Davin Greenwell

Today (after I sleep) will be the day that Victoria decides on a new city councilor, as well as the fate of the Johnson Street Bridge.
The bridge issue has been argued about a significant amount locally. It’s actually pretty entertaining and we have almost enough material for our own version of Almost Live. (Remember that?) Not quite, though.
Here are some basic facts:

• Federal funding for a replacement bridge has been applied for
• Federal funding for maintenance on the existing bridge can also be applied for by the city
• A new bridge costs more than maintaining the existing bridge, ceteris paribus
• I like new things
• I like old things

The notion about how unfortunate it would be to squander applied-for financing is illogical, since the financing was for a decision that was not properly made – hence the referendum now. In the future, perhaps our city will learn to apply for things in a logical order, lest they get their application time snagged in their own fallacy of sunk costs. Not tenable.
Cart before the horse – but would Victoria have it any other way? Go vote and decide!

I’ve decided to get rid of OS X and install Ubuntu! Just kidding. I’d like to see some conversion numbers on this effort..

Steps to update davingreenwell.com with a photo:

1. Take photo with dSLR
2. Go home
3. Download photo to computer, catalogue
4. Select photo to post in Photoshop, do stuff to photo
5. Resize photo, export
6. Upload to Moveable Type
7. Create entry and categorize
8. Save, Publish, Rebuild

Steps to update flickr, tumblr or facebook with a photo:

1. Go to (flickr, tumblr or facebook) app
2. Choose photo to upload from common image library OR take photo inside the app
3. Press upload, and the application will resize it to the proper size at the same time.

Besides just being a shorter list, the second list does not include item #2 from the first list. As you can imagine, my desire to go home to update a website about being out is not very high. And so, mobile applications for content management gain relevance.
Of particular note: Why not just update davingreenwell.com through Movable Type’s mobile web interface? Answer: There’s no image upload field in the iPhone version of Safari, so Six Apart could not build that in. However, there is nothing stopping Six Apart from making an iPhone app. Apps seem to have no problem with resizing and sending photos away for publishing.
Trend significance: As updating websites via content management systems has become an integral part of communications, a natively mobile application to do so will make the most out of hardware and interface, resulting in websites and portals of information that are more readily used by those with a stake in activity. In this regard, WordPress’ iOS app has excelled far beyond Movable Type’s web app in mobile relevance.
So what does all this mean?
If I want to continue to update my website and divorce myself from the relatively ancient desktop way of doing things, I have to move from Movable Type to WordPress, or abandon photos. Is there another solution?

A lot has changed.
Again.
Lets see:

• At the end of August I left Smallbox Software after 4+ years. Great people, great experience, time well spent.
• In September, I started full time courses to finish off a BBA in Marketing Communications Management. I am challenging one course, doing 3 courses at Camosun College, and one at the University of Athabasca. Mostly it is International Business. I quite like it.
• I’m planning on moving and gaining some experience working abroad. I want more diversity in my resume and why not gain it from some new (to me) part of the world? No reason not to. Every reason to do so. I’m doing it.
• I just finished producing a new Jets Overhead remix. Anand did *3* remixes for them. I just had time to do 1. But I’m very happy with it and I’m pumped to get it mastered. Mastering makes a massive difference in dance music. I don’t think it’s very easy to understand unless you do some side-by-side comparisons and then try mixing them live. The difference blows me away.
• Next on the remix schedule is DB Clifford – one of his new tracks off his yet-to-be-released new album Feet Above The Ground. Great album, I’m really excited to get my hands on the studio parts.

That is it for now. Thought I’d make the blog about something other than Trinidad photos – which are great – but also a lot of work. As a side note, next time I go there, I want to make it to Tobago. I wonder if I can sail there?

So I drove down the west coast of Trinidad and found this lake made up of tar. It’s called Pitch Lake in La Brea. Good story eh?

Much like its neighbour to the north, Mayaro Bay is sparse in visitors. It’s fairly far out of the way, but the roads are actually quite good with the exception of a few patches. For some reason these roads were made fairly well. I’m guessing it has something to do with the business present in the south eastern corner of Trinidad.

A bunch of you probably already know how I feel about the oil industry. The southern coasts of Trinidad are peppered with these offshore rigs, and the “remember to buckle up” public safety signs literally have BP’s logo on them as part of their outreach program. It’s fairly ingrained into society there.
It’s a bit spooky to be perfectly clear. I acknowledge the sad irony of flying somewhere to criticize an oil industry. Having done so over top of the Gulf of Mexico and seeing the Deepwater Horizon disaster first hand (it was quite visible from 30,000 feet, as the Lady Gaga impersonator pointed out to me), the severity of consequences of bad business protocol really sunk in. It’s a catastrophe with our own desires coupled with corporate irresponsibility to blame. None of the oil in the water had or has made it to Trinidad yet. Hopefully it remains that way, but Trinidad is at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico so I suppose we’ll see.
Here are a few more observations regarding Mayaro Bay. The villages along the coast seemed fairly well spaced out and not cramped, and there were many small businesses spotted along the drive. I am assuming this is partly due to the oil industry being nearby and the area being far away from truly urban areas – a combination of land, remoteness, and money.

Eventually we reached the south eastern corner of the country after an hour more, found a bunch of oil refineries, and then got to a part of the road which we were advised was not passable, and so we turned around and went east towards Rio Claro, Tableland, Princes Town, and finding San Fernando on the west coast of the island, taking the highway north back to Port of Spain / San Juan. The distances were not all that great, however winding roads and road conditions mean one must budget more time than expected for a trip like this. We left the Port of Spain area around 11:30 AM and got back around 7 PM with a few stops along the way – but we didn’t stay much more than an hour in any of the two places – Mayaro Bay and Manzanilla Beach.

I found another place that doesn’t seem to have much of a wikipedia entry! Manzanilla Beach is on the east coast of Trinidad, facing the Atlantic Ocean. This one is a bit of a drive to get to, and we drove through some pretty horrible weather to get there. At some points it didn’t seem like we would make it out of the endless construction stops and insane detours, but I was determined to get to this place that existed vaguely in my memory. It’s pretty grey and gloomy each time I’ve been there, which I think now brings the total of times to 2 over a span of 19 or 21ish years. Nothing seems to have changed save a very odd looking resort, but it’s in relative isolation.
Most of the land on the east coast of Trinidad seems to have been spared from the rampant growth of the country, which appears to be centered around urban areas. If the roads to the east coast of the country were a bit more, lets say – direct, I could see this area taking off in the sunny season. However, we were there in the storm season, and the place looked it.

We saw a total of about 9 people there while we had a picnic and went out on the beach. This total includes 2 security guards in the washroom, where you have to pay a buck to go in. How’s that for making jobs? Egads.
If you google this place, you’ll find a bunch of resort stuff. I’m not sure where they got the photos from, however I’m sure it’s possible that it looks like that sometimes. However, each time I’ve been there, the water is very muddy from the local river – that might just be a seasonal thing. I’m not sure. Regardless, the area is a rather raw and unspoiled part of Trinidad definitely worth checking out.

Las Cuevas has no wikipedia entry and as such qualifies for some sort of dedicated and detailed entry here. It’s a bit beyond Maracas Beach on the road, maybe 20 minutes or so of driving. It’s not a tourist beach like Maracas, this beach is mostly Trinis (locals.) There’s one shop to buy drinks – but it’s weird – you can buy beer, but not juice or water. So the locals like to “lime” here, which means to to “hang out,” or to “chill,” in Canadian.