Dear Roots Canada, In spite of popular opinion, I don’t usually spend much time gawking at myself in the mirror. Just after a workout, or if I have a genuinely horrible hair day. But I had to stop and look at myself for a while today. Specifically, at my shirt. I know that logo well. I’ve grown up with it. Omer is Mom’s uncle, and I grew up learning to paddle in a cedar and canvas canoe he restored for Mom and Dad. Using and refinishing paddles based on his.…
Author: trevor
Balance
What’s happened here? I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on spillway. And I had so much stuff lined up, too. Ready to go with daily content. New original podcasts in the pipe. Gearing up for more posts in The Tiny Enterprise Project and Branching Out series. Where did that all go? The desire to share stuff hasn’t gone away. I’ve been excitedly prepping material documenting other projects, including paddle-making and a little scratchbuild I call DroidQuest2013. But the posts about them haven’t materialized. Why? I’ve…
Think the Science Is Still Out on Climate Change? Think Again
The language above is obviously leaning towards the alarmist, but this infographic by the fine folks at learnstuff.com points out something critical: the effects of climate change are very real, indisputably so, and potentially disastrous. The numbers that they give in the writeup that accompanies their graphic are shocking. 72% of media outlets are currently reporting sceptically on climate change, whereas an overwhelming majority — 97% — of scientists agree that climate change is a real thing, and in fact caused by the effect humans have on the environment. And…
Conflicted
To those of you who follow her on Twitter or are Facebook friends or, you know, know her in real life, because apparently that’s a thing that people do, the new hair thing is old news. I’ve been sitting on this sheet for about a week because I’m spending my whole life prepping and sometimes I forget to post stuff I make. The bottom line is that Delaney did an awesome job, and if you’re in Ottawa you should throw him some business. He knows his art, and he is the…
High Tech, Low Tech
There’s something to be said for doing things by hand. Don’t underestimate the intimacy of the tactile connection to make you feel connected to your work. And it’s worthwhile sometimes to slow yourself down and digest your ideas as you translate them to the page. Paddle your own canoe, folks. Trevor
Sunday Reading 24/02/2013
It’s Sunday again, and I’m on my way to the office to do some skills assessments with new students, so this week’s reading will be short. 3Doodler: The World’s First 3D Printing Pen – WobbleWorks LLC, Kickstarter I love it when interesting Kickstarters get hella funded off the mark. The 3Doodler is a new take on 3D printing–rather than a $1200 MakerBot you can put an $85 pen in your hand. And unlike all other 3D printers on the market, the 3Doodler is INSTANTANEOUS. You have an object just as…
Rings
I don’t know what it is about rings, but I can’t get enough. It’s the soft sweet onion and the crunchy salty outside. Contrasts, man. Gotta have those contrasts in my mouth. Of course, being at least somewhat health-conscious, I want to try these baked onion rings made with Ritz crackers tonight. There are other recipes out there with buttermilk and other culinary punch-ups, but you’ve gotta start somewhere. Paddle your own canoe, folks. Trevor
Sunday Reading 18/02/2013
It’s Sunday, right? No? Well it’s PRACTICALLY Sunday. Here in sunny, snowy Ontario it’s Family Day, which means my students are off doing something other than school and the tiny people here are playing house. That’s right, folks–a long weekend. And here’s something to fill a) your holiday with some compelling stuff or b) to give your brain a break when you’re stuck at work. Giant LEGO X-Wing Might Be The Coolest LEGO Set Ever Made – Luke Plunkett, Kotaku I had to lead with this because of my recent…
Sunday Reading 10/02/2013
Good morning folks! The plan for this morning was to sleep in, but there was one three-year-old and one five-year-old who had other plans entirely. Thus, instead of sleeping in there was laundry and cleaning and blogging and very soon a workout. Let’s round up the week together. Microsoft Surface Pro Review – David Pierce, The Verge Oh man oh man oh man. I’m psyched about the Surface. You’ll remember how much I love Windows Phone and how I was pretty thrilled to experiment with Windows 8 on my old…
Star Wars Anniversary
It was roughly 2003. I was in ninth grade, and my friend Chris, several years older, approached me for help with his short film. He called it Star Wars: The Gifted, and it was an attempt to bring Star Wars into the real world (as we know it). There’s a slow and ongoing effort to remaster the film, to build out the bones of the larger story that we had initially planned. But more important than the film itself or the story behind it is what it represents. It was…
Family
You’d think that you’d be closest with your parents when you’re little, when they’re more or less literally your entire world. I don’t know, in hindsight. I was always more comfortable, from a very early age, hidden in a book than really engaging. And now, even though I still love my make-believe, even though I still spend as much time as I can in my head creating things that may or may not see the light of day, I’m a little more grounded, and I want much more to be…
Why I Teach
It’s more complicated than this. Of course it’s more complicated than this. But if I had to boil it down, to point to something pithy and profound, something that’s as much a starting point as it is a mission statement, this is it. Paddle your own canoe, folks. Trevor