Devauld.ca

I've returned to bicycling after nearly 7 years. The last time I cycled somewhat seriously, I bombed around on a Giant XTC, until it was stollen. The loss was at the perfect point for the insurance company to basically give me the finger on rates. I could either claim, pay the deductible and have the blood suckers extract it from me over a few years with higher rates, or I could suck it up and just go buy a new bike. I didn't want to claim it, knowing that the single claimed theft would be on the records for years, and I also refused to get a new bike. Bicycling died for me at that point

I learned that MEC had designed a series of bikes, and were now selling them. MEC is a wonderful company, which is aligned with a lot of my beliefs, so I decided I would both return to cycling and support the co-operative at the same time. I was set back a little misreading the catalog, believing I needed to travel to Edmonton to buy a bike when Calgary did in fact sell them. Eventually I prevailed, settled on a bike and purchased it.

Talks of geometries, cassettes, tooth counts, cyclocross, clincher rims, fixies, lacing, grouppos and saddles had to be waded through before I could decide on a bicycle. The cycle ecosystem has specialized in several areas and with that specialization the usual slang followed. I decided on a hybrid style bicycle as most of my terrain is going to be cleared paths or the bike network around Calgary. It leans more towards the road bike, but does have a heavier frame and knobbier wheels.

Next was a vicious lesson in how far bicycling has come since I was last immersed in the culture. My new ride has a pedal system in which you clip in specialized shoes; these shoes needed to be put together. Have you ever had to read an instruction manual for a pair of shoes? It was quite a humbling experience. Technology progressed since I last tuned a bike, and I'm happy to say that most of of the changes make tuning a bicycle easier. The one exception is air pressure, as the tires on this bike have presta valves. I have never seen such an animal before, and every piece of pressurized air equipment I have is useless until I get an adapter.

Excitement rains over me, as this weekend is supposed to have good weather, and I have a new toy with which to play.

At the beginning of this year, I applied to the University of Calgary's graduate program and was accepted.  Excitement and change are flying about the air while an odd blend of worry and optimism mix in my brain.  I would have publicized the news earlier, but I have been flat out between work, studying for my PMP Certification, becoming Batman, and ensuring some residual photographic and programming incomes.

Most often when I mention to people that I'm leaving steady employment to obtain a Masters degree in Applied Math, the responses I receive fall into one of two categories.  The first type of response is 'what will you do?', sometime phrased as 'what does that mean?'.  For those people I'll weave a tail about how I'm going to study in the finance lab and eventually move into writing software for financial people.  The second response, usually from my geekier friends, is a vague reference to applied math not being as pure as Real Math.

Then the conversation usually moves into why I'd give up a relatively comfortable dink's life, to take a vow of poverty and return to the money racket that is higher education.  The answer to that question is complex.

I believe what started me thinking down the path was reading the book: A Thousand Barrels a Second.  Peter's telling of his predictions for the oil industry shook me a bit.  I know that oil gets broken down into many products and that the world won't just change overnight.  I actually predict another really good run, or maybe two, in the fossil fuel based energy sector.  As the price pushes higher, you'll see more technologies that rely on different sources of energy become more viable.  Throw in a little telecommuting + virtual reality to keep us off the roads and the supply-demand balance will shift and suddenly the oil and gas industry will become very tight on the margins.

I probably took Peter's words differently than most because of my upbringing in northern British Columbia and working towards a degree in Computer Science.  I found myself first set back by the tech bust and then the forestry industry getting butchered.  Both seemed like industries that could never fail.

The Dot-Coms were becoming overnight millionaires, and that there was enough of everything to go around in the new digital age.  Stories of Silicon Valley excess, and the adjusting of economics to a limitless supply of electrons made it seem that mankind had now found easy street, and for the rest of time we could employ the miracles of the internet.  I often joke that I heard the dot-com bubble pop.

Forestry in my home town also appeared to be invulnerable.  Forestry itself is set up around supply and demand, and ensuring meeting demand sustainably.  We thought everything in the world could be made from the parts of a tree, including a plethora of biodegradable plastics, and we would be able to just take our refuse and use it to grow more trees.  While I grew up you either worked at one of the many mills around town, or you sold stuff to people who worked at the mills.  Furthermore, the British Columbia Forest Service logo was the most common thing to see on the side of a white truck, which is eerily similar to the number of energy company logos I see now.  Then a piece of legislation, and the price of forest products became too expensive and the industry was dismantled.

Staring towards the future, I became pretty certain that during my lifetime I'll see the oil industry be carved up.  It won't die, both tech and forestry are still alive and breathing today.  I believe it will just become a lot more difficult to be employed in the field, and I don't want to have the unemployment cycle make me a job seeking 50 year old whose only experience is tied to a tight energy sector.

The path now forked.  If I was going to walk away from the oil and gas sector, what would I like to do?  I thought about photography, but reasoned that if I had to flog it for a living, I probably wouldn't like it as much.  I've had a couple encounters doing photography part time, that made it clear that doing it day after day, all day, day in day out would very quickly make the magic of capturing photos disappear in the wind.  I entertained the idea of making custom wood products and becoming a carpenter, and again I thought that my love of turning and making woodcraft furniture would die after I faced the reality that I'd be competing against cheap people buying cheap stuff from Ikea and Walmart.  It was around this time I began to consider finance.

I've carried a wonder of the stock market since I began earnestly investing around 2004.  Furthermore a good deal of available time, I dedicate to analyzing and attempting to understand the markets. I've written useful pieces of software to help me out.  I've voluntarily read books on finance that most people would find to be the most boring print ever put to paper.  I spend most of my day with a secondary monitor showing me what is going on in the market.  When worrying about industries, as long as there is money, there will be a finance industry and if there is no money, I probably don't need to worry about working.

At first the thought was to just switch, and I started probing into what kind of finance jobs are available.  It appeared I would either have to set myself back, and get hired on somewhere as an associate somewhere, and take a pay hit because I would basically be a programmer not knowing what he's programming, or I could try and learn a thing or two about finance before I entered the field.  A few searches about education in finance and I found the finance lab at the U of Calgary.  The rub was that the programme in which I wanted to study, required full time study and a stint as a teacher's assistant.  As the conflict with my day job would be too great, I wearily weighed my options.

Eventually the scales tipped in the favour of returning to school.  I've served notice with my employer, and have started letting people know.  There is going to be a lot of change in my life this year.

This week's Photo Friday challenge is: Self Portrait 2010. I immediately thought of the gangster shot we did when we made our visit to Dorothy at the beginning of the year. By no means did I do this shot alone, but I was a big part of the creative setup of the shot.

The pseudo shotgun in my hand is from a Hallowe'en costume some years ago. The coat and hat are regular attire. We're set up on the bridge in Dorothy with a generator, and two White-Lightnings. The first is behind me, at full power, aimed straight at my back to separate me from the darkness. The second is on camera right with a super tight grid where I was thinking of a 'caught in the headlights' look. The photograph is only cropped, as I didn't even have the desire to edit out the extension cable you can see running across the ground.

Yesterday marked the kickoff of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.  I would imagine that our countrymen will be able to shake off the snow problems, and be amazing hosts to the world's best amateur athletes.

Other obligations meant that I could watch the opening cerimonies live, although the magic of a personal video recorder meant I could take it in this morning.  The scale of the opening show was not even close to the scale the Chinese pulled out two years ago for their opening.  Nevertheless, the show had a lot of class and imaginative components, and I can not deny that the pride for my country overwhelmed me while watching the taped event.

No Canadian has won an Olympic Gold medal on Canadian soil, despite hosting two other games.  I would imagine there is a lot of excitement amongst the Canadian athletes over who is going to be first.  Furthermore, Vancouver isn't the tamest of cities; I'm sure the place is turning itself inside-out with the influx of like minded competitors and fun seeking visitors.

Go Canada! Go!

Some friends with more photographic interests recently banded together for a road trip to Dorothy Alberta.  The internet claims that Dorothy is a ghost town, but rest assured, there is still some stranglers still living in the coulée.  Still, the knit of photographers drove the two hours out of Calgary, timing their arrival to the sunset.

The town itself barely stretches a kilometer, and wraps the highway leading to Drumheller.  A bridge older than most of the photographers stood watch over the alternate entrance, and provided an interesting subject to warm up the cameras.  The carfuls of shutterbugs moved past the bridge towards the church as the sun was setting.

Reflections and sweeping sunsets filled the lenses of all cameras in attendance.  The photographers moving between the two buildings on the church site, looking for unique angles and interesting shadows to capture.  As the sky continued to darken, and warmth of the day slipped away, the group moved towards an old abandoned elevator on the edge of the highway.

Worries of crazy farmers and shotguns kept the clique from wandering over the barbed wire fence.  Still, many images were captured all around the structure.  The cold kept creeping in, and the light continued to fall to where the photographers crossed over the edge of interested hobbyists, into the realm of batty nerds.

From the back of one of the vehicles, a generator was produced.  Set up on the side of the highway, drowning out quite conversation, the electric workhorse powered two large 1600Ws strobes.  Traffic was not impeded, although not a vehicle passed that did not slow to a crawl to see what in the world the group of 5 was doing on the side of the road.

They were taking pictures of the grain elevator at dusk of course!  Many blinding flashes ripped up the night sky to illuminate the structure.  Happiness overwhelmed some of the participants; the power they controlled was simply too much to believe.  It is too bad it took them until this point to realize that they wanted to take their best lighting assets outdoors.  After exhausting the elevator's modelling abilities, just under half of the group succumbed to the cold, while the remainder stayed steadfast to continuing with the light-the-darkness experiment.

Shivering from the cold, those that were determined to endure through the cold moved back to the bridge, and once again established a studio in the open air.  This time, however, they were not happy enough to be on the side of the road; they established their nomadic lights up on the highway itself.  At this point not only the cold was their enemy, but lack of light as well.  The darkness consumed the group; which in their haste had forgotten to pack a single flashlight or headlamp.

Under an amazingly starry night, the three photographers managed to capture some interesting photos.  The cold pushing then to haste; it didn't take long for the ideal shot to land on the sensor.  Jubilant, they vowed to 'do it more often', and 'again real soon' before they started their voyage back to home.