tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83523322011-11-27T19:40:14.834-05:00Thoughts about life on Earth, as viewed from a Very Great DistanceBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.comBlogger5281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-88947579603587780982011-05-06T09:48:00.199-04:002011-05-06T17:37:20.432-04:00

I'll have my race photos from the 2011 Boston Marathon soon, so maybe this is a good time to dip back into Blogger, which seems to have changed a lot, and summarize my trip. Jan and I drove down to Boston on Saturday May 16th, arriving around dinner time. I had booked an inexpensive hotel on the outskirts of Boston so on Sunday we still had to drive into the city to pick up our race kits. We

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-72418328623734804762011-04-15T13:52:00.000-04:002011-04-15T13:52:11.747-04:00

Tomorrow morning Jan and I head down to Boston to run in the 115th Boston Marathon. Training has been going well, but unfortunately I stubbed a toe on my left foot a few days ago. This might be a challenge... Listening to: We Used to Wait by Arcade Fire from The Suburbs.

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-78717040658587428262010-11-04T13:06:00.000-04:002010-11-04T13:06:10.475-04:00

Perhaps like a comet I'll make a brief appearance here every few years? No, I'll find time for this blog again... This morning I spotted a post on Bad Astronomy about NASA's EPOXI spacecraft taking pictures of the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 from just 700 km away. Amazing. EPOXI travelled 24 million km to visit Hartley 2. Oh yeah, I had my 50th birthday on the weekend. Quiet family gathering

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-22756576522675759382010-05-05T16:47:00.001-04:002010-05-05T16:50:29.307-04:00

Last weekend I ran the Sporting Life 10K race for the first time. This is the "biggest" race in Toronto with 12,000 runners, but I've never got around to running it. It's also downhill most of the way, so it can't be compared to any other races...I managed to snag a complimentary entry a few weeks ago, so I hadn't trained much for it. In fact I ran an exhausting 35K training run the weekend

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-69469630426297900632010-04-01T11:05:00.002-04:002010-04-01T11:07:14.055-04:00

Around The Bay race start in 1896! On Sunday I ran in the Around the Bay Road Race down in Hamilton. 5,700 runners over 30K of roads, the last ten K quite rolling... I've done this race three times before but was feeling better prepared this year and hoped to get down from the low 2:20's to perhaps as fast as 2:15. Didn't happen. Although the weather was decent (overcast, cool and dry) I

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-21098043348531363432010-03-15T15:53:00.001-04:002010-03-15T15:58:08.323-04:00

OK, this blog has been neglected. Poor little withered thing! I've been busy arguing with climate change denialists, and boy does that drain a fellow... Here's a martian image to appease, this is an overhead view (naturally) of a landslide caught in mid-flow by the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Amazing. I found it on Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog. Click on it to see Phil's

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-44796387392118945832010-01-28T17:29:00.009-05:002010-01-30T15:23:32.792-05:00

So yesterday Apple introduced the iPad, their no-so-secret tablet computer. Kind of like an iPod touch with a 10" touchscreen. Nice! Want... Great screen and battery life, really nice interface and apps (plus it runs almost all existing iPhone apps), interesting digital bookstore. Fascinating speedy new Apple chip, the A4. But not gonna jump in. Money's tight. Wouldn't be prudent. Sorry,

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-11344852306135887252010-01-10T14:34:00.002-05:002010-01-10T14:35:09.557-05:00

I never realised until last night that the title of the comic strip Andy Capp was a pun on the word "handicap"! I just took it as a simple reference to the main character's omnipresent headgear... I present this as a public service to others in similar need of enlightenment. This long-delayed revelation is the funniest part of that comic for me.Not much to else to report. I'm ending a de facto

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-88992252236928118782009-12-31T12:18:00.006-05:002009-12-31T14:46:11.843-05:00

2009 comes to a close with a bit of a whimper this year. I've been under the weather for the last few weeks, with a bad head cold and then a pinched nerve in my neck. Miserable! Needless to say very little exercise has occurred, but there has been much consumption of sweet and fattening food. I dread getting on a scale.Tonight that changes though, whether I like it or not. I'll be doing my live

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-43606869512840959442009-12-08T12:57:00.002-05:002009-12-08T13:27:17.783-05:00

I just saw this image on the Bad Astronomy blog and it stunned me. It was recently recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope using it's newly replaced Wide Field Camera to view a relatively "empty" region of space for 48 hours.Conclusion? Not. Empty. Those are galaxies. Up to 13 billion light years away. We live in a big place.Listening to: I Believe in Father Christmas by U2 from All You Need is

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-36709428010190208952009-12-07T21:11:00.004-05:002009-12-07T23:10:00.656-05:00

Argh. After qualifying for the Boston Marathon in October I was nursing tender Achilles tendons. I took a wait-and-see approach to registering for Boston. You snooze, you lose; the Boston Marathon sold out earlier than ever this year! So it looks like my trip, and Chariots of Fire re-enactment, will be postponed to April of 2011...Other events in the life of this mildly-mannered blogger: I was

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-9447763720702319282009-10-22T15:22:00.002-04:002009-12-07T21:27:21.415-05:00

Last weekend I raced in the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon, doing well enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I'm still hobbling around the house... Racing was a bit of a last-minute decision as I only actually signed up six days ahead, but teaching a marathon clinic and my Ironman training gave me some confidence.This year I got a ride to the starting line from a friend, so I was able to

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-11136530323530392962009-10-15T18:31:00.009-04:002009-11-06T16:15:38.649-05:00

OK, it's been "forever" since I posted. I've been wasting my energy again arguing with climate change denialists. This weekend I'll be running on the Toronto Marathon, so that means that I'll owe myself THREE race reports. Ugh. But today I saw a photo of Mars on the Bad Astronomy website captured by the HiRISE orbiter... Wow. The black tracks are the product of dust devils. It's a wonderful

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-2243227450933340382009-09-19T22:53:00.021-04:002009-09-20T00:28:21.961-04:00

So the Toronto International Film Festival is winding down... I worked six nights at Roy Thomson Hall and saw just three films, all at other venues and the last two of them today. The Invention of Lying, Max Manus, and The Young Victoria. "Lying" was Ricky Gervais' entertaining new comedy that will be in theatres any day now. Max Manus was a conventional WWII drama with great performances and a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-62032517250160688352009-09-11T12:00:00.000-04:002009-09-11T12:00:03.892-04:00

I was volunteering at the Toronto International Film Festival last night, working as Volunteer Captain at Roy Thomson Hall. The Opening Gala was Creation, a biopic about Charles Darwin starring real-life husband and wife Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly ("English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his revolutionary theories on evolution and the [his] relationship with

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-70542560659795856902009-09-05T17:46:00.001-04:002009-09-05T17:49:27.654-04:00

The Toronto International Film Festival starts on Thursday night... I've been involved in some of the training and orientation sessions over the pasts few months and during TIFF (Sept. 10 - 19) I'll be volunteering at Roy Thomson Hall most evenings. This grainy snap is from inside the auditorium at RTH, a few minutes before the theatre volunteers arrived for their orientation.Today I drove up to

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-63907293769750879052009-08-20T23:56:00.003-04:002009-08-21T01:01:04.146-04:00

On the weekend I managed to let my iPhone 3G slip out of my pocket while riding my bike. Not an approved activity... The screen shattered into a crazy spiderweb pattern. When the new iPhone 3GS came out I had idly looked into an early upgrade, but the $450 cost put that idea out of my head pretty fast. Was I going to have to "turn and cough" after all?Looking down at my fatally(?) wounded little

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-48091461316857780722009-08-09T16:39:00.008-04:002009-08-09T22:44:07.628-04:00

So "Lake Placid", aka Ironman USA, has come and gone. I had a great time, but didn't get the result I wanted. I've been thinking about that, and I guess it's time to "put pen to paper." Here's the lead up. On the Tuesday evening before the race I drove to my parent's place in Cobourg for a short visit and the obligatory computer consultation. On Wednesday I continued on to Lake Placid. My bike

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-38225855333195909632009-07-20T11:29:00.001-04:002009-07-20T11:31:32.800-04:00

So I'm less than a week out from my next Ironman race, down in Lake Placid... If anyone cares to follow me online, here's the link. My race number is 1555.Training has gone well although I didn't always meet my training volume goals. On Saturday I was up at Wilcox Lake for a 2K swim, two hour ride and 5K run. The weather was great and it seemed like everyone I knew was there. All my Pro friends

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-71829184869526680462009-07-05T23:58:00.003-04:002009-07-06T00:25:47.222-04:00

Whew! I've just finished my biggest week of training. The next few weeks will be much easier, and then comes race day on the 26th down in Lake Placid. The City worker's strike hasn't affected my training too much as I've switched to open water swimming anyway. Seems like all my runs have passed by stinky garbage holding areas though. Saturday was composed of a 2K swim, 5 hour 160K bike ride (

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-15066883063825290662009-06-27T23:05:00.004-04:002009-08-09T22:51:44.531-04:00

Today was an epic training day. Up at 6:00 and on the go until 2:00 PM! Fabulous weather, sunny and hitting 30C, and I got in a great workout for all three sports: 2.1K, 33 minute open water swim. The City strike has closed all the pools that I usually swim in, so it seemed like a good day to get up early and add a swim as you can't lock the doors on a lake. 127K, 4:12 long ride (all the way up

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-88530332976314024222009-06-13T12:15:00.000-04:002009-06-13T12:15:17.476-04:00

I'm "tracing" up in Huntsville tomorrow. That's a "training race". The Muskoka Long Course race is an oddity; long swim (2K), short ride (54K), long run (15K). It was a world championship race back in the 90's and still draws a small pro field for the Chase (women pros get a head-start, there is a single prize pool). I earned an Ironman Canada slot in this race last year. I didn't know until a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-51254404773127706892009-06-01T23:50:00.003-04:002009-06-05T00:43:51.465-04:00

What wire, you ask? The surely-not-a-month-between-posts wire... Between working flat-out at the law office and teenage disputes with my son I've had hardly any energy for blogging. A bit of facebook and flickr juice, but not much there either... But there's been plenty to talk about. Maybe it's best to work backwards.PlaceTime Cat.Swim (750m)Cat Ovr Time /100mT1Bike (30K)Cat Ovr Time

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-51311112115084277452009-05-02T19:56:00.001-04:002009-05-02T19:56:38.432-04:00

In my last post I mentioned a new job. For the last six weeks I've been working in a friend's law office helping with their municipal tax appeal business. It's been a pretty hectic time as I came on-board just a few days before the deadline for requesting an appeal of the 2009 property valuations. The phones were ringing off the hook and I was learning the business on the fly! I did quite well

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-69687640611284525292009-04-20T20:23:00.003-04:002009-04-20T23:46:13.041-04:00

So the blogging motivation is dropping. What will my son have to read years from now when he tries to understand his self-absorbed father? No more getting sucked into climate change debates with pig-headed contrarians... I've also been working full-time lately and have a lot less spare time. More about that next post even though that is what the title is hinting at!The day after my last post I

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-25277565207223742212009-03-29T00:29:00.002-04:002009-04-20T20:23:44.705-04:00

Wow, has it really been a month since I posted here? Funny that the last post should be a report from a winter half marathon and this post is the night before another race (the Around the Bay 30K race in Hamilton). I'm fighting a pretty bad head cold, so I'm not sure if I'll "race" or just "run"...I've been writing during this intermission but mostly arguing with smug global warming denialists on

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-10277499820397089992009-03-01T23:45:00.088-05:002009-03-03T10:54:29.903-05:00

Today I ran in the "Chilly Half" half marathon out in Burlington. March 1st is not a warm time of year, and this year's race could have been described as fully chilly... It was -9C with a modest headwind added into the mix! How to characterise this? Well look at the photo on the right. This guy crossed the finish line a few minutes after me and he had icicles growing from his running hat! I

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-52723224405324225362009-02-23T22:51:00.001-05:002009-02-24T12:27:13.973-05:00

Back in September Danny Kassap, a friend of mine who is a world-class 2:14 marathoner, collapsed from a ventricular fibrillation at around the 5K mark of the Berlin Marathon. He was in a medical coma for two days after his collapse, his life saved by a spectator who performed CPR. Danny's collapse was triggered by a cold virus that had lodged in his heart muscles, a freak occurrence that has

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-75959418658113523252009-01-28T23:31:00.072-05:002009-02-05T01:02:38.807-05:00

My friend Sheryl is recently back from two weeks in Australia. They flew on Qantas Airlines and had some "adventures" getting down there... However this fact is just background for a conversation Sheryl's daughter had with her young son. For some reason she was answering a question about Jesus and she told him that Pontius Pilate had condemned Jesus to death. Her son was aghast; "A Qantas pilot

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-8050015502218050992009-01-20T23:58:00.005-05:002009-01-21T18:24:51.550-05:00

Today was Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States. What a memorable day! Watching the news coverage and seeing the enormous crowd that was physically present for the occasion and also hearing that the broadcast was almost certainly have the single largest viewing audience ever gave me a few tingles. Barack's acceptance speech was moving and inspiring, but I think

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-9721665161337010252009-01-16T23:19:00.005-05:002009-01-21T02:27:31.604-05:00

Gee, kind of forgot about the blog for a while. In spite of the thousands of e-mails begging for the thrilling details of my life. Not! So what have I been up to? (This simply is so I can document any needed alibis because no-one else reads this.)First of all, Christmas. My present came a few days early unfortunately. I was at the gym a week before Christmas chatting with a friend on my iPhone

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-40301500272468019602008-12-23T01:29:00.009-05:002008-12-23T02:00:15.238-05:00

Here's an iPhone photo of the Christmas wreath on my front door, this past Saturday morning. We are still blanketed with lovely white snow, so it will be a perfect white Christmas this year. Click on the photo to see it at higher resolution. We leave for my brother's house tomorrow morning. See you after Christmas! Listening to: All My Bells Are Ringing by Lenka from The Hotel Café Presents

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-52262069272094446172008-12-19T19:05:00.003-05:002009-02-17T01:05:58.919-05:00

Alfred E. Neuman's George W. Bush's portrait at the National Portrait Gallery has been unveiled. Squandered goodwill from 9-11, two unjustified wars, lost international moral authority, the Patriot Act, Enron, the betrayal of CIA agent Valerie Plame, corruption of the Justice Department, the abandonment of New Orleans, the Constitution brushed aside, the deepest recession in almost a century...

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-30374939112924336572008-12-18T23:59:00.004-05:002008-12-19T00:52:40.643-05:00

My son stayed over at a classmate's last weekend for a birthday party. On the following Sunday morning they walked across the road to run around in a junior school playground to slide about on the ice and kick chunks of snow at each other. Some teenagers approached them there, pulled out a knife and robbed them of cash, cell phones and iPods!Chris didn't lose anything and wasn't harmed, he

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-82736986673045308442008-12-08T16:52:00.001-05:002008-12-09T16:20:05.566-05:00

I created a DVD slideshow last month for my triathlon club's end-of-season dinner. Thinking it would be nice to post it online for everyone else to see I tried to convert the iDVD project into a movie file. This turned out to be not too easy as it's kind of the reverse of the normal creation process. I actually ended up having to "play" the DVD with video capture software (Snapz Pro X) making a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-80509794154230492472008-12-03T15:22:00.002-05:002008-12-08T17:04:19.097-05:00

In my morning internet peregrinations I came across a review of a free Flash game called Auditorium. Take Flash, particle physics and music samples and stir intelligently... The result is a very appealing online puzzle/game. I think their web connection has been "slashdotted" since I visited this morning though. They need to host the game somewhere upstream of their office's internet connection!

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-73506471170906131552008-12-01T17:31:00.002-05:002008-12-01T19:28:31.924-05:00

Today is World AIDS Day... I'm lucky not to have any acquaintances or loved ones suffering from this disease, but back around 1990 a good friend of mine died from AIDS-related illness.Don Garner and I were Geology students together at university. We were part of a group of older theoretically "mature" students that had a bit more life experience that the rest of our class and weren't quite so

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-21923197344235477652008-11-28T17:16:00.008-05:002008-11-28T22:03:51.802-05:00

No posts in a while... Maybe, like my triathlon training, I'm taking a bit of breather? But now it's time to ramp up again because in 2009 I'm determined to hit the starting line of Ironman USA this coming July in excellent condition and in a competitive state of mind.So today is "Black Friday", the day after American Thanksgiving when all the retailers turn their focus exclusively toward

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-11059634333168684152008-11-05T15:29:00.005-05:002009-11-27T12:42:06.825-05:00

Last night's election victory by Barack Obama and the Democrats was a high of epic proportions.Today the news is that the body of a local fifteen year-old, same age as my son, who ran away from home a few weeks ago after an argument over video-gaming has been found. No further details yet. So very, very sad...Listening to: The Heart of Life by John Mayer from Continuum.

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-20979334697883253652008-11-04T23:48:00.004-05:002008-11-05T15:29:11.658-05:00

So it's the middle of the night here and Barack Obama is now the new black "President-elect" of the USA... I have to keep saying it out loud for it to sink in... Wow! The dancing has already started in front of the White House.It's been a bit grueling reading and responding to the hard right diatribes, which I will not link to, and at times it felt like maybe their hatred truly was the "real

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-73880304677570254922008-10-31T22:59:00.004-04:002008-10-31T23:35:01.785-04:00

A warm and dry Halloween evening, but only 35 kids came to the door. So much chocolate to throw away now... Not! Chris carved this year's pumpkin while I was roasting the seeds (they were delicious). I like his design and the extra carving he did on the back. Click on here to see the back side. You can't see it in this photo, but the nose is "3D".I've been following the American elections pretty

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-15148919561879358292008-10-29T23:28:00.011-04:002008-12-19T01:00:04.932-05:00

Lots of facebook birthday greetings today from friends. Not much celebration of my 48th otherwise. I had a nice lunch with Sheryl at the Senses cafe (spelled "Sen5es"), a family meal on Sunday at my sister's, got a few calls from friends, had a little supermarket cake after dinner with my son.But it was festive yesterday! I got a last-minute role in a music video for Jaydee Bixby, who has done a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-8205242148991512262008-10-19T22:14:00.000-04:002008-10-20T01:02:25.419-04:00

I ran in the Toronto Marathon today, in spite of a bad chest cold... I was on pace for an excellent 3:20 finish at the halfway mark but faded badly, owning to sore feet and hips, to finish in 3:52. Maybe I've taken on a few too many big races this year. In the last twelve months I've completed two Ironman races, two "Half Ironman" races, and two marathons along with a number of other smaller

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-3046818120919553232008-10-16T09:42:00.004-04:002008-10-16T13:15:13.583-04:00

What does a dying pigeon on your doorstep "mean"? I know a bird in the house is supposed to be bad luck, so maybe I dodged some? The poor thing must have flown into a window and dropped down onto my porch. I thought it just might be stunned when I saw it last night, but it was dead this morning. Sad.So: a bit of politics. Tuesday was a federal election in Canada, called by Conservative Prime

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-22670153275969773532008-10-01T11:49:00.000-04:002008-10-01T14:06:32.640-04:00

So who is this nut job Governor Sarah Palin? John McCain trotted her out a few weeks ago as his vice presidential choice, but her ignorance is only out-matched by her confidence. Look at her enthusiastic conviction that merely being able to see Russia from Alaska gives her suitable foreign policy experience. It seems that her value to McCain is as a certified proponent of American fundamentalist

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-62069485678994391772008-09-30T23:55:00.002-04:002008-10-05T22:38:03.497-04:00

I spent most of today on location for an American department store TV commercial. Arrived at the requested time of 1:00 PM, finally on set at 7:30 PM, homeward bound at 9:30. That's film work for you... A tremendous amount of attention went into my wardrobe, a bit to my hair and makeup (different story for the women). But I was seated and largely back to camera for most of the shots! Again,

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-26411973802680143832008-09-28T19:33:00.004-04:002008-09-28T21:54:33.657-04:00

This morning saw the ninth running of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and simultaneously the first running of street circuit the new Singapore Grand Prix.I ran down to City Hall with some friends to watch the race for a bit and to try to spot my friend Brian who was racing in the half marathon. I arrived just in time to catch him running the last 200m and got a couple of snaps. He was

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-87722347329208297052008-09-25T11:16:00.005-04:002008-09-25T12:19:25.386-04:00

I've been loving this web site, The Big Picture from the Boston Globe newspaper, for a while now. Today's set of high resolution images have been gathered from Baikonur, the Kazakhistan city used by Russia for their space program. So nice to see a well-selected and large series of images on a topical subject. Death to thumbnails!Listening to: Belfast Child by Simple Minds from Street Fighting

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-17347383682079654042008-09-23T22:10:00.006-04:002008-09-25T12:22:28.290-04:00

I was on a tourism photo shoot yesterday at the exclusive Langdon Hall Country House and Spa; three couples enjoying a "getaway weekend together". This is the third tourism shoot I've done, the first was in Prince Edward County and the second in Niagara-on-the-Lake. For the first two I was paired up with a model named Ruth. However she seems to have been unavailable this time, so I had a new "

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-2913146257600557772008-09-18T23:40:00.001-04:002008-09-19T00:53:33.878-04:00

So I came to Huntsville only three weeks after my Ironman Canada race out in Penticton... When the race was first announced I was excited to sign up and plan my season around it, but my last-minute qualification for IMC dropped the Muskoka 70.3 race from "A" to "B". I was also struggling to recover from two weeks steady work at the Toronto International Film Festival, where I had been helping

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-78872238326613301162008-09-16T20:40:00.001-04:002008-09-18T22:13:49.561-04:00

TIFF is over now for 2008. I only managed to get to three films, all of which were enjoyable. The last film I saw was a Press & Industry screening of Cooper's Camera, which was a demented comic short that would have fit perfectly on the old Canadian TV satire SCTV. Too bad it was really feature length! My son had wanted to see it too, but he never got himself organised enough to join me. The

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-35831129267733347102008-09-09T21:45:00.004-04:002008-09-10T00:50:16.519-04:00

So I've been working at the Toronto International Film Festival's Festival Box Office beside Dundas Square for ten days now, starting generally at 6:00 AM. I did the same thing last year. Things are starting to settle down at last, and today was quite easy. Here is some insider's knowledge for ticket buyers...Advance Ticket Packages: Great idea; saves money and gives you (almost) first shot at

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-13208016303536997852008-09-08T20:13:00.006-04:002008-09-08T20:36:58.758-04:00

OK, here's the belated story of my day at Ironman Canada. (Note: I'll update this post with better photos when I finally get access to a damn scanner.)Up at 5:00 AM for a breakfast of oatmeal and scrambled eggs on toast. Very dark... Nothing much to bring with me other than my wet suit and some dry clothes to change into after the race. I drove down alone with Amy and Jill following in their car.

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-10287986013501536332008-09-05T02:45:00.003-04:002008-09-05T03:11:25.866-04:00

Back home from the Toronto International Film Festival's Opening Night Gala party. A late night, but a good time. Noshed on abundant tasty things, indulged in a variety of adult beverages, hung out with old and new friends... This is a photo of the Amarello Girls.Back at work in three hours though, so "night everyone!". The TIFF screenings started today (Sept 3rd), but I've already been on the

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-36983867395818578532008-08-27T22:58:00.008-04:002008-08-29T23:12:34.882-04:00

I'm back from Ironman Canada, more or less in one piece. It was simultaneously a fabulous experience and a disappointment, so I'm still processing it. This is complicated by the fact that I've dived straight in to working at the Toronto International Film Festival box office and have only had about two hours sleep since I returned to Toronto...So here's the short version of my race: I loved the

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-51600403818958700262008-08-23T23:08:00.005-04:002008-08-23T23:31:56.647-04:00

So here I am in Penticton, B.C., the night before Ironman Canada...I'm staying in a lovely little cottage in Naramata, just northeast of Penticton, called Quail Hollow (yes, there are lots of quails here). I'm sharing it with Amy from Toronto who is also racing tomorrow and her friend Jill from Calgary who is here supporting her. We'd never met, but a pro athlete who is a mutual friend put my

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-42981819777249275972008-08-20T00:02:00.005-04:002008-08-20T00:50:54.316-04:00

Last Friday I had my first "fashion" modeling gig on The Shopping Channel wearing Olympic 2010 clothing, displayed here on Kellie, my first and dearest screen wife. This is as close as I'll ever get to "The Games"! I was a bit nervous doing semi-runway stuff for the first time, especially with the cameras broadcasting it all across the nation, but it worked out. The clothes were a bit big on me

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-33967674377302140482008-08-12T17:34:00.006-04:002008-08-12T18:10:38.106-04:00

I took Sheryl's dog Barkley to the dog park this morning. While he was sniffing around oblivious to lifeforms that weren't human or canine a Golden Retriever was on the hunt. The dog spotted a squirrel a hundred or so feet away that it thought it had a chance of getting and took off. He got it all right... There was a terrible thrashing and some desperate squeaks. It was over in about ten seconds

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-57086584769970403982008-08-11T11:28:00.004-04:002008-08-11T17:33:52.159-04:00

I went out for my last long run before Ironman Canada on Sunday morning. I do these Sunday morning runs from The Running Room's Yonge St. store because there's always a big turnout and the selected routes vary quite a lot, which helps keeps things interesting. This time the 29K route we were going to follow headed off to the northwest.The run proved eventful... First as we crossed the 401 freeway

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-72070410078879427182008-08-01T12:21:00.004-04:002008-08-01T18:38:37.666-04:00

I had a physio session this morning on my aching legs that brought tears to my eyes. Thanks Cindy... I feel much better now though and have just finished a spinning class. I'm about to bike 15K down to an outdoor Olympic pool for a long swim.I am so eager for the sound of the starting gun at Ironman Canada. Let me at it!Listening to: Thank You World by World Party from Goodbye Jumbo.

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-74714566707028692102008-07-31T23:40:00.006-04:002008-08-01T00:54:17.428-04:00

Last year during the Toronto International Film Festival my street bike was stolen. A week ago the Toronto Police made a big bust, uncovering a stash of over 3,000 stolen bikes at a local "bike dealer". That's a mind-boggling number of bicycles. Seems more like a compulsion rather than a business, unless the goal was to help keep crack heads in ready money.The police decided to set up a massive

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-2881808237683942212008-07-30T19:04:00.012-04:002008-08-13T12:09:34.575-04:00

So... two weeks of massive activity and nothing to show for it on the old blog. Catchup time again!I spent a week on the road, dragging Chris and Sheryl along, beginning a on the 18th. We drove to Lake Placid to watch Ironman USA. I also wanted to ride on the course and sign up for the 2009 race. Poor Sheryl and Chris spent most of the weekend hanging around the country inn I found for us to stay

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-44620947123121764602008-07-16T22:19:00.006-04:002008-07-17T00:08:47.948-04:00

I've spent several hours this morning riding my bike trainer while watching Stage 10 of the Tour de France. It was a mountain stage, which inspired me to push myself a bit. My upcoming Ironman race out in B.C. will have some significant climbs and I need to get some equivalent training under my belt. My son slouched on the sofa beside me playing Flash web games until he could return to his Xbox

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-47231047854932648882008-07-13T16:31:00.006-04:002008-07-13T23:21:22.733-04:00

I raced in the second running of the "Nissan Ten Miler" this morning. Not a politically correct distance in metric days, but there you go. Call it the "Sixteen K'er". Yesterday I cycled 120K with a friend, this morning I cycled 7K down to the race (and then back again). So the legs were well warmed up (make that worn out). It rained a bit as I traveled down and the forecast suggested that we

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-1993444126542267692008-07-10T10:41:00.000-04:002008-07-10T16:18:47.407-04:00

Last Sunday was the Peterborough "Half Iron" triathlon... I had a better race than last year, where glute problems forced me to walk for 10 minutes on the bike course. I managed to improve my time by 13 minutes. We had "great" weather with the result that the run was pretty hot. Luckily the lake was close at hand afterwards for a cooling dunk. The highlight of the race was getting attacked by a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-34215304752262890432008-06-25T14:19:00.000-04:002008-06-25T15:24:37.954-04:00

If you've been a regular reader of my blog, which I can almost guarantee you aren't (that hit counter is getting to be an embarrassment), you know that I have a disgust for religious fundamentalists, especially those that deny evolution. Recently I came across a web site selling t-shirts that mock the "teach the controversy" approach of crypto-creationists. Tip: there's no credible controversy

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-26752434346189079442008-06-21T21:34:00.010-04:002008-09-23T23:36:28.177-04:00

So my son's Grade 9 exams are over and he has his "preliminary final" marks for all his courses. He went into exams with five failing subjects out of seven, but he managed to pull himself together enough to get to a passing grade in all of them! Who knew I'd be celebrating my gifted-program son not failing? Well there you go.In other news, I finally watched the Canadian Grand Prix on Monday,

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-36414574258739611702008-06-16T15:08:00.006-04:002008-06-17T13:20:06.560-04:00

Yesterday I raced in the Muskoka Long Course triathlon up in Huntsville (I'll post a few photos when I get them). 2K swim, 55K bike, 15K run - an unusual distance but there's a lot of history to the race. I raced last year and was actually a few minutes faster then, but this time I managed to snag a qualifying spot for Ironman Canada this August!This is very exciting, but I've got lots of hard

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-34008548380863152412008-06-02T13:33:00.006-04:002008-06-03T09:03:19.608-04:00

Yesterday I raced in the Milton Triathlon. My time was about the same as last year, but my place was 85/583 instead of 112/612. A slight improvement, I wish I hadn't lost so much time in the first transition trying to get my wet suit off! Couldn't find my zipper pull... No good race photos either, I'm only in a few shots, way off-center.It was a great day overall, cool with a threat of rain at

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-70056497111517886362008-05-31T23:12:00.004-04:002008-05-31T23:23:59.702-04:00

Here's a shot I took Friday night at the Toronto Criterium. Lots of exciting moments, I was surprised by how many friends I ran into there. There was a bit of rain during the Pro race and things got a bit slippery.Today I had an easy club ride up in Newmarket, which I followed with a short run. The skies looked threatening on the way up, but the ride was actually fantastic. I had to talk myself

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-77670959509683292642008-05-30T15:23:00.009-04:002008-05-30T16:26:44.761-04:00

I had a TV audition this morning; "husband and wife having a romantic evening." No dialog, we each had a separate back story to have in mind as we pretended to cook together.My back story: Still madly in love with my wife, not feeling well lately. Got some bad medical test results but not going to tell her just yet.My audition partner's back story, which I learned after the audition when we

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-73769964347796288852008-05-29T12:30:00.006-04:002008-05-29T13:44:07.664-04:00

Yesterday evening my final CompuTrainer ride at Absolute Endurance was co-opted by an indoor time trial. There were 15 people on their bikes getting ready for a 40K "race", all connected to CompuTrainer stationary bike trainers. I chose to ride along with them.The ride was a 40.23K flat course, with 16 bikes including mine. I arrived shortly before the race started, but I had biked 4K to the gym

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-2439946007245967152008-05-26T11:00:00.005-04:002008-05-26T14:44:35.439-04:00

Yes, I've just finished spending seven hours lifting weights. So I'm a bit stiff. I spent all day Sunday, except for one brief excursion back into town, at The Shopping Channel demonstrating the Bowflex Extreme. Over the course of 24 hours we did seven live one hour shows. Guess what? We kept the resistance pretty damn low...Our broadcasts started at midnight Saturday, but I had previously

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-91665911187979435822008-05-19T23:33:00.009-04:002008-05-20T14:18:40.672-04:00

Last Saturday I had planned to join my triathlon club for a long ride in Milton and then travel onward with Sheryl to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a weekend away. Trouble was that when I got up on Saturday I was still feeling lousy from this extended (two damn weeks!) cold I've been battling, and there was dismal weather predicted. So the ride was reluctantly dropped from the agenda and we settled for

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-20404982282220092252008-05-16T12:49:00.001-04:002008-05-23T12:32:56.073-04:00

Where did I go? To bed. I've been battle a nasty head cold and a bad cough for two weeks now! Yike. This photo is from a recent long run, which I've been trying to keep up in spite of my general illness. Now let's see if I can remember what's happened since my last post.Sheryl's back from Australia with many entertaining anecdotes to impart, perhaps not so entertaining from her perspective...

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-68836223918383432902008-04-21T23:52:00.004-04:002008-04-22T01:15:14.588-04:00

The Sprockets International Film Festival for Children has been and gone. I only volunteered for one theatre shift, although I worked several days before and after. It seemed to go by very quickly as a result. I still enjoyed the post-festival party at the Drake... I only saw a bit of one film, La Citadelle assiégée, a Canadian/French co-production about life within an African termite mound. Lots

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-77108213154053619682008-04-09T17:11:00.007-04:002008-04-09T18:42:21.426-04:00

Two discouraging political insights today... The Olympic torch relay is being escorted by a phalanx of aggressive Chinese government thugs. The Olympics, long presented as a celebration of individual achievement, have become a propaganda tool for a repressive regime (that would be China this time, not Nazi Germany). It seems to be backfiring though thank god, and the light that is shining of

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-9361618781210126072008-04-07T09:38:00.006-04:002008-04-07T12:06:24.260-04:00

When I was a teenager in the seventies, swimming with one of Canada's top teams, the Olympics had a lot of relevance to me. I knew people who had qualified and there had even been a remote chance that I could make the cut myself. But the Olympics haven't aged very well...The IOC has long struck me as largely a collection of corrupt self-interested politicians, in some cases "reformed" fascists,

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-38994828129037187272008-04-04T11:46:00.010-04:002008-04-04T12:53:01.463-04:00

I've been listening to a This American Life podcast this morning called "Twentieth Century Man", about the late actor Keith Aldrich as remembered by his children. This American Life is a PBS radio program that offers free "broadcasts" through iTunes (subscription link here). I can't recommend it enough if you like thoughtful, eclectic, and often moving documentaries.What the episode boils down to

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-82920852352261108072008-04-01T23:25:00.005-04:002008-04-02T14:20:09.924-04:00

I'm babysitting Sheryl's dog Barkley while she's away for the better part of a month. Today I had a t-bone steak for dinner, and as a result Barkley got his first-ever beef bone. He knew just what to do with it... He's been a good house guest so far, with only a few accidents. He finds my development very exciting from a sniffing perspective. but is unsure about the sounds coming out of storm

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-77402519790339316772008-03-26T10:23:00.004-04:002008-03-26T10:40:21.137-04:00

My dreams are generally pretty disjointed, but I had a funny one the other day that has entertained anyone I mentioned it to. Would a dream interpretation expert please explain this one to me?I dreamed that I was driving a car with a mouse beside me. The mouse was rushing about the vehicle and I was worried that it would fall out of an open window onto the road. To keep the mouse safe I decided

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-53577009748565746012008-03-25T11:38:00.008-04:002008-03-25T12:37:24.836-04:00

Last night I watched the Malaysian Grand Prix with my friend Brian, a week ago we watched the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix. Only sixteen more to go! Brian and I have watched almost every race together for thirteen years now. A bit of a ritual...Quick summary of the two races: No computerised traction control allowed this season, so there will be plenty of driving errors and

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-65148326293105535392008-03-15T23:49:00.001-04:002008-03-15T23:56:25.102-04:00

St. Patrick's Day is upon us, and I invariably do my best to ignore the whole faux Celtic mess. But this year, because I've been teaching a 5K running clinic, I'll be down at the Steam Whistle Brewery with my students racing in the Achilles St. Patrick's Day 5K Run. There's a post-race beer and bowl of "Irish Chili" for all the runners, with an expected temperature of just above freezing I think

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-61007488940471145702008-03-10T23:35:00.004-04:002008-03-11T00:35:23.193-04:00

So I have survived the blizzard(s) of March 2008. We got two big snow falls within a few days of each other, but it looks like a $20,000,000 snow removal operation will not be required as was the case last month. This poor Hummer was entombed during last month's snow falls.I finally saw the great new Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men last weekend. I had wanted to catch it at the Toronto

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-36192532253077032972008-02-21T11:45:00.000-05:002008-02-21T11:43:56.342-05:00

I've been enjoying the xkcd web comic for a while, it appeals to my inner nerd. This particular recent entry explains me to myself at last, and earns xkcd a spot on my "Series of tubes..." sidebar.In iPhone news, I have recovered from "bricking" my iPhone by unwisely installing an update. A hack emerged a week ago that let me return to iPhone bliss and my broken Motorola Razr, the one that can't

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-89273837575590863742008-02-09T20:43:00.002-05:002008-02-21T11:37:02.079-05:00

I saw the new documentary Up the Yangtze this evening. When my friend Adrian suggested we go see it my first thought was of the Monty Python record album sketch of a made-up football supporter's song praising the river - "Szechuan is the province, Shanghai's the port. Yangtze is the river that we all support!" In the end Adrian couldn't come so Sheryl and I went without him on the opening

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-68068488614496648352008-01-21T11:30:00.000-05:002008-02-10T11:48:42.557-05:00

Boy it's been hard to get back into blogging... I enjoy it, but it takes so much time. I've spent the last week battle a stomach bug that has kept me very close to the toilet, so I suppose I've actually closed the floodgates. Now I need diarrhea of a different kind!So yes, I did spent three weeks in Australia last month. Way too much to put in one post, so I'll leave that on the agenda, perhaps

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-8948515163371621502007-12-29T10:33:00.000-05:002007-12-29T13:20:31.281-05:00

Time to pick up the keyboard and start blogging again! Here's my day-after report on my first Ironman triathlon...I'm lying in bed typing this, the day after Ironman Western Australia... I had a great race and beat my expectation by over an hour! Here's the play-by-play.I got to Busselton with my son three days before the race. Busselton is a small town, so I was worried that I hadn't arranged

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-79653745631623996002007-12-22T14:52:00.000-05:002007-12-23T11:23:12.518-05:00

I've been having a terrible time recovering from my flight back from Australia! I'll resume blogging as soon as I get some important tasks completed (or at least started...)Dear friends and family,It's been an interesting year with Chris starting high school, our move into a new home and my completion of an Ironman triathlon in Australia(!). I hope that you are all well and I look forward to

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-54093464139360236242007-12-13T13:24:00.001-05:002007-12-14T09:28:59.690-05:00

I'm back from Australia and I lived to tell the tale... 21 days, 700 photographs, four cities (well two cities and two towns), one Ironman triathlon, one family memorial, eight flights, four hotels and two apartments.More to follow!Addendum: Canada's Conservative Prime Minister said today that re-opening a nuclear power plant against the recommendation of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-29484724730610572962007-11-18T14:00:00.000-05:002007-11-18T17:37:21.486-05:00

That's a reference to a song by The Hives by the way... First opera, now ballet! What's wrong with this rocker?Sheryl and I went to see the National Ballet's production of West Side Story Suite last night. I bought two tickets on the spur of the moment, so she'll have something to remember me by while I travel. It was very well done, as were the two preceding performances, Glass Pieces, based on

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-278753219174941512007-11-17T11:55:00.000-05:002007-11-17T14:00:10.640-05:00

I spent most of yesterday at The Shopping Channel, on air at midnight, 7:00AM, 10:00 AM, 2:00PM, 4:00PM and 5:00PM. The product we were promoting, portable massage mats, sold out so we didn't have to do the scheduled 7:00PM and 10:00PM shows. It was a long day, but I managed to get to my pool during the lunch hour and do 3.8K in 1:01:00.The silver lining though was the fact that Paul Potts made

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-62699190298163343902007-11-13T12:26:00.000-05:002007-11-17T14:43:34.710-05:00

Downhill in the sense of coasting, not declining... I realised on Sunday that my Ironman is three weeks away, which puts me into "race prep" training rather than "build" training.This came to me at the Toronto Triathlon Club's End-of-Season dinner, where I had a chance to chat with our coach Nigel Gray (whose training plan I've been loosely following) and found myself eating rosemary chicken

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-61851886812364670172007-11-05T22:55:00.000-05:002007-11-11T00:13:54.214-05:00

Wow, last weekend was a big one for me. Saturday's ride was planned to be "big" but some missed turns out in the countryside resulted in me realising that I was a long way from home when I began approaching my target distance, a full Ironman bike leg of 180K. I ended up doing 200K in just under 7 hours! I cursed myself a bit, but was very pleased to get home tired but undefeated. I even got a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-59766465387946675982007-11-01T15:14:00.000-04:002007-11-10T22:54:51.757-05:00

Last night I dreamed that I was helping Ravi Shankar prepare for a concert in a high school auditorium. A few nights ago I dreamed that I had won $200,000 in a lottery. Weird! Sheryl tells me that she dreamed she was on vacation and was worrying about where to put her guinea pig (what guinea pig?) at one of her stops. Weird too. I think I'll buy a lottery ticket today though, that one would be

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-87782871879417281152007-10-23T00:08:00.000-04:002007-11-10T01:09:15.293-05:00

I watched the year's final Formula One race, in Brazil, on TV with my friend on Sunday. What a great finish to the season! Three drivers were in contention, with the rookie Lewis Hamilton having a solid lead. All the contenders were up at the front for the start. A poor start and an over-aggressive corner dropped Lewis back to eighth on the first lap. Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari was ahead of Lewis

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-7000275267715436442007-10-15T18:05:00.000-04:002007-10-18T00:37:31.208-04:00

I spent today acting in a police instructional video about domestic violence. I was the violent husband. I'm hoarse from shouting through all the argument scenes and kind of jittery from the residual adrenaline... Didn't feel good.There was lots of improvised dialog too, so it was all very fluid. I had a small makeup scratch, my "wife" had some more serious makeup effects; choking bruises and a

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-48488239682108547132007-10-14T16:57:00.000-04:002007-10-16T16:14:38.665-04:00

I'm sitting at my Mac with some very sore legs right now... A few hours ago I finished my first marathon, clocking in at 3:30:28. I'd signed up for it many months ago because I wanted to get that running distance under my belt before I took on an Ironman triathlon. Recent events events have put me in the unexpected position of doing that Ironman only six weeks afterward, which is closer than most

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-83904499079489855672007-10-12T22:51:00.000-04:002007-10-13T01:09:11.973-04:00

More fascinating photos from Mars as the high resolution camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter comes on-line. Gorgeous stuff.Follow-up to Wednesday's Provincial election: The Liberals are back in with a second majority, Conservative leader John Tory didn't even win his own seat (which happens to be my riding, Don Valley West). Let's see what happens this time.I found a copy of the Hotel

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352332.post-64670217901506131112007-10-10T18:21:00.000-04:002007-10-10T23:11:54.765-04:00

Yesterday I finally pulled the trigger and signed up for Ironman Western Australia. I've been training for it for about a month now but it's still going to be an interesting physical and logistical challenge! The above image is of the Busselton Jetty, which conveniently extends 1.8K into the protected salt waters of Geographe Bay. The Ironman swim will go up one side and down the other. Lately

Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695953587621558464noreply@blogger.com0