Weekend to recover

Let me just say one thing real quick: rum does not go well with root beer. Nasty.

Last night we rented another PS2 game, Lego Indiana Jones. Once again I seem to fail spectacularly at playing cooperatively but somehow we still manage to have fun struggling through. Of course, this morning I find myself humming the theme song, which plays throughout the game. My wife was surprised at how many details from the movie she still remembered since it had been years since she saw it last.

I would have had more fun if I wasn't fighting with a controller that was not working well. Since I normally play games on the PC with a mouse and keyboard, I had forgotten about issues with gamepads and joysticks. To say I was getting frustrated with it was an understatement.

I know this haiku doesn't have a nature reference, but here it is just the same: I call it neo-haiku.

When playing a game
of the console persuasion
try to keep your cool.

Haiku for You

Sometimes I commute
with headphones in, but no sound.
Hear a city breathe.

One bad habit I have is that I will sometimes artificially limit myself. I do this in subtle ways in most areas of my life and most times I don't even notice. One example of what I am talking about can be found right here on my blog. I often have ideas that I could post about, but don't for one reason or another. Sometimes they are valid reasons, such as the idea is not complete or well formed, but at other times, it is because I don't have a photo to go with the post. This is an artificial requirement I placed on myself. Often, the photo I include has absolutely nothing to do with what I am talking about, so why is it essential that I include one with every post? It isn't.

Another thing I have been thinking about is including a haiku poem with my posts. I often have little bits of verse floating around inside my head, so I am hoping this is at least one possible outlet for that. Today's poem came to me as I was walking into the office. I usually listen to podcasts from the CBC - it's the closest I can get to news radio on an ipod and overall it's an enjoyable experience. But a lot of the time my podcast ends before I make it into the office. Sometimes instead of switching to music (which is always available on the ipod) I just listen to the surrounding noises from traffic, the harbour, etc. I suppose I could always take the headphones out to hear things better, but somehow, leaving them in helps to remind me that I am 'listening' to something.

Maybe I should leave my headphones in when talking to my wife...

Avian street performer works the waterfront crowd

I don't know if it is because I truly like birds or if I just like finding things to take pictures of. But when I take Louise for her walks, I tend to notice a lot of the birds in Vancouver. Including this fellow, who was fishing in the fountain in front of the Westin Bayshore.

He was surprisingly close to pedestrian traffic and was not bothered by us at all. It kind of felt like being at a zoo. Keep in mind that my compact camera only has a 3x zoom, so I had to be closer than about 10 feet to get photos like these.

You know, I just realized that after getting the photos of this heron, I really didn't notice any of the other birds on the rest of that walk.

I was really hoping to catch him in the act of spearing a fish, but maybe that was too much to ask for. When the dog and I returned ten minutes later (after visiting the dogs hanging out at the newest Starbucks in town) I was a little surprised to see the bird still there. Crowds of people would gather for five or ten minutes and then just as quickly disperse. I'm sure if this bird had an upside down hat near the pond he could have made enough to buy a fish dinner.

I guess it's just another one of the cool things about living in Vancouver. It's not quite urban enough to prevent nature from dropping in.