You may have noticed that my "Disclaimers" and "Thoughts to Ponder" on my front page are somewhat contradictory....then again, maybe not.
Well, it's like this.
Thanks in no part to oil companies, logging companies, mining companies, pastoral companies, etc. etc. that are destroying our planet and ripping people off, and useless governments that let them get away with this wanton destruction all in the name of the almighty dollar, this planet is going to hell in a handbasket. (Yes, I am a socialist). For example, let's look at the 2000 American Presidential Election. Imagine if an election like this took place in a third world country. I sometimes wonder if elected officials have to answer for their sins when they die, because we sure as hell have to deal with their sins while they're in office?

I find humour (ie. the Disclaimers) as a way of dealing with the one way track of destruction our society seems to be going. On the other hand, my points to ponder include sayings of Chateaubriand, Ghandi, Enstein and many others. (Hey I said in the disclaimers that parts of this website were ripped off). Dr. Martin Luther King, one of the greatest Human rights advocacates to have ever lived is quoted extensively. While my own personal interests lean more toward preserving what's left of our environment, we must not forget the billions of people who are living under dictatorial govrnments. And while the so-called "free world" has "human rights", goverments of those countries -- including Canada -- are controled by the mega corporations whose economic interests strongly outweigh those of the environment, the wildlife within it, and even the people that live within the borders of these "free" countries. A bunch of the other "thoughts" are just stuff I found here and there -- some are plain fun and subversive. If you read a bit further on this page, you'll find out some of the stuff I'm doing myself to help keep what little that's left of the natural world natural.

Anyhow, enough whining. This is me. Would be real stupid to put a picture of someone else on my homepage now wouldn't it? Anyhow, here I am enjoying a couple of my favorite pastimes: skiing and hiking. OK, so I'm actually standing still in this photo. It was taken in late June, 1997 on Robertson Glacier in Kananaskis country. I and an even more loony friend strapped skis (with skins), boots, poles, snowshoes and just about anything else we could carry onto our backs, hiked into the backcountry, climbed up the glacier & skied down. On our way out to the glacier, we ran into a group of people from Ontario who looked at us like we were complete lunatics -- I mean, who the hell skis in June?! (aside from Aussies and Kiwis of course where it's winter so that doesn't really count). They were so amazed at seeing hikers with skis strapped to their backs in June they just had to take a picture. We took our own pictures as well and this is one of them. Just a note for anyone who wants to try this, two runs is a good day. If you want to do more, bring a tent and sleeping bag, `cause you're not going to have anything left to get back home.

Here is Calgary -- a city of about 880,000 nestled between the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the western prairie. The Bow River, one of the best trout rivers in the world, flows through Calgary's city centre. Anglers come from all over the world to cast their lines in the Bow. Calgary is a nice place to live. It's small, relatively clean, has lots of park space, and has a relatively low crime rate. No tornados, hurricanes or earth quakes. The only thing that drives people here nuts is the weather. But then there's a saying here: if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes because it can and will change several degrees that fast - in either direction - up or down.

I'm a graduate from The University of Calgary with a double major in ecology and zoology. After a few years of looking I found a job in my field in Red Deer. Why did it take me a couple of years to find this job? Well, thanks in no part to Ralph and Jean (and their respective predecessors), I'm having difficulty finding suitable employment in my chosen field. In the mean time I'm trying to gain experience and do some netwroking by providing my services by volunteering - which actually is quite enjoyable at times. I have a resume included on this web page if you happen to be looking for a wildlife enthusiast.

For about four years now I have been volunteering in Wildlife Rehabilitation. I spent about a year and a half volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation centre near Calgary but have since moved on to a different organization - actually two different organizations: Medicine River Wildlife Centre and Rockyview Wildlife Recovery - where I help with the capture, care, and subsequent release of injured or orphaned (or otherwise displaced) Alberta wildlife. The MRWC website is awesome....but then I'm biased because I designed and maintain it....on a volunteer basis.

Me and and an injured Osprey Me feeding a two week old Mule Deer Fawn

It is a very "hands on" activity and you get covered in feces, puke, blood, pus and a variety of other bodily fluids. However, it is very rewarding to see an injured animal get nursed back to health and sent on its way. Sadly though, some animals don't recover from their injuries and expire or their injuries are often severe enough that they must be euthanised. The mandate of wildlife rehabilitators is to rehabilitate and release the animals. Since the animals are going to be leaving the rehab centre in one way or another, (hopefully a healthy release) it is obviously a good idea not to become too attached to them -- these are, after all, wild animals. (Sometimes it's a bit difficult not to "cuddle" them a bit.) It is also very important to place a great emphasis on educating people on the importantance of preserving all wildlife and providing information on the damage that humans cause to wildlife - both intentionally and unintentionally.

Wildlife centres often get calls from the public about "problem" wildlife. Bats that are in their attic, magpies and crows making too much noise or eating their dog's or cat's food placed on the porch. They get calls about skunks under their sheds or porches, or about rabbits or deer eating their lawn or flowers. What people fail to realise is that urban sprawl is invading the ANIMAL'S territory. If you don't want wildlife in your back yark keep your damned pet food inside your house - don't put out anything that will invite them to your yard. Almost 95% of animals that come to wildlife centres are their because of what humans are doing to the environment - putting up skyscrappers, powerlines, barbed wire fences, cell phone towers and any number of man-made structures. Cars, guns, and pets take their toll on wildlife as well.

Click here to find out more about wildlife rehabilitation.

Click here to find a wildlife rehabilitator near you

Wildlife centres are great places for a shutterbug like myself and I have a few pics from the last couple of years posted on my photo album.

For over three years I have been volunteering with the Calgary Field Naturalists' Society. CFNS recently came onto the World Wide Web and needed a webmaster. At the time, my knowledge of HTML was limited but I said I'ld have a go and now act as webmaster for the society. The page is rather basic, but quite functional, and I'm becoming more proficient at html....I've even got a bit of Java in there now. Check it out at www.cadvision.com/cfns. I'm also on a newly formed committee at CFNS examining the plight of endangerd species in Alberta and Canada and got myself elected to the Board of Directors for that society.

I've also spent a couple of years volunteering with the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in Calgary. It's a great place to relax and enjoy and watch wildlife, particularly birds. Most of what I do is PR type stuff. Greeting visitors, advising people of unique birds that have been recently spotted in the sancturary, giving directions, and trying to keep people on pathways. The sanctuary wants to keep people only on designated pathways because by wandering off the paths, people my inadvertantly disturb or destroy a bird's nest. On a nice day it a great way to spend a couple of hours just meandering around the area trying to see as many species as possible in a few hours. I'm still just begining to get the hang of it. Some birds, like Canada geese, are very common (and of course, easy to identify). Others like, say, a Lincoln's sparrow, are a little more difficult - at least for a beginer like me. To me, all sparrows are LBJs (little brown jobs). There's also a great variety of waterfowl and shorebirds. Definitely no shortage of new things to learn here. One summer day while patrolling the santurary grounds a couple came up to me and asked "What's that pretty black and white bird with the long tail?" A dead give away these people were not locals. The Black-billed Magpie is so common in the Calgary area, most people consider it a pest. As it turns out, the couple were from Atlanta and had never seen one before and found it quite exciting. There's also some pics from IBS on my photo page

Another place I use to volunteer is the Sam Livingstone Fish Hatchery. I've volunteered there for over four years acting as a tour guide and interpreter showing off the hatchery (often to tour groups) to people of all ages, and, in the process, try to educate the public on the process of raising fish -- more specifically trout -- more specifically yet, rainbow trout (although SLFH also raises eastern brook, brown, and occasionally cut-throat trout and arctic grayling (which is a cousin to trout). Each year the hatchery releases about 3,000,000 fish into publicly accessable lakes and ponds in the province of Alberta. No fish are put into private ponds or sold to private hatcheries.

Often the hatchery gets tours of children (schools, Cubs, Brownies, etc.), and it's quite amusing to see the crestfallen face of some 5-year-old boy when you have to tell him there are no sharks or piranhas anywhere in the hatchery or for that matter that there are no sharks or piranhas anywhere in Alberta. Kids just want to see sharks or piranhas -- watching the Discovery Channel too much perhaps. Everyone gets excited when visiting the hatchery -- particularly fishermen -- when they see the display aquaria where the hatchery keeps an assortment of trout. The hatchery used to have some 40 cm, 2 kg rainbow trout but they outgrew their home and were released into the wild (pity the poor fisherman that catches those ones). The biggest fish there now are some Cutthroat and Eastern Brook Trout about 35cm long and a kg or so -- they too are outgrowing their aquaria and will be released. SLFH also get out into the community during trade fairs and whatnot and bring information about the hatchery to the public.

For a couple of summers I have also took up volunteering with the Calgary Bird Banding Society. As the name suggests, the society bands birds of all sorts, records statistics on them which then get stored in a huge database and enables scientists to track motions of migrating (or not) birds. Also volunteer occasionally with the Calgary Zoo and have helped rescue fish out of irrigation canals when they are shut off for the winter. Fish stranded in the canals would otherwise die if not transported back into a river.

I don't go out to movies too much...IMHO there's very few movies that are worth the price that theatres are extorting for flicks these days. However, I do enjoy watching old science fiction B-movies from the fifties and sixties. Forbiden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still come to mind. Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail and Life of Brian are definite all-time favorites. Other movies I never tire of watching: Repo Man, Return of the Living Dead, and the Star Wars Trilogy.

I'm not much into the bar scene either...tend to prefer a quieter pub where you can sit down and enjoy a nice cold beer and some conversation...better yet, sit around a barbeque at home and enjoy a brew there. What type of beer do I drink? Preferably a nice dark or red ale brewed by some micro-brewery. I'm partial to anything brewed by Big Rock, but also enjoy many imported British Ales. There's a brewery in Quebec called Unibrou that makes some interesting ales. I found a very interesting German wheat-doppelbock called Aventinus brewed by G. Schneider & Sohn that's very good. Couple of all time favorites are Killkenny and of course Guinness.
I refuse to buy ANYTHING brewed by Molson's or Labbatt's.

So that's about it for me. I'ld appreciate any comments you may have to make about this webpage. e-mail me with anything you have to say....good or bad.

This page last updated October 14, 2001