PETA? Sea Kittens? Crazy?

Okay, so now PETA wants to re brand fish as Sea-Kittens (http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/). Their hope is that if people think that fish are kittens they won't eat them. Really? Are they truly that mad? Have any of you tried to hug a fish? I have, it isn't fun. And I must say that I like fish. I have very nice tropical fish tanks at home (which I am sure PETA hates as well). But they still aren't fun to hug and play with like real kittens.

And if you do go to the website you will notice it is focused at children. This is possibly the part of PETA I hate the most. They aim a lot of stuff at kids without parents permission.

I think in the end they should approach this anti-fish eating campaign a different way. When I was young I didn't eat fish due to its icky factor. Fish were slimy and gross. Go with that PETA.

But at least PETA lets you design and download your very own sea-kitten. Awsome:


Create Your Own Sea Kitten at peta.org!

New Year, Same Bad Weather

Wow, how can the weather be this bad in Halifax. I am not sure how often I have seen the sun these past few months, let alone how often I have been able to keep dry. It is either rainy, snowy or foggy. Often I feel like we must live in a mountain or something.

Cold I can deal with, I can dress properly for that. But cold and wet. Yuck.

Yesterday my bike drivetrain froze up. Too much water in the rear freewheel. There is nothing quite as nice as peddling on your bike and not going forward. In the end I had to go home and take it all aprt to clean thinsg up. Lots of good grease later and I am back and riding again. Though not today as it is cold and rainy and they tell us that it will freeze over and be a sheet of ice going home. Ahhh.

Gas Prices Drop !!

Well I'll be. I never thought I would see it again but gas in Nova Scotia has finally dropped below $1 a liter. Wow. Now as a cyclist I don't use a whole lot of gas driving my car, but I do use some. So seeing the price drop is great in my eyes.

Of course it is simply a reaction to the falling economy, which isn't a good thing. But it could be worse. The economy could be down and the price of gas could be up!

Movember - Important Info here folks

What is Movember? Read about it in detail here . Simply though it is a fund raiser for Prostate Cancer in which participants pledge to grow a moustache throughout the month of November and you pledge to give them support and hopefully a donation.

I donated to my friend Mike Milloy . By clicking on his name you can also donate to this worthy cause. Or maybe you already know someone who is seeking donations, or maybe you want to grow a mom as well!

Duathlon

Well I completed my first ever Duathlon. This took place in Riverport, Nova Scotia. This course was familiar to me as it is where I race my bike each year. For this race though I had to run 4km, ride my bike 28 kms and finally do another 4 km run. Running isn't my strength, in fact I just started doing it seriously this summer. Still I managed a personal best time int he first 4k, then did a great 28k tima trial on my bike with an avg speed of 33km/hr followed with a very slow but steady final 4k. I was spent for sure but managed to place 45th out of 84 people entered which was a great intro I think. I look forward to doing another one in the future.

Also I must say wow to the Triathlon Nova Scotia people who put on the event. Well organized, plenty of help, computerized time tracking, plenty of food and water and all went at schedualed times. That meant we were done, had lunch and awards were handed out all before noon.

My total time of 1:35 is now my base for future events.

Green Thoughts Again

Adding to my biking ways I have added a fender to my bike. Now how does a piece of plastic make my life more green? Well it means less muddy junk flying up and all over my clothing. This means fewer trips through the laundry machine and therefore less waste of water, energy and soap. Not bad for a $10 fender from MEC.

Ian's Gone Green

So I think that occasionally I will post about some of the things I do to make my life greener and more environmentally friendly. Most are small and simple ideas that are easy to implement. Some are a little more extreme.

I guess the biggest thing I do right now is ride my bicycle to work rather than drive my car. This is a 50 minute bike ride and seriously cuts down on the amount of gas I need to consume.

Now I am not insane and some days I do have to ride in my car to get to work. Those days where the wind and rain are at hurricane force or else the snow is piling up really high. But I do brave the cold, even heading out when the wind chill is well below -20C. It feels good to do as well, though I am sure my food bill is higher.