Today, the creation of a local station came one step closer to becoming a reality, but it’s a bit of a bitter one.

About a year later, my wife and I have bought a house and are now living a mere five minute walk from the Grand River in beautiful Cambridge. We love it here. But we’re disappointed with today’s announcement: that a new CBC station for Kitchener-Waterloo won’t include Cambridge or the townships.

Disappointed because if we were to take a breezy five minute drive we would be in Kitchener. Disappointed because we share a bus service, a mutually-accessible library system, a government, and two rivers. Disappointed because we’re all part of the same region and many of us identify as such. Disappointed because the University of Waterloo, arguably the hub for our region’s intelligentsia, now has affiliated campuses in both Cambridge and Stratford.

With transit initiatives bringing the whole region closer together, one has to wonder why a new CBC station would service only Kitchener-Waterloo.

But there is still time for a rethink. With a station launch proposed for the fall of 2012 there is plenty of opportunity for those outside of the official coverage area to have a say. I suggest getting in touch with Kirstine Stewart, Executive Vice-President of English Services or Susan Marjetti, the managing director of CBC’s Toronto and Ontario regions. I will be doing the same!

Susan Marjetti
Telephone: (416) 205-5791
Susan.Marjetti@cbc.ca

Kirstine Stewart
Kirstine.Stewart@cbc.ca

Don’t get me wrong, a local CBC station is great news for Kitchener-Waterloo but it could be greater! Those of us who feel a little left out in the cold need to have our say, so speak up! An expansion of the station’s mandate to the whole of Waterloo Region only makes sense.

The dedication is to her dear Aunt Karin who knows a thing or two about dogs.

While cleaning out the basement today, I listened through a three-part series on CBC Radio’s Ideas called Dogs Themselves.

It tackles the way we’ve perceived dogs in the past and how we perceive them today; myths and confusions about dogs; and all kinds of anecdotal as well as scientific advice on training and getting along with dogs.

The series is very interesting and I’d recommend it to anyone who owns a dog or is looking at adopting one into their family.

Link: Dogs Themselves

Ah, the sweet scent of controversy and free speech.

Over the weekend I wrote a little article called Stop Riding Your Bike. It was an open letter to cyclists in Waterloo Region. As intended, it was controversial.

Because comments are spread out over this website as well as the Waterloo Bikes blog I’d like to respond to everything in this follow-up article. It’ll be much more organized that way, I think, and give us a chance to carry on this lovely debate and dialogue.

Cyclists and Helmets

Personally, I wear a helmet when I ride my bike because I’m not an idiot. But I acknowledge that, in Ontario, adults have the right to choose. For the most part, my gripe (and some commenters openly acknowledged that they didn’t even read it — despite responding) was centered around helmetless parents biking with their kids.

Parents, if you aren’t wearing a helmet out of principle then why make your kids wear one? How likely is it that a police officer is going to drive by and see you and give you a ticket? Why not make a principled stand if you’re so opposed to helmets that you won’t wear one yourself. More likely, I think that those biking without helmets, yet forcing their children to wear them, are simply not thinking things through, hence my article. A brain-damaged parent generally has a rougher time caring for his children. It isn’t rocket science.

Now I know helmets, in general, are a more controversial topic and I know there are loads of cyclists out there who choose not to wear them. That’s their choice, but I still think it’s idiotic. No matter what protection we don’t wear, helmets will do what they’re designed to do: reduce head injuries. An argument that says we were fine without helmets “back in the day” is simply hogwash; we used to persecute homosexuals back in the day, too. Science and society have evolved.

Oh, the Bell

Responses on the idea that all cyclists need to have a bell drew some interesting responses.

I certainly like Mike’s idea of upgrading the bell to an air horn, although that’s certain to disrupt a pedestrian’s peaceful walk through the park if I come up behind and, as a warning, let off my air horn.

I acknowledge that lots of people find the bell to be a bit ridiculous, but I’m only speaking from experience. I’ve used my bell on several occasions both riding on trails and commuting into work. It’s only courtesy, I think, to allow pedestrians the chance to get out of the way.

Again, I acknowledge that the bell alone isn’t the solution. Cyclists need to figure out how to safely pass as well. And I understand that when pedestrians are walking three or four abreast on a path it’s difficult. Pedestrians, too, need to respect cyclists and perhaps I should’ve been a little more clear about that. Just as many, perhaps even more, accidents between cyclists and pedestrians aren’t caused by the cyclist at all.

Cyclists on the Sidewalk

I do need to back up here and make a few comments that I neglected to in my original article.

Sometimes cyclists need to use the sidewalk, that I need to fully acknowledge.

If you’ve ever tried cycling on the road in the Winter or in early Spring before the street sweeper has given the sides of the roads a really good scrub then you know how difficult it can be. In these cases, the sidewalk is likely the only option. Unfortunately, in our region and, I think, in most regions in Ontario the sides of the road become filled with garbage and debris throughout the winter and don’t get properly cleaned up until well into the Spring. This was the case with West Toronto, too. In these cases, I fully acknowledge that the sidewalks are fair game for cyclists.

Rough roads, too, are a good excuse. Some sections of my commute this past Spring were simply impossible for my road bike to navigate. I don’t have “brass nads,” as one commenter pointed out, and I fully appreciate the need to use the sidewalk. In my case, the options for my commute were to take the sidewalk for the rough portion or to ride in the middle of the lane on the road. I never had to ride on the sidewalk only because traffic on the road was always light and I could ride in the middle for that small section. However, if traffic were heavier and I didn’t want to upset a huge line of drivers behind me I would’ve needed to use the sidewalk.

Cyclists with Lights

One commenter made the very good point that bikes should be outfitted with proper lights as well.

I totally missed this, but completely agree. There’s nothing to give cyclists a worse reputation than one of us dodging through traffic at 10pm without any kind of lights on their bike. Not only is it dangerous for the cyclists and the driver, again, it gives us all a bad name.

Improving Conditions for Cyclists in Waterloo Region

In the end, this weekend’s article was intended to promote discussion and debate. I think it accomplished that. But more so, I wanted to get some things off my chest, in hopes that we’ll all pause and give it some thought. It’s a simple rule of sociology that, as cyclists, we’re all painted with the same brush. If some of us don’t follow the rules, act stupidly, and do ridiculous things then we all face the consequences. We’re all biking around with drivers who can’t stand us. We’re all put in more danger than we need to be. Perhaps I’m nitpicking but I’m also aiming for the best case scenario.

One thing that I need to make clear is that I’m not writing to casual cyclists, and maybe that wasn’t clear before. Casual cyclists are a different breed altogether and I think that drivers can make the distinction. The guy riding his $3,000 road bike decked out in biking clothes who’s dodging around traffic, making no attempt at signalling, and cutting drivers off is not the same as the guy riding a dilapidated mountain bike balancing two shopping bags on the handles. Drivers can understand that. If the guy with the shopping bags doesn’t make a proper left-hand turn signal no one is going to be surprised. I wouldn’t cut the same kind of slack to someone riding the road bike that costs a month’s wages; they should know better.

My intention though was never to create a divisiveness between any groups of people in Waterloo Region. My aim, and I think I made this quite clear for people who read the whole thing through, was to raise some awareness of our actions. As cyclists, if we want improvements to our infrastructure, if we want respect from drivers and pedestrians, we have to act in a way that warrants it. People are inherently self-centred and selfish (actually, that’s the same thing really) but we needn’t be. My intention with writing the original article was to say, “Hey, you’re spoiling it for everyone. Stop.”

An Open Letter to Cyclists in Waterloo Region.

Stop biking. Just quit it.

I’m talking, of course, to the select few who ruin it for the rest of us. You know the ones. They give all of us cyclists a bad name. They galvanize popular opinion against cyclists because they’re the ones, the terrible ones, who stick in peoples’ minds when they think of cyclists. They spoil it for everyone else: For those of us who stick to the rules of the road, who cycle safely and courteously, and who don’t do stupid stuff.

Cycling in this city is pretty safe, but when you mix up a bicycle with fast moving car and truck traffic you’re never going to be guaranteed 100% safety. In the same way that you drive in a car or a truck, you can still get into an accident, you can still be injured or killed because of any number of facts. It’s the same on a bike, only you’re that much more exposed and up against vehicles that are much larger than you are. We aren’t one of those enviably bikeable places like The Netherlands or Sweden, but we’re not doing terrible either.

However, conditions for cyclists are made a great deal less safe but the chosen few who I’m speaking directly to now. Those terrible bikers.

You see, if a select few people choose to break the rules of the road and ride unpredictably and unsafely, they not only enrage drivers (giving the rest of us a bad name) but they make it increasingly difficult for drivers to safely interact with cyclists. Case and point, if I am driving my car and have no clue what you, as a cyclist, are going to do as you approach me at a T-intersection where I have the right of way, something bad is liable to happen.

The rules of the road exist to make driving predictable; cyclists who don’t follow them make it more difficult for drivers to predict the actions of all cyclists.

So my solution, to those cyclists who think the rules don’t apply to them: stop riding your bike.

Here are some of the idiotic infractions I’ve seen:

Cyclists Riding on the Wrong Side of the Road

This one has got to be my favourite. I know your mother told you that if you’re walking on the road you should walk against traffic. This is great advice, that way you can see what’s coming towards you and you can safely avoid it by, say, jumping off to the side of the road if an out of control car is headed straight for you. The same does not apply to biking though and, in fact, it is illegal to ride against traffic. As a bike you’re subject to all the same sorts of laws that apply to motor vehicles on the road and you have to ride with traffic.

It’s dangerous and distracting for drivers to see a bike coming towards them and, in reality, its harder for them to avoid hitting you than it would’ve been if you were going with the flow. Think about how many head-on collisions have occurred on the 400-series highways late at night when the roads are deserted. Even with 3-4 lanes at your disposal it’s incredibly hard to make the mental calculations necessary to avoid something coming towards you.

And it makes you look stupid, why are you riding on the wrong side of the road?

Cyclists Without Bells

This, in fact, is also illegal and ignorance of the law is, legally, no defense against a ticket. If you own a bike it needs to have a bell or a horn attached to it.

Too many times, as a pedestrian and a cyclist, I’ve seen other cyclists fly past a group of pedestrians, passing far too closely, and startling them. Worse, I’ve seen injuries occur this way. Cyclists who are all over the road and the sidewalk and give no warning to the human obstacles they’re trying to dodge are giving the rest of us, who are careful, a very bad name.

Once, on my bike commute to work, I had a fellow cyclist pass me on the outside of the bike lane. He passed so close and so quickly that he nearly startled me off my own bike! A simple bell, a little ring as he’s approaching, and I would’ve moved to the side, avoiding being startled and giving him lots of room. The same applies with pedestrians. Cyclists, especially on paved paths or sidewalks, ought to be courtesy to the people they’re sharing the space with. Know that you’re a lot quicker than someone on foot, and that a collision with a pedestrian is dangerous for everyone involved, and buy a bell.

Cyclists Without Helmets

These next two are certainly more contentious but they’re big beefs of mine.

First, cyclists who don’t wear helmets. It’s stupid, and that’s pretty much the end of the debate. But what really gets me, and I’ve seen this on numerous occasions, are the families of cyclists where only the kids have the wear head protection. You know, because their parents aren’t important or anything. To me, it’s the land version of the idiots who go out boating and make their kids wear life jackets and Dad goes without. Then the boat tips, Dad drowns, and the kids grow up fatherless. Smart. And, sadly, it happens all the time.

If you’re an adult, sure, you get to make your own decisions; I don’t support a Nanny State. But something’s gotta give. If your kids’ brains are important enough to protect what about yours? They don’t need a father?

Cyclists on the Sidewalk

Now I know this is contentious but since this is a letter to all those cyclists who are giving the rest of us a bad name, it needs to be said. Riding on the sidewalk.

In my opinion, the only thing you’re doing by riding your bike on the sidewalk is ticking off pedestrians, and giving all of the other cyclists who follow the proper rules of the road a very bad name. Cycling on the sidewalk is pretty much never OK and I honestly can’t think of a lot of situations when its necessary. If you’re on the road, it’s a little tight and someone honks at you, give them a polite wave (or a rude one, it’s your call!) and keep on going, you’re allowed to be on the road no matter how frustrated drivers get with you. If a driver puts you in an unsafe situation write down their license plate and call it in, it’s your right to be on the road.

Cycling on the sidewalk, however, is not your right. Bikes don’t belong mixed up with pedestrian traffic and cyclists who insist on riding on the sidewalk, for whatever reason, only give the rest of us a poor reputation with pedestrians.

Of course, this letter wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t at least briefly address the tenfold follies committed by drivers, against cyclists, every day. While I want to make it clear that there are a select few cyclists out there giving the rest of us bad name, there are many more drivers out there who are putting us, all cyclists, in daily peril. You guys aren’t getting off scotch-free.

Motorists Passing Cyclists

My previous bike commute into work took me down some nice stretches of road with great big bike lanes as well as some very narrow strips with nary an inch of road to squish my bike onto. In some cases, on both the wide and narrow sections, motorists were very mindful of me and either made wide passes around me or, if possible, changed lanes to avoid being anywhere near me. I appreciated these motorists, and was particularly amused and appreciative to the ones who would give me a comically large berth as if I were operating one of those “Wide Load” tractor trailers. It was nice a safe.

Still, some motorists were down right ridiculous. What was more scary than the cars and trucks who would pass within inches, accelerating as if to say, “Out of my way!” as they passed, were the huge transport trucks that didn’t even change lanes to get around me. That was more than annoying or frustrating, that was dangerous.

Indeed, on several occasions heading home on a stretch of road that crosses over the 401 highway, I would be nearly blindsided by huge transport trucks who decided not to inconvenience themselves by changing lanes when they passed me. Even though they could see me from at least 300m away and even if the left lane was completely empty. Instead they barrel right by, nearly sweeping me underneath their truck!

Mind you, there were lots of great truck drivers who changed lanes as they approached and gave lots of room before they merged again. I suppose, much like how a select few cyclists can give a poor name to all of us, the same holds true for motorists.

Motorists Not Yielding at Roundabouts

This is probably exclusively a Waterloo Region phenomenon but you’d think with the proliferation of roundabouts in our region over the past ten years drivers would have a better grasp of how to use them. Still, I’ve experienced near-collisions on more than a few occasions even during the brief month and a bit that I commuted into work by bike. Drivers simply don’t understand how to yield at a roundabout and wait their turn, especially when it comes to bike traffic. I’m just as relevant in that traffic circle as a car and if I get there before you then you are going to have to wait, I’m not stopping in the middle of the roundabout to let you in.

Motorists Honking at Cyclists

And this leads me directly into my last gripe: motorists honking at cyclists, because I’ve been honked about before by a driver in a roundabout because I was in his way, I guess.

Honking at a cyclist is just stupid. As a driver and a cyclist I would guess that 9 times out of 10 whatever wrong the driver thinks is being done to them, it’s probably their fault anyway. Honking at a cyclist is just plain bullying. Not only can they not honk back, they often don’t even have time to respond before you’re zooming around them and off. The best you’ll see is probably a wave or another select form of salutation in your rear-view mirror as you speed away. And honking at a cyclist is dangerous. Just like biking past a pedestrian without giving them any warning is dangerous, and you could startle someone into injuring themselves, the same applies to a person on a bike. If you honk and speed around me you’re liable to startle me. Then when I fall off my bike and you run me over it’s on your head the rest of your life that your impatience killed a man. So there!

All in all, it’s a matter of a few bad apples ruining it for the rest of us. For both cyclists and motorists, our cohabitation is being ruined by people who think they’re above the rules or who’ve figured out a better or faster way of doing things. And it’s those unfortunate people who are spoiling it for the rest of us, who are giving us a bad name. My plea is simple, if you’re going to commit these infractions, if you’re going to do stupid things that will make people mad at me when I ride my bike, just quit it. Stop riding your bike. Stop driving your car. Walk, take a bus, or better yet, just stay home.

In 1982, the brilliantly-named Institute for the Future, an agency under America’s National Science Foundation, published a study that was written about in the New York Times. The aim of the study was to predict what the North American household might look like in the future. Like most attempts to see the future, the predictions run the gamut from hilarious to naive to, in one particular case, down-right accurate.

For the most part, the article deals with some technologies that never really made it out of the starting gate back in the 1980′s: Teletext and Videotex. From what I can understand, this technology allowed a television screen to act as a kind of web browser, retrieving different “pages” that were broadcast by cable companies. In some cases, these pages could be stored and read later, in other cases it was up to the provider to decide what to show and when. It sounds like one of many precursors to the Internet. It also sounds an awful lot like 1984.

But, it’s the predictions that we’re concerned with, not necessarily the technology.

What the Institute for the Future predicted a society using Teletext and Videotex would look like is, in the end, a lot like what our society looks like today.

The first concern the article picks up on is the issue of privacy. Not only can the consumer choose which pages they want to view on their TV but their service provider can, in turn, see what they’re viewing as well. Funny, that this kind of privacy concern was so daunting in 1982. Today, through Facebook and Google alone, we allow that kind of information to flow freely back to advertising companies without even thinking twice.

The second concern of the article, however, is what I really want to touch on and this is work/life balance.

In a number of places, the New York Times article mentions that this kind of technology would allow the home to become the office as well. Data could be retrieved and sent and work could be done exclusively from home, it predicts. In several places though the article issues some dire warnings as well. This technology would enable a person to work from home but would also blur the lines between work life and home life; between family obligations and employment. And even if this particular Videotex technology never came to fruition, the study was accurate in predicting that technology itself would begin to blur those lines.

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to attend a Strategic Planning meeting for the school board where I work. We sat around tables and talked about things the Board is doing well, things the Board can improve on, and things that the Board needs to be aware of moving forward. At every discussion technology came up. During the latter two discussions technology was a big issue, and more importantly, the idea of a work/life balance.

At a table where almost everyone had a BlackBerry attached to their hip or hiding in their purse it was interesting to talk about expectations around technology, around connectivity, and when the working day is supposed to end. Here was an employer, the largest employer in our Region, and its employees, talking about how to achieve a proper balance between being available and accountable and turning technology off. This is what the article predicted would happen: as technology (never mind the brand of technology) made it easier to work from home, to be available, the line between when I’m at work and when I’m at home would blur. And how.

The lifestyle that our parents enjoyed in the 1980′s, during the time that this study was published, was largely one of going to work, coming home, and repeat. By and large, when most people got home from work there was a distinct separation there. The boss wasn’t going to call at 10pm, it was considered inappropriate.

Today, most of us are connected and plugged in most of the day, even when we get home, and whether its a BlackBerry, an iPhone, a SmartPhone, or old-fashioned e-mail we’re available, outside of typical office hours, to receive messages and to respond to our bosses and colleagues. And more and more frequently, there’s the expectation that we do respond.

The discussion that came out of our Strategic Planning meeting was interesting:

In the end we, meaning employers and employees, set the parameters around availability and our expectations. The technology is a tool, an enabler, and isn’t setting the agenda. We get to decide when we want to be available but it needs to be clearly communicated and mutually agreed upon. I know people who have walked away from a career because it demanded too much of their family time.

A major emerging concern with technology is that it enables us to do a lot of things, and we just do those things, without thinking about the consequences of our actions or even the actions at all. Case and point, answering cellphone calls during the middle of dinner. Priorities. Just because it rings doesn’t mean you have to answer it. We set the agenda, not the technology, and that’s incredibly important to remember.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t a new discussion. Obviously it was a concern in 1982 when technology began to ramp up its assault on modern society. But we still somehow seemed to get lost. We adopt new technologies without thinking through the effects that they’ll have on social society. We live in a world where if its newer it must be better but those two things don’t always go hand-in-hand. There are deep philosophical issues and questions here if you really dig deep. Questions of what drives our society, how we define progress, and what we value, but suffice it to say, if I can make a prediction or two, we are heading for a place where work/life balance, where connectivity and availability, becomes even more blurred, even less distinct but we have to remember, it’s up to us to decide.

One of the things I was most excited about when we decided to move back to the Region—aside from home ownership vs. renting, having a back yard, moving from 500sqft. to 1400sqft., having a deck and a BBQ, no coin laundry, etc., etc.—was the prospect of being able to bike to work.

In my excitement, I looked up the route on Google Maps and when I realized that it was a mere 9.79km, I was thrilled. After some experimenting in Toronto, riding down to the C.N.E. grounds and back to our apartment, I concluded that 10km would be an easy 30 minute bike ride, maximum. I was even more thrilled, taking a closer look, to see just what my route would look like. It looked beautiful. Winding, for the most part, along a nature preserve from Cambridge and into the Doon area of Kitchener. There were even some sections with bike lanes, a bonus!

So, instead of my normal 1-hour, gas-guzzling, car commute from Toronto to Kitchener I traded in for a 30-minute, completely carbon neutral, enjoyable bike ride.

And then sprained my knee.

I got in 3 rides before it hurt too badly, but they were 3 pretty good rides. On the first day, I was dropped off at school and rode my bike home. It was an enjoyable ride but the first thing I figured out was that my route wasn’t exactly the dream route I thought it was. It was immediately clear, trucking up Homer Watson Blvd., up and over the 401, that whoever designed the bike lanes along there has never actually biked themselves.

The bike lanes are incredibly poorly designed. They run to the right of the right-most lane. That makes sense, in most cases, but in the case of this stretch of road on two occasions the right-most lane is an on-ramp for the 401 (401W and then 401E). The bike lane ends at the on-ramp and then begins again on the other side. That means I have to somehow either dodge out in front of traffic trying to exit to continue in the bike lane, or I have to physically stop on my bike, losing all my momentum, and wait for a break in traffic. Neither solution makes sense.

A more sensible solution would’ve been to run the bike lane to the right of the lane second from the right, the lane that always goes straight, not the one that’s continuously exiting, ending and beginning again. But, maybe my urban planner friends will chime in with reasons why that solution doesn’t work either.

In any case, that bit of my commute is tricky. Especially when about half the traffic exiting there are tractor trailers. Usually they give me a wide berth but even after only a week of bike commuting, I’ve had a couple of encounters where I could easily reach out and touch the side of the truck as it narrowly swept by.

And it isn’t the only tricky bit either.

My bike commute takes me around not one but two of this region’s roundabouts.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love me a good roundabout. In a car they’re fun. On a bike, they’re dangerous. (I guess in a car they’re dangerous, too, but you don’t necessarily run the risk of being mowed over if you’re surrounded by steel.)

The one problem with roundabouts is that people don’t know how to use them. Biking home the other day, despite having properly entered the roundabout, signalling and the whole nine yards, I was furiously honked at by someone in a dark-tinted Honda Civic. I merged correctly, well ahead of him, and at 45km/h I was all the full-speed of ordinary traffic in the roundabout. Did he feel like I cut him off? I was going faster than he was and well ahead of him. As a bike in the roundabout I should be treated the same as a car, I get to go into a break and traffic, and exit at my stop. Did this driver know that? He seemed to think that my presence there was somehow a crime.

Oh, and then I sprained my knee.

It wasn’t an accident on my bike, as most of my colleagues figured, but rather a product of moving, lifting, and shifting boxes and all the yard work around the new house. Somewhere in there I bent the wrong way, or made an awkward turn, or something to sprain one of the muscles in my knee. Of course I didn’t find out until I was biking up the 45-degree angle that is the road to my school. I stood up, just a bit out of my seat, and felt a searing pain in my knee. I had to get off my bike and walk it the rest of the way.

But, what felt like an injury that would take forever to heal is much better a week later and I’ve been biking again starting yesterday. And just in time for our Region’s Commuter Challenge and today’s Bike to Work Day.

And, in the end, my bike commute is pretty sweet as far as bike commutes go. I don’t have to fight with inner-city traffic. I get beautiful views and smells along the nature preserve. And even though some morning’s I’m fighting against a 25km/h head wind, I get to experience and exhilarating 25km/h tail wind pushing me all the way home.

Instead of taking the car and spending a million dollars a week all I have is the cost of my bike. I’m not stuck on the 427S every night. I get to exercise, twice every day, and other than the occasionally embarrassing old man moment, my emissions are zero.

Well, look who it is…

It’s been over a month since this site has last seen any activity and there are good reasons why. First of all, my wife Maria and I moved. From Toronto to Cambridge. Moving is busy business and so while we packed, moved, unpacked, and got settled in to our new house this site took a bit of a back seat. Now that we’re here, and I feel like I can finally breathe, I thought it was time to head back out into the blogosphere. Pee on my little corner of the Internet to remind y’all that I’m still here. Eww, that was a gross analogy. Moving right along…

Before our big move though, we encountered some other challenges which not only hampered my ability to update this blog but threatened the very core of our Canadian democratic process—or, at least, my observation of it. Our Internet was disconnected. A full month before our scheduled “move date” (when we were set to move from Toronto to Cambridge) our Internet Service Provider. During the election. So, while one of the most historic elections in this country’s history unfolded we were forced to watch it with a good old pair of rabbit ears. No Twitter. No Facebook. And I couldn’t even blog the next day. We were totally cut off, and it was painful.

So there was the no Internet thing, and then the moving thing, and since we’ve moved, the Report Cards thing and it’s all been enough to keep me away from this site for a good solid month. But now that I’m back into the swing of things, it’s time to start writing again. And what better place to begin than posting a random, catch-up article talking about everything I missed and how I wish I could’ve written about it.

Expect more though, and expect an expanded focus. Even before our move to Cambridge I worked to become involved in our new community, and I love where we live. Expect more about Cambridge, Waterloo Region, and this local community. There’s a lot going on right now in the Region, among other things, the hotly debated issue of Rapid Transit, so there’s a lot to write about. And, expect more reviews of movies, television shows, and music. With my busy 2-hour-a-day commute I didn’t have much time to write about all of the things I was interested in but now, with more time in the day, I can write not only more often, but about more things. I look forward to that.

For now, thanks for stopping by again. And, if there’s any doubt about what we’ve been up to please see the picture above. That’s 13 bags of yard waste: trees trimmed, gardens dug, and a lot of help from our families and friends.

Well I was not entirely surprised that traffic to my website increased heavily once the election was called—it happens every time—I was surprised, and shocked, and then in complete disbelief when I found out just how much it had increased by. I can only assume that being quoted in the Toronto Star during the Long Form Census bruhaha last summer meant I was squarely on the radar for political watchers and that I must’ve developed a pretty serious fanbase who were out there, in hiding, waiting to see what lucid and poignant things I had to say about our politicians this time.

Unfortunately, more traffic isn’t always a good thing and here’s the e-mail I received late last night from my service provider:

To: “Webmaster” <keith@thecorch.com>
From: XXXXXXXXX <XXXXXX@1and1.com>

Dear Mr. Little,

This automatic notification is to let you know that your account for THECORCH.COM has had unusually high traffic in the last 24-hour period and your account is being put into suspension.

Our records indicate you have used 3889% of your monthly bandwidth quota.

Charges for additional bandwidth are calculated based on the rate indicated on your price package. Your account is presently owing $7,847.33USD.

You can imagine the shock.

As I never intended to become such an important and esteemed blogger, I had never bothered to increase my monthly bandwidth cap limit to accommodate any extra traffic and thus, when tens of thousands of Canadians began flooding to my site, it wasn’t set up to handle that many visitors.

Presently, I have no choice but to take a few steps back from this site. Popular as it is, I cannot afford to keep it running. According to the e-mail (and I abridged most of the technical parts) the site will be put into suspension by 11PM EST but I can’t afford to keep racking up the bills until then! I’ve been trying my provider on the phone since I woke up this morning but their business hours don’t begin until 9AM and no one is at the office yet! You can imagine I’m in a bit of a state.

Either way, it’s been a fun ride… perhaps my next online endeavor will be a blog about spending frugally and climbing back out of bankruptcy. If anybody knows a good lawyer…

Criteria for making the list is simple: It has to be a recent item—something you can still purchase—and it has to be something that’s endured. To me, these are the greatest gifts: things that you continue to enjoy far into the future.

Badger Hair Shaving Brush

I’ve blogged about this here before. For those that shave their facial hair, shaving with a badger hair brush and shaving soap is probably the most pleasurable shaving experience you can have. Bar none. It’s better for your skin and it’s way more enjoyable. If you’re still shaving like a caveman with a can of foaming shaving cream you need to add a badger hair brush to your Christmas List immediately.

Nintendo Wii + Boom Blox Bash Party

I know a lot of people who got a Wii for Christmas one year, played it with the family on Christmas Day, and then let it collect dust in the entertainment unit. I’m not one of those people.

Since the release of Nintendo’s game-changing console there have been lots of titles, both good and bad, that have found their ways into retail stores. The initial flood of games saw developers releasing all kinds of party games in the style of Wii Sports. Companies thought they could capitalize on the family-oriented market by making a whole slew of easy-to-play, dead-simple games. Sadly, most of these games hacked on motion controls which made you end up having to swing your arms around like an idiot to hopefully, sometimes, unlock the right combination of movements to make the game do what you wanted it to do. But other developers took the high road, instead of flooding the market with ill-branded and poorly thought-through crap, they capitalized on the Wii’s unique motion controls to make a fun and enduring games.

Boom Blox Bash Party is one of those games. Created and conceived by none other than Steven Spielberg, Bash Party is an incredible addictive, engrossing, and fun game. Essentially, in a whole bunch of different styles, you’re building or tears down towers of blocks. Imagine Jenga supped up and sped up. You get to chuck bowling balls to knock down flimsy towers for points, you can shoot cannons at opponents block ships, you can carefully pull apart towers brick by brick, and more…

Of all the games I have in my library, Boom Blox is the go-to game any time we have people over. It’s fun—lots of fun!—and it’s very easy to pick up and play well.

Peasant Chef’s Knife

This was a Lee Valley special from my wife’s parent’s and I cannot say enough good things about it. The Peasant Knife is such a nice knife to work with that I would recommend everyone have one in their kitchen. It retains its sharpness seemingly forever, it’s incredibly well balanced and even though it isn’t a stainless steel finish (a trade-off for sharpness) it cleans up very well. Even when compared to a brand new, never-used knife for a regular set our Peasant Knife, after a  year of usage, was still far sharper and easier to cut with.

The Best of Talking Heads

I wasn’t a huge Talking Heads fan this time last year, but I wanted to be. So I asked for The Best of Talking Heads for Christmas. Since then, the album has been among the top three records on cost rotation on my iPod. It’s been a year and I’m still listening to this album as often as I did when I first got it.

As an album for someone who might be a Talking Heads fan but isn’t yet, this is guaranteed to please. I’m convinced that anyone that actually listens to Talking Heads immediately loves them. Buy them this record and you can’t go wrong.

Crock Pot

Our Crock Pot was a wedding gift but you can surely give it at Christmas as well. If you’re someone that eats food and doesn’t own a Crock Pot yet, put it on your Christmas List immediately.

The beauty of a Crock Pot, aside from being able to make absolutely delicious meals, is it’s simplicity and convenience. First, it’s pretty simple to make incredible meals. There are tons of great recipes online or you can pick up a cookbook. Making great chicken, for example, is as easy as throwing in some peanut butter and salsa. Making a roast can be as easy as throwing in a can of spaghetti sauce along with some carrots and potatoes. Of course, you can put more effort into your meals and come out with something amazing, too.

The convenience factor of a Crock Pot, however, is where I think it wins. Imagine being able to prepare a complete meal, like a pot roast, the night before. With a Crock Pot, you can! A meal can be put together and then slipped into the fridge. The next morning, take out your Crock Pot, set it up, and go to work. When you come home your roast will have been cooking all day, your house will smell great (heck, the whole apartment building probably smells great by this point!), and you’ll have supper. Our Crock Pot has a timer feature which I strongly recommend. Once it’s cooked the number of hours set it will go into “warming mode” to keep the contents of the Crock Pot warm but not overcook the meal.

Flashlight

I’ve shown a Maglite brand flashlight above, but I can’t really recommend one brand over another. In general though, a big flashlight is a great gift. I got mine last year and it’s seen so much use that I’ve already had to replace the batteries once (and it’s an low-wattage LED light bulb). A flashlight is one of those things that everyone really needs to have for convenience, for safety, and for fun. Nothing beats traipsing around the apartment with all the lights off pretending to be a burglar.

Wizard

Wizard is an easy-to-learn, highly addictive, and incredibly fun card game. In the same vein as games like Euchre or Screw the Dealer, Wizard is a game where you bid on the number of tricks you win and then try and match that number. Points are given for players who get the amount of tricks they bid on and lost for those that don’t. With Wizard, there are special cards called, of course, Wizards as well as Jesters that bring some different strategy on board.

What’s great about Wizard is that it’s not about being the first or the quickest to lay down a card. It’s a well-paced game and can pretty go for as long or as short as you’d like. All you need is the Wizard deck of cards, the score pad, and a pencil and you’re ready to go. And, as a pretty huge board game fan, there’s enough strategy and fun in Wizard, I think, to keep even those wary of card games pretty interested. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a highly recommended addition to any game collection.

That’s about all I’ve got for my list of the Greatest Christmas Gifts. I would love to hear some more ideas from readers so please feel free to leave a comment, or send an e-mail to keith@thecorch.com and I’ll add it to our list right away.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!