One of the basic principles of Taoism is P'U, the Uncarved Block. The essence of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed.
Enjoy my thoughts and experiences on everything from technology to design to being lost in the wilderness. Your comments on any and all of my articles are most welcome.
From a pool of over one thousand applicants for the Canadian contingency of Al Gore’s The Climate Project, my father, Ian McCrindle was one of two hundred selected to present ‘The Slide Show’. I cannot think of a more suitable person to help communicate the global challenge we all face at the moment. Read more…
The wind and snow had barely subsided from a massive snow storm the day before as an eager crowd of commuters fumbled their way in the dark toward the new Barrie South GO Train platform. Read more…
Both a daunting technical and design challenge, ideasbuilt.ca is now live, in all its XHTML, CSS and DOM scripting glory. Read more…
A big congratulations to everyone at Village On The Twelve on the recent roll-out of their new site. Read more…
When a friend of mine recently told me that he had decided to drop Microsoft Windows in favour of a new operating system called Ubuntu, I began to take a harder look at Linux. Read more…
Environmentalism is the new F
-word. And so, from here on in I am going to try to remove the word entirely from my spoken and written vocabulary.
Having been a part of the modern environmental movement now for over a decade, one thing has become very clear to me. Nobody cares. Wait – let me type that again. Nobody cares. Read more…
My family and I just returned from a special Christmas event where the kids were treated on board a working steam train to a visit from Santa Claus and several of his very busy elves. The South Simcoe Steam Railway puts on a spectacular show and my kids look forward to it every holiday season. Read more…
What changed for me, after seeing An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore, was perhaps a sense of urgency that I’d never felt before. Although I follow quite closely climate change and related issues, I suppose I had never been presented with the seriousness of our predicament in such a compelling and terrifying way. Read more…
When the Ontario Provincial government recently de-regulated the electricity market, I began my search for the very best third-party provider. The challenge was, I wanted to buy my electricity from a provider that supported more sustainable ways of producing that power. Read more…
One of the purest, most rugged and unspoiled landscapes that I have ever seen is the view from the granite and quartzite ridges of the ancient La Cloche Mountains. Billions of years ago, these stunning hills towered higher than the Rocky Mountains. Today, they are protected within the boundaries of Killarney Provincial Park in Ontario Canada. Read more…
A little north of Pointe Au Baril, Ontario and about fifty minutes by car east of old Highway 69 is a place called The Lodge at Pine Cove.
It is here that three couples were outfitted with some rugged gear and a few words of wisdom before a beginning a three day excursion on the famed French River. Read more…
Does anyone out there remember Bugs Potter and the band, Nuclear Teacup
? Well, while both might be fictitious, I recall very clearly the day I discovered the latter in my kitchen cupboard. Read more…
For those of you who may have happened to stumble across my humble beginnings here, you will notice some crazy things going on. Over the next couple of months, I will be implementing my first custom WordPress design at mccrindle.com. Read more…
It was the kind of clear, sunny winter day that you only see in outdoor magazines that Dan Romanko and myself found ourselves on the way up to MacRae Lake, just north of Waubaushene, Ontario. We had signed up to learn how to snowshoe with Sojourn Outdoors. Read more…
As I laid on the brown shag rug of my living room, I struggled to figure out how to complete the model of the space shuttle before me assembled using my meagre supply of LEGO bricks. I didn’t have a great deal of LEGO, but I sure had big plans for this model. My ambitions with LEGO building, coupled with my relatively short supply of bricks often lead to (what I thought) were some very innovative and creative results. Read more…
Just back from a 3-day excursion to Maple Mountain near Temagami, Ontario, Canada. A team of four adventurers in two canoes ventured out from Mowat Landing, down Lady Evelyn River and into the sizable Lady Evelyn Lake early the morning of October 1, 2005. Read more…