Housing Bubble, Credit Crunch

The housing bubble explained. Damn, this guy is good. Be sure to watch all 4 parts of this video on youtube. He makes some very valid points. And the facts back him up. I used to think that an Amsterdam house at the canals would have been the best investment ever. Yet, if you look at it over the long run, it's different. From the 17th century until now, guess what the price development was of these houses? It's exactly equal to the inflation rate.

Also, I learned what Negative Amortization is: very scary!

Aernonautical Navigation

Yesterday I had my second day of ground school. I learned to navigate and plan a flight. In aviation, the emphasis is on safety. This means that protocols are pretty sacred. It also means that the people in aviation are pretty conservative. They are unwilling to abandon their tried and proven methods.

That is why I am currently educated in the use of obsolete technology. And I am expected to demonstrate my affinity with technology that is so old, it predates world war II.

For example, consider Automatic Direction Finder, or ADF. It allows you to determine the relative direction between a radio transmitter and yourself. This technology is so old, only in the most remote parts of the world it is still used.

The successor to this technology is called VHF Omnidirectional Range or VOR. It stems from the 1950s.

Of course, all this technology has long been superseeded by a system that is far more advanced, far more accurate, cheaper and easier to use: GNNS. Everybody is familiar with the US implementation of this, called GPS.

Why burden young pilots with this ADF and VOR stuff? Surely, GPS is the tool to use.

Beach Avenue

Amy and I have found an apartment to house me, her and two cats. So my bachelor days of a single-household are over. I'm looking forward to living with Amy. Finding the apartment was tricky, because 9 out of 10 apartment buildings downtown have a no-pet policy. Yet, we managed to find something really nice. We'll be having the yuppie lifestyles with our new apartment. It is again on Beach Avenue, but this time on the other side. It is close to the Burrard bridge, and has a gorgeous view. Amenities are pretty special too, as there is a pool, a gym, a squash-court, a sauna and a hot tub, all in our building and free for us to use. We will be moving into 907 Beach Avenue pretty soon. And with two bed rooms, we will be able to house a guest as well. Parking will be pretty good too, as we get two parking spots, and a third one for visitors.

Charlie Foxtrot Whisky Alpha Pappa

This is your captain speaking. Today I had my first flying lesson in Canada. I had one in Lelystad earlier, in a Cessna. This time, I flew a Diamond DA20-A1. My instructor Aaron did the landing and take off, but I did the aerobatics (oh, ok, turning left and right, going up and down) and some taxying.

I signed up for ground school, which starts tomorrow. I had to choose between a private pilot license, and a ULV license. With the former you can fly to the USA, and take more than 1 passenger. However, I think that ULV will suffice. Also, the ULV craft that the school owns is much more modern: a brand new state of the art aircraft. So I think I will go with the Evektor Sportstar instead. Getting a license seems to be much easier here than it is in the Netherlands, and pretty affordable. The airport I will be using is half an hour drive from my home. However, CZSB is one of the busiest airports in Canada.

After 25 hours of flight, I hope to get certified, so I can rent a plane, and fly to the Yukon Territories with Amy. It will probably take some persuasion, as she is scared of small aeroplanes.

Northern Sights

My friend Goran has took the time to put a selection of images up on his photo album. It gives a good impression of what we encountered at our epic road trip to Northwest Territories. I do not have a camera myself, so I think that I either have to buy one or build one. So far, I have been depending on Amy and Goran to document my trips. When I was 7 years old, I built my own pin hole camera, and had my own darkroom for developing B&W pictures. In my late twenties, I enjoyed shooting with a film based SLR. Everything was manual, and you had to keep logs of shutterspeed/diaphragm/lens of each photo you took, and only weeks later you could see what you did wrong or right.

The Territories in the North West of Canada

Yes indeed! That little figure perched on the edge of the waterfall is none other than yours truly. Although I was nicknamed "Abel" after Abel Tasman the explorer, by my travel companion Goran.

Last week, Goran and I did a major road trip. We explored the North West Territories and some parts of Alberta. To do this, we drove more than 6000 km in 7 days. From Vancouver we headed east towards Banff, then Jasper followed by the northern part of Alberta. The trick is to top off your fuel tank every chance you get, as fuel opportunities are few and far between.

The weirdest thing happened in northern Alberta. As we did not buy an Alberta map, we went by a very coarse scale (1:1000000) overview map of BC which showed part of Alberta as well. Only major cities like Vancouver, Victoria and such were printed on this map. And also a place called "Steen River". If a place shows up on a 1:1000000 map, surely, it must be a sizable large community. Well, I just checked in google maps, it is not even listed there. I think it is abandoned, or maybe only inhabited a small part of the year. We had to backtrack to High Level to get more fuel, and a motel.

Canada is composed of Provinces (like BC) and Territories (like Yukon). One of the territories must have been so insignificant, they did not even bother to properly name it. It's name is simply "North West Territories". It's as big as the half of Europe, but with only 50000 inhabitants, many of which live in Yellowknife which was our destination. After merely one night in Yellowknife, our trip home started.

There are not many roads in North West Territories. The few they have are often littered with potholes, or just gravel roads. Some of them are winter-only roads, because they use frozen rivers as roads there. Transport of choice is the bush plane, or boat plane.

We took a side trip, over the Alaska Highway to Liard Springs. It was recommended by us by Brent, the owner of the Bannockland B&B we stayed in while we were in Fort Simpson. Fort Simpson was very remote, only reachable by air of ferry. The people have it hard here. There is a grocery store, but it did not have any fresh produce, other than some spoiled strawberries, and two carrots, imagine that.

Our trip was in the spirit of: "It's about the Journey not the Destination". And during our journey we saw some impressive sights and wild life. We encountered Bison, Moose, Cariboo, Wolves, Black Bears, Foxes and Squirels. Especially the Alaska Highway to Liard is of stunning beauty. Some call it "the arguably most scenic ride in North America". We tend to agree. And the locals told us: "Oh, you will be back, all of them do."

Cell Mafia

Why is it that those stories about astronomical phone bills are always related to Canada? There is this 85000 dollar case, and now this 20000 dollar case. Man, this country needs a consumer uprising. It's because of stories like this, that I stay with my 25 dollar prepaid vouchers. The most an evil corporation can steal from me is 25 dollar.

No turn on red

Damn! And again, I failed my motorcycle test. Here is Canada, you can turn right even if traffic lights are red. It takes getting used to for a Dutchman. However, turning right on red is not always allowed. In Richmond BC, I encountered this sign when doing my test. I failed to see the sign. On a positive note: doing the test is pretty cheap. I payed 50 dollar, which gets you: one car to follow you, one driver for that car, and one examiner that is a passenger in the following car. Two people, one car for one hour and it only costs you 50 dollars. Wages must be low.

Two way left turning lane

Sigh.... I failed the ICBC road test examination for my motorcycle license. I thought that I did very well, but the examiner disagreed. I did all the shoulder-checks, but he wants me to do the right shoulder check as the very last thing when turning right. Also, I did not use a two way left turn lane. Both were enough reason for a fail in their own right. This really sucks. 16 years motorcycle experience, two advanced rider courses, an "excellent drive" on my car road test here in BC, and still they manage to fail me. I'm convinced their driver training system is pretty broken. That's what you get if you give government tasks to commercial companies.

Patronising the Customer

The larger the corporation, the more disconnected it is with the customers. Take Suzuki for instance. Their patronizing attitude towards customers is very annoying. They sold me a top of the line sports bike. On paper, a 185 horsepower beast. In practice however, it does not come close to the Aprilia I used to ride in the Netherlands. Why is this?

Well, it turns out that not all GSX-R 1000 bikes are created equal. Those to be sold in North America have been neutered. This is probably because of the liability obsessed society. Now sure, I have no problem with a 300 km/h speed limiter they put on the North American bikes. It is unlikely I will ever hit the limiter. But then again, is a 310km/h bike so much worse than a 300km/h bike?

Far more worrying is what they have done with the ignition. To limit the power output in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear (the gears where you could be surprised by an unwanted wheelie), Suzuki changed the ignition timing.

Well then, a changed ignition timing. What is the result? A bike that runs rough, sounds unhealthy, picks up badly, and occasionally chokes or sometimes even stalls. It's very American to sell you the bad-ass hard-core image. But underneath, you have simply been sold an underachieving, rough running engine. Oh... and the icing on the cake: it will cause more polution, and use more petrol.

The Internet is the helping hand for the suckers like me, that got duped by Suzuki. It turns out that you need to fool the bike. By adding a single resistor to the wiring harness, you can dupe the bike's computer. It will think the bike is always in 5th gear. The 5th gear is the gear without any restrictions: normal ignition timing, and no speed limiter. The downside of this is that the gear-indicator on the cockpit always displays '5' or 'N'. I can no longer check what gear I am in.

Today I installed the Timing Retard Eliminator. And yes, it works. The bike is more lively, and picks up immediately. If you close and open gas, power is instant, where before it used to choke and sputter. This means that for tomorrow, I can do my motorcycle license examination on a proper sports bike. I'm pretty woried about it. It will be unlikely that I ace it, like I did my car license.

The youtube generation

Some people are so talented. In 1680 Johann Pachelbel composed his Canon in D. In 2005, a Korean kid named funtwo puts up his performance on youtube and hitting 46 million views. He does a very good Vivaldi's Summer as well.

Second Canada Day

Today, I celebrated my second Canada Day, together with Amy. It commemorates the forming of Canada. I got a paper flag out of it, both years. There are also ceremonies were new citizens are sworn in. Unfortunately we missed that one. Maybe one day I will be pledging allegiance to the Maple Leaf. Amy ate maple syrup on a stick, which is a traditional Quebec treat. I settled for Grandma Lee's sandwich.

Channel 9

Watching television here can be an ordeal. Euro 2008 games are broadcast live and uninterrupted fortunately. But other broadcasts are littered with a barrage of commercials. A nice relief from this is the public stations that are funded by private donations. I just saw a very interesting Frontline documentary on channel KCTS9. When googling for this station's name, I stumbled upon this hilarious video. It shows a pledge drive for the station. And remember: the station KCTS9 is on channel 9. Enjoy....

Where the Internet was born

I knew that the Internet was created as a defense initiative by ARPA, now called DARPA. What I did not know, is that the very first message ever sent over the network was from UCLA to Stanford. A student at UCLA decided to trace down the history, and find out what the actual physical location was, where the historic event happened. In what building, in what room, did it all begin? Room 3420 or room 3424?


Finding ARPANET: The First (Physical) Site of the Internet from Brad Fidler on Vimeo.

Nieuwe Blogger

Voor de reisverhalen van Bram senior en Els, kunnen jullie verder lezen door te klikken op Bram senior's eigen blog. Er is inmiddels een artikeltje gepubliceerd over Granville Island en eentje over het Maritime Museum in Vancouver. Veel lees plezier op http://bramstolk.blogspot.com.

Orange lion rides the GSX-R

My mother brought me a little orange lion mascot. It is now riding along with me on my crotch rocket, with the manes in the wind. I watched parts of the first game via sopcast. I must admit, I did not wear an orange jersey to work, but that 3-0 really got me in the mood for this tournament. Slant Six Games is very international, at least half the programmers here have a non Canadian background. This means that there is some interest for soccer here.