I hope you like it. Enjoy!

iPhone

After months of singing the praises of my BlackBerry, I got rid of it and moved to an iPhone. This was an expensive procedure because I am still on a contract with Telus, but selling my old phone and iPod touch helped offset the cost. For me, it’s a much better device that I am happy with. I really wish I could be happy with a BlackBerry for the wide variety of uses I get out of my iPhone, but the manufacturer just doesn’t want to put enough effort into developing the software properly.

Saint John Politics

I am back in Saint John visiting my family for a couple weeks. A few things have changed, but not much, as always. City debates continue to spur over the new Peel Plaza complex, which currently includes a plan to ruin a historic Carnegie Arts Centre building by burying the lower windows so that a tunnel for transporting prisoners can be built. Umm, what?

Academia & Robots

The main reason for my lack of time lately is the amount of work I’ve been putting into my school work. I’m working on a new robot that interacts with people in different ways, though not quite on the level of reading emotions as I previously explored. I did extensive development with my robot, now named PAUL-E, and am now working on a couple submissions to two upcoming conferences, so more travel may not be far away.

New Cell Phone Network

Say what you want about the Canadian cellphone industry, something done right has seemingly accomplished by 2 of the big 3, Telus and Bell. They have launched a new 3rd generation high-speed cellular network which enables them to offer phones that don’t suck, like the iPhone. Rogers offers a similar, compatible network, but it’s only fast in the main cities, whereas Bell and Telus created their network to be the same speed across pretty much most of the country. So far, my experience has been decent, with a few bugs that I hope they work out soon. This network was actually launched several months in advance ahead of the Olympics.

In the United States, people regularly complain about AT&T’s cell service which is the only company officially offering the iPhone in that country. Dropped calls and defaulting to the slower speed network is a regular occurrence in many large cities. Hopefully our networks will continue to be expansive with prices falling more due to increased competition.

That’s all for now. I hope to update my blog more often.

Fall is definitely here in this park near my house with most of the leaves on the ground already.

I also biked through the entire University of Calgary campus taking pictures for the first time since being here. I didn’t get too many good shots at this time of day, but there’s something I like about the windows of the ICT building.

Lots of artificial colour radiates through the sports fields just south of the university campus.

Looking towards the sky near City Hall.

In this photo taken by Kristin Marquardt, you can see all the bikers including me as the tour begins. This event was not a race, but rather a relaxed15km bike tour of the city.

It was a bit difficult to take these photos, which I did while operating my moving bike with my other hand. In this shot, we’re crossing the Elbow River (I think) as we head further south.

We’re returning to the downtown core in this shot. The streets were blocked off for the bikers, although not for a long time, only long enough on a temporary basis for all the bikers to make it through. Police on motorcycles basically escorted us through.

Overall, it was a fun event. Hopefully events like this will lead to better bike pathways through the city. It’s not too bad right now if you plan, but it only takes a few rogue car drivers to make it dangerous.

You can view the rest of myphotos in my Ride the Road Tour gallery.

For me, this was also an opportunity to experience Banff in summer time, and take photos!

Banff’s main street is instantly recognizable to all who have been to the town before. Not visible in this picture are Banff’s city buses. There is actually 3 bus routes running regularly!

One morning, there was heavy fog and cloud cover. It began to break apart slowly revealing only sections of a mountain in the distance.

Getting around the Banff Centre was difficult due to the construction of a new building in the centre. The construction workers have the benefit of having the best view of the whole centre, though.

The Bow River offers many beautiful vistas with mountains in the background.

This is the same spot on the river looking towards the town, and its bridge.

Usually, streets are assumed to be two-way unless otherwise stated, but Banff decides to indicate this using two… one-way signs. Cars travelled in both directions on this street.

The iconic Banff Springs Hotel.

Provincial flags at the Banff Centre seem to create a mountain slope of their own.

In this shot, the infamous Hoodoos are visible, which are the rock formations in the middle left part of the photo.

Check my Gallery for more photos from this visit to Banff!

Yet another shot from Prince’s Island Park.

This street light falls just short of being higher than the tall buildings of downtown Calgary (at least it would appear with my camera angle).

Olympic Plaza was the venue for the medal ceremonies of the Calgary Olympics. I was tempted to bike through the shallow water, but that would probably end badly with me getting soaked.

Around City Hall are several expensive statues and structures. However, all I seem to focus on the plant life!

This lion is quite a hard worker. It seems to be holding up the flag poles with only its nose and guarding the doors to the building 24/7! The old City Hall building is in the background, attached to the much larger expanded part.

The “Trees” sculture on Stephen Avenue actually serve the functional purpose of reducing wind gusts between the buildings.

Even the strongest U-Locks are apparently useless on Stephen Avenue downtown. There was nearly a dozen locks perfectly intact on these bike racks.

EDIT: Apparently these locks are actually left by regular commuters to reserve a spot, as Joe tells me in the comments.

A dramatic sky and construction shot, one of many in downtown.

While driving by a construction site on my way home, I noticed this sign. Security on-site? So who’s on duty? Let me give you a closer look.

The tough and mean Canada Geese guard this future something with all their power! Good choice though. These birds are capable of bringing down planes!

It was a nice night tonight. Not much traffic, which makes for a safer ride on city streets.

Following recommendations and some research, I went to Bow Cycle in Bowness, a local bike store in Calgary. I had tried Canadian Tire, but their selection, service and quality is all bad. I was initially considering The Bike Shop downtown as well, but I have little use for a store that wastes my time by having me fill out out a bike needs survey only to have it ignored.

The model I ended up is the Bownesian, which is basically a Kona Dew with a special paint job for Bow Cycle only.

Appropriately so, Calgary’s beautiful Bow River is in the background of this hybrid bicycle. It cost about $449. I have already installed many accessories including two water bottle holders, night lights, seat bag and more.

I wasted no time in outfitting my new toy with accessories, including this computer! It tells me lots of things such as current speed, distance, etc. To the left, you see the bell which came with the bike, as well as a night light.

Today was my first chance to take this thing for a real spin. I started in Silverthorne Park which runs right next to the Bow River. Many of my photos in Calgary so far have been taken here.

I wasn’t really sure where I was going so I went through the park and followed the river which leads into many other parks. Finally, I see tall buildings, and know I’m downtown.

Prince’s Island Park has plenty of wonderful vistas.

Just to the left of Prince’s Island Park are many skyscrapers under construction.

I found my way back home, mainly thanks to my BlackBerry GPS since the only way I’ve known to get downtown thus far is by train. It will take a bit of time to learn the best and safest roads to take by bike. The one shown here, at 6-7 lanes, is an example of a less than ideal biking road.

Having said that, while taking side streets, I’ve discovered that based on the flat terrain and my biking speed, it should take about the same amount of time to bike as it would to take the train, 30 minutes or so. About half of this time with the train, 15 minutes, is spent simply walking to Brentwood Station.

Our first stop was the Johnston Canyon for a short hike. It’s a beautiful area.

A beautiful shot of a very small waterfall.

This is a larger waterfall. In order to see it, you must walk through a very low cave!

Three layers seem to converge and lose their depth in this photo.

This is Lake Louise. Because of the weather, it was hard to get a good clear shot. However, with some retouching, this photo gained a mystical quality!

You can view the rest of my photos in my Gallery.

There are some very nice, well kept homes in Millidgeville. I was drawn to the colour of this house. Hopefully no one saw me, wondering why I’m randomly taking a picture of this house.

From this shot in the North End, Saint John looks quite dense! However, what you don’t see here is the large open area of mostly-empty highway lanes and roads in between the buildings in the foreground and the uptown high rises in the distance.

Uptown Saint John!

The view from Harbour Passage is somehow one of the most scenic you can find anywhere on the ground in the city, even though there isn’t anything entirely unusual in this area.

Measure twice, cut once! Work is progressing on the Market Square expansion to add new office space. From where this guy is standing, it’s a long way down if something goes wrong!

Someone’s porch has a nice, decorative clock on the patio of their uptown condo. I can’t imagine actually wanting to sit here though simply because people like me are always walking or driving by.

On the first sunny day in a while, Saint John Harbour is entirely void of any cruise ships. Oops. I liked the lines visible in this photo. This same picture should (hopefully) look entirely different in 10 years because the coast goard site at the left will hopefully be redeveloped. Many the city will find a way to actually use the new cruise ship terminal properly and get rid of that tacky white tent too. While we’re at, they could condemn the Canada “Customs Building” (which actually has no customs offices inside anymore) for unsightly premises. It is ugly!

Barbour’s General Store is looking nice at its new location across from city hall. This building has moved many times in its history. It must have a solid structure! The Brunswick House office tower is visible in the window reflections.

A horse chows down at Rockwood Park. It seemingly has no problem living off the system.

A lifeguard seat is empty at Fisher Lakes. Actually, there was lots of people at this beach behind me. This was the last photo I took in Saint John while home, just a couple hours before I hopped on my plane to go back to Calgary.