The Five Vectors Paddling a Canoe

Boathouse

After a great night on the river cruising moon light channels, enjoying a cigar, rum and good conversation the weekend shaped up as a welcome respite from the work days past. This morning I decided to try my hand at a little Kayaking. My good friend Chris Ohearn went back to his summer home on Hay Island with a bag of my things in his boat on that previous night.

Getting the stuff back, I decided would involve a “voyage” out on the river and back. The water was calm and for a Saturday morning not many crafts were cruising about. Setting out seemed like an okay idea. These indicators combined with the rivers natural magnetism triggered the events that unfolded earlier today.  I went to our boathouse at the waters edge beneath the bluff, my sister stores a variety of water vessels in this structure. The building is an extension of the family home and is set in a protected channel with islands dotting the vista. The place has always been a strong focal point of river experiences throughout my years, from the time our family arrived in the 1000 Island Region during the early 1970’s. The boathouse provides a great launching off place for those coming and going on the River.

I set out to use the Kayak but unfortunately she had that locked up so that vessel was out of commission, in hindsight that would have been a better choice. The other option a yellow canoe was strung up from the roof rafters with its marine like architecture. The canoe with lines the shape of a reliable performer, would carry me out on the water and get me to my objective and back.

Paddling a canoe is a great way to get exercise, one thing I noticed earlier on though and this harked back to my experience sailing catamarans on the river is the dynamics of wind and how wind plays on the vessels performance and direction. Pointing against the wind puts a combination of vectors in play. Three vectors include balance adjustment, paddling effort adjustment, and wind compensation adjustment. A fourth incidental vector of course is wave size. A fifth incidental vector exists when water flows over the sides of the boat.

The voyage started with mild corrections on each of these standard vectors and after settling into things canoeing looked like easy sailing. The initial awkward repetition in paddling strokes gave way to a rhythmic effort. I felt the pace would ease my way across to the island and back.

I was surprised to see water flowing between my feet as the canoe was now unstable, that early warning signal was the moment of recovery, had I moved mid ship and ballasted the canoe. I did not move in that direction which resulted in going back overboard.

The boat took on water at the point indicated on the map based on wind pushing the bow away from the direction I wanted to hold course. I compensated to hold course by exerting much heavier effort in paddling, this activity drove the stern under the water surface. The boat began taking on water. The canoe went under and I was now swimming for shore with the drifting plastic shell upside down, paddle in hand, shoes on.

The water wasn’t that chilly and I guess my adrenaline convinced me to relax take it easy and swim with the overturned canoe and paddle to an island shoreline. Thankfully a power boat came up to me in the water and “threw me a life line”. 

My mother got to witness the spectacle from her sunroom, on the bluff, back on the mainland. My attempt at canoeing to Hay Island ended up marooned and ditched into the river. I will have to redeem myself on another occasion and make the crossing without getting wet. 

Re Tooling Milestones and the Art of Sustaining a Design Enterprise

Here in 2011 we're underway dealing in the era of data. 

I had the pleasure spending time with a faculty member today from my design school who dropped in at our offices. This meeting was impromptu however a welcome opportunity to get perspective on the ideology and thinking from someone immersed in helping young people transition into the business world.  

My commute before arriving at the office was spent listening to the latest App. introduced to me by my strategic counsel, Louise my wife, who uploaded the technology onto my iphone. 

The app called Radio Paradise functioned without a blip during the 30 minute road trip to the office. Uninterrupted music streaming off the internet along the way to work. Streaming music rather then sponsored local radio is another example of the game changing brought about by online technology and how new or emergent technologies have people facing dramatic re tooling within different organizational models. Certainly in the design business we've been witness to some core shifts in market, primarily brought on by technology. 

The colleague who stopped in this morning engaged me in great conversation about the new crop of graduates entering the workforce, we shared thoughts about the realities they face navigating the online emergent environment today. One on one conversation among people together within shared space remains a genuine, rich, unimpeded temporal experience especially when the conversation is free of binary intervention. The temptation to refer to devices specifically ring tone disruption, incoming emails or other sensory broadcast online remains constant. Turning things off is always good. 

I enjoyed my trip to Kingston taking part in the St. Lawrence College design exhibition a few weeks back. I'm also pleased to be engaged on the school advisory committee. 

We covered many subjects, reflecting over the years past highlighted a number of core events that involved adapting new tools and tactics. The chart above is a retro view of some of those re tooling milestones. Milestones that certainly have made the fast changing, innovation and design business dynamic.

Note: Tactile last of Gutenberg refers to print losing its dominant channel specifically the distribution of information.

Express yourself

Perce, Gaspe

Storytelling can be achieved through crafting a simple email exchange or perhaps from years of study and research culminating in a thesis that relates to a special field of interest.

Joseph Campbell a scholar wrote extensively on the subject. His work informs the reader about how stories deal in characterizing culture and how those characterizations through the ages have been remarkably similar. Stories based on themes or references that are consistent with similar patterns from societies around the world.


The similarity of story elements to different groups that are profiled in Campbell's books suggest a phenomenon or order of influence that perhaps underscores people's need to frame or cast their existence through remarkably similar context. Moreover, analysis of symbols, myths, deities, archetypes, legends including other elements such as those derived from nature, for example trees, water, wind the sun and the moon emerge consistently across many groups. 


Universal representations integrated into storytelling.

The Campbell texts are useful reference for those developing effective and meaningful brand frameworks and tools. A practical resource for those interested in solutions intended to withstand the test of time and bridge cultural differences. Campbell’s writings are an invaluable resource for effective storytelling.

A profound aspect of his work emphasizes the need to separate physical appearance from ones verbal expression or the act of expressing oneself.

I remember seeing a Greek company perform Oedipus Rex. Oedipus ends up tearing his eyes out, the kind of physical action the Greeks loved. The chorus had their backs to the audience, and shortly after the display of this horror, the members turned around and opened their arms, and there you sensed that going past the human suffering to the majesty of what is contained in that play that is, of the mystery of life showing itself through the action of life. There lies the key to art. It is beyond the pairs of opposites, beyond desire or fears. (Campbell, 2001)

This passage is a short example of Joseph Campbell’s brilliant thinking. Within his books the philosophy and thought leadership formed the basis for George Lucas’ Star Wars Trilogy, blockbuster movies that garnered universal appeal using the foundations of the hero myth.

Write and Record

"Write and Record" pronounced by Simon Dubnow an individual who as an elder met his fate at the hands of the Nazi's during the second world war in Latvia.

This individual's legacy is referred to within the book “Earth into Property” The book is authored by Anthony Hall. Anthony’s remarkable work of history has been my source of reference and insight for the last couple of months. 

The stories within the 800-page odyssey provide descriptions in the simplest of terms about crude edge policies and actions. The book poignantly chronicles the relationships over the ages among societies with an emphasis on Canadian Indigenous culture in perspective with First Nations internationally. Context about how nation states and their co-opted industrial partners have extended a myriad of unfortunate interventions upon people.  

Corporations aligned with governing bodies engaged in expansionist actions, they used a parade of remarkable invention and strategic thinking to the detriment of many people in their path.


The book covers the Columbian conquests onward to 9/11 and recent outcomes within the 21 century. Analysis about centuries of relations and disparities among nations, organizations and people. 


While reading the book pages in Cuba last month I found the details on, Castro and Che Guevara compelling and informative. The text includes much about that Nations history and international influence .

SONY NEX-VG10

It looks like a video camera and plays like a video camera, check out the frame