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As it is, the next political events we have too look forward to aren’t about Great Britain anyway, but the Scottish, Welsh and London elections next year – I’m sure polling on them will start firing up in the next few months. The other, more immediate, race is the Labour leadership election.

We have had a little polling on that already – the YouGov/Sunday Times poll at the weekend (results here) asked the general public their preferences for Labour leader. Chuka Umunna came first on 17% (fieldwork was conducted before he withdrew), followed by Andy Burnham on 14%, Yvette Cooper on 8%, Tristram Hunt on 3%, Liz Kendall on 2% and Mary Creagh on 1%. Amongst Labour’s own voters Andy Burnham was ahead on 22%, with Chuka Umunna on 19%.

Obviously the key conclusion here isn’t really who is ahead… it’s how low anyone’s figures are. 55% of the general public said don’t know, 40% of Labour voters said don’t know. YouGov also asked separately about if people thought each of the contenders would make a good or bad leader, and in each case a clear majority of respondents said they didn’t know or didn’t know enough about the person to say. This is a race where the public simply aren’t familiar with the personalities of the candidates to have any clear opinion yet. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the next Labour leader – the public having no clear image of you is better than having negative baggage – it just means they need to be pretty careful to make sure people’s first impressions are good ones, as they are difficult to shift once the public have formed an impression.

On the other outstanding issue – what caused the polling error – I’m beavering away at looking at what caused the errors and how to put them right, as I am sure are the other companies. I’m not planning on giving a running commentary, though I gave some thoughts at the end of last week on Keiran Pedley’s Polling Matter’s podcast here.

463 Responses to “Polling in the coming weeks”

1 2 3 10
  1. First

  2. I took an interesting poll for YouGov last week which asked for my party preferences in order, AV-style. Is that likely to be published?

    First. [Second, Third, etc…]

  3. That was an excellent podcast if I may say so ;) Full lineup:

    John Curtice (U Strathclyde)
    George Foulkes (Labour)
    Damin Lyons-Lowe (Survation)
    Rob Vance as summariser
    and host Keiran Pedley

  4. Surely a big answer to the question of polling error during a campaign, must be to add in questions and information that make the VI Q more like the actual voting decision in the ballot booth.

    I.e. Asking more questions about what people think about the state of the economy, how well/badly people think the respective leaders are performing, who would make the best PM, then finally asking the question of “would you support DCs Cons or ANON’s Lab?”.

    Whenever the names were added into the VI Q like this during the last parlt, there was always a four point (ish) spike towards the Cons. I always said that EMs ratings would drag down the vote relative to the VI published figures (and against those saying his poor ratings were “factored into the price” – they weren’t as the more specific question showed).

    AW – is there any chance companies will begin to post their headline figures as support for the leader+Party??

  5. Mr Attlee was asked why Labour lost and he replied: ‘Not enough votes’.

  6. CL1945,

    Was that Attlee? I remember reading it was what Alf Dubs (Labour MP for Battersea) wrote on his Job Centre form as his cause of unemployment after losing in 1987.

  7. Adrian B – who knows, I’m not pre-empting any conclusions.

    All I’ll say is that we need to be careful not to jump at anything that would have produced more Tory figures and assume that method is more right. Including leader names in the question did indeed increase the Tory lead…but that doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of that factor was the cause.

    What if there was some other reason that meant the samples were too Labour? If that was the case we could change to wording that emphasised the party leaders, and the polls would be fine until we got to a situation when the Labour leader polled better than the Conservative leader… then the polls would be doubly wrong (the original error, and a new leaders in the question error!).

    I’m sure people can think of a hundred different ways that pollsters could have done things that would have produced more Tory answers and, therefore, been more “right”. We need to find a problem that actually addresses whatever the cause was, then hopefully it will keep being right.

  8. @ NC

    It’s nice to see you here too (not only on your lovely blog). Congratulations for that post by the way.

  9. Anthony

    You also have to make sure that you don’t get the English polls “right” and simultaneously screw up Scottish & Welsh polling – which is going to be more relevant over the next year.

  10. Dan Jarvis is backing Andy Burnham for Labour leadership.

  11. The biggest next political event we have to look forward to is the EU referendum on May 5th 2016, the same day as the elections mentioned in the article. Probably.

    Definitely Attlee, and Alf Dubbs quoted him.
    Alf Dubbs gets a very good write-up in O’Farrell’s book about ‘Things can only get better’ which is very funny.

  13. Yvette cooper wants labour not to be anti business and would cut corporation tax(gawd help us ) -looks like she is after the blairite votes from chuka and kendall.

    Turning into a two horse race.

  14. AW

    I know I am amongst several who have mentioned this explanation for the inaccurate before but I haven’t yet seen a conclusive answer :

    It is simply that pollsters failed to completely discount anyone who was not registered to vote. This should have been the first Q and a “No” should have triggered “thank you and goodnight” unless pollsters wanted to alert anyone to the fact that Labour in particular harbours a large number of the unregistered.

    It also made me query canvassing techniques – Labour and I suspect other parties spend a lot of their time cementing and reminding their known, registered supporters. In addition they should have been knocking on all the doors not on the electoral register – and of course well before the registration deadline.

    Individual registration was identified there years ago by a number of Labour activists as a dagger to Labour’s heart. I fear it did make a major difference. If I had not reminded my own student daughter she would have lost her vote. Thousands of students and transient young workers did. Not mainly Conservatives I think.

    Hope you’ll look at this anyway.

  15. Ms Cooper sounds as if she has learned something from recent setbacks. It is just her taste in men that is so suspect.

  16. Started listening to that podcast – starting with the assumption that they got the Ukip result right is bogus imo. It might be true but there’s an equally plausible explanation that the Ukip polling being wrong is part of the cause of the whole polling being wrong.

    If there was a late swing to Con it would be bluekippers most likely did it and the idea that both blue and red kippers would go back equally to the party they came from was never likely imo.

    Using that premise instead would mean the polls under-estimated the Ukip vote all along but the late blukip->con swing partially disguised it.

    To broadly test this idea you could take the Ukip numbers from the early polls and then instead of redistributing a percentage of Ukip votes back to their previous parties see how it looks when you do it with just the Con kippers and not the rest.

    Another grooming gang trial – Aylesbury this time. If the media reported the full scale of it over the last 16 years then the map of the worst areas would align almost perfectly with the Ukip peak vote.

  17. @Chrislane, Frank talking!
    Reminds me of my grandad, he used to read the obituaries and always scoffed at cause of death. There is only one cause of death, he used to say, ‘shortage of breath’.

  18. @AnthonyWells

    I’m concerned that all the discussions you’re holding are pollsters talking to other pollsters and getting all pollstery and echochambery.

    May I suggest you consider contributions from other branches of the statistical family? I’m thinking of things like Dual System Estimation[1], whereby missing respondents are deduced by linking to a different survey done on a different basis? Happy to explain if you need it.

    [1] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/census-2001/design-and-conduct/the-one-number-census/methodology/steering-committee/papers-by-year/1999-papers/the-role-of-dual-system-estimation-in-the-2001-census-coverage-surveys-of-the-uk.pdf

  19. 56 snp lobby fodders pick on an 83 year hero of the left by pinching his seat-could turn nasty.

    And they want to have a Mr Burns bar .

    They have only been there a day -have they all sworn allegiance to her maj ?

    Quite remarkable.

  20. Sunreada

    Have you read Dennis Skinner’s autobiography?

    None of the newly elected MPs have taken the oath yet – that happens tomorrow.

    Do keep up.

  21. @ Martyn

    Thank you for the link. It is a joy (ok, there are other joys …) to read it.

    … But I don’t think it it the answer for the troubles of this year. However, it is something for the future (probably puts up the prices). I liked the simplicity of the regression function.

  22. Anthony-you didn’t mention the mooted BPC investigation.

    Is it happening?
    If it does will YouGov take part?

  23. No of course not I read the english sun.

    Will try to do betta senior fiftysixer -which ones gonna do it in gaelic ?

  24. I know others are already available — just completed my 2015 general election results spreadsheet Since I’d already started doing this one before the others were available I decided to finish the job. Includes result for all 3,971 candidates:

  25. @ Sunreada

    I don’t know if he’s the hero of the left but there are many snippets of videos, among them a long speech on the video channel from 2013.

    In general, can we not make it a national issue?

  26. National meant to be nationality

  27. @Laszlo

    If I may press the case for the moment. One thing that has been suggested as a cause of Pollargeddon ’15[1] is differential response: Labour voters being overrepresented/Tory voter underrepresented in the response.

    In 1991 the UK Census was in trouble: differential response (younger men underrepresnted/older women overrepresented) posed a serious problem. Dual System Estimation was introduced and worked well in 2001/2011. Given this, it would not be a good idea to discard the approach quickly

    [1] I so want to be Chris Morris when I grow up…

  28. @AndyJS

    Have you got a blog or other location where your work is collated?

  29. @ Mr Jones

    To assume a massive exodus of Labour to UKIP would assume a massive vote for Labour of ex LibDems who haven’t voted for Labour (because it would have to be bigger than the switch between 20025-2010) before at a similarly massive scale.

    But in any case you just have to accept that is very likely that a very large number of 2010 LibDem voters (with Lab, Con) voted for UKIP.

    A strange transient 3 million voters … But they are entitled to it. Try to hold of them.

  30. A question for overnight – when will we start getting regular polls again? (and mentally upweighting the Tories by three points in each one).

    I’m off to bed – got to be up early so the SNP don’t nick my usual seat in the library.

  31. @ Martyn

    No, I understood that – but I have doubts that polling companies used census data. if they did, then it’s fine even for the past (on the other hand on YouGov NowCast there seems to be some census data … And it was wrong – the forecast) and I’m corrected.

    Sometimes I wish papers from government departments were easily accessible. I have access to Treasury ones (obviously not all) and they are extremely useful. They also do microeconomic and accounting papers too. Thorough and rigorous.

  32. Mr N

    What? As well as the 40 seats of yours they “nicked” in Scotland? :-)

  33. ON,

    A humorous reference to the rather unusual display today with Dennis Skinner!

  34. Mr Nameless

    What is in the library? Students go there only if they get credit for it. :-)

    Good luck, by the way.

  35. @Laszlo

    No, that’s not it. DSE is a technique, not a dataset. It’s a way of linking two samples from the same population together to deduce which respondents were missing. It’s nothing to do with census data per se.

  36. Mr N

    I had realised – though the lack of seating is clearly foolish when the concept of two tier questioning is well established.

  37. Yes rollingauloise -bit rum innit.Ms cooper gone all business friendly.

    Thought it was only your great party and the snp who wanted to cut the company tax .

    Singapore here we come !!

  38. Laszlo

    “But in any case you just have to accept that is very likely that a very large number of 2010 LibDem voters (with Lab, Con) voted for UKIP”

    I don’t need to accept anything as I’ve been saying for years part of the Lib vote in northern areas was proto-Ukip i.e. ex floating or Lab voters who wouldn’t switch to Con like they did in the south (cos Thatch ) so they went Lib instead.

    The people you think are distinct are the same demographic. The only difference with these Lib voters is they already moved away from Lab in in earlier elections and the move to Ukip was the last step.

    For that demographic in the south the shift over time was more Lab->Con->Ukip and in the north more Lab->Lib->Ukip. (cos Thatch)

    What you just have to accept is Lab has lost millions of their old core vote for very straightforward reasons that are only a mystery because the media are reluctant to report them.

    “To assume a massive exodus of Labour to UKIP would assume a massive vote for Labour of ex LibDems who haven’t voted for Labour (because it would have to be bigger than the switch between 20025-2010) before at a similarly massive scale.”

    Nope, you’re ignoring the unwinding of that part of the Lib vote that stemmed from opposition to the Iraq war.

    The result (in the relevant seats) was the *combination* of the two things: proto Ukip Lib votes to Ukip *and* the Iraq war Lib vote back to Lab.

  39. Perhaps someone could explain something. Since the bench where Dennis Skinner normally sits was traditionally reserved for the third party, why does he sit there and why is it in some special way ‘his’ since he is in Labour which has never been the third largest party within living memory? Just curious.

  40. @ Martyn

    OK. I’m with you. Apologies. I thought I understood the paper and skimmed through the rest concentrating on the outcome.

    It’s really good. The error is still there, but its size is down to the effort. Did I get it right?

  41. “no clear image of you is better than having negative baggage”
    One danger for candidates for the Labour leadership is that some ‘negative baggage’ (eg Mid Staffs) may well not be raised until after the candidate is elected.

  42. @ Dave

    In the case of one candidate (Burnham) it would be a very positive one as he acted on it …

  43. Quite like what I see of the new SNP MPs. A breath of fresh air, hope they shake things up a bit.

  44. @Laszlo

    The technique enables you to estimate the number of people who are missing from your survey and the characteristics of those people. Census uses it to estimate the number of people who didn’t fill out a form in a given area and then estimate the age and sex of those people. If YouGov used it then it could work out the people who didn’t respond to a given poll and then estimate the party those people would vote for.

  45. Voter registration and Labour: when I mentioned the potential problem I was put firmly back in my box and told it wasn’t an issue, though would be after this election. I assumed the agent (etc) were right and in any case was in no position to argue. An impression that different councils acted differently and that ours was ‘OK’?

  46. I have my own idea regarding the failure of the polls. At this election there seemed to be much more in the way of regional swings, swings specific to certain types of seat and other very local effects that I think made the standard opinion poll of 1000 people or so very unpredictable. After all, say a pollster ignores the 200 safest seats in the country, with approximately 1000 people responding, he’ll get 2 people per seat plus a few left over. With such diverse swings actually occurring, maybe this simply made polling 1000 people a lottery. Maybe polls in Scotland and Wales worked because they’re small enough regions for every seat to count in the survey. Maybe if England had been chopped into 11 regions and each region polled separately and the results combined, though not the pollster’s usual method, perhaps it would have given a better result. Maybe that’s why the Comres poll of the South-West got it right.

  47. @ Martyn

    Yes, and they translate the bias to error (although it is not Bayesian, but kind of using the logic of it, but it’s not important). So it would be a way to use design to address the sample. It assumes though a very solid database (actually two).

  48. @ Guymonde

    I don’t know, but Liverpool council certainly put more effort in the registration this year than any other time. It is not a major difference, but it was discernible. Probably they pushed harder in the council estates, but I don’t know.

    But turnout was significantly higher all over Liverpool even though there was no chance that any of the seats would be in danger. And the extra votes went to Labour.

  49. Sunreada – “bit rum innit. Ms cooper gone all business friendly.”

    Wasn’t she part of Alistair Darling’s Treasury when they cut capital gains tax to 18%?

    I think she may have always been business friendly and was biting her tongue hard during the Miliband years…

  50. Ranked share of the vote for Con, Lab, LD, UKIP, Greens, SNP, PC. (Click on sheets at bottom to toggle):

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Race Report: Parks Half-Marathon 9/14/08

This past weekend the Montgomery County Road Runner's Club put on their 3rd annual Parks Half-Marathon. The route took approximately 2500 runners from the Rockville Metro Station, south through the Rock Creek Stream Valley, onto the Capital Crescent Trail and ending in the heart of downtown Bethesda.

I see the Parks Half as the beginning of the local fall race season. Mid-September usually offers cooler mornings that allow for good race times for all involved. This year, mother nature decided to mix things up and thought that we should race on a morning that was as hot and humid as any mid-summer run. Humidity was near 90% and temps hovered around 78 F during the race and steadily climbed to the mid-90s later in the day. Needless to say, this type of weather surprised many people and left many runners unprepared and in over their heads.

On days like this, it is good for runners to pace themselves so they don't go out too hard too soon. That's where I come in. I had the pleasure of pacing those runners looking to run 8:00 - 8:15 minute miles. I've never had the pleasure of running as a pacer before - heck, I've only raced one half-marathon and one marathon before this! Thanks to the XMP Group I train with (many of whom were pacers for this race), I have become a much stronger runner and I've learned how to pace myself very well, so I was more than happy to volunteer my services so that others could run a smart race.

The masses make their way down Veirs Mill Rd (Photo: Some guy on Flickr)

On to the race itself. The first 2 miles were all downhill, fast, and crowded. Once the course flattened out the pack started to thin. Around this point there wasn't a big pack in front of me, but turning around I saw a large pack of runners and probably had a couple dozen hoping to follow my pace. At my side were some of my fellow XMP'ers, so we all chit-chatted and, as we always do, made fun of Doug for trying to pull the group faster than we're supposed to be running. Nothing too significant occurred during the middle miles, just lots of running and sweating (seriously, everyone was drenched head to toe from the humidity).

Mid-way? (Photo: Dan DiFonzo)

Later on, maybe around mile 9, I looked back again to see how the pack was doing and noticed that it had dwindled down significantly. The heat and humidity was taking its toll. As we were passing the Mormon Temple I was having a conversation with a fine young lady about the smell of stinky fish and how it compares to that of Chinese Restaurant dumpsters at 6am (gotta make the time pass somehow). I don't know if it was the thought of stinky fish, the brutal humidity, or a combination of both but she admitted she was pushing harder than she should, so she was going to wisen up for the last few miles and slow her pace. Was I running too fast? Checked my Garmin. Nope, right on pace. Such is the life of a pacer. I was a moving target people used to gauge their own race, and while she had made it this far staying with me she knew continuing on would lead to trouble over the last few miles.

The last 2 miles were pretty lonely. It seems most people got slowed down as we got closer to 13.1 and my pack was now a few scattered runners who were just trying to keep me in sight. These last 2 miles also had a slight but noticeable incline. Determined to stick to my assigned pace, I found myself passing a good number of runners, many of whom now resorted to a combination of running and walking. The last 1/4 mile of the race runs through an enclosed tunnel on the Capital Crescent Trail. As I entered the tunnel I could begin hearing echoes of the crowd near the finish line. Exiting the tunnel puts you right in downtown Bethesda with only a block or two to go.

Me exiting the tunnel near the finish line (Photo: Edward Johnson)

Doug picked up his pace and passed me with a smirk, as if to say "haha pacer, I can sprint to the end." I've kept to my pace this whole time, my responsibilites of a pacer are now over and the finish line is in sight... full steam ahead! I sprinted past Doug, beating him by 1 second and finishing in 1:46:30. That averages to 8:08 minute miles, smack dab in the middle of my assigned pace range! Looks like I'm not so bad at this pacing gig after all.

The post race celebration featured the usual bagels, bananas, oranges, gatorade, etc., but also included pizza and pasta from Mamma Lucia's! Gotta love good pasta right after a run. I ran into Damon and Erica, two fellow skydivers I've known for years. Damon was actually one of my instructors when I first started learning to jump, so it's always funny to see him outside of the dropzone. Metro cards were handed out to all racers and we all packed into the Metro cars and made our way back to the Rockville station. What a hot, sweaty mess that was! I feel bad for anyone that had to ride in those cars once we got off. Oh well! Parks Half-Marathon completed, and my first time as a pacer was a success.

More pictures from the race can be found here. If I find ones from elsewhere on the course I'll post them too.

UPDATE: Pictures available on the MCRRC photo site.

Kel said...

Damn.... nice time...
*sigh* someday maybe i'll be that fast ;)

Damon Steele said...

Funny, eh? What, do I amuse you somehow? Am I some sort of clown to you?
Seriously though, great job on the run. I'm too old for that kind of pace right now. I'll kick your butt on the bike and swim though! Pansy marathoner!
See you soon.


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Copernicus crater and splash effects

This is an old file, which i found yesterday in my old external hard drive. I think i used DBK31 color camera for this one. This file has more than 18,000 images and has a size of 45 GB!

Back then, i processed it with Registax only which i had put on my older website. I am not sure if i was able to put it back on this new one.

Last night i re-processed it with AVIstack (i love this program!) and registax and photoshop.. here is the result. Copernicus crater (the central white rings) happened when a huge piece of rock slammed the surface of the moon and made a big crater at the spot. It is more than 90 km in size and just look how far the splash effect went out around it.. beautiful.


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To the mosque we go, to the mosque we go it's friday today! :D it's friday people. and today we have the SEAD programme. An Eidul Adha celebration for malaysians in Irbid, oh I guess I'd probably be enjoying rendang after all (well that's the case if they cook rendang haha).

Yesterday, Ameer Faheem (and mummy hehe) managed to put his hands on a slide (gelongsor)- the toy which abang has promised to buy for him, in exchange with my cooking ngee~. A blue one, 3 steps. Huuu macam teruk plak isteri abang nih. Well the price is obviously cheaper than ordering food for 100 people so i'm taking it as a win-win situation, kan abang kan?? It's not that abang won't buy it for free (because really abang is one person who almost never say no to anything) but I just felt unfair to get something without doing anything.

Classes start in 2 days time and oh how much i hate that. But a student has got to strive hard. Our (Ameer Faheem and me) days will surely be lonely when abang is busy at class. And that signals I've got to put my headmistress hat on, planning things for Ameer Faheems education again. Btw, Ameer Faheem had his 2 weeks of school-free days :D

Ainul Arina Madhiah said...

Uish, tak terserempak plak dgn akak aritu. Lama tak nampak Faheem ^_^

Ummu Ameer said...

aah ramai sgt org akak pun xperasan ainul.. datangla rumah boleh faheem pengsankan hehe.


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Peru's Ministry of Employment and Employment Promotion Sign Agreement to Promote Employment in Biotrade and Ecotourism

Peru, June 2015 - Peru's Ministry of Employment and Employment Promotion signed an agreement with the Inkaterra Association, which has been supporting tourism and ecotourism in Peru over the last 30 years, to promote employment in biotrade and ecotourism in the country, with PAGE support. The agreement will focus on building the capacity of the working-age population, reduce informal labour and poverty as well as improve local living standards.

Also in Peru, on 17 June, Peru's Ministry of Industry and PAGE hosted a validation workshop for Peru's green industry assessment. The study analyses the potential for the development of green industries in the country and indicates opportunities to create them. Feedback and comments shared by the participants of the validation workshop will be taken into consideration to finalize the document.

For more information on these events in Peru, please feel free to contact Dorit Kemter (ILO) or Ronal Gainza-Carmenates (UNEP).


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Exhibition in Peshawar promotes cause of ‘zero hunger’

An exhibition highlighting the work of young artists from five arts schools of Pakistan opened at Nishtar hall in Peshawar. The exhibition comprise pieces that had qualified in “We the Peoples, We the Arts” competition, an initiative aimed at promoting the cause of zero hunger through visual arts.

The event was organized by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Embassy of Switzerland in partnership with the United Nations Information Centre and the Department of Tourism and Culture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to mark the 50th year of SDC’s cooperation with Pakistan.

For the competition, students from the National College of Arts Rawalpindi, Department of Art and Design at the University of Peshawar, National College of Arts Lahore, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, and the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Karachi were invited to develop sculptures, miniature paintings and paintings on the theme of “zero hunger”, which is Sustainable Development Goal #2.

A jury comprising Swiss and international art experts, the Embassy of Switzerland and the United Nations selected a winner for each category. A total of 64 art pieces were received for this competition out of which 23 were selection for the final exhibition, which aims to provide Pakistani students a unique opportunity to gain visibility at the international level. From Peshawar, Khalid Shah Shinwari and Zakir Ali’s paintings won the first round of competition and qualified for the exhibition.

The highlight of the event was musical performance by prominent rubab player Shahid Malang. Many in the packed auditorium danced to the melodious tunes of popular folk songs skillfully played by Malang.


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Shaping border security focus of INTERPOL workshop on ASEAN common visa

July 7, 2017 Comments (0) ASEAN, EU-ASEAN News, Political-Security

8-9 May | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The second workshop on ASEAN Common Visa was attended by 25 participants from the government, law enforcement, industry, academia and the EU experts on the Schengen system. A comprehensive Feasibility Study led by the Habibie Center aims to contribute to shaping practical recommendations on mobility and border security in the region. This activity is part of the EU-ASEAN 3-year cooperation programme on Migration and Border Management. For more information, please see the press release.

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‘been thinking about getting a new tattoo lately… just as if I did not have enough trouble here as it is with my less than significant piece of body-art (ok, not really troubles, merely occasionally annoyances)… nonetheless, I think I want a new one.
tattoos are oddly addictive.

I was thinking about it, when I read a fellow japanese blogger’s entry on the topic: Barcode tattoos. Too bad it’s now tied with some cheesy teenage TV show, it had some appeal. but I think I’d rather go in more artistic directions…

Anyway, I need some more time to think about it. We don’t want to go for short-lived long-regretted ideas: I’m not planning to get “F.u.c.k. B.u.s.h.” tattooed on my knuckles any day soon, tempting though it may be.

I think I want an Irezumi… I have seen some pretty awesome ones.

And by the way, when I said tattoos get you “troubles” in Japan, I am quite serious. And I don’t just mean dirty look by uptight people in the street and overall job discrimination: mine is safely hidden from any non-intimate observer and does not really interfere with my daily life. beside, ever since my blue hair days, I’m way used to little old ladies instinctively clutching to their purse a little harder when walking past me.
No, I’m talking about stupid but concrete little things, like public baths and swimming pools that will often refuse entrance to any tattoo-bearer.

Public baths access might not seem like a big deal, but in Japan, it is a big deal: people go there all the time, it’s both health, relaxation, community and entertainment all combined in one. It sucks to be excluded from one of the most typical Japanese cultural element for such a stupid reason.

Even more infuriating was to get kicked out of my gym when the management came to learn that… horror of horrors… I had a tattoo (how they came to know this, though, is an interesting question, as it definitely doesn’t show when I’m merely exercising).

Oh, and what’s the deal with these? well, the short story is that tattoo in Japan means Yakuza… and since Yakuzas apparently dream of taking over public baths and fitness clubs all over japan, barring tattoos is a good way of keeping them away.

Now, how could a pale ass like mine be, even indirectly, implied to be a yakuza remains a complete mystery, more of a stupid joke actually.

  1. so so so funny, although I actually haven’t gotten any comments from Japanese people about my tattoo. It’s on my lower back and shows sometimes if my pants are low, and of course at the bath. Noone has actually forbidden me to go into a bath – sometimes I think I get sidelong glances – but the tattoo is small and only black and white, so I think they assume, ok, not a yakuza – since yakuza tattoos are so much more beautiful.

  2. of course, I was exaggerating the public bath ban a bit, although it does happen in certain places (and it definitely did happen with my gym)… But at any rate, I’d dare hope that Japanese culture somehow catches up with itself one day, considering how tattoos are more than common among modern-day Japanese youth.
    Whether contemporary-style world-culture tattoos or classical irezumis, I have seen countless friends with body art here and they obviously do not belong to any organized crime, unless the yakuzas are now recruiting among 25 year-old female art students…
    But although they certainly experience the same occasional difficulties, I don’t think they care anywhere as much as I do, for the simple reason that they just do not have the same interest/curiosity toward elements of their culture that might appear somehow exotic to gaijins like me (such as public bath etc). Japanese youth (well, youth everywhere, actually) is all about sticking to cliques and communities that will not only accept but encourage a lot of behaviour strongly frowned upon by traditional Japanese society.

  3. I’m doing a little research for one of my classes…
    American youth often get Japanese or Chinese characters
    tattooed, do you see, or how often do you see Japanese youth
    getting American or English words tatooed on themselves if at all?

  4. Mmmn… good question…
    Well, I have never seen any English tattoo on a Japanese here. Though I’m sure it might exist. At any rate: none of the few friends with tattoos I know here.
    I think the main reason why there isn’t the same “foreign language = cool” effect as in the US is that the demographics that get tattooed here are slightly different.
    Much less people, to begin with. Tattoos are more common than they used to, but still nowhere close to the US. In this context, the ones who would likely fall for American/English fashion (say, japanese bubblegum teenagers) are still reluctant to get a tattoo. While the ones who get one are more likely to go either traditional (irezumi) or generic world-culture (tribal etc)…

  5. Andre,

    At the time, I had pretty much given-up: I’m no hardcore gym rat and often was out of the country for more time than would make it worth getting a subscription, so I made do with dumbbells at home and running round the park next-door.
    But it’s funny you asked: I just got back in Japan for 3 more months and figured I was gonna give it another shot. From the best of my knowledge, Tipness are the harshest one (I never ever actually showed my tattoos while exercising, yet, they somehow heard of it and kicked me out), I was told Gold Gym’s had more of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy… Dunno how well that’d work if you got tattoos all over your face 😉 Another option might be the local fitness club at your neighbourhood’s city hall (kuyakusho). They all have one and it’s quite cheap, I hear, but it’s usually rather old equipment: no idea what their tattoo policy would be.

    Anyway: good luck, and be sure to let us know if you find one!

  6. A question: I recently got a tatto in Japan. My second. The first was in the States about ten years ago. I realized after the work was done that this Japanese artist with ten years in the traid
    de had done a much better job than that done on my original US tattoo. He even touched up the fine work on my old tattoo and I realized he had done a better job than the the original.
    However, he insists that I keep the tatto dry with minimal washing and no ointment. This approach varies greatly from the one I experienced over ten years ago in the State. Anti-bacterial ointments and all. I spoke about this to the Japanese artist and he assured me that his skill level meant that leaving the tattoo dry, to heal naturally, is the better course.
    I have almost no pain, other than some stiffness, but some minimal scabs. The artist says to trust him and leave it alone. No touching. I tend to agree with his confidence, the tattoo is on my shoulder, and he says even if I lose some coloration, he will touch up. Excellent service.
    However, do you agree with the no touch, no ant-bacterial ointment approach??

  7. Ive nver heard of that but here in germany i went to one place that used alcohol to whipe it down after tehy did it i was like OWWWWWWWW! but i have never heard of hte no ointment approach. I went to a lady about a month ago and got one done and she didnt go as deep as they tend to do in america.. it didnt scab at all and she said that it would need touch up because she didnt go so deep but that when i came back for the touch up it would look very nice after it healed. I went back and got it for free and still no scabbing and it looks VERY nice. It seems differnt cultures have differnt approaces to tattoo care and even how to do it.

  8. This EXACT same thing happened to me last night. I was kicked out of a gym for having a tattoo, despite bing a member for 3 months.
    I had always worn a t-shirt, the tattoo is on my arm.

    They are not even offering me a refund.
    Take my money and deny me service?

    Backwards, illogical, dumb, money hungry idiots.

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text:
Sunday, November 23, 2008

the next day, if you can believe it

02:36:15 PM
I just sat on a bench with chloe sevigney
(Thats sevigny to you alex)
02:38:19 PM
I know! It was just me and i sat next to her because i thought she looked hot and would you look at that it was her
9:39:29 PM
Sitting in a car in front of lauren conrad's from the hills house

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text:
Friday, July 29, 2005

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2077.4

Of interest: A billboard across the street from my office is displaying an ad for a bike shop. Nice.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Commute report

Mileage when I got to work: 2069.7

Of interest: Rode on my new slick grey tires! Fun times.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2060.0

Listened to on the way to work: Coverville, the "Michael Jackson cover story" episode. There was a lot of talking on this episode; I'd rather hear music on my ride.

Of interest: This VC dude talks about work/life balance. I think everyone who bike commutes is already on their way towards work/life balance.

Totally wrong: As I've mentioned before, my daily commute takes me through a low-income neighborhood. A few weeks ago, a terrible McDonald's billboard went up, playing off poor person stereotypes. The billboard has a huge photo of a Big Mac with the words "I'll make it fit." just below. Why don't they write what they really mean? "Hey poor people! We know you're fat and don't care about nutrition. We know you'll shove our hamburgers in your face even if you're not hungry. How about stopping by?" Pathetic move, McDonalds.

The image: From the Spoof Ads section of Adbusters.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Fashion report

I know Vino's been in the news lately for kicking ass in the tour (sprintin' and climbin'? you da man!) and his recent team change, but what excited me was his FLASHY OUTFIT.

I mean, have you seen the beautiful Kazakstan champion outfit he's been wearing recently? It's a great aqua with complimentary buttercup accents. Swell.

It's even a step up from the T-Mobile fuschia, a great kit. Now if I was the best cyclist ever (no ice cream for me!) and I was choosing TDF team winners soley on their kits, here's my top 5, with 1 being best:

1. T-Mobile - Pink doesn't even look dorky on the guys.
2. Gerolsteiner - Love the colors, love the gradients. Also love how the branding really carries from their product - it's not just a slapped-on logo.
3. Liquigas - Swell color combo. One could argue that it's too muted, too forgettable, kind of the opposite of a CSC kit, but I like it.
4. Il Diablo - Okay, he's not a team, but he's at the TDF every year and he has the best kit by far.
5. Phonak - It's kinda ugly yet kinda pretty, but definitely easy to read. Plus, although there's yellow in the kit, it's not so overwhelming that you mistake a rider for the malliot jeune.

Commute report

Mileage when I got to work: 2051.7

How hot is it? The breeze made it feel like I was in a convection oven.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Brooklyn Bike Brawl

It's training for the anti-carmegeddon.

Check out the NPR piece on the event or visit C.H.U.N.K 666 online.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2043.4

Of interest: It's sauna-hot. I melted on the way to work so I had to go to meetings sealed in a Ziploc.

Also of interest: Crews are resurfacing yet another road that's part of my commute. (This is a good thing.) What's interesting to me is the brick pavers that live underneath the asphalt. They're just so pretty. I'd say keep them, but everybody knows that pavers can get slick in the rain.

Touching: Listen to this proposal on StoryCorps. Scroll down to the entry for Michael Wolmetz and Debora Brakarz. I found StoryCorps through UglyBike.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Another odd music video, this time with BIKES

This odd music video includes Mason jars, cult-ish outfits, fruit leather, consumer-grade Casio-esque keyboards, 1980's ephemera, golds and browns, a fruit dehydrator, cute kids, a living room, a sewing machine and what looks to be a Dr. Who-esque family journey on bicycles.

The video is for We Will Become Silhouettes by The Postal Service and was directed by the director of Napoleon Dynamite.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Odds and ends

About the image above: That's from the Whiskey Dick Triatholon site. No, I'm not making that up. Really. Check out their site if you don't believe me.

Fun stuff: Bike-powered voice over IP. Here's the link.

Non-bike music video: If you haven't this backyard music video yet, you're really missing out. This is, like, totally my favorite music video. I could watch it 100 times and not get sick of it. Oh, and the song by OK Go, is really catchy.

Dad, can I have a photo? So cute. I remember being that age and discovering the joy of photography, granted, my dad wasn't being hunted by the papparazzo.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2023.8

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2013.5

Terrible news: The incident involving a car t-boning the Australian women's road cycling team is truly shocking in its sadness. One cyclist is dead and five others are injured, all by a young driver.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Lance in France podcast

iPod: technology of leisure travel

Before leaving for Maine, I loaded up the lizpod with all sorts of great podcasts.

I envisioned a podcast listening, lemonade-sipping scenario on wraparound porch at the b&b or, better yet, I'd be lounging by the water, signature white earpods in cranium, re-aligning my chakras.

iPod: everything else is at home (nearly)

I made a conscious tech decision. The laptop would stay home - it was a good decision, though it seems every general store, b&b, marina and quonset hut has wireless internet these days. The cell phone would travel too, but only be checked sporadically, especially since Maine's cell phone reception is spotty. The camera would come, especially to document the wedding.

iPod: good for plane rides

It turns out that I didn't listen to the pod until the plane ride home. This was a good thing. The less technology while on vacation, the better, so she blogs.

I did enjoy the Lance in France podcasts. One of the podcasts was cute. Supposedly Johan and Lance were discussing the next day's strategy back at the hotel (yeah right - they worked that shit out long ago). They said they could talk about it on the podcast since the podcast wasn't going to be uploaded until after the next day's race.

I'd argue that the podcasts need to be about 1/2 hour (they're a measly 5 minutes long) and I'd like a chance to listen to an entire press conference - and there could be more fun things, like raw audio from the warmup area, sound from roadside Lance fans (since this is Lance-centric) - but it's a good start.

There are VERY FEW bike podcasts around, so even though it's mostly a way to get folks signed up for Sirius satellite radio, and to raise the visibility of Lance's weekly Sirius show, I'm glad Lance in France is available.

NOTE: I just found out that Dan Osipow is doing TWICE DAILY podcasts from the tour. Pretty cool. I just subscribed...

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 2003.7

Back from vacation: I enjoyed my time in Maine. If you haven't been to Monhegan Island, you should scrape up all of your pennies, and $100's and go. It's a real treat. I hesitate recommending it because too many visitors spoil the ambience, and if the island is as non-commercialized these days, I can't imagine how wonderful it used to be decades ago.

About today's photo: Google image searched this one. As always, you can click on the image to visit the image's site of origin.

Maine bike report: I did see some bikes around Maine, but because most of our car travelling was limited to Route 1, a busy highway, I didn't get a big chance to explore bikeways. I did stop in to a few bike shops and one of the inns we stayed at (I highly recommend this one!) did house a bike touring group at the same time.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1999.2 (Almost at 2,00)

About the photo: The photo is from Cycling News via the AFP wire service.

El Diablo, Didi Senft, is a huge cycling fan. He rides a gigantic bike and dresses as the devil. He even has a sponsor, Luk clutches.

Senft has been Pezzed even has an entry in Wikipedia!

More El Diablo photos: Here and here

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Bikes and Google maps

I love the Google map/dataset combo sites.

They're gaining so much traction so quickly that blogs have popped up to document the projects.

Now, here's a project that bikers can take to heart: Google maps mashed with cycling data.

This project is especially relevant to the fancy computer bikers (I'm not included - I don't train religiously enough to warrant anything more than a simple odometer/speedometer), the ones with the fancy watches and heart rate monitors and whatever else they have strapped to their bodies.

The fine folks at Particletree who created this project were kind enough to offer their sourcecode for free.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1988.9

Weather: I wish I had windshield wipers on my glasses and rubber pants for my tush. Oh, and that flat in the rain didn't help, but it did give incentive to fix my tire rather quickly.

Bike-related Calvin and Hobbes strip: Click here

Friday, July 08, 2005

Japanese bike fun! FUN! FUN! FUN

Become a bike courier

Also of interest: call-ahead bike parking

Soooooooooooooooooooo ghetto

Saw this on Overheard in NY:

Tween girl: ...when her water broke, she rode her bike to the hospital. How ghetto is that?

--B44 bus

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Mountin' up

I'm undoing adulthood slowly and trying to regain the skills of my youth, the skills I had that I didn't even know I had until I lost them.

I'm making progress on riding without hands. I'm getting really good at this. I don't want to get overconfident like this dude, but I'm again able to ride "look ma" style.

Gettin' on and off
After about two years of halfhearted attempts, and a mounting desire to compete in my first cyclocross race, it will become important to learn a cyclocross mount and dismount.

Even more importantly, this mount looks smooth and fancy!

The way I mount now: stop bike, flip pedal upwards, flip leg over. Clip in on right side, push off.

That's slow. A cyclocross mount, or some other "moving mount" sounds a whole lot quicker.

I'd also like to re-learn the "hop hop hop, swing one leg over" mount. My dad, age 64, always mounts this way. It looks scary to me, but also cool.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1934.6 (I've gone about 700 miles since May, and only took about two long rides.)

Of interest: Hmmmm. Not much of anything.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

commute report

miles when i got to work: 1926.5

rides this weekend: rural hills on sunday morning, rode to meet a friend at the always hip (really!) july 4 parade on monday

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Team Puma on adrants

We got the free Team Puma DVD in the mail and liked it. It was almost too snippet-oriented though, not enough linear content. Anyway, the Team Puma has made it on Adrants blog.

There's a lot of marketing around this, and frankly, this is the type of marketing Puma needs. Forget the mainstream TV blasts, forget the mainstream altogether. There's even a Puma bike by Cannondale.

This site outlines the Puma plans.

By the way, have you checked out the Puma site lately? They have shoes designed by Phillipe Starck. Crazy.

It's not the TDF, it's a Brady Bunch episode

Don't walk...ride

Ya know those impossibly looooooooooooooong traffic lights. The ones that you can't just ride through because there's tons o' traffic. Well, this might be the solution you're looking for.

The "Famous Crosswalk Button Hack" (if it still works anymore) is the the following:

The most popular hack, which works on most models, is the "Instant Walk." Three short clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short; turn any crosswalk signal from "don't walk" to "walk" with a matching change in the traffic signals.

I've gotta try this today!

Friday, July 01, 2005

Media lab likes bikes too

MIT Media Lab project: Fancy bike helmet

High tech folks working to improve the a very low-tech experience. Cool.

Commute report

Miles when I got to work: 1820.7

Cream cheese: The newly repaved road feels just great, like I'm riding on cream cheese.


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KXIP vs KKR Live Score

The versatile actress Anushka Sharma recently tied to knot to Indian skipper Virat Kohli in a hush-hush ceremony in Italy. Thank you for this floral welcome guys. Anushka received a "floral welcome" and her vanity van was beautifully decorated by flowers.

Greeted with flowers on her return, a happy Anushka shared a photo on Instagram with the caption: "They say - Back to one!" In this case, I'll say - Back to Zero. Coming back to India, the actress was surprised with lovely flowers by her co-star Shah Rukh Khan, on the sets of Zero. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the biggest attraction in Virat's reception on Dec 21, Anushka's reception on Dec 26 was attended by host of Bollywood stars. Anushka and Katrina also together appeared on Karan Johar's celebrity-based talk show Koffee With Karan, last year.

After a dreamy marriage vacation, Anushka Sharma has resumed work!

More news: Mad Catz Return, New Products On The Way

After thrashing Sri Lanka, the Indian team were high on confidence when they landed in South Africa on 28 December for three-match Test series. She will also start promoting her home production Pari which will hit the theatres on February 9.

Commenting on why the film is titled Zero, Aanand L Rai earlier told a leading daily, "Like the way we say that ideal is boring, imperfection is much interesting..." Later, Virat shared another selfie with Anushka and wrote, "Cape Town is such a handsome place and even more handsome with my one and only!" In Cape Town, the couple were spotted at many places.


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Friday, 1 July 2016

Nasser Kandil: What if Washington followed Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Israel?

Written by Nasser Kandil,
نهاية سلطنة الوهم وعاصفة الحزم وإمبراطورية القرم
Washington knows the lie of the claims of its Saudi, Turkish and Israeli allies about their independence of it as they say in their public speech, it is aware that what they are doing is just to call it to accept their choices of escalation in Syria, and the continuation of the language of war till changing the facts, overthrowing the country and its president and defeating its army and its allies, but with a direct American involvement, Washington has tested their independence one after another, it knows that these three countries along with France and Britain have weapons of modern air defense, but they do not dare to give them to the armed groups, so they ask Washington to do that for them, or  to allow them to do that. Washington knows that Turkey and Saudi Arabia announce that they are ready for a military action in Syria but under American leadership and within an alliance led by Washington. The effective choices are different than the nonsense, and what is less than the effective choices is no more than tempting Washington to change its position and to admit to what it decides at the end, where there is no place for an independent decision for any of them.
If Washington decides to follow its allies, so it adopts their path as a measure not what they tell it, when the US President Barack Obama said that he is proud not to get involved in the war on Syria and not to respond to its allies’ calls who are reckless, arrogant,  convicted of hatred, and dictators, he was seeing what those allies were doing,  whose their methods of conduct provided him with a real image of what he can do if he will respond to their consultations and their advices, if he hesitates in the settlements, it is not because of his hesitation in accepting their advices, but because he is aware of the high cost of the settlement in exchange of a very high cost of the war , the hesitation prevents the decision.
The method of conduct of Saudi Arabia in Yemen says that it waged a war against an opposition that it rebelled against the legitimacy of a regime that is supported by Saudi Arabia, this resembles relatively the Russian and the Iranian positions with the legitimacy which they support in Syria, in comparison what was available for the opposition in Syria was not available for the opposition in Yemen, the differences are that the Yemeni opposition was deprived from all the supportive ground borders, while all the outcomes of all the Turkish and Jordanian borders are in favor of the Syrian opposition, it gets the military and the human support which is forbidden for the Yemenis, but both of them face capable air force, so why you are obliged to admit of the political solution as a necessity in Yemen with besieged opposition and without missiles, although this opposition drops your missiles but you fail in defeating it, and you want us to believe that the absence of these missiles from the Syrian opposition has caused the failures to it, while their absence did not cause a similar defeat to the opposition of Yemen despite the open borders in front of the Syrian opposition, towards  a tyranny of Al-Qaeda organization on its formations. While the borders remained closed in front of the Yemeni opposition, although this neither needs borders nor missiles to bind you to negotiation, while you fear for it not to be crushed if the borders were closed and the missiles were prohibited. But if the matter was an admission of settlements as a need, so the question is how can you expect to ask for more for the opposition in Syria than what you accept for the opposition of Yemen, at least Russia and Iran in addition to their ally the Syrian President accept a government of partnership under the legitimate president without a request of withdrawing weapons or evacuation cities, and to have a new constitution according to parliamentary and presidential elections, so is Saudi Arabia calling Washington to wage a war in Syria as its war in Yemen; to reach to an end that is similar to the end of its war. What is proposed today for the settlement in Syria without getting involved in a war is for what Saudi Arabia has reached after its war in Yemen.
In reading the Turkish method of conduct, it seems for the American that the Turkish who has screamed a lot regarding his intention to pray in the Omayyad Mosque and has put the fate of his rule opposite to the fate of rule in Syria has escaped from the confrontation and remained calling of a buffer zone and secure zones, but he did not do anything to apply it, but he accepted the European money in exchange of this concession. But when he announced his anger from the situation which is represented by the Kurds against what he called his national security he did not dare to penetrate inside the Syrian borders for a big process he threatened of it repeatedly. The ceiling of what he can do today is arming and securing the supply lines for Al Nusra, opening the ways to appease Russia and promoting for the priority of the unity of Syria to any another priority; which means overthrowing the Syrian President, and the seek for a Turkish Russian Iranian alliance for this purpose, what Washington is doing with Moscow remains more balanced than what the Turkish President does in his policies towards Syria, the logic of alliances, and the considerations of the national security. Washington has already decided to test the military choice in better conditions under the slogan of the chemical weapons, it brought its fleets, where neither Russia has positioned in Syria nor Saudi Arabia has involved in Yemen, it returned at least with  a political gain which is the peaceful solution for the Syrian chemical weapons, while the Turkish method of conduct presents an example of weakness without return, in addition to replacement, retreat, and evasion of confrontations without any understandings that face-saving, so is it required from Washington to meet the desire of the Sultan and be involved in a war to become like him?
In the Israeli method of conduct, Washington knows that it heard repeatedly the Head of the Israeli government Benjamin Netanyahu boasting of his ability and intention to hit Iran and destroying its nuclear capacity, and it knows as well that the US President has been obliged to reveal this boasting and its false when he visited Tel Aviv , he held Netanyahu’s hand and told him: Israel is an independent state it can take the decision of hitting Iran without returning to Washington which does not exert any pressure on Tel Aviv to refrain from that. Months have passed between this speech and Washington’ signing on the understanding on the Iranian nuclear program,but Netanyahu did not do anything.
Washington knows that when it intended to sign the understanding at the end of the year 2014, it has notified all the allies especially Israel to do what can save papers of strength for them, therefore Netanyahu’s process was Al Quneitra to provoke Hezbollah and to drive him to confront the changing of the engagement’s rules according to their appearance to impose new equations for the deterrent balances specially to Golan front, but when the resistance responded by the qualitative deterrent process of Shebaa Farms Netanyahu kept silent and returned to say that he wants to absorb the impact and to refrain from responding to avoid the escalation.
All the allies of Washington have a method of conduct that is enough to show the inability on one hand, and that Washington has what is enough to prove that they are followers, who do not have their decision on the other hand. The limit of their movement is the bet on Washington’s decision of escalation that it pays its cost, while they got some of its harvest, Washington is not worried neither of their individuality, nor  of their pressures, nor of the weak argument they have , no one dare to answer the question if you want a war then give us your proof for its effectiveness from your method of conducts, and the effectiveness of each one of you in it, here your enemies there are so close to you, what are you waiting for?
Washington is confused because through signing the settlement about Syria, it signs the bond of the admission that it became a second world power and that it gave the whole East to its opponents, because it does not have reliable allies, it is confused from going to a war that its allies are calling for, because it has allies that want it to fight for them, not having allies that it fights through them, its simple proof is the question about the meaning of its announcing of the need to defeat ISIS, and the ratio of the participation of its allies whom it will forgive their embarrassing alliance with Al Nusra if they support it in the war on ISIS. Washington is confused with its allies in peace and in war, and through them it is confused of the future of its presence in the mainland Asia and the risks of its elections without achievements.
Translated by Lina Shehadeh,

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Camp was a fun experience. One of the best things was being there with some of my close friends. Here is the always lovely, Lezlee.

And this is a photo Lezlee took of Cynthia and I. I am not too thrilled with how old I look in this picture and I definately had "camp hair". Cindy looks great!

The older girls are YCL's or youth leaders. They get to plan a lot of what happens at camp and run it with the adults taking a step into the background. This is where the YCL's stayed, a platform, with some canopies erected to give them shade. The YCL's were great and did an amazing job.

Bianca, one of the YCL's

Angelica and Natasha, YCL's

Natalia, YCL

Melissa, YCL

There were about 20 YCL's all together.

Flag Ceremony started and ended each day

This was a very popular activity for the girls. Many of them had these bracelets in progress attached to their jeans with a safety pin.

There are camp beads given for the different skills girls certify in each year they are at camp. In addition camp beads are given for your cabin, going to camp that year, participating in the hike, etc. This is what a set of beads looks like for someone who has gone several years.

This is what a set of beads look like for someone who is there for the first time!

The theme for camp. The girls all made one of these and we all have T shirts.

The YCL's platform was decorated with christmas lights.

One day they thought it was going to rain. Tam was helping trying to cover up the platform so the girls didn't get wet.

Water baseball was one of the activities that Cindy planned. They had to hit a beach ball with a foam noodle. First base they had to put their elbow in the wading pool. Second base, their head, third base their knee and for a home run, their behind. It was a lot of fun.

Head in the water

A hit

Home run!

Some of the cabin mom's from my ward. Someone had drawn a mustache on Lindsey.

Merrin, YCL

Athena, YCL

If you recieved a package at camp, you had to dance for it.

Conducting a song, with style and attitude.

Girls made lots of bracelets!

The fourth year girls do some rougher adventure camping and activities before they come and join the rest of us at camp. It's their last year before they become YCL's. Here they are taking a turn at serving dinner.

Some of the girls from my ward, Taylor, Sabrina, Jordan, Karalyn and Brianna.

Karalyn and Brianna

Lacey, from my ward

Audrey, a delightful new friend

There are lots of funny stories from camp. Like the camp director not being able to find the second walkie talkie. She could hear it, and was getting closer, but wasn't sure where it was. It was in her back pocket! She was calling herself!
And when Lezlee told me there were three sides to the bathrooms and how they had to keep cleaning them. There are only two sides. She must have cleaned one side twice. She still isn't sure she believes me! I told her she was in another dimension.
And then there was the staff person who had to ask where the bathroom was, even after we had been there a few days!
It was a great experience and I am glad I was able to participate. Maybe I can go next year and add to my beads!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Camp Nurse

I was asked to come to church girl's camp at Lomia and be the nurse for our stake. Being a convert at the age of 18, I had never been to girl's camp. I had lots of friends who have gone both as girl's and as leaders. I know they always had a good time. So I said yes.
I have to say I was apprehensive though. When we had a meeting early on in the year, I looked around the room and thought, I really don't know these people. My friends, Cynthia and Lezlee were going though and I figured it would be ok.

I was nervous as it got closer. Was I crazy to say I would do this? There were girls I was worried about. I was worried about living and sleeping in close quarters with people I didn't know very well. I was committed so off I went. This is what it looked like when the leaders and YCL's arrived on Monday. Two trailers and numerous private cars full of stuff to be unpacked and set up before the girl's arrived on Tuesday morning.

This is the room inside the staff cabin that was to become the designated nurse's office. I can tell you that during the day, it was blazing hot in there. I spent as much time as possible out on the front porch. We brought some fans and it made it tolerable, but barely. At night and early morning, it was quite pleasant. And the bunk beds? These two were for my patients, but yes that is what we all had to sleep on too. Cynthia and I shared a set, I was on the top. I hadn't slept in bunk beds since I was a little kid. I would climb up the foot board and heave myself over the end onto the bed. I could slid off the side pretty well though. I was paranoid about keeping Cynthia up though. They would rock and roll anytime you moved. I think they were from when the camp first opened 43 years ago. But Cynthia and I pretty much passed out at night, so it wasn't an issue. Other than the bruises I acquired from sometimes hitting my legs on the metal bars as I "hopped" in.

So Pam Young, our camp director made me an nurse in and out sign. I was almost always in as it made everyone nervous for me to stray very far.

And this is the nurse's office after I was almost set up.

Here is an area of a the staff cabin. Yep, 3 women, 4 beds in this space.

They were all great and fun though. Here was a little impromptu song for us.

Our front porch was pretty inviting. After we made a little more shade with the canopy, covered the table with a table cloth and dragged out a fan when the afternoon would get stifling. Everyone worked really hard to make it as nice and comfortable as they could.
We had a lot of really nice people to work with. The kitchen staff worked really hard. They were the first ones up in the morning and often the last ones to bed at night. And they fed us all very well.

Brother and Sister Lee and Patricia Tejada headed up the kitchen. This is Sister Lee. Her husband looked really tough. He is a prison warden. So you know he is tough. But he was really sweet with all the girls.

One of our breakfasts.

The prison warden in apron whipping up omelets.

We had great leadership. Amanda Meppen was one of the assistant directors. She worked really hard during camp putting together a live time multimedia presentation of what was happening for the girls to see closing night.

Pam Young was our fearless director. She was amazing. She was loving and caring for everyone. She kept leaving us little thoughtful gifts or treats on our beds. My favorite moment though was when she was looking for the other walkie talkie. She kept having someone call it. I can hear it she said I'm getting closer! It was in her back pocket. Too funny.

Claire, another assistant camp leader. Everywhere, all the time. More energy than the rest of us put together. The three of them did an amazing job of putting together a great experience for the girls.

And this poor little bird tried to take care of it's nest on our extremely busy and crowded front porch.

This is one of Pam's treats for us. Each cabin had a value and theme from the young women's theme. Ours was knowledge and the color green. So they used Knowledge is Toadallly amazing. We had lots of frogs in our cabin.

And this is the injury that scared me the most when it happened. Sabrina tangled legs with her sister and fell, hitting her arm on a corner of the bench. It swelled so fast and so hard with a large lump, that I was afraid she had broken it Thank goodness she hadn't.
I had some possible pink eye too. That was scary because it's so contagious and could spread through camp. I isolated the girl, and she ended up going home about half a day early. I am not at all convinced she had pink eye, but once we talked about sending her home, she just wanted to go and there wasn't much talking her out of it.
Had several splinter removals, 3 bloody noses, upset stomachs, menstrual cramps, homesickness, blisters, mosquito bites and one asthma attack. And we all made it back and are accounted for!
I'll have some more posts of the girls and fun...

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mostly Horse Business

I got to go riding twice while I was in Idaho. It was really fun. This is Apache. He is actually one inch too short to be called a horse, so he is a pony. I also rode Joe, but don't have any photos of that expedition. I think Apache is very pretty. He is also short gaited and so a little rough to ride. It took me a little bit to get acclimated to his rough trot and nice slow lope, but I did after awhile. My knees aren't so good and my right one was killing me after a seven mile ride of mostly trotting. It was a lot of fun though.

This is my neice Keegan getting Pearl the mule ready for our ride. Pearl is actually my sister Wendy's, but she hasn't ridden her yet. My neice is trying to get some of the bugs worked out of her first.

Pearl dressed for departure.

Keegan thought spurs were needed for Pearl.

Keegan pointing something out.

The two of us.

We went to see some barrel racing competition where my neice Amy was competing.

Some action photos.

Amy waiting her turn.

I thought this horse was really pretty.

Amy. I had the flash on by mistake so the photo quality isn't so good.

Some photos from Chesterfield, an old Mormon settlement.

Some "ruined" old cabins near Pocotello.


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Kelowna: Stuart Park Phase 2

Project Description

The City of Kelowna retained Urban Systems to complete the design for the second phase of Stuart Park—the city’s popular downtown urban waterfront park. The design included a waterfront promenade, sea wall with seating steps into Lake Okanagan, lighting, seating, signage, artwork and room for future temporary art exhibits. The project also restored more than 800 square meters of riparian habitat. We also coordinated the redesign to work with the construction of the new Kelowna Yacht Club Facility.

The City of Kelowna, BC

Copyright © 2018 Urban Systems. All Rights Reserved.

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