Blog

Blackforest coffeehouse turns 40 this friday - join me at the party!

In 5 years of playing live shows, my fondest memories have been at the annual St. Paul's Blackforest Coffee House. Maybe that's because St. Paul's was my first home-away-from-home. Maybe it's the laid-back atmosphere and the heaps of black forest cake. Certainly, part of it is the company. The …

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Aspiring asceticist

I like minimalism. There's something liberating about paring life down to the essentials, shunning extraneous material goods, and taking pleasure in the simple life. Of course, the Waterloo co-op schedule makes it difficult to accumulate too much because I know I'm going to have to move all my …

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Measuring what matters

Traffic, weather, stock markets, gas prices, the value of the Canadian Dollar... Traditional broadcast media bombards us with real-time updates about these indicators throughout the day. Because we're told about every dip and surge in the stock market, our society pays attention. We watch the …

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Making development proposals "realer"

I've had an idea kicking around in my head for the past year or so about how to engage people who don't read the news or come to council meetings. When it comes to new development (or redevelopment) proposals, many citizens don't know what's going on until construction starts. And by that time, …

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