WINDOWS 7 IS HERE, ARE YOU BUYING? NOT ME!

When I got my Toshiba Tecra laptop in the 90's it was a used one that came with Windows 95.  I didn't know  an operating system from a penalty shot.  I was happily buying and selling stuff on Ebay when a virus crashed my OS and ruined my hard drive.  Then I got lucky.   I was at a dinner party at a neighbour's house and  when I told him my tale of woe he said. "I don't use Microsoft, I use Linux".  I found out that viruses really only affect Windows operating systems which got me pissed off at Microsoft.  So I bought a new hard drive and Dan helped me install Linux RedHat on it.  Since that fortunate meeting with Starfish Systems I've never bought any Microsoft software as my little punishment for failing to fix the critical security issues that every subsequent OS sold by Microsoft has.  My latest computer is an IBM Thinkpad on which I'm running Linux SuSe 11.1. 
There are some simple and some complex reasons why I think it makes sense to stay away from Microsoft products not only for an individual with basic computer needs but also for business people who want to be practical with the technology budget. 
The first 3 reasons are 1) security 2)security 3)security. Microsoft OS's are vulnerable to security breaches and MS Office has them too I think.

The next one is  4)cost saving.  Windows is expensive and so is MS Office.  Also, the software is so massively memory hungry that hardware upgrades are often required.  Linux is free and much, much leaner so older computers with smaller hard drives and less RAM are fine.
Finally, reason 5) is more philosophical.  Linux is a community resource that grew up on the internet by contributions from users.  It's shareware.  The source code is open.  So when one needs technical assistance, it can be found free on the net.  But when someone needs a techie guy for hands on help, the money goes to a local independent technician rather than to a Microsoft pro and shareholders.  The nature of open source is for the technology to remain in the community and on the net rather than waiting for the next big corporate sales event.   There will never be a next big Linux sales event because it's always in the public domain and there's no advertising.  Yet Linux is bleeding edge technology that holds its own or beats the Windows software for virtually every application because so many developers worldwide are working on Linux without corporate control.  Try OpenOffice for example.
It's not actually my aim here to just bash Microsoft. Besides it doesn't matter anyway.  Microsoft has a strangle hold on the OS market and I think on office software as well.  But what this blog might do is to provide just a little more exposure for the open source community.
Microsoft is the empire and Linux is the resistance.  It can't win the war and never will.  Even Mac, isn't making any serious inroads into the Microsoft marketshare.  Ironically,  I no longer want Linux to be mainstream.  I like being in a local club.
I know that the latest versions of Windows are better...aren't they....Microsoft says they're great....but haven't they always said that?
Uh maybe I'll get a Mac when I get my inheritance.

I'll leave you with one more little warm and fuzzy note.
Virtually all new computers in the world come with Windows installed as a native operating system.  So Microsoft sells a version everytime a computer is sold unless it's a Mac, pretty much.   So there's a Windows "tax" built into every computer.  One has to pay for this even if one will never use it.  This $200 or whatever it is makes computers too expensive for most third world people.....Even a cheap computer with a $200 OS is out of reach for most.  But there's a better way!  Because Linux is free by nature of its GNU license, it can make computers affordable for poor people worldwide.   It's free on the net.  This makes it possible for someone earning $200 a month in Africa to own a new $99 computer because he doesn't have to buy Windows.  Any old computer will do....just add Linux and boom you're on the net and you're in business!  A whole village in Africa can share one computer and each person can have his own private user account.  And it's legitimate...no software piracy temptations.
One laptop for every child or destitute senior or small business person is a reality.

Migrating to a new computer environment is not easy and most never do it.  But it's pretty nice in here. 
Julian.

CLIMATE CHANGE ISN'T KILLING CANADA BUT WE STILL FEEL YOU KNOW....GUILTY

Those who say global warming is a long term trend caused by burnt fossil fuel emissions are saying collectively that the science is complete, that we know the facts, and now it's up to humans to stop burning fossil fuels so the planet can be saved....is that all there is to it?

Not so fast my fair weather, bicycle riding friend.

Most of us in my post WWII generations remember our childhood summers as warmer and the winters colder. Virtually all of the winters in southern Canada in the late twentieth century seemed warmer to me than in decades gone by. But is that impression or an indication of actual climate change in the form of global warming?

We'll get into the science here because it is important. But the main thrust of this writing is to expose and rant about the lemming mentality of the global warming, fear mongers who have an apocalyptic view about something they predict will occur several decades or centuries into the future.

Confucius say “forecasting can be difficult....especially the future”.

Scientific facts exist as we all know but many so called facts fall into the category of statistical data and we all what that means....lies , damned lies and statistics!

Dr Timothy Ball Phd. on anthropomorphic global warming.

"Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification."[6]

Of course no one knows exactly what the future will hold for us and our little green planet. Predicting what kind of cataclysmic events will occur several decades into the future makes for entertaining and harmless rhetoric.

The New York Times has reported that 4 major warming or cooling trends were occurring at different times in the last 100 years.

Several recent reports on global climate state that the world has been cooling for the past 8 years.

I think that overfishing the oceans is probably more dangerous to human health than the the risk of acidification of the seas from co2 in the atmosphere.
But even if the global warming fear mongers are right, what can we do about it as Canadians? Those of you who are wringing your hands, gnashing your teeth and crying in your beer about the Hummer driving, air conditioner buying, suburban dwelling commuter types should remember that if Canadians were to stop burning fossil fuel right now, virtually everyone in the country would freeze to death by springtime, and the rest would be be dead the next winter or when all the wood runs out.  A sobering thought isn't it?  Yes my friends, most Canadians don't live in Vancouver!...Most Canadians live in places where exposed skin freezes in 10 minutes.  We'd be burning the furniture in oil drums the first night without oil.

Al Gore and his “An Inconvenient Truth” scenario, as entertaining as it is, isn't truth either.

The future is uncertain and predicting it is fun and sometimes useful, but it is, at best, an inexact science. Doom and gloom sells but I'm not buyin' … I'm not drinking the Koolaid. Nothing is what it seems. Things are complex.

It's all part of the green shaft and this is a fun area of R&D as well

This doesn't mean that I'm not “green” my faithful reader. Yes I drive a diesel car, yes I ride a bicycle to work, yes I recycle my beer cans.....hey I'm so damn green I'm glowing green and it's not a recent fad, this is how I live. Of course we should all conserve fossil fuel. Not just to “save the planet", but to save money. In beautiful British Columbia we need to conserve electricity because it's crushingly expensive to build new dams.

Are we headed for hot desert conditions or is the next ice age nearly upon us. As a freezing Canadian, I'd welcome a little warming...it would certainly make life easier in many ways in this country. Maybe our red wines would improve! Perhaps we won't all look south for our winter vacations. Perhaps we'd burn less oil. But wait. Is that a good thing? We sell oil as a nation and we need the money. So now my friends, we are going to find out just how green we are in Canada. I say that oil gets cleaner as the need grows. The oil that one buys and burns gets cleaner depending how short the supply becomes! Seeing as how there's a reaction for every reaction, it's likely that warmer countries wouldn't welcome any increase in temperature. But I'm not nearly as concerned about other countries, although I wish them well, as I am about Canada. When tar sands synthetic crude is the only oil available, it'll be the cleanest oil in the world.

And since Canada is the new Saudi Arabia, and I feel as though I've won the lottery just being a Canadian, I'm definitely not going to ruin the moment by feeling guilty about burning and selling and investing in Canadian oil!

“Saudi Arabia!” you scoff.

That's right folks. Which country has the worlds 2^nd largest oil reserves? Which country is the world's largest supplier of fossil fuel to to the world's biggest customer, the USA? Yes my incredulous friends, the answer to these questions is us...Canada.

Despite the fact that it comes naturally...I'm not going to feel guilty about being oil rich.

Climate change isn't what's killing this planet. Back in the 70's I heard this expression. What's killing earth are the 3 c's cars, cows and chainsaws. Cars because of air pollution, cows because the rain forest is being cleared to raise them and chainsaws because that's the tool being used to clear the rain forest. It's catchy, and sort of true but more complicated than it needs to be. What's killing this planet can be summed up much more succinctly by a phrase that is the title of a forty something book, The Population Explosion.

Written in 1968, the same issues we're discussing now were on the table then.

Dr David Suzuki and my high school biology teacher were talking about the greenhouse effect in the 1970's!

Hey everyone needs money. A scientist first has to create or identify a problem and then lobby for money to research the solution...nice work if you can get it.

If the seas rise then many millions of people, tragically, will lose their homes. But since we're quoting, what about this. “The wise man builds his house upon the rock” Take this literally.

In Richmond, a city/suburb, neighbour to the south of Vancouver, there are no basements.

“Why? You ask.

Because the entire city is built on a peat bog/ delta/floodplain that is below sea level and therefore surrounded by a system of dikes. Its a mini Netherlands.

It used to be all great farmland but real estate demand has placed millions on land that would fill up like a giant bathtub just like New Orleans if the dikes couldn't hold back a rising sea.

In Bangladesh, if the sea rises one meter, 32 million people will be displaced....that's nearly the entire population of Canada.

Too many people living in too small a place is nothing new. But now the planet is really filling up. In order to make room for all those people more and more people are living on land that is less and less stable, and more and more money is being spent to create infrastructure to service these areas, all over the world, that are more or less vulnerable to flooding, over heating....or over cooling as maybe the case. To provide all this, more and more oil is being consumed.

I still say this is good for Canada, a place with lot's of oil, lot's of space and by world standards, almost no people!

JACK-O-LANTERN ART AT THE HOUSE OF BEER

When I was a boy living in England we carved turnips and hung them in the trees.  We called it bonfire night but I guess it was more formally Guy Fawkes day.   All Saints day,  Halloween,  whatever it's called the phenomenon is larger than life in many places.
Anyway last night at the world's best brewery, Dix on Beatty St., many pumpkins were sacrificed at the altar of vegetable art.
This is my blog so this is my jack-o-lantern. 
The strange thing about this stuff is that although the orange squash welcomes fine art sculptures.....simple shapes and unrefined compositions also look great.  It's a great form of folk art.

Some people were done in ten minutes but others took a long time to express themselves.

SHOULD I BUY A DIESEL CAR OR DRIVE THE MAIN ROAD IN A GAS BURNER?

Driving the road less traveled is where we are going with this comparison. If you buy a car with a diesel engine you are immediately going to join a very small group. So unless you are willing to make an alternative fashion statement with your car you should just buy a gas burner and drive on.

Diesel cars have never been popular in North America. Today, in North America, less than three percent of all the passenger cars on the road are diesels.   There's more than one reason for this and they are all good ones! The purpose of this article is not to prove that diesel cars are a better choice than a gas burning car. I'm going to come clean right now and let my new readers know that I'm an alternative guy.

I run Linux on my computers while Microsoft controls around 90% of the world's computers, I drink craft brewed real ale while 95% of the world drinks industrial lager.....And I drive a diesel Mercedes on the road with all my neighbours in their gas burning cars happily roaring along beside me.

But what fun is this? This forum is where I rant! What kind of rant doesn't rant? Am I just going to write a dry article that lays out a few facts and says there you go, have fun with your gas burning ,V6, silver minivan! I have to take a position! Alright, Alright. Diesels are better....uh... slightly and depending on where you live.

So, if so few of my good Canadian neighbours are driving diesel cars, why is it that virtually all commercial trucks are diesels and nearly half of all European cars are diesels?

Here's the short answer. Diesel engines get better fuel economy.

Is that it? 

Well sort of. As is the case with most things in life, nothing is what is seems.

What did you say? What's the long answer? Okay, you asked for it.

Diesel engines get better fuel economy because the nature of their compression ignition generates more power with less fuel and less refined fuel that costs less. That's it. Period, end of story.....Well sort of.

So if diesels use less and cheaper fuel why doesn't everyone buy one?

Well because they are more expensive to buy.

Oh.

But diesels are cheaper to maintain aren't they?

Well they can be if the owner maintains his diesel car religiously. But if you treat your diesel car the way most people treat their gas burning cars, repairs will occur that are more expensive than would be the case with a gasoline engine. Also since the repairs will occur later in the life of the machine, the decision of whether or not to spend lots of money on an old car becomes a difficult one. Especially since the owner paid more for the car to begin with. And people mostly don't want old cars. They don't want to spend thousands on their old cars, they want to buy new ones and change them after a while, not keep them for a lifetime. And that's where the car industry directs its advertising, to the fashion, lifestyle appeal and the status symbol of driving a late model car. On the other hand, fleet trucks get regular maintenance, especially oil changes. With top notch maintenance diesel engines last a long, long time. I mean a really long time...decades! So the businesses that operate the fleets can wring the last dollar out of their trucks. People generally don't want to do this and that, in a nutshell, is why virtually all commercial trucks are diesel and almost no private passenger cars are diesels. But people who are using their cars to commute long distances and have good maintenance habits and who aren't interested in buying new cars can save a lot of money with a diesel car.  

But what about emissions? Don't diesel cars smoke a lot and aren't they noisy?

First of all, yes, they are noisier than gasoline cars because the high compression required to burn diesel oil generates noisy explosions in the engine. However insulating the engine compartment can mask this noise well. Car makers go to more or less effort in this area. Mercedes cars are very quiet while tractors are loud, but the engines essentially generate the same amount of noise.

Now, about emissions. With low sulfur diesel fuel and good maintenance, high quality diesel engines don't smoke. But old engines with worn cylinders and glow plugs will smoke. Especially when cold and when accelerating. Which is why top notch maintenance is required for diesels. But while diesel smoke is what ordinary people see and therefore think is pollution, as usual, nothing is what it seems.

Even a worn and smoky, old diesel will not emit carbon monoxide at all, will emit less carbon dioxide, and only very slightly more nitrogen oxide than a similar sized gasoline engine. Diesel smoke is unburned fuel, particulate matter. It's ugly but not particularly (sorry) harmful.

And now that carbon dioxide, a naturally occurring gas, is being viewed as a pollutant, the diesel always wins this race simply because diesels burn less fuel therefore they emit less carbon dioxide. So, if everyone drove a diesel car, the world would cut carbon emissions from cars by about twenty percent...but there'd be more smoke around.

Oh.

Incongruously, with all of the green rhetoric being emitted into the air today, the misunderstood diesel car remains marginalized in the North American car market ,especially in the USA. Largely because people and their politicians continue with the mindset that diesels pollute more than gas burning cars. Now there's a bit of a buzz on with Volkswagen especially soapboxing about its new “clean diesels” as if there's some big revolution going on in diesel technology. Well the new technology is the urea additive that breaks down nitrogen oxide emissions and yes that does lower emissions slightly. And the direct fuel injection system helps a little, and the higher compression helps along with the precision of computer technology, but the real improvement isn't in the car engine at all...it's at the pump! Yes! It's ultra low sulfur diesel fuel that has lowered emissions for all diesels. Car makers didn't take the biggest step in improving fuel emissions, governments did by legislating that all fuel sold has to have less sulfur than was the case in decades gone by.

Mercedes still makes and sells diesel cars in North America and wades its way through the morass of red tape to get to the consumer who's willing to spend seventy-five thousand plus for a car. Currently, in Canada, the only diesel passenger car available for less than the fabulous Mercedes machines are Volkswagens .  Recently, for two years running, THE ONLY NEW, DIESEL,  PASSENGER CAR AVAILABLE IN CANADA WAS THE MERCEDES BENZ SEDAN! The exception was the diesel powered  Smart Car (Mercedes) which is well worth discussing but let's not go off on a tangent here!
Why don't the other car makers sell diesel cars?
The answer is they do! Virtually all the other car makers sell diesels in world markets, but not in North America. There are several reasons for this. The main one is that emission standards are different in North America than elsewhere. Politics are what mainly keeps the other automakers like Honda, Toyota, BMW and everyone else from offering diesel cars for sale in North America...read USA. Emission control standards are set by the American Fed, but the they are driven (sorry) by politicians and bureaucrats in California.  The attitude in California it seems is that nitrogen oxides and particulates are more harmful than carbon dioxide.  Because the standards for those emissions has been set so high that no car maker in the world can meet them at a reasonable price so they don't bother to sell diesels in the USA. (Mercedes cars are great and available and they meet the standards but the price isn't reasonable) So here my friends is the bizarre result of not allowing diesel cars for sale in the USA.  Firstly, The USA in its entirety, has missed the chance to reduce its passenger car related, carbon footprint by more than twenty percent by setting the emission standards in California TOO HIGH!. Plus, because the Canadian car market is comparatively small, since no one imports diesel cars to the USA, Canada doesn't get any either!....That's right! Since the USA isn't gettin' any, neither are we.   Life is absurd after all.
The second reason is the price of fuel. Fuel is relatively inexpensive in the USA and even in Canada. In areas where fuel is very expensive, because it's heavily taxed or just difficult to obtain, diesel cars thrive.

Where diesel cars are common, diesel mechanics are common so getting your diesel car fixed is easier. If you drive a diesel car in North America you will have to go to some trouble to find a competent diesel mechanic. Easily obtaining good maintenance and parts is important and this is difficult in North America, especially in the USA.

You don't have to buy a new diesel car to have a clean burning diesel.. A nice used Mercedes diesel however can be had for somewhere between three and nine thousand dollars depending on the age and condition of course. 2.5 lt. turbo diesels and 3.0 diesels are around and so are the economical Volkswagen Jettas Golfs and a few Beetles. All are excellent cars although the Mercedes cars are much more luxurious

Virtually all diesel cars on the road are old Mercedes and Volkswagen cars. They are all extraordinary cars and outlast their gas burning relatives by years...even decades.
But are diesel burning cars made differently than other cars or is it just the engine?
The short answer is that it's just the heavily built, precision made engine, but the long answer as we've seen is much more complicated. It involves who buys and drives new and used diesel cars, who makes them, and which governments allow them to be sold in which jurisdictions.

So should I buy a diesel car?

Well, if you're an alternative type like me, yes, you'll never look back. You'll find a nice, old, European mechanic who knows everything about your 1983 Mercedes, you'll go to truck stops for fuel.

You'll consider burning fryer oil in your car..( a subject for another rant). Some of your friends will think you're weird and others will admire your beautiful diesel Mercedes.

TO PRINT OR NOT TO PRINT THAT IS NOT THE ONLY QUESTION!

I've always been reluctant to spend big money on printers even though I really like having easy click access to hard copies.  It just seemed that  the ink cartridges are expensive and generally they don't last long.
In fact I've never actually bought a brand new printer.  I've always taken hand-me-downs and refilled the ink cartridges with a syringe type refill kit. So I've struggled at times to have a smoothly running printer system.
Running Linux hasn't made printing easier since the drivers are never supplied with the printers and if they are available at all, they need to be found on the web and often installed manually. Turboprint is a good source for drivers for mainstream printers but it isn't freeware.
Last year when my friend started working at Premier Salons, the company supplied her with a used HP 1000 laser printer.  But she already had a new Canon Pixma MP160 colour inkjet all in one photo printer/scanner installed and running and didn't want to change to a monochrome, basic printer so she lent it to me.  Since this particular printer is among the best selling printers of all time (HP sold 60 MILLION OF THEM!)  it was not too difficult to get it to run well on Redhat 9.0 and SuSe 11.1.  But then Karen moved on and the company took the printer back and I was faced with returning to using my Dad's ancient hand me down Canon BJ200 bubble jet or getting another printer.  I began researching and shopping for a steal on a printer. 
A couple of years ago I received an HP 325 compact colour photo printer as a birthday gift but while it works flawlessly with my Canon Powershot SD990 IS digital Elph camera,  it only prints the 4"X6" size so while I felt that I could forgo the expense of a colour and/or photo quality printer, I still had to have another printer.
Since there's already scanning and faxing capability in our house as well, I narrowed down my needs to a basic, monochrome printer but despite my frugal nature, having had the quiet, quick and fluid HP 1000 laser printer on my desk I decided that I would not return to the world of clattering inkjet printers and their seemingly always nearing empty ink cartridges.  Ink cartridges are like batteries....it seems they are always dying or dead. But laser toner cartridges last for thousands of copies.
So dear reader, this frugal journalist turned to the internet and Craigslist to find a laser printer.
A quick search turned up 185 printers for sale within reasonable distance of my office and then 22 laser printers, with 7 of those being colour.  I was down to 15.  4 of them stated that the toner was finished or almost finished and 2 had broken or missing parts. Now I was down to 9.  5 were either huge office types or located too far away to bother. Now there were 4 used, monochrome, laser printers with toner remaining.  The asking prices ran from $30 to $90 dollars.  A little research on the net told me that despite eco, and sales taxes a new laser printer could be had at Staples, Office Depot or Best Buy or Future Shop or for $75 dollars more or less.  Considering that toner refills also cost from $30 to $90 dollars locally, the obvious deduction is that used basic laser printers have zero dollar value unless they are full or nearly full of toner.  None of the remaining 4 printers seemed to be worth making appointments to see and buy so it seems that I was going to have to break down and buy my first BRAND NEW PRINTER!.
Next I turned to my favourite, local, computer store's website GreenNet to try and avoid the the big box retailers where the word Linux is never heard and lo and behold there was a Samsung 1640 compact, desktop, monochrome laser printer for $76 dollars, just a few blocks from my office.  GreenNet offered a one year "take it back to the store" type warranty as well.  Only one important detail remained before I whipped out my Airmiles credit card......will it work on my Linux SuSe 11.1 , X41 IBM Thinkpad?  
As I wrote in my previous entry, Neither Mac nor Linux, despite increasing popularity worldwide, is going to unseat Microsoft as the dominating force in home computers for the foreseeable future.  But Samsung included a Linux driver right on the installation disk....making the ML1640 laser printer almost plug n' play!  Way to go Samsung!  Thanks Greennet.

3 MAJOR WAYS TO A LOW COST, SECURE, COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

Microsoft's Windows operating systems control the vast majority of the worlds computers. Even Mac hasn't made any serious inroads into Microsoft's market share. But there is a better way... This isn't another of my rants.....well ok it is.

In earlier posts I've detailed my experiences using Linux as my operating system going back many years. One of the great things about using Linux is that it doesn't inherently promote hardware upgrades. Linux runs well on old computers with low speed processers and small hard drives and doesn't demand massive amounts of RAM either. Consequently, as a user and a not a rich one either, I used my NEC Versa LX laptop running RedHat 9.0 for years longer than I could have if I was an XP user for example.
But there comes a time.... I'm writing this entry on my IBM X41 Thinkpad which is running SuSe 11.1 seamlessly!

So the first two things a computer user needs to have for a great computing experience are a great operating system, and high quality hardware. The third and not the least is a technician/programmer who is knowledgeable about Linux....hey every user needs help once in a while!
If you have these three things at hand, you will be able to enjoy years of trouble free, secure and very low cost computing while staying right up to date with all the latest technology.

So what is SuSe?
The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, openSUSE.org provides free, easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE. You'll find more information available in many languages on the project wiki.

Open SuSe is a free and Linux based operating system for your PC Laptop or server. You can surf the web, manage your emails, music, videos and photos, do office work.

Linux is a widely used Open Source Unix-like operating system. Linux was first
released by its inventor Linus Torvalds in 1991. There are versions of
Linux for almost every available type of computer hardware from desktop
machines to IBM mainframes. ...

My old computer runs RedHat 9.0

What is Redhat....Red Hat, Inc. is a company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor.

FINE SUMMER DINING ON THE WEST COAST....TRY MY PINK SALMON RECIPE

When I was growing up in England, back when the last of the dinosaurs still stalked the earth, the only salmon I ever tasted came in a tiny 85 gram tin that cost a pound or more. It was a rare treat that was usually extended with salad cream and spread thinly on sandwich bread and that was it. I read about people going salmon fishing in Scotland but these kind of holidays were only a dream to me. I simply assumed that salmon, all salmon, but especially fresh and smoked salmon were delicacies everyone loved but were only enjoyed regularly by rich folks.

But here on the west coast, in modern times, the salmon situation is quite different. The five species of Pacific salmon, Chinook (Spring, Tyee), Chum (Dog, Silverbright), Pink, Coho (Blackmouth, Blueback) and Sockeye are widely available as well as is farmed Atlantic salmon. Despite declining wild stocks, salmon are there in the local sea for catching the year round. And guess what....salmon is absolutely the cheapest fish that one can buy! Yes! Cheaper than cod. Cheaper than farmed tilapia.

I now buy tinned salmon smoked from The Fishery on Saltspring Island. It's a family owned business that offers all the species of salmon smoked in tins. Its only around $4.oo per tin.
Regular tinned salmon is cheap in the grocery stores as well. The 213 gm. tin of wild pacific sockeye is always available for about $2.00 and goes on sale in August for less at the Real Canadian Superstore.

I've discovered something else that continues to puzzle me after all these years. Guess what. Most people don't like salmon. Yes it's true. I used to think that people en masse don't eat salmon because it seems expensive. But that isn't the reason. Most folks simply prefer beef. The purpose of this writing is not to convert those folks, it's to help people who already like salmon to get the most from their dining experiences.
For some reason that escapes me, restaurants generally treat salmon as if it is expensive....which it isn't.
Salmon served in restaurants is served in undersized, overcooked, overpriced, little, fingersized portions. There are some exceptions and I apologize to you. Local Japanese restaurants offer nice portions under $10.00. Yes! If you haven't had salmon sashimi then you haven't completed your salmon culinary tour. Try The Eatery on W. Broadway.
Here's another thing that is cheap and fabulous. Next time you're hankering for fish n' chips, order salmon n' chips instead of cod or halibut. Cockney Kings does it well.
For BBQing, grilling, sashimi, smoking, frying, poaching and for the salmon deal of the year, here's the local secret, the bottom line, the best way to go.
Yesterday at the Real Canadian Superstore I bought fresh, wild, Pacific, Pink Salmon, head off and gutted, two small fish in a bag...are you ready for this... $3.90 A KILOGRAM! Yes....less than $2.00 per lb. The cost of my fish was $6.49.

Pink salmon gives and gets a raw deal locally compared to the bigger, redder, fattier species like Sockeye and Chinook, but when they are running in August nothing beats fresh, lean, delicate, fillets of wild, Pink Pacific salmon. Why is the little Pink so under appreciated? There are a couple of reasons. Because Pink salmon is mostly caught in huge numbers right when they begin the spawning run, the overwhelming majority of Pinks are tinned for sale. Pink salmon, like other lean species of fish doesn't tin well. The flavour is bland because the fish has to be grossly over heated in order to tin it. Species like Sockeye taste better from the tin because the high fat content of the fish helps the flavour survive the hyper boiling process. Tinned Pink salmon is half the price of tinned Sockeye so I think that many people having had both species tinned and having found the much cheaper Pink salmon to be inferior assume that it's an inferior fish in general. Many folks add fat to tinned Pink salmon in the form of mayonaise for sandwiches and salads but this is not the way to enjoy Pink salmon. Pink salmon should be carefully cooked when fresh.

Pink salmon spoils quickly. To get a truly unforgettable West Coast salmon dining experience you are going to have to either know someone who understands and loves his or her salmon or you are going to have to do it yourself. Here's how Julian does it.

1. Buy your Pink salmon small, fresh and whole (head off and gutted ok) in August and September and be prepared to eat it within one day.

2. Fillet the fish or cut it into steaks just a half or at the most three quarters of an inch thick, no more. If your fish is  big enough so that the fillets are thicker than an inch, carefully slice them horizontally. For steaks, roll the belly flaps up into the belly cavity and secure them with tooth picks. The fat in the belly flaps will be held against the leaner body flesh for the most flavourful steaks and the steaks won't fall apart. If you cut your salmon into pieces that are thicker than three quarters of an inch, the outside of the fish will dry and be overcooked before the middle flakes. This is a classic way to ruin Pink salmon. Ideally Pink salmon should be cooked very quickly in pieces sized like little sole fillets.

3. Preheat a nonstick or cast iron skillet over heat high enough to sizzle butter but not burn it. Put a knob of salted butter, a sprinkle of freshly chopped parsley and little white pepper into the pan. Add the salmon and put the lid on, turn it after about a minute and cook for another minute or so until the salmon just flakes....as if you were cooking sole.

4. Since the Pink run is in late Summer, Pink salmon is often ruined on BBQ's. It gets overcooked in big chunks and this contributes to Pink salmon's reputation as being dry and unappetizing, not to mention that it's too delicate get off the grill. There really is only one way to conveniently BBQ fresh Pink salmon and that is to use a wire basket. These are cheap enough at the Dollar Store to buy and throw away if washing it afterwards is inconvenient. I like the ones that are square and flat for toast rather than the fish shaped ones as they are too big to hold the little salmon pieces. Prepare the salmon as above, except brush the salmon with melted butter. Cook it quickly over high heat so as not to dry it out. Alternatively, Pink salmon can be steamed on the grill in sealed foil with butter and a little wine....which is excellent, but of course there won't be any BBQ flavour.
DO NOT OVERCOOK IT and serve it immediately with Grey Monk Pinot Gris. Or get a growler of Derrick's Pilsner from Dix! Bon Appetit!

5 RULES FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS FOR CANADIANS

In 1998 I wrote a letter for posting in the "Daily Rant" section of my first web page entitled
5 Rules for Financial Success for Canadians.
Reading it again recently I wondered if it was still relevant today, 10 years later. I think it is. These rules have helped me and other Canadians attain and maintain financial stability and independence in an increasingly complex world. These ideas of course are not all mine. But arranged in this simple list, I think anyone, especially those without any financial structure or goals, can put it on the fridge and benefit.


1. PAY YOURSELF FIRST.
Save 10% of every dollar you ever earn. That is a simple rule. Set up an automatic debit that takes 10% of your regular paycheque per month from your chequeing account, before any other bills come out and deposits it in your savings account, your RRSP account, purchases units in your favourite mutual fund, buys gold or silver or whatever safe savings vehicle you like. You can save 10% of the gross or the net. The details are not as important as the habit. When irregular income arrives take 10% off the top and add it to the pile. No matter where one lives, no matter how one earns the money, no matter how much money one earns, there are very few other basic rules for living that will provide the kind of financial stability and autonomy that this critically important rule will. On paper it makes sense to pay off debt before saving money. In practice, the habit of saving money on a regular basis will be more valuable than trying to pay off debt and delaying the saving process. Do not dip into your savings for month to month purchases. In the future you will be able to withdraw income from the account for investments and retirement income
Many years ago someone wrote a book about how to save money. It had one page and one word on that page. START. Read it, do it, whether you are 10 years old or 100. It's been said that creating wealth is simple not easy. This rule is a way to begin.

2. BUY YOUR HOUSE.
One must live somewhere. Why not live in a leveraged, secure, capital gains free investment. In Canada, no capital gains taxes are due on the sale price of your principal dwelling. In some circumstances, a mortgage can be made tax deductible. The equity in your house is an anchor for financial stability that will sustain you through good times and bad. Many government incentives exist to assist and encourage people to buy their own houses because the government knows that owners are less likely to become dependent on social systems than renters. Because real estate keeps pace with inflation, owners keep pace with the growing economy and the declining purchasing value of the dollars. If you need a startling example, just ask your parents how much they paid for their first house. The same disparity will exist when your children ask you the same question in 20 years!
There are only two ways to make money in this world. One is to invest in business and the other it to invest in real estate. If you can't afford your dream house, buy an apartment. If you can't afford prices in your own neighbourhood buy in another, or buy some recreational propery. If you like skiing buy a chalet, if you like fishing, buy in the lakes district, it's not what you buy, it's if you buy.

3. BUY GOLD.
The Royal Canadian Mint still mints all our coins and most paper dollars in gold and silver as it has done since the mint was established about 100 years ago. When the RCM began reducing the precious metal content of our coins in the 1960's people lost the ability to accumulate tangible wealth by saving money because the money became almost worthless. Today for example, a dollar, a loonie, is a token worth only its purchasing power, a cheap cup of coffee. In the first half of the last century, say 1938, $1.00 would have bought a meal in a restaurant. The value of that dollar is constantly falling. If you save it long enough, its value will fall to almost zero!
In 1960 a dollar coin was made of 80% fine silver. A 1960 Canadian dollar coin is worth about $10.00 today but a 1960 paper dollar is worth the same as today's loonie. A 1938 Canadian silver dollar however has enough value to purchase a meal in a restaurant!
Now, if you want your money to be worth what its worth, every time you get a paper cheque or even if you find yourself with a jar of coins. Take those almost worthless coins and some of the value of those paper notes to your local coin dealer and buy Maple Leaf Gold and Silver Coins. If you can't afford gold buy silver. If you can't afford an ounce, buy a fractional coin. These assets leave no paper trail and are a great emergency/disaster fund. There's a size for every budget. Do it every month. Doing this will keep the real value of a dollar in your hands for ever...instead of in the hands of the government.

4. BE AN OWNER, not a loaner.
Have your savings in a dividend fund rather than an interest account. Interest income is highly taxable but dividends aren't.
Buy your car don't lease it. Buy your house don't rent it. Own your business. Work for yourself at least part-time. The tax deductions are many, you'll build equity and you'll learn more skills. There are certain things that entail so much risk and have so many costs attached that is makes sense to rent them when they are to be used occasionally or at least short term. Things such as sailboats, airplanes and occasionally used, expensive tools.

5. NEVER BUY A NEW CAR.
A new car is a big status symbol in our society. It has always been so. For many people it's the biggest cheque they will ever write after a house. But all new cars depreciate very rapidly from the moment you drive your $35,000.00 Extravaganza off the lot until it's worth $500.00 some years down the road. A capital loss of 90% or more is hard to justify when its not necessary.
Buy and drive an old car. The thrill of driving a new car wears off long before the payments do! Pay approximately 10% of the new price of the car. This usually means the car will be at least 10 years old. This does not mean that you can't have all benefits of a new car and it will cost much less. You won't have a monthly car payment, you won't pay any interest, you won't pay any GST, you'll pay less PST, and if you wreck it or if it's stolen you'll lose less money. You'll pay less insurance and old cars, especially pre-computer age cars are cheaper to fix. You'll also lose less money if you sell it and it'll be easier to sell. You likely won't buy a lemon because the maintenance records will be in the glove compartment, and even if you do, you'll still risk less money.
Buy a car you like and one that fits your needs. You can keep it in pristine condition or just drive it. You can buy a big one or a small one a blue one or a white one, a fully loaded Mercedes Benz or a Chevy Cavalier these choices are not the point of this rule. It's true that some cars cost more to buy and maintain and that some last longer or use less fuel than others. But cars are available at every price point from $100.00 on up. The 10% rule is the one to follow. Virtually all cars can be had for 10 cents on the dollar at a certain point in time. A $100,000.00 BMW can be had for $10,000.00 after a few years.
After a certain number of years, some old cars actually appreciate! Why not drive a classic car? You'll look great driving it and it won't drain your account.
Exercise the 50% rule no matter what your budget is. Spend only half your money buying the car more or less. You'll need the other half for repairs. You need a $20,000.00 budget to buy that $10,000.00 BMW but a $1000.00 Chevy Cavalier can be had with only $2000.00 in hand. All those flashy ads on TV and billboards and all those huge new car stores will not be paid for by you.

SHOULD GENERAL MOTORS BE ALLOWED TO GO BROKE?

This article is an updated one that I wrote last year. Since dramatic events have occurred since then I thought is was worth re-posting, partly to affirm my own position and partly to emphasize how shocked and disappointed I am by the positions and reactions of the various governments around the world...especially the American Fed who has effectively nationalized GM.

Many Canadians view the USA as a bastion of capitalism compared to Canada and European countries. Just remember, and this most recent bailout of a long terminally ill corporate giant emphasizes the fact, that the United States of America is just as deeply embedded in socialism as other western nations. If the founding fathers can see what has happened to their country since the days of Jefferson they must surely be sick with grief.

The American Fed is even more broke than than GM! The only things that the Fed has over GM are better cash flow and more remaining credit. The nanny state is sacrificing the the present and future purchasing power of its taxpayers by borrowing trillions, YES TRILLIONS of dollars to bail out companies that are no longer viable. Yet the Fed is barely viable itself! Neither GM's $170,000,000,000.00 plus debt will ever be paid nor will the Fed's...are you ready for this $11,000,000,000,000.00 that's eleven trillion by the way, plus debt ever be paid off.

Probably the key reason why this tragedy, this crime, this gross disregard for the constitution and what's worse, common sense, must surely be the abandonment of tangible wealth in the the currency of the nation. It's the same around the world. While no system is perfect, here it is succinctly. This is a quote from another article I wrote years ago called “Once Silver Now Steel”. As we watch the decline of the American empire that began in the latter part of the 20^th century, this final dramatic crash of GM reminds me to pay attention because when the end comes it comes with uncanny speed and power.

In the days when was currency was valuable rather than token, the folks who owned it were rich because the hard currency itself in the form of high carat gold or silver held its value in the tangible asset, not in the promise of purchasing power and backed by the government of the day. Today if you have a million dollars in hand it will be worth less tomorrow than today due to inflation. If you keep it under your mattress it will be worthless in a few years. If our money was still valuable, wealth would be in the hands of citizens rather than governments. The mint would be forced to purchase precious metal from the mines and related industries instead of just making base metal tokens. Actual wealth would be placed in the hands of the people instead of virtually worthless paper and steel tokens and it would hold its value!...workers could save money without being forced to invest it. Governments couldn't print money to pay debts because it would have to buy gold and silver to do it.........Accountability would be required.

So after all these years, some would say decades, General Motors is so close to filing for chapter eleven in the US that the Fed is rumored to be planning a twenty seven BILLION dollar bailout package for the giant failing automaker. Perhaps the buzz phrase "GM's too big to fail" will become a self fulfilling prophesy. Needless to say, the ramifications of GM actually going bankrupt would be wide reaching, no doubt touching deep into the hearts of communities far and wide and affecting millions of people who in one way or another make a living or who's incomes are supported by the manufacturing of automobiles.
The water cooler, on line, talk radio and tavern talk runs the gamut from comments like "it's only because of the global economic slowdown that GM has run into tough times". And, " GM has shot itself in the foot by building huge, lousy cars that use too much fuel and that nobody wants to buy. These are urban myths.
Of course, the real reasons why GM is going broke are complex and GM has been going broke for a long time. Some of the reasons are the result of bad management decisions, like buying Hummer for example, but many are the result of market conditions that are and have been out of control of even a market player as big as GM. Like, for example, the fact that the import/export market has been a one way street for a long, long time. Japanese cars go to America, American cars don't go to Japan. And to complicate matters further, there's GMAC. GMAC lost big time in the subprime mortgage debacle. Then there are the high union wage collective agreements, crushing pension and other benefit obligations and changing demographics.

For an eye opening account of just how long GM has been bleeding to death I urge you to read Porter Stansbury's articles "Letters from the Chairman of GM". Reading these articles will crystallize just how dire GM's situation is and how the current situation is NOT a result of the most recent and dramatic economic conditions.

http://www.growthstockwire.com/archive/2008/sep/2008_sep_20.asp

http://www.dailywealth.com/archive/2007/nov/2007_nov_10.asp

Mr Stansbury's ( http://www.stansberryresearch.com/ ) letters were controversial at the time of his writings because so many people were unaware or disbelieving of just how dire the situation was and is at GM and based on my observations, THEY STILL ARE.

So given this long preamble about how GM came to find itself at the "end of the world as we know it" I must ask the following questions, " should GM be allowed to fail" and " can GM really be saved anyway. Well my answers are yes to the former and no to the latter.
Here's why. I'm philosophically opposed to pumping taxpayers money into specific companies.
That only amounts to a subsidy for a failing company that gives it an edge over its competitors. How can a market work effectively for its participants when the the government is subsidizing some companies and not others.
It's far better to let those affected by changing conditions in the market take advantage of social support systems already in place as they need them. As examples, employee pensions are insured, unemployment insurance is there for displaced workers.

Workers with skills and drive will be picked up by the remaining market players. Others will move on to other industries.
And GM as a viable business cannot be saved anyway. Because GM itself with all of the tools and resources available to it for the last twenty years has not been able to turn a profit. Providing a massive bailout package for a huge, long failing company simply postpones the inevitable at taxpayer's expense and in a very inequitable way.
The elephant has been shot a hundred times already...it just hasn't fallen down yet. GM should be allowed to fail in the normal course of business and its assets and debts absorbed by the remaining investors in the marketplace
Regards,
Julian.

Copyright JulianOnePlanet Publications 2008

DESPERATE HOUSECATS

Named after the Egyptian goddess of sunrise and descended from an ancient family heritage in Thailand, she is beautiful, affectionate, garrulous and to some people, quite aloof. She is also high maintenance, but John doesn't mind, he loves her. John spends a lot of money on Bast, he buys her bling and expensive, tasty little meals. He takes her to a pricey, local salon for more grooming and they go out to shows several times a year.

Bast is intelligent, sensitive and has a slightly nervous temperament, although she is sociable, she is bonded only to John. Bast has fine bones, an aristocratic head, a slim muscular build, short pale hair and striking, almond shaped, deep blue eyes. She has a creamy, pale body with contrasting dark features. She moves fluidly, gracefully, and occasionally, with uncanny speed and agility but spends a lot of time in bed or grooming. Bast has won several awards for her beauty and attractive disposition. Bast is a Seal Point Siamese show cat...

Bast has a cousin in Thailand called Wichien-Maat it means Moon Diamond. They have never met. Bast looks just like her but she has less contrasting markings. Moon Diamond is a Chocolate Point Siamese cat. John is considering bringing Moon Diamond over from Thailand to live with them.

Everybody loves Bast including her two best friends Thai and Bali. They are sisters who live with John's cousin Benjamin where they all visit every week or two. Thai and Bali never come to visit Bast because Benjamin doesn't drive but sometimes, John takes everyone to shows. Thai and Bali are beautiful but they are unaware of it. They have more muted, pink gray markings than Bast. They are Lilac Point Siamese show cats. They are desperate for attention and they demand a lot of it from Benjamin. They are also desperate to ESCAPE. Thai especially, really wants to get outside and rushes to answer the door at every opportunity. But Benjamin says the streets are a dangerous place for slender, naive young females.

Thai and Bali are active, playful and inquisitive and they fuss around Bast. But she's more snooty than they are and less desperate for attention generally, since she travels regularly and has many celebrity friends. One of these celebrities Ting, is a Blue Point Siamese show cat with grey face, ears, tail and paws. Ting is very sociable and knows everybody so Ting, Bast, Thai and Bali talk a lot when they are together at a show, John calls them the chatty Cathys.

Lately the cats have been talking of climbing trees, of basking in the sun, eating grass and catching crickets, stalking birds and thrilling mouse hunts, things none of the cats have ever done but have always dreamed about. Recently the cats have been talking about only ONE thing when they get together...ESCAPE!

Once, Bali squeezed by Benjamin's leg when he answered the door and ESCAPED into the hall, she went up and down the hall but all the other doors were closed until finally a bell rang and one door slid open, Bali darted in, but only found herself in a tiny room with no other doors or windows, so after a while she gave up and went home.

Last year, at a show, John dropped Bast's leash, she made a quick little run and ESCAPED through an open gate, but around the corner there was another gate and this one was closed.

Ting thinks she's ESCAPED because once, she got out of her cat carrier, jumped into the front seat, put her paws on the dashboard and looked out the front window, but the other cats don't think this counts.

John and Benjamin are wise to the cat's plans and are careful not to let the cats out.

The cats know that ESCAPE is not easy but they think they are very smart and are still trying to pull it off.

JulianOnePlanet 2009

THE CHICKENS FINALLY COME HOME TO ROOST IN VANCOUVER

Vancouver city council recently voted unanimously in favour of scratching out an old bylaw that prevented the rearing of chickens in residential neighbourhoods. This act reflects an urban trend that is currently in full flight in North American towns and cities. With varying conditions in all the many jurisdictions, it's legal to keep flocks in Victoria, Burnaby, New Westminster, New York, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, San Jose, Houston, San Francisco and countless other urban and suburban roosts. But until a couple of days ago, Vancouver chicken cops were ready to pluck any outlaw hens from residences.

So why have so many city councils been brooding over this issue recently? Is it because the downturn in the economy has led people to scratch a living from their formerly ornamental gardens? Is it because so many urbanites see commercial, battery chicken farms as inhumane? Therefore some people think that they can lay claim to part of the free run, free range, organic, healthy living, anti-big business, anti-food importing attitude that is popular in certain circles, just by practicing a little backyard animal husbandry? I think the answer to the latter question is yes.

Backyard chicken flocks are a staple part of family meals for countless millions the world over and not for trendy reasons as is the case in rich North America. Where ever land is available and money is scarce people don't stew about issues such as whether or not the chickens can run free in the sun. Chickens are simply kept for food.

Here in Vancouver, a dozen eggs from a commercial farm costs around three dollars. Free run/range eggs cost a dollar or two more. These prices are hardly high enough to ruffle the feathers of locals, all of which count their incomes in the thousands of dollars. I recently bought a whole, fresh, three pound, fryer chicken at No Frills, a local grocery store, for a dollar a pound! I regularly lay more than that on the bar at Dix for a beer!

Although the repealing of this local bylaw might egg on a few dozen city dwellers to try their hands at raising chickens, I hardly think that we'll see hens cooped up on thousands of apartment balconies in Yaletown nor will we be hearing many cock-a-doodle-doos in the gardens of Kerrisdale mansions. Having said that, people do love their pets and hens make engaging pets. There are countless thousands of dogs and cats living in Vancouver apartments and they are all defecating in boxes and city parks. Adding a few layers to the list of pets isn't going to turn the city into a barnyard. But if a couple of rich celebrity chicks are seen on Robson street with hens' heads peeking out of their purses, old and young alike may pick up the trend of keeping chickens as pet companions. The next thing of course will be pet accessories and services for urban chicks. Diamond leg bands, feather dusters and hen parties will be all the rage this season, I predict. Empty nesters who are missing their children will start keeping exotic breeds for their distinct personalities. We'll probably have to stop eating chicken wings in bars because it will be seen as cruelty toward animals. No doubt Petcetera and PetSmart will start selling fancy, canned and organic chicken feed that' s advertised on TV. And of course, vegetarians will raise vegetarian chickens while carnivores will feed their chickens slugs and bugs. Local veterinarians will flock to refresher courses on chickens. Some conscientious new pet chicken owners will accompany their hens to obedience schools and focus groups but many will just wing it.

Since the change in the by-law was announced, inevitably there has been some clucking from people in various interest groups. Perhaps some of the few locals who farm vegetables in their urban gardens will take a gander at adding chicken coops to their urban home steads. After all, is a chicken in a cockamamie back yard cage any different than a cockatoo or a cockatiel in a gilded cage?...Well chicken eggs are bigger and size does matter which breeds another question. What about getting some ostrich sized eggs hatching in our backyards? This isn't just a little chicken shit! Having a few seven foot tall, three hundred pound birds scratching under the fence could really get the neighbours squawking. An owner would likely have to deal with less foul play from resident coyotes and hawks however.

Some have voiced concerns that aging layers will end up as home grown cockaleekie in city cock pots. Slaughtering a guinea hen in the garage is one thing, but slaughtering ostriches would certainly get people running around the neighbourhoods like chickens with their heads cut off! But giant African chickens will likely never come home to roost and I don't see this change to Vancouver's pet by-law as much to crow about.

JulianOnePlanet Publications Copyright 2009

VANCOUVER'S LAST HOP VINE?

http://www.camravancouver.ca/
In 1905 the neighbourhood of Mt Pleasant was a logged off area with only a few structures off Main or Broadway. One of them was a Vancouver Breweries building at the corner of what is now 280 E 6^th Ave. at Scotia. The brick and stone building is a heritage one now and is an artist's live work studio complex.

The brewery was sited there because of the creek that flowed there and the water turned the grist mill and of course provided water for the beer. Brewery Creek still flows but it's underground now. It flows as it almost always has down to False Creek flats at E.1^st Ave and Scotia. In fact the Artech building has pumps underground to keep the parkade from flooding. Across the street from Artech there's a large hop vine growing wild in the blackberry brambles. I can't prove it but it's reasonable to suppose that spent hops and grains dumped outside the brewery found their way via stream or wind or birds downstream to where what now could be Vancouver's last hop vine's current location.

False Creek was filled in to eliminate Mt. Pleasant's waterfront and Brewery Creek long since sent underground but the hops are still here...barely.

Recently, a City of Vancouver “Greenway” project has a bicycle path planned that will bulldoze the vine's location on the boulevard. Currently, the two pronged approach of the path has brought the east end from Main st. to within a few yards of the vine. The westerly extension is at Great Northern Way and Brunswick, also within a half a block of the vine. I'm surprised there's been a mature crop this year. I figured the machines would have sent the vine to oblivion weeks ago.

As the nights cool in the dying days of summer 2008 the last crop this old vine will produce has reached its prime.

I've brewed with these hops, sold them on Ebay and given them away over the years. This is the last hurrah.

I've taken samples of the hops to Derrick at Dix and he has said that he's interested in brewing a fresh hopped beer but he will not be able to fit it into his schedule until the 3^rd week in September. The hops MIGHT still be there but annailation is imminent.

The vine's located on the north side of 336 E. 1.st Ave. opposite the little park. Anyone interested in taking rhisome cuttings or hops will need pruners and gloves to clip away the blackberry brambles.

The vine is large so it will be possible to harvest a bunch big enough to brew anything from a basic 5 gallon homebrew on up to craft brew sizes.

Cheers,

JulianOnePlanet Publications copyright 2008

“relax, have a homebrew” Charlie Papazian

A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

Karen sat in the lunch room at the Youth Detention Center. Sullen and barely responsive, she was the stereotypical image of a teen in trouble. Piercings and tattoos accented a black hoody with a white skull and cross bones on the sleeves.

“Look.” said the warden “ If you work until your case is heard you'll get a reference and it will help to get the case dismissed. It's dirty work, but the Animal Shelter needs volunteers.”

“OK.” said Karen finally. Karen went to the Animal Shelter and cleaned cages all day. The next day she volunteered again. On the third day she went to court.

“Complete forty hours of community service and stay at the Women's Shelter for thirty days. Don't let me see you back here.” said the judge.

Karen went back to the Animal Shelter where she worked all week. She'd met a big, friendly dog, quite thin, with a white ear and one white foot. With no tag on his collar she called him Jake. “Jake's” days at the Animal Shelter were running out. Unclaimed dogs at the Animal Shelter were put down after forty five days...he'd been there for thirty-nine. He watched her with his head on one side while she worked.

“Where do you come from?” she asked him.

“Woof.” said Jake and thumped his tail on the cage floor.

On Monday the Animal Shelter didn't call for work. Karen went to the Child Services Office, got a food voucher and sold it for ten dollars. She panhandled all day and counted her money. She had fifty three dollars. She went to the Animal Shelter and got permission to take Jake out for a walk.

“Big, old dogs are to hard place.” said the Animal Control Officer.

Karen paid the fifty dollar fee. Jake was free. Together they went to McDonald's and with a coupon the remaining three dollars got them each a double cheeseburger. Karen had never seen such a happy dog.

“ I couldn't let you die there.” she said.

“Woof.” said Jake and his tail thumped against her. For the first time in a long time, Karen smiled.

Jake wasn't welcome at the Women's Shelter. That night she spent a chilly night in a park with Jake's warm body next to her.

In the morning, another trip to the Child Services Office got her another food voucher. There was a notice on the job board offering cash paid daily for delivering papers door to door. Karen and Jake went to the address on the notice.

“The papers are ready at midnight and must be delivered by 6am. You have to return the satchel to get paid.”

Karen's route had six hundred papers. There were six bundles. She split the first bundle into each of the satchel pouches and picked it up. With the satchel on her shoulders she could barely walk, after half an hour she sat on the curb exhausted and demoralized. Jake wanted to get going, this a was a good walk.

“Woof.” he said and thumped his tail.

Karen tied a knot in the strap of the satchel and draped it over Jake's back.

"There.” she said, “you deliver the papers.”

Jake walked ahead to the next gate and looked back at Karen until she caught up. It seemed like he knew the routine. She took a paper out of the satchel and tossed it onto the porch. Jake walked on to the next gate. The two of them delivered papers like that all night long. In the morning Karen had forty two dollars. She bought dog food and girl food and convinced the matron at the Women's Shelter to let Jake sleep on the back porch for the day. That night Karen and Jake delivered six hundred more papers. She bought plastic rain ponchos for them both at Army & Navy. They delivered papers six nights a week for three more months, sleeping at the shelter by day and delivering papers all night. The streets were safer for Karen with Jake around and he never left her side. The nights got shorter and warmer. Karen lost some weight, Jake gained some. Looking in the mirror one spring day, Karen took out her piercings. Her skin was clear and her hair shone. She was eighteen years old and she wasn't angry anymore.

“Woof.” said Jake, anxious to get going. It was 6:00 am and Karen had just been paid. Together they watched the sun rise. Lately, Karen had begun to notice things she hadn't noticed before. The sound of the birds at dawn, the scent of the lawns after a spring rain. The smile of the girl at the coffee counter. Karen put her arms around Jake's neck. Karen realized that she was happy.

“Woof.” said Jake.

One night when Karen and Jake arrived for work the supervisor at the Distribution Office said.

“You wanna work in the office here startin' Monday we got an openin' ...be for a month at least.”

“Can Jake stay? “ asked Karen.

“No problem.”

Karen did office and warehouse work for the next two years, shipping and receiving the papers and entering route information into the computer. Jake patrolled the loading dock. All the drivers got to know him. She rented a basement suite with a co-worker and walked Jake every day at the beach.

One Monday in September Jake limped over to her and didn't woof. The next day he could barely stand and he shook. She took him to an animal hospital in a cab.

The vet felt the hard mass in Jake's side. Later he showed her the x-ray.

Jake looked at her and thumped his tail weakly but he didn't woof.

“You saved my life.” she said with her hand on his head.

Walking alone for the first time in years, Karen went out of the hospital onto the street, walked without direction, past the Distribution Office, past the park where she'd spent that first cold night with Jake, past the houses where they'd delivered the papers all those nights all those months and years ago, down to the beach where she walked every day these days with Jake. She sat on a bench and looked out across the bay, at the mountains and the city and the sea while her tears fell. The people went by with their dogs and children. The sun slowly dropped. The air cooled. She sat there for a long time.

“We made a good team.” she said out loud. “ I saved your life and you saved mine. I loved you Jake and I'm going to be okay.”

JulianOnePlanet Publications Copyright 2009

First Published in Vancouver in the Metro Pet Gazette February 2009

JulianOnePlanet Presents....THE TUESDAY NIGHT NO NAMES

Julian's TUESDAY NIGHT NO NAMES has not been nominated for an Oscar this year but but I consider to it be a dark horse nominee for cult video of the year. Warning, unless you are in the league, and actually even if you are, you should only watch this video if you have absolutely nothing else to do.

To see the slide show of my Tuesday night hockey league click the link above. It's on Viddler.com because YouTube rejected it because it's over ten minutes long. As an artist, I felt unwilling to compromise the integrity of the show to meet YouTube's criteria so Viddler leaped into the gap.
Viddler seems to be a very good service, similar to YouTube but with fewer restrictions and the registration process was quicker as well.

JulianOnePlanet Publications 2009

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF BREWERIES IN THE WORLD

There are two kinds of people in this world....those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't....but seriously folks, the incongruous thing about the myriad of beers available in this world is that there are really only two kinds of breweries in the world. The first one is the kind that brews and sells the overwhelming majority of all the beer in the world....the commercial brewery. The second one is the craft brewery. In almost everything these two types of breweries do they are polar opposites.
The commercial brewery wants to sell as much beer as possible and there aren't really any limits to the amount of beer that can be brewed or sold. The craft brewery has quite limited brewing capacity and all the beer will sell out fairly quickly.
The commercial brewery wants to appeal to the widest possible demographic and so the beer is made with the least possible taste, colour and very low alcohol content. The craft brewery is brewing for a tiny segment of the population, likely less than 5% of all beer drinkers. Craft brews are very flavourful, meaning malty and/or hoppy. Crafts brews are colourful, appearing coppery or black as well as golden. Higher gravity brews from 5% up to 9% are the norm and light beers are rarely brewed.
The commercial breweries cut costs on ingredients whenever and wherever they can and using cheap cereal grains such as corn and wheat and rice not only saves money but eliminates annoying taste in the beer such as maltiness...heaven forbid! Hops are used sparingly at best. Craft breweries use only top quality brewer's barley such as two row barley. They buy in smaller quantities and pay extra for quality in order to get distinctive flavour in the finished beer. Hops of many varieties are used liberally both for bittering and finishing.
Commercial breweries blend very carefully for absolute consistency. Every time a batch is complete 10% goes into one of the many onsite storage tanks and if the latest batch is not the same as the last batch, blending takes place until it's exactly the same. In a craft brewery each batch is celebrated for it's uniqueness! Consistency isn't expected nor is it the overriding goal.
Big commercial breweries spend most of their brewing budgets on advertising and as little as possible on the beer itself. Craft breweries have little money for advertising and beyond labelling and local promos, they expect their loyal fans to spread the word while the beer speaks for itself and that's where the money is mostly spent.
The difference between commercial breweries and craft breweries is that commercial breweries compete with each other to see who can make the most money for their shareholders whereas craft brewers compete to see who can make the best beer.....quite a different thing.
The commercial brewery is a giant, industrial, multinational corporation that brews in gigantic batches for mass market distribution. The craft brewery is usually a local, small company brewing in tiny batches for distribution to local restaurants and pubs in casks and often for consumption on the premises on tap.
When we drink beer brewed by a giant commercial brewery, we are talking mostly about light bodied, fizzy, yellow lager that is sold the world over.
When we drink beer brewed by a craft brewery, we are usually drinking ales and we could be talking about beer that is brewed in a style of times gone by, or in the style of a small distant region or we could be talking about beer brewed in a new style that the brewer has created for the sake of increased variety.
So all this does beg the question doesn't it? Why do the big guys have 95% of the world's market share when craft breweries go to all this trouble to make great beer. Well, I guess that most people don't know much about beer, don't like it that much, but are thirsty and want to get a bit drunk. But for those of us that know something about beer, like it a lot and still want to get a bit drunk, we'll take craft brewed beer every time!

THE BEST BREWERY IN THE WORLD

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Reasons To Drink Better Beer
1. Nothing is simple in this world and nothing is what it seems. Therefore I offer an ordinary reason as a first one. Better beer tastes better.
2. Better beer is green.....well not literally and not really but it's fashionable so it gets second place

Vancouver, a couple of decades ago, was a largely undiscovered green spot on the Pacific Rim that, as I recall, didn't have much interest in craft brewing.....there has been a minor revolution of sorts....at least a fashion trend towards better beer..... in some small circles that is like CAMRA for example.
I was doing some research last night that involved hanging out at the best brewery in the world. Nice work if you can get it you might say. And I'd agree with you. It was Cask Night at Dix Barbeque and Brewery and our good friend James Walton from Storm Brewing threw a great curve ball to the batters taking strikes at Canada's favourite pastime...namely drinking beer. James provided a fresh cask of apple cider. Made from Saltspring Island apples grown in a hundred year old orchard James pressed the apples in a press he made himself.....now that's craft brewing. As far away from real ale as Budweiser is, the Saltspring Island Cider was just as distant from big company cider such as Growers. Dry, slightly cloudy, very appley in the nose and on the tongue, not too fizzy and cool from the cask with a surprisingly long finish and going down quickly at $5.75 for the 20oz pint this was an ultra rare oportunity to drink locally made cider by one of Vancouvers best and most dedicated craft brewers.
But what's this "best brewery in the world" business all about anyway. Well dear reader, I don't make this statement lightly, I've done extensive research over many years with funding from several sources (I've drunk a lot of beer and many people have bought me pints). So here's a dissertation on the subject.
Dix only has craft brewed beer on tap. Yes, if you want a bottle of Bud or Canadian it's in the fridge. But the yellow beer drinkers usually choose Red Truck Lager, a craft brewed version of the worlds best selling type of lager. So let's just say that if you love yellow lager Dix has an excellent version. And like big company yellow lager, it doesn't have much taste so it's great for those aren't crazy about the taste of beer but are thirsty and/or want to get a shine on.
So is that why Dix is the best brewery in the world?...uh no. Is it the Red Truck Ale? Is it the Game Day Pilsner? Is it the Imperial Stout Is it the ESB? Or maybe it's the food..... Is it the Southern Pride Smoker that produces the beef ribs?....uh no...not all this great stuff.... is it the great staff or the period room or the north Yaletown location?...no not this good stuff either.......... Its the IPA....Derrick makes killer IPA.