Stress Reliever #34

Back in my graduate school days, I remember one of the best stress relievers was to go for a cross-country ski. In my case, that skiing takes place in the rolling hills of the Sandilands. So to promote some relief from stress in my life today - I went for a nice 8km ski on the Blue Trail. Great to escape work for a few hours!

Print More Digital Pics

Oh the joys and challenges of digital photography! I miss the smell of negative film...weird eh? I finally printed 120 pictures from this past year of going digital. I have 880 pictures to go yet but I'm going to pick through rather than just print them all. I would strongly encourage anyone out there to always save back-ups of your digital shots - you never know when a hard-drive can crash! I save my new pics every month on dvdr or cdr. Anyone else struggle with printing out their digital pics? On my 43 Things page, it's one of the 43 things I'd like to accomplish!

AFC & NFC Championships

Well, in true exploreplay fashion - I need to express that my prophecies of who would win today came true! Got to love football! I'm rooting for my b-team Seattle Seahawks to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Superbowl. I always have that bitter-sweet feeling this time of year - I love playoffs but once the Superbowl is over there is this incredible emptiness on Sunday afternoons & Monday nights till the next NFL season begins in fall! Well - here's a cool factiod - I saw a Superbowl contendor in person New Year's Day! Good on ya Hasselbeck & team! I think both teams deserve to be there and I am hoping for a great game! Go Seahawks!

More Music

I spoke of being a little restless in my explore play blog. I discovered a reggae artist that may help with that escape to warmer places - Matisyahu. Bob Marley meets a Hasidic Jew - pretty wild stuff and he has a new album entitled Youth coming out in March . Apparently POD has Matis as a guest vocalist on a couple of their new songs on Testify coming out later this month. Speaking of reggae - I bought a cd by the Thievery Corporation which I've come to enjoy as well - The Cosmic Game. I guess I'm into kind of eclectic atmospheric stuff right now. I've had a recent interest in the video format of music again thanks to some wild videos that I check daily at Relevant Videos. Regina Spektor - Us is worth checking out...interesting music (classical meets folk rock?), Sigur Ros - Takk has some fascinating songs and videos, Kings of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street reminds me of a modern day Simon & Garfunkle, and I'm really loving all of Coldplay's latest video releases.

Restless Staying At Home Syndrome

I'm a little restless these days and I'm not entirely sure why. Going to Green Bay was an excellent escape but it was so temporary. I find that January & February are typically the months in which I am most edgy. Maybe it is the Manitoba weather, the lack of sun and the drudgery of shovelling snow? It could be worse - I could be in Seattle or Vancouver and dealt with 30 days of rain! In fact, we've had a phenomenal month of weather with many days of negative single digits - sure beats minus 20 deep-freeze. I have a number of friends who are travelling south and maybe that is it.

As someone in the educational scene I have the luxury of holidays in the summer but none in the winter when you really want to get away. I have a travel agent that regularly emails me cheap airline holidays and I've been tempted to just say uh...no class this week I'm off to Cuba. Yeah right! We hope to do some travelling this spring but it seems so far off! Well I suppose I'll just have to wander off in my mind for now...hmmm where to next New Zealand maybe? Fiji?

More Pics From Green Bay!

Here are some more shots I took with my camera during our time in Green Bay. Check out my previous post for a more detailed account of our time in Wisconsin complete with pictures.

Tickets to Packers Vs. Seahawks - Jan. 1, 2006

Vince Lombardi

Curly Lambeau

Inside the Atrium

In the basement of the Stadium

Walking through the tunnel!

Players going to meeting

#75 Grady Jackson - Defensive Tackle

Garth enjoying green nachos with gold cheese!

Grant eating a Jumbo Lambeau Dog

Defensive line practicing in the endzone

Favre warming up

#94 Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila Defensive End

Defense warm-up huddle

#99 Corey Willaims & #94 KGB Pre-game Hug!

#67 Grey Ruegamer

Cheerleaders

The view of Lambeau Field from our seats

#83 Wide Reciever Antonio Chatman endzone catch for the touchdown!

A missed opportunity for a phenomenal catch & photo

#31 CornerbackAl Harris after intercepting Seattle's ball!

Getting ready for the extra point!

#4 Brett Favre making a pass

Huddle in the endzone

Final Score

More Nature Pics!

Our family had a great time relaxing and spending time outdoors this past weekend at my parent's cottage again. I had the pleasure of teaching our oldest daughter Chelsea how to cross-country ski and Wendy & I managed to escape for a few kms of skiing on our own as well. Books were read, games were played, and fun was had. Interestingly, the local wildlife heard about the the big party and joined right in! We had deer, finches, grey jays, chickadees, nuthatches all on our front deck. Frankly, it is starting to feel a bit creepy how friendly the animals are around there...we even had a silver fox visit us one evening. I didn't get much of a picture as he was a wee bit skiddish and he came in the cover of night making a good exposure almost impossible without a tripod. Enjoy!

On of our friendly neighbourhood deer who likes to relax on our deck. At one point there were three white-tailed deer walking around our front deck. They even looked in our windows...

Deer eating some snow?

Creepy deer invasion - I took this one behind a bit of a snow drift hence the white in the foreground. I think it added to the creepy Hitchcock factor in the frame.

Some kind of Manitoba Parrot? I think it is a purple finch maybe a local ornithologist could confirm that.

Another shot of the finch.

A Nuthatch - quite a nervous bird as it lands for about 2 seconds grabs its seeds and flies away!

The classic but quick chickadee!

This is a shot of the cottage at night - I'll redo it with a tripod sometime. The windows are a little blurred as I hand held the camera.

A grey jay captured in flight - they like to freefall for the first half second before spreading out their wings.

Another shot of the grey jay

The silver fox - unfortunately a not well-exposed shot due to the lack of light. He had a quite nice coat - in the light reflected a silvery charcoal color.

Exploring Community

I've been chatting off and on with a few friends about what it would look like to create a more environmentally-friendly way of living that is more cost-effective? Right now to live off the grid is still has significant start-up costs but it would be much more economical to group multiple families together and share this enviro-technology. The other benefit to living with multiple family units is instant community along with the shared cost-savings! Ever thought about communal living?

My wife and I lived in a house with 6 other single young adults for a year (98-99) while going through a leadership development program at Medeba, a Christian adventure-focused camp in Ontario. It took some getting used to as a married couple living with singles but I can honestly say that overall it was an amazing experience. We had our private bedroom to ourselves but every other aspect of the house was shared. We had a rotating schedule with meal prep and clean-up, menu planning and shopping, etc. We shared the costs of living, computers & internet, TV, phone, etc. There were obvious struggles and conflicts but I think we learned much about interpersonal processes and real community through it all. There would obviously be some added challenges having kids in that setting but perhaps the benefit of babysitters in the next room over would offset that!

Don't get me wrong I love the house we live in right now as a family, the space and privacy we definitely enjoy but we also love being with other people! Is there a way of designing a housing complex that allows for both privacy when you want it but the option of community for times of meals and other social events? Benefits of such a Utopian communal lifestyle: stimulating conversations, support for one another during times of struggle, a sustainable and more balance living with the sharing of responsibilities in the maintenance and operation of a home, etc.

As a person of faith, I try to follow the teachings of Jesus and I see a clear call for followers of His way of living to reach out to others, to be in community, to share with others, to help those in need. Our society seems so opposite: is all about personal gain, materialism, individualism, competitiveness, keeping busy, privacy, and the result is loneliness and under-developed relationships. Most families need two incomes to survive financially - at least with so-called luxuries we choose like two cars, large houses, etc. That means both parents work while our children are raised by a public school system or public/private daycare. Considering the blundering of our governments - why would you trust a "politician" to raise your children. I don't even want to start talking politics on a blog as there isn't a party that I can fully agree with. Power corrupts - politics needs to be minimized or it gets out of control.

Getting back to community! Picture this - a small farm-like housing complex with a central community room (made up of a living area, kitchen, dining, etc.) and then separate hallways that took you to private living spaces for family units that could be divided into rooms as well. Perhaps wind technology combined with solar to provide electricity, some type of a geothermal heating/cooling system, would bring down the monthly costs we all endure but clearly take away from our lifestyle. Anyways - this is just a musing and not anything too serious at this point but I think it is good to explore ways to live differently and obviously live in ways that do not harm the environment. Part of my faith system is quite clear in that we are called to be stewards of this planet and its resources.

Recent Pics of the Friesens

Most of these pics were taken between Xmas & New Years...

Both Chelsea & Aimee love our rocking horse made by Grandpa Martens!

Wendy & Aimee enjoying some sledding at the cottage!

A mild Christmas results in Kiki's inspirational Hula-Snowman for my girls!

Dad (me) & Aimee enjoying Grandpa Friesen's new sled!

Up close & personal with "Aims"

Recent Nature Pics - Subject: Grey Jay

I tend to choose a subject every now and then for my photo compositions. A few years ago I spent a few winter months shooting Grey Owls. The week before New Year's we spent a few days at my parent's cottage and we were graced with some friendly Grey Jays - affectionately also known as Whiskey Jacks. They are possibly the tamest wild birds in Canada. They will eat right out of your hand after about 15 minutes or so of checking you out. My sister Keira (Kiki) helped me out with these shots being a human bird feeder!

Up close & personal - note the crumbs on the beak! Click for an even closer shot!

I love the blur of bird wings in motion!

Maybe a bit too post-cardie but hey 2 jays in a tree!

Another cool motion shot!

I love the snow in the shot and how the bird is all puffed up to keep warm.

The shots above take me back to a backcountry ski trip in Quebec in 99' with Medeba. I remember impressing the non-Manitoban contigent of our merry group with feeding the Grey Jays with some peanut M & M's. We actually stayed in a cottage called Refuge Le Geai Gris.

Exploring Green Bay

Well - we're back after our second twelve hour drive in 70 hours! My friend Grant, his girlfriend Nancy, my wife Wendy and yours truly left around 7:30pm on Friday night and headed for our epic trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Our little black Ford Escape did well driving through flurries, freezing rain, snow, slush, fog, and a few dry sections making it to our destination Lambeau Field on Lombardi Avenue around 7:30am! Below is my account of our trip and a display of some of my pictures!

We arrived in the mist but found breakfast at Country Kitchen down Lombardi Ave. and then headed back to Lambeau Field for a $10 tour at 9:15am. Below is a shot of the atrium and the statues of the two great coaches: Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau.

The picture above is the inside of the atrium - the marble floor has the markings of the field and actually line up with the yard lines. I admit to being somewhat emotional during the tour - I actually there at Green Bay! Lambeau Field was established in 1957 and is the oldest and longest occupied NFL stadium. Only Fenway Park & Wrigley Field have longer active homefield tenures in pro sports.

Private Box Visit

The field

The tour was well worth it as we got to explore the upper levels of the complex, including a private box visit, and a walk through the tunnel on to the field sidelines!

The tunnel!

Just before you exit the tunnel the following words are enscribed on a plaque: "Proud generations of Green Bay Packer players, World Champions a record 12 times, have run over this very concrete to Greatness." Inspiring words and an emotional moment for me to retrace the footsteps of some great football players. It all seemed like a dream to me although perhaps the foggy weather had something to do with that and the fact that I drove the 12 hours previous to actually get there.

Following the tour, we visited the Pro-Shop and layed down some $$ on some Packer wear! On our way out we walked past a number of the Packers driving in their SUVs to a workout or team meeting. A number of the players stopped by their fans to sign autographs. What a day! We decided to get some more food into our system and stopped by a local sports bar/pizza joint on Holmgren Ave for some pizza, drinks and the local culinary specialty: deep-fried cheese curds! We of course were pretty wiped by this point and managed to get some rest in our hotel after sitting in the hot tub and swimming in the pool. I should note that Dec. 31 happens to be Wendy's birthday and so we celebrated that along with New Year's at the hotel restaurant with some appetizers before heading to bed!

The next morning we woke up around 9am and got ready to go to the game. First off, we had to find parking for about $10 and then walked a couple blocks past endgate parties complete with bbq'd meats of all types including ribs, sausage, and even someone with crab legs! The weather was overcast but a balmy + 2 or 3 degrees celcius. We got to our seats early to watch the warm-up and it allowed me to get down to row 1 for some excellent shots of players.

The Game

Wendy & Yours Truly!

I am not going to go into the details of the game as you can read the article link I have above but it was a great game to be a part of as a fan. Some speculate that it could be Favre's final game and I'm not convinced. But if it was - I was there! It also marked Shawn Alexander's breaking of a record for touchdowns in a season but I admit I wasn't there for Seattle even though I will be rooting for them in the play-offs. Potentially I saw a team that could be in the Superbowl. I just love the game - NFL blows away any other sport...even hockey! It is like chess and soccer combined. I should also note that I love outdoor stadiums and even though an indoor stadium may be more comfortable I think it takes away from the game - the weather should be a part of every sport.

The Canadian Packer Fans: Grant, Nancy & Wendy (I'm taking the picture)

We had some phenomenal seats: Row 13 - right on the end zone line. We were in awe at how close we were to the field and were treated with two touchdowns on our end. The fans were amazing and we felt like we were at some bizarre family reunion! When we scored everyone celebrated together, giving high fives and whoops in community. Below are a sampling of some of my shots (I took around 87 pictures with my Pentax Ist-D S and a Pentax 80-320 lens) that if I had more time I'd describe each shot more fully:

A beautiful catch!

Favre chatting with Driver

Seattle's QB: Hasselbeck throwing a pass

Fisher completes a first down!

The Legend Brett Favre

#33 William Henderson - Fullback

Wendy's favorite player: #94 Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (otherwise known as KGB)

Classic Shot of Favre & the Offensive Line

The Huddle

Final Score - Packers 23 Seahawks 17