Middle-aged partner, father into road cycling, producing websites, wilderness canoeing and changing the world

I've been blogging here since 2003. Thus far the blog has covered death in the family, selling the farm, birth of a child, changing jobs, surviving the Harper era, and of course lots and lots of kilometres paddled, skiied and cycled. Sometimes I review things I acquire, and services I use. I share things I've learned about web applications, and real-life projects I've undertaken. I write web content and produce websites for a living.

Double Yellow line

Much pavement in my near future

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I'm hav­ing a relax­ing evening try­ing to get a decent ear­worm into my head in prepa­ra­tion for rid­ing 420km from Ottawa to Kingston and back in the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour this week­end. Wish me luck and please, if you can, donate to one or both of my Great Cycle Chal­lenge or Lap the Gats fundrais­ers.

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West coast video derelict building

Why are we subsidizing landlords to keep commercial buildings vacant?

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How is this even a thing? A 30 or 35 per cent refund on prop­er­ty tax­es for vacant com­mer­cial or indus­tri­al prop­er­ties. What pur­pose does that serve? It doesn't seem like there's a time lim­it either. Some­one could keep a build­ing vacant for years, make no attempt to rent or ren­o­vate the prop­er­ty and keep get­ting paid. Is there any­one else in this city who gets…

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Outrage and shame over Québec City shooting

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There is a meme going round the inter­net for a cou­ple of years now show­ing the faces of sev­er­al Amer­i­can ter­ror­ists -- the white man who opened fire on the audi­ence of a Bat­man movie. The white man who opened fire on Sandy Hook. The white man who opened fire on a Black Bap­tist Church. The author is mak­ing the point that if peace­ful,…

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