mexico and South American countries but imagine how an eggplant would be if you import it from Mexico for example. I find it hard to believe that they keep it fresh all the way to here without adding preservatives to somehow.You can get limited number of fruits and vegetables here, mostly from greenhouses and some from towns in British Columbia but even those ones do not considered healthy, the first ones for obvious reasons and the second one for use of pesticides.
One fruit that we finally tried the other day was Star Fruit. We got one only to see how it tasted and I guess it was a wise idea because spending $2 on a piece of fruit that has not much to offer is enough. To me it tasted like a plum which was not completely ripe. I don't know about its popularity but to me that was enough! May be again if it was on sale we get a really ripe one to make a cocktail or smoothie. I guess that is the only way it could be enjoyed. While it has some health benefits, it has been strongly denied for the people with kidney disease because of a kidney of acid it has.
(Photo: The cut Starfruit really looks like a star!)

Toy

When I was in the school years ago doing my degree there was this little story about one of the English Instructors and a female student. The Instructor asks the students if they know the word that is used to explain the thing that people play with and a girl answers with a word which is not the correct answer. Then the Instructor says that she should consider whatever she plays with a TOY!

I don't know if the story is true or not but it's hard to believe that a conversation like this could be communicated with a male instructor and a female student in such a restricted learning society. After all now that I am thinking of the situation that we were in and studying I feel really bad inside of me. I do not want to remember those dark, quiet and depressing days.

What made me bring this story up was the vehicle that was being driven in front of me today. See the photo below.

(Photo: This Toyota pickup truck was in front of me when I was going home today. As you can see the owner or may be the previous owner has erased the last three letters in the back and the word Toy has emerged. May be that is his/her toy!)

Blade Runner

I first watched Blade Runner in the old country years ago, may be 15 years ago or more but did not get much out of it because the poor sound quality and poor English proficiency. Then in 2003 downloaded that amongst many other movies from the net, when downloading was still legal.

Never had been really determined to watch it completely until last week and that was when I realized what I had missed all those years: A great movie.

The only problem with Blade Runner is that it takes an hour or a little less to you to find the environment and the characters and when you really are in to it, it is the time that the story is about to finish. There are opportunities to make prequels and sequels but I don't know if anybody wants to do that. It has not been done for 30 years but it doesn't necessarily mean that nobody will not start that. I guess the strengths of the movie are good scenario (although many say it is far from Philip K. Dick's book), good special effects and good acting as well. Also I have to stress that Vangelis composed an amazing theme for the movie. I will buy the DVD and add it to my collection.

(Photo: Harrison Ford as a Blade Runner. For years I was wondering what that means until I saw the movie and realized that is just member of a police unit which goes after outlaws of some sort. Means really nothing. The terms I am not sure if it comes from the book or the writer invented it. Possibly the first. In the background you see Daryl Hannah as a Replica a kind of synthetic human which Ford is after)

Calgary Board of Education

When I decided to come to Canada and live the rest of my life I thought I was going to a country with understanding, thoughtful and smart people who most of the time, if not all the time make wise decisions. I thought I was going to a developed country. Then shortly after I lives here for only a few years, I realized that I was completely wrong! I know the situation at the other side of the globe is worse than here now, may be 10 times worse than what it was when I left but I have not burnt all of the bridges behind me. Could I go and live back there or not, is another question. One of the things that pissed me off really badly and made me doubt these greedy people's sanity was the lay off of the teachers in Calgary and other cities of the country. I lived almost 30 years in the old country and never heard once that a teacher gets laid off in there. I specifically never heard that the Ministry of Education or as they call it here Board of Education spend hundreds of thousand of dollars to move to a new luxury building and has no budget to pay the teacher salary! I really wanted to see the faces of those animal, greedy, pieces of crap who for their own comfort and luxury moved to this new building and then kicked the teachers out and cut their salary. You guys are the most disgusting, you make me puke and I wish I could puke on your ugly evil faces.
(Photo: Calgary Board of Education new building in Downtown Calgary with a Good Earth cafe on the ground floor where the greedy animals of the Board could go and eat their $8 breakfast sandwiches and talk about their boyfriends and girlfriends and Toilet Mexico all inclusive vacations!)

Competing Against Yourself

One of the issues that this economy in North America has, and I have seen multiple examples of this in Canada, is that the suppliers or better put retailers have too many locations to present their goods. You see this GM dealer here on this street and then you drive 5 minutes up the road and you see another one! In one shopping centre you see, at times, up to 4 different retailers with different names that they present the same brand! And every and each of them have a promotion every now and then which causes the other retailer to go to hibernation!
I don't know if they know what they are doing or not because this is how I see the issue:
The company doesn't care about the employees. They say OK we open this new location. If it works then we'll be fine and if it does not work, then we close it out and kick everybody out! Or they are so dumb that they don't understand that they are competing with themselves.
(Photo: This Oakley store just was opened in Chinook Shopping Centre while there at least 2 other locations under different names which present the same brand's goods!)

A Very Windy Day

Wind gusts up to 80 Km/h is one of the environmental features of Alberta. That is why they have a wind farm in south. Calgary is not immune to damages caused by wind at times. Today I went for my usual run by the Bow River and on the way back where I was going against the wind I almost could not feel my hands and was being push backward by the strong wind.

Then I wanted to get a little cash from the ATM at 7th St. and 8th Ave., SW and I realized that the authorities had closed the roads around that area apparently because debris had fallen off on the vehicles and had probably caused damages.

(Photo: Wind vane at Bow River bank shows how strong the wind is. Look at the beautuful blue sky in the background)

Parking for Olympic Oval Athletes

If you regularly go to the Olympic Oval but you are not a University student or do not have a ride I have a marvelous spot for you to park to escape those bastards who charge around $5 an hour for parking your vehicle.

If you are taking 24th Ave., NW, either westbound or eastbound, right opposite the University Gate, there is Udell Road. Take it and at the end turn right. Just after a few minutes you see signs at your right which allow you to park for an hour from the morning to 17:00 hours and restriction is lifted of course after that. It worked perfectly for me last Thu. because I parked and walked to my practice and it was after 18:00. It is less than 10 minutes walk. If your exercise or training starts before 17:00 I guess you have to find another spot unless you're sure that there's no enforcement in Underhill Dr. As far as I know at times the people of neighbourhood call the enforcement, so consider that too. Another idea I had when it was really cold was parking at the other side of Crowchild and getting in to the University grounds from the University Station but never tried that. The map shows that it requires longer walk, probably 3 times more than the Udell Road.

(Photo: This littkle map shows University Gate but does not name Udell Road but can be seen right in front of it at the other side of 24th Ave.)

Lack of Enough Snow

I went to Nosehill for a little running last Sat. and first I thought I would be fine because it was not too cold but then as usual I realized the strong wind was blowing and because of the mild temperature snow and ice was melting and I got my runners and socks socked and wet! While walking up the hill, look around and there was barely anybody around and I turned back and noticed a white spot in distance: C. O. P.
All around the are was clear and there was only the sky area and the pipe which contained snow. It reminded me of the problem they had in British Columbia back in 2010 when Olympic games was about to start. There was not enough snow on the slopes so they had to bring snow from the higher elevations with truck and who knows how much they spent on that!

(Photo: C. O. P. from Nosehill looking at south. I could not get a better shot with X2. I have to make sure that I will take my Sony in case I really want to have a nice photo)

Skating Requires Lots of Practice

Not many sessions left since I started learning Ice Skating. I have not accomplished very much especially because I did not have time to practice out of the regular University training. There are lots of movements that require lots of practice. There won't be any training courses after this because when the temperature rises, I assume, it will be more costly for the rinks to provide the proper temperature for Ice. I do not know how they do that but I know the Olympic Oval has one of the fastest ices in Canada. It would be interesting to read and learn about that.
Anyways I was there again yesterday and we were practicing basic steps of crossovers while I still am not able to do forward and backward bubbles! Three of the guys took nice dives and one of them, a woman probably in her late 30s or early 40s fell was being twisted but seemed OK after that. That was nice. I hope I can practice at least once this coming week.
(Photo: Olympic Oval provides good training for young kids. It's of course easier for them to learn at that age, not just because they learn faster and that's what most of the people think. It's because they have no responsibility and plenty of time to practice)