Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Local Landmarks

Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad and obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen
- from the song "Victoria" by The Kinks

Known by some as the 'City of Gardens', Victoria British Columbia is a smallish city of about three hundred thousand or so.

By B.C. standards, Victoria has a fair amount of history. The Hudson's Bay Company, let by James Douglas, founded Victoria in 1843. Much of the city still has a colonial feel... partially because of the historic buildings, partially because we have several British Sweet shops and partially because 98% of the population is white.

Victoria has an abundance of ocean related events and culture. There is the naval base in esquimalt. There are lots of cruise ships with tourists that flock downtown over the summer. We have a Tall Ship festival, sailboat races and paddlers fighting with developers over plans for a mega yacht marina.

There's lots for visitors to do. Do you like insects? Perfect. There is a Butterfly Garden AND a Bug Zoo. Do you like observing wildlife? Perfect. There are one million bunny rabbits breeding and shitting up at uvic campus AND an abundance of fat ass seals to feed at fisherman's wharf.

How about walking? Well you can walk the beautiful inner harbour and explore plenty of historic alleys through the downtown core. I've even included a map of some of the more popular alley's below... enjoy!


Thursday, July 15, 2010

LeVar Burton and Friends

Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow

I can go anywhere
Friends to know
And ways to grow
A Reading Rainbow

I can be anything
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow
A Reading Rainbow
- Reading Rainbow Theme Song

There was some pretty cool television shows when I was a kid. In Canada we had alot of great shows, most running on CBC. I've linked to some clips of some classics... looking back now these dudes were pretty cool.

Fred Penner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4frIsSEp03E

Mr Dressup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4frIsSEp03E

Friendly Giant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBuFZ-jxC8s

America's public television programming was no slouch either. Alot of children's shows have learning themes, but two programs from the US focused specifically on two different learning areas.

One was the show Square One, which was all about.... Math. Yes, a show about Math that was both entertaining and informative. And at the end of every show came my favourite part... Mathnet. Detectives using math to solve crimes? So cool.

Square One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXp3AMgbG6k

Mathnet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLjLeGUjio

Last but not least is Reading Rainbow. A show starring LeVar Burton who's engaging personality captured the attention of children everywhere. As we all know, LeVar of course went on to co-star in Star Trek The Next Generation, but in Reading Rainbow he really made his mark... who else can get you this excited about a shower in the toilet?

Reading Rainbow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0M-X70-MvM

Last night my friends told me that LeVar is now working on a comic. Its called ConCERNed and deals with the Large Hadron Collider. The Large Hadron Collider is the worldest largest particle accelator located in Europe. Some people are worried this thing is going to create a black hole and the world will end up getting eaten by itself. Others swear this thing can change lead into gold. I have my own theories about what's actually going on so I made my own comic...



Bonus! RUN DMC droppin' science on Reading Rainbow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOBDEhxd_WU