Here is a video clip that is making the rounds in the geeky set. It's a commercial for Citroen created by The Embassy, a modelling and animation shop that is known mostly for melding robots into live action and using lots of mocap, 3d scanning. In this case, it's the Citroen C4 hatchback that then transforms into a dancing robot. In the background is my old office at Harbour Center (the one with the control tower top). It's not an exact background and confused me a bit as whoever did it shifted some buildings around. View it here >> (.mpg). Here is a behind-the-scenes talk about the clip.

It was yesterday and as usual it was no big thing.

While Canada observed Remembrance Day, the U.S. was also observing Veteran's Day under the pall of continued fighting in Iraq (and also in Afghanistan). The week long offensive against the rebel city of Fallujah has been savage. American arms and professionalism versus a knowledgeable though disorganized enemy. Kevin Sites, a reporter embedded with the Marines, provides a street-level account of the fighting with a unit he followed. Read it here >>

Yesterday we took out the bikes for a nice ride on the UBC Endowment Lands and Camosun Bog. This represents my first ride of any length on the bike. It was actually a nice easy ride. At first I was regretting sticking with the nobby tires on the road but since we weren't speeding it was still okay. But once we got onto the forest trail, the nobbies felt great. Today the muscles in the back of my arms are a bit sore from leaning on the handles.

For someone who doesn't really have a lot of time to watch TV, I still manage to get in a few select shows into my schedule, mostly because I download rather than watch them on the cable (which I still pay into in the vain hope that hockey comes back). Of the shows I watch, Lost is a new show on my queue (every Wednesday on ABC) that I chose because of its intriguing premise. An airliner crashes on a deserted island, forcing the forty or so survivors to band together to survive. But there is more to the island than it seems including traces of an older group of survivors and some beastie who likes chomping on people. Aside from the fantasy setting, Lost has had a couple very strongly-written episodes (the premiere and #4 "Walkabout"). It doesn't hurt that it has a charismatic cast (though not all beach babes), including a Canadian acress Evangeline Lilly, Naveen Andrews as an Iraqi army veteran, Dominic Monaghan (Merry from the Lord of the Rings movies) as a drug addict British rock god and Matthew Fox as a hunky, clear-thinking leader who may or may not be a doctor. (NY Times has an article today about how Lost was developed - it actually was inspired by Survivor).The other shows on my queue are uniformly science fiction except for: The Wire. Otherwise, there is Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: SG1, Stargate: Atlantis. Does that make me into a big fat geek? Mmmm - probably.

I've completed a flurry of websites recently for clients, some of them quick and temporary, some of them are as simple as they should be. The first is for my buddy Dylan who needed a new site that focused on his video and photo business, dylancouper.com. The second is a temporary site for a spa in Ontario, looksdayspa.com. The third is another temp site for a film conference ftvwest.com coming this year to Vancouver. Finally, the one I've been working on the most the past three weeks is businessboost.org, a site for a speaking tour. The last two represent the corporate style I am adopting for professional clients. The website in most need of redoing is keithloh.com. I've tried redesigning it twice in the past two years without success.

Many people are treating the reelection of George W. Bush as a sign of the apocalypse including many who are now looking to leave the United States. The bad news is that it will take more time than Americans think to immigrate to Canada (less if you somehow successfully claim refugee status). This Harpers story ("Electing to Leave") is a good guide to leaving the U.S. Or if you wish to stay in the U.S. but somehow want to shut off from the world, why not camp out within one of the most highly secured sites in the American scientific-military establishment? ("Hermit found living within Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory Property"). As for myself, regular visitors to New Medievalism will note that I have followed through on my previous commitment to step down as Elector of that news forum so that I can concentrate on my other activities.

I heard about this book from a self-interview written by Neal Stephenson, the popular science fiction author. Along with other books he recommended this retelling of the true story of a crew of an American ship that became stranded on the Morrocan shore in the 1800s and then became enslaved by Saharan nomads. The story of the crew of the Commerce had been a famous tale in its day, one that struck a core on issues of faith, suffering, perseverence and respect across cultural boundaries.

Originally told by the captain of the ship, James Riley, it's a story of how a group of men are stretched the extremes of survival in a land that barely supports their captors much less animals or slaves. The crew of the vessel, having heard previous stories of what happened to Christians marooned on the African coast, at first tried to escape the coast in a boat but then turned back when they exhausted their stores. They have no choice on returning but to give themselves up to the mercy of Muslim nomads, hoping desperately that eventually their masters will trade them to a European outpost for a bounty. What then follows is months of deprivation, harsh justice and turns of fate that separate the group and lead each to an uncertain end.

Most of the story follows Riley (as he is one of the few survivors who wrote about his experiences) and it is from his story that emerges the test of faith that provides the inner conflict for the story. Each prisoner could free himself if only he will renounce his religion and convert to Islam. Although all of them including Riley subjugate themselves to the wills of their captors (who are only acting as the law of the desert allows), carrying out demeaning tasks, suffering from starvation, beatings and the extremes of the environment, each also gives the other hope that fate and God will provide them with salvation.

Riley's story is given a further dimension by his unlikely bond with one of his later captors, Sidi Hamet, an travelling merchant and adventurer who sells off all his goods on the chance that taking charge of these Americans will result in a upturn in fortune in his hard life. Although Riley remains at all times his slave, Hamet takes pity on and develops a growing respect for Riley and those sailors who are in their group. Together, they have to brave ambushes from other tribesmen, thievery, betrayal from within their group and then inter-tribal politics in their quest to reach a British outpost in the north.

Skeletons on the Zahara provides also an interesting look at the Sahara and its people as a changing world. The Sahara in Roman times was a teeming, fertile plain but by the 1800s it was a fast expanding desert which enveloped towns, drove people toward the coast and provided a vast, formless territory for the squabbling, shifting camel nomads who took possession of the crew of the Commerce. In people's lifetimes they could know great change and experience great adventures. Amazon link >>

In exactly two weeks the world will celebrate Toilet Day (Nov. 19th). According to AP, this will be marked by the November 17th World Toilet Summit held in Beijing who, as part of preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics, hope to flush away their poor reputation as providers of smelly, primitive holes to one of pearly white hosts with automated facilities. The summit is organized by the World Toilet Organization. I for one am happy there is such a group. Read more >>

Since we now live in an extended Republican world, I see that as license to drive my car like shit. However, I still am concerned with the fuel efficiency of my Mazda3. My latest count taken on a near full tank is 12.9L/100km or 21.8mpg (42.944 litres for 332.4 kilometres). This is no real change from the last reading. Gas prices dipped immediately after George W. Bush was reelected but of course were already quite high in the past month.

Bike purchase
Speaking of the gas crisis, I have also purchased a mountain bike. It's a Devinci Coyote, my first bike purchase since never. I'm not sure if I will commute to work (it's only a 20 minute walk anyway) but I do intend to give myself a workout. The first thing I did when I test rode it was nearly spill in front of one of the bike people at the Bike Doctor. Hopefully in a few weeks I won't be so wobbly. I also bought a lock as bike theft is rife in Vancouver, but unfortunately, I snapped the key in my first twist.

While much of the world is a bit befuddled how three million more Americans believed that Bush deserved to remain President I'm finding the current situation which looks to be resolved in President Bush's favour as confirmation that Americans continue to feel that that their country is one based upon personality rather than on environment. In that they are no different from other outwardly patriotic countries where there are strong feelings of national identity. I believe this time they voted for a President who embodied the need for decisive action.

Even if some believed that Bush had made some wrong decisions, at least they felt he was going to do something. For all of Kerry's performance during the debates,more Americans wanted action, not talking. They didn't want to be convinced of Kerry's ability to work out the facts and understand the realities. They want someone who appears to affect change, who instead of trying to make sense of the confusing outside world, will mould the world to suit the U.S.. Bush, with his mistakes and miscalculations, has definitely affected change in the world. Countries who don't have the power of the United States are forced to look at the world in terms of environment and one's place in the environment.

On another note, I found it interesting how some analysts were continuing to say how Bush would recognize the divisive result in the 2004 election and seek to reach out to heal the country. However, with barely a slim margin of victory in 2000, he went on to hammer the Democrats into submission for much of the term and now with a definite edge in the popular vote, he should feel that he has the mandate to further stick it to the Democrats in a lasting way.

Incredible. After four years the U.S. is still as fractured as before and it looks like Bush will win the decision. I've spent most of the evening (and some of the afternoon), moderating the chat on the New Medievalism forum which immediately became the most active on Delphi. On the one hand, I feel I know more about the U.S. Presidential contest than before what with the various electoral vote calculations and which states are prizes and which ones aren't so much. But with the result edging to Bush after an evening of grey-area information (predictions that didn't hold out, declarations that did), my head is full of politics and I doubt very many people have come out of this evening with a clear idea of what kind of country the United States is. I'm going to sleep now with everything hinging on Ohio, which Bush leads by more than a 100,000 votes while the Democrats hope the absentee and provisional ballots will make up the difference.

It has been touted as the most critical election in three decades in the United States and even this far north I feel the excitement. Alas, I will be at work but I know some who are taking time off to watch, worry and wonder at the furious last minute activities.

Friday I had the privilege of dropping in on the taping of a children's TV series being shot at the Bridge Studios (the oldest of four major studios in Vancouver now), a mix of puppets and the human host. I can't say what the show was but it was a real pleasure watching the behind-the-scenes efforts of around 16 crew including master puppeteers acting and voicing the characters.

Friday also I attended a modern dance exhibition for the first time since university days. It was a performance by one of Vancouver's better known troops: Edam Dance. I had forgotten how athletic and lithe the largely, ahem, young female dancers were. Although it had an air of inaccessibility about it with the trappings of pretentious composition, I was won over by the first of the pieces that was humorous and energetic. I suppose what you get from a performance like that is more the emotional broad strokes. I wouldn't shy from seeing another one.