PIW - Botanical Beach Pt.1

The Shorts and Gaiters Inaugural Adventure took place on June 5th and 6th of 2011. Karsten Klawitter and I have been on many wild and wonderous photoadventures and decided to take two days to explore the heck out of several sites around Southern Vancouver Island.

1 Places I've Wandered - Gonzalez Hill Sunrise
2 Places I've Wandered - Not Sooke Potholes
3 In Transit - From Sooke River to Botanical Beach

Places I've Wandered - Botanical Beach June 2011 Pt.1


Welcome to Botanical Beach! Sure.. we've been here before. Taking a Botanical Beach newbie along we've made annual trips out there for the past 3 years. Therefore when it came time to plan our Shorts and Gaiters Inaugural Adventure around Southern Vancouver Island we knew we had to make out here. And we arrived at low tide!

Pro-tip: Arrive at low tide so you can walk the beach and explore the tidal pools and all the park has to offer.


This park offers all sorts of amazing plants, animals, and geology


and if you have someone like the Island Alpinist around he'll want to scurry about the place (and sit on stoneheads like a gargoyle of stone heads)





The shoreline is frequently hammered by storms and waves that come in off of the Pacific. It makes for a wide array of erosive work on the varied underlying strata of stone. It also carves nifty caves.



High tide hides much worth seeing


Bull kelp rests motionless beneath the sky's reflection reflected upon by the Island Alpinist


He moves on, leaving behind the sea urchins at work in their hollowed out enclaves



Bull kelp swishes about just below the surface. Growing so plentiful and feeding the urchins who in turn used to feed sea otters. A balance existed once before the sea otters were hunted nearly to extinction and the urchins then consumed unabated the great kelp forests that once ran the length of the island




Sometimes my heart is tinged with sorrow. But I also know that all things change and move on. And that there will always be more as we grow and go forwards.


We're not finished at this beach, not by a long shot ;)
See you guys next time! :D

Thanks for your comments and support!
The Maplemusketeer

Adventures in Alpha Testing!

Today I had the amazing opportunity to do some alpha-testing for a very exciting new concept/service that intends to revolutionize the way online advertising is done. The concept/service in question, Emma Active Advertising, is chock full of potential because it seeks to do something that I consider to be very Canadian: it offers a win/win for all parties involved.

Most all who know me know that I'm not overly fond of marketing that "creates a need" and then seeks to "fill that need". Grrr. I do however acknowledge a role in marketing when it comes to the idea of actually informing people of services or products that are helpful and useful! This is the value of information services and the way in which advertising is being forced to change. Stop trying to sell me crap I don't care for! It just pisses me off. Sometimes it actually makes me actively dis-inclined to support that product. How many of us prefer to record shows on our pvrs so we can skip all of the annoying ads? And the fact that TV ad volumes are often so much louder than the program being viewed irks me as well. Traditional television is well on it's way out for many of us and the old advertising model isn't effective on those of us who don't care for television. Unwanted advertisement = spam in my mind. It is the shotgun variety of marketing. The fact is that we as consumers are becoming more focused in the means by which we seek product and services. Information given clearly, concisely, and easily is now one of the most sought services out there. Google and Wikipedia are two prime examples of implemented ideas that have filled a need and achieved an all-present place in our web-sourcing tool box. Quick, easy, and conveying the information we want when we want it.

Which brings us to Emma Active. Here's what they have to say on their site

EmmaActive is a revolutionary new PPC advertising medium which leverages crowdsourcing to generate revenues for site owners and cloud source participants alike - why should advertising agencies make all the money!

Sure everyone and their dog offers a service with the guise of generating income from viewers and advertising these days, and while I'm not able to go into the mechanics I can say that I am very impressed with Emma Active. The interface is simple and intuitive and the concept beautifully executed. And it rewards content producers for their content while linking them to the product creators/businesses efficiently, effectively, and discreetly. Do I hear a Bazinga!?

This has the potential to be a game changer and we all have the opportunity to get in at the ground level because they're now accepting applications for beta-testers ranging from bloggers to site owners. Check it out! Ideas CAN and HAVE changed the world we live in. I sincerely believe that one of the greatest attributes in humanity is our creativity, tempered through struggle, moving forward in hope and the realization that we can create a better tomorrow.

Call me crazy but I think this is just one of those ideas ;)
Empower to us peoples ;)

If you're interested you can apply to be a beta-tester
You can also follow them on twitter