partial_accumen

The morning we were visiting there were a pair of guys ice skating the LONG way across Abraham lake. I didn’t have skates with me that day, but later was able to skate on a frozen Lake Louise.

First, I think you should stop living in an AI generated picture.

“Honestly? I’ve got so much shit I’m dealing with I don’t think much about you or anyone else really. I think you’re a generally good person, but you make mistakes like that boneheaded thing you did last year. I’ve done stupid things too so you’re like the rest of us. I have an idea of some of the things you’re currently facing, and hope you do okay with those. However, I just barely have enough energy to manage my own stuff, and many times not even enough and am underwater.”

Nonstops being cheaper makes sense to me. Planes make money in the air, not sitting on the ground. A connection means one plane has to land (and stop making money) before another can take off (and start making money again). The whole process of deplaning passengers, unloading baggage, cleaning a plane for the next flight, and restocking the service items is at least doubled with a single stop, and tripled for two stops. None of that makes money, and only costs the airline. Also, airlines have to pay gate fees at airports. A direct flight means one gate fee, connections mean multiple gate fees.

Direct flights costing less are how the low-cost airlines got started. They weren’t burdened with providing flights to everywhere (with frequent partially filled planes). Low-cost carriers could cherry pick the best direct routes, and pack the planes full selling nearly every seat. The traditional airlines, seeing their lunch eaten by the low cost carriers, started using the same business model and introduced the “basic economy fare”. That may be part of what you’re seeing with cheaper non-stops.

Here’s my shot of the same mountain, but I think I was at a different part of the bank:

And here’s another from the same day standing on the frozen lake. You can see the methane bubbles frozen in the ice:

I think you’re right with your shot close to mine. Thanks for sharing that!

I saw your shots from Jasper up north, did you make a stop at Abraham Lake on your way south? I got some nice shots from there. The frozen methane bubble pictures didn’t come out as clear as I would have liked though.

I’ve been following your hike through the Canadian Rockies over the past few weeks. I’ve been particularly interested because I was there myself earlier this year. Here’s a piece of Bow Lake when it was a little bit colder:

Many of those footprints in the distance are mine walking on the very frozen Bow Lake. If you happened to have a shot you’ve taken during these warmer times from around the same spot, I’d love to compare side by side. My shot is right off the Ice Field Parkway.

Do I have to bring my own brown shirt or will they be provided? /s

Many of these folks also watch prices of scrap metal. If it gets high enough, you’ll see lots of that disappear and turn into money in their pocket. Prices for scrap, especially steel is extremely low right now compared to a few years ago. Many of them are waiting on the price to recover to cash in.

Long ago I ran a Windows Media Center PC in the living room and used the hell out of it. When WMC finally went EOL, I look for alternatives and found Plex. I never got around to setting up a Plex box, and now I see it too is ready for the scrap heap. I think this is what getting old is. You plan on doing something and never get around to it. Time passes much faster up here in age.

If the ending of my story was too abrupt, and you wanted to spend just a bit more time with Touchdown Jesus, here’s the video a passerby caught of Touchdown Jesus burning. You can see the fire fighting vehicle on the left hand side, and the occasional flashes of lighting as the storm that started the fire rages on.

Not far away we had what everyone called “Big Butter Jesus” or “Touchdown Jesus”:

The “Big Butter” part comes from the region’s fascination with making butter sculptures:

The “Touchdown” name, for those that don’t know USA Football (Grid Iron), this is the same gesture the referee makes to signal a valid goal:

However, after being around for years, Touchdown Jesus is no more. I’m not making this up, it was struck by lightning and being made of fiberglass, burned to the ground.

This is one of my personally learned lessons of wisdom that took me far too long to figure out:

“A lot of the time you just need to let people continue to be wrong”

I’m not talking about when you’re going in for surgery and your doctor told you he is going to amputate the wrong leg. I’m talking about when someone says something that is factually or morally incorrect. There is an infinite amount of wrong people in the world. You will encounter dozens of them on a daily basis. You would have an opportunity to personally correct quite a few of them. Don’t do it. Smile, nod, and walk away.

Lets say you want to correct them and in the best case you’re successful. They now know what they said was wrong. Most people really don’t like to be corrected, even if they were wrong. They are embarrassed, possibly shamed, and at worst, humiliated. What kind of interaction do you think you’re going to have with that person going forward into the future. Do you think they will embrace you as the really intelligent person that took your time to help them out? No. They will think you a pompous, arrogant, know-it-all. And for what? You spent all this time and energy on something you don’t even really care about. Your purpose in life is not to be “Defender of the truth, hero of logic” or anything. You’re just a regular person, and the guy on the subway does not give two shits that he mispronounced the word “nuclear” as “nucular”.

In the professional world its a bit different, but even then, most of the above applies. You have to be careful where and how you correct someone. Even if the ultimate outcome is for the good of the organization, you can alienate those that you need to like you for you to effectively get your job done. You can quickly develop a reputation as an uncooperative “Diva”. That is career poison and no matter how good your subject matter expertise, this reputation can forever limit your advancement.

So unless the outcome of something really and truly matters to the outcome pf your life or your job, and sometimes even then…let it go without saying anything. Let them be wrong, and leave them behind you never to be seen by you again in your entire life.

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now”

Results that require a long time to from work are ultimate started long before you need the results. However that isn’t always clear at the time back then. Sometimes it is and procrastination means you’re without the results today because you never started and the time has passed anyway. That doesn’t mean that you should simple discard the idea the results were needed for. You can still achieve the results, but delaying the start of the work now is the worst thing you can do. Starting right now is the best choice to move forward to get the results you want.

Eye Doctor <> Optometrist

Perfect example of why that is a bad approach. An Optometrist can measure your eyes for basic vision problems and monitor your retina issues, but you’d need an Ophthalmologist if you need surgery on those eyes for something the Optometrist finds.

We once did a side-by-side comparison of KitKats (we live right on the border) and the difference was stunning.

Bad comparison on that one. KitKat brand in the USA is an entirely different company that the rest of the world. So they aren’t even the pretending to be the same recipe.

I tried to like the Aldi chocolate bars but they leave this strange fatty coating in my mouth after eating them. I don’t experience that with other brands.

“Look at the silver lining! You were always worried she was cheating on you, now you know for sure she is so you don’t have to worry about that anymore!”

“I’ve exhausted my monthly ration allowance for McEnergy, so I’ll have to pass today.”

Instead of McCafe, it should be “McSoylent”.