For a person distrustful of government like myself it is rather shocking to see a government that actually consults the people it governs. Translink has set up a sophisticated and wonderful web project where you can create your own long-term plan for the Vancouver region, select your preferred funding options, and compare it with alternative proposals. Spare a minute, sign up, and play around with it for a while. You don’t need to give them your email address or anything.

It’s an amazing way to get regular citizens involved in thinking about the benefits and costs of transit, and shows the choices and tradeoffs that a local government must make. It is quite interesting and even entertaining to select what projects you would invest if you were in charge from a wide range of alternatives, and then see how that affects commute times, how it impacts the environment and the economy. Of course these are all projections of reality and are subject to interpretation and bias, but the extent that Translink has gone to in order to consult with the public is incredible.

Like many others, I’m doing the low-carb thing lately… it seems to be going pretty well so far.  They tell you in the literature that you don’t get as hungry after a few days, and shockingly this seems to be true!  After just shy of two weeks I feel better and more energetic, and I haven’t had a single case of heartburn.

It is difficult to get used to the idea of not eating pasta or rice or bread at nearly every sitting, but after an adjustment period it’s not so bad after all.  The worst part is lunches because sandwiches are frowned upon and of course fast food is right out — but thankfully now Subway has Atkins wraps for the days when I screw up and forget my lunch, like today for example.

I’m eating a lot of meat and eggs compared with “normal”, and I’m drinking a lot of Diet Coke instead of fruit juice, regular pop, or beer.  And a lot of salads, like tuna salad or taco salad without the taco shells.

I have also tried out a bunch of the low carb foods, many thanks to the help of my awesome girlfriend.  The low-carb pastas seem to be  okay, as is the bread (especially when toasted).  The muffins aren’t the best, and I’m still not sure about the pancakes.  And the fake Macaroni and Cheese thing I bought was just awful.  But overall this thing seems to be possible, which is really great.

I’m not sure if I’m losing much weight yet, as I don’t have a scale and didn’t even do a “before” weighing… because that wasn’t really my objective.  I’m more concerned with being more healthy and fitting into my clothes better than I am with raw numbers.  And I seem to be accomplishing this so far, w00t w00t!

One can become cynical at times and completely disregard the idea of journalistsic integrity.  They print what they want to print, they print what fits in the slant and bias that they already had before starting the story.  But this article by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times puts cynics to shame.  If you thought that Kristof went into that Cambodian brothel expecting to show the results he found, you are much more cynical than I ever hope to be.

I respect Kristof a bit more now, knowing that he was able to change the story he had planned on writing, and publishing something much more interesting than a run-of-the-mill moral tale which about how badly the rest of the world is doing.  Part 1 and Part 2 of his story, if you are interested.