The Bike

I decided to ride my bike to work yesterday. Get the heart going (especially for the up hill return), be green, save $5 subway fare, all good. I haven't done this for years and probably only ever done it a couple of times. As it happens blogTO posted Sustainable Commuting: the Bicycle the same morning. I really like the soundtrack to the video, anyone got a helmet cam I can borrow for the next ride. BTW, I didn't walk my bike up my 25 stories.

UNICEF

I watched the Champion's League final this afternoon. Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0. Barcelona have an unusual "sponsor" of UNICEF. I actually did a little googling and was pleased to see that Barcelona actually donate a minimum 1.5M euro per year to UNICEF. A nice story in times of greedy sports teams and players ! Anyway, on the dining room table there's a tax receipt from UNICEF. I didn't know my wife donated any money to UNICEF and today was the first time I saw the paperwork. No biggy, but nice.

Kooper

We are about to get our first dog. We saw him this past weekend and we should be able to bring him home next month when he's about 8 weeks old. When our plans were solidifying last month, my daughter came up with the name Kooper. She liked the name from perhaps a past memory and it kind of went with kanga and roo (our puppy is an Australian Shepherd). It turns out that the puppy's mother's name is the same as my daughter's and she had previously had a puppy called Cooper.

I did a quick google on Kooper yesterday, just to see if anything weird popped up. Nothing really, a musician and a photographer etc. Then when I was browsing in Indigo after work yesterday I glanced at a book featured on one of the aisle displays - Blood Sins by Kay Hooper. I just went to her web site and what do you know - she's a dog lover and there's a picture of a dog on the site that looks pretty close to an Australian Shepherd.

Rosy and Grey

The other night my wife and I were talking about letting our friends know about possibly seeing a local band We Are The Take. The Next (random) song on iTunes starts and it's our friend's favourite (all time) track by The Lowest of the Low called Rosy and Grey.

Incredibles

The other evening my son was enthusiastic about The Incredibles, one of my favourite Pixar movies. When my wife is looking at Indigo.com a little later in the evening, there's a special Pixar ad on the landing page and Mr. Incredible is part of the graphic.

First Post - Pakistan and Journalists

I got around to watching A Mighty Heart last night, the true story of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Really well made, riveting actually, Jolie was barely recognizable and her acting was superb. Although the plot with its myriad of foreign named characters was very hard to follow, it didn't take away from the key messages and emotions of the movie.

Anyway, getting to the coincidence. I record The Hour every night and it usually takes me a while to catch up but I don't really have any rhyme or reason on which one I watch first. I had previewed a few intros and I do recall glimpsing something about dangerous jobs, and maybe I did hear "journalist" but I think I filed it away*. I've been watching a few this week and chose to watch another before going to bed after the movie. The first one I clicked on was from May 13th and it included a fascinating interview with Terry Gould, a journalist who's been working in some of the most dangerous places in the world.

I just finished a book and have been considering what to read next. My wife who is part of at least 2 book clubs recommended Three Cups of Tea. I knew a little about the story, but wasn't certain about the geography. I started it when I went up to bed. The story is set in Pakistan and is written by Greg Mortenson and journalist, David Oliver Relin. In the introduction, Relin talks about journalists being drawn into his [Mortenson's] orbit.

Perhaps just a common thread or only coincidence ?

*clue into one way coincidence happens
you observe something, but it doesn't sit in true memory,
but rests somewhere behind a curtain
and then is only revealed
when it connects to something else you observe at a later time