safety

It's been a busy time at the mainwriter headquarters. The "new year" isn't even that new any more; in fact, the first month of it seems to be whipping by pretty quickly.

Yesterday my son went to the Dry Spot indoor skatepark in Vancouver and spent nearly an hour psyching himself up to "drop in" on this ramp in the picture. He said he felt "scared as all hell" when he decided to try it.

Do you think it’s disrespectful to the Mad Carver to not wear a helmet in his memorial bowl? That’s an opinion I heard today from someone who wrote in to the Province newspaper about how upset she was to see the paper’s

Update: July 24, 2010. For current information to plan your trip to the beach, check out the Beach Water Quality Report from Vancouver Coastal Health. Original post on July 2, 2010: Well… at least we can still make sandcastles. That’s the positive spin we put on the situation when we arrived at Trout Lake...

Parking for cars is pretty tight – but if you’re coming to the market on your bicycle, Geoffrey Vincent will set you up with a free, safe, and secure spot in his enclosed bike lot. Geoffrey is program coordinator for The Bicycle Valet, run by Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST). This three-year-old program encourages...

A couple hundred people gathered in Vancouver’s Grandview Park last night to party, dance, and protest the park’s one-year closure and redevelopment. A Facebook Group called “Defend Grandview Park on The Drive” outlines its opposition to the City of Vancouver’s plans for the park upgrade. “Defend Grandview supports a park upgrade, in phases, that...

Kirby Chang is fixing my computer because it has a super annoying virus / trojan. I’m pretty sure it’s called “Nuqel.E” and it came to me as a fake spyware program that looked like Windows. I call Kirby when I get a computer issue that goes beyond my patience and technical understanding. For at...

When my son, his friend, and I arrived here at Killarney Pool in East Vancouver, we were greeted with some disappointing news. The leisure pool is closed because someone pooped in it. The polite cashier didn’t offer this information right away, but one of the kids guessed when she said it was being cleaned...

My friend Steffani Cameron is a blogger / writer / prolific tweeter I met originally through Twitter. She’s a self-taught gourmet who taunts the Twitterverse with delectable details of what she’s whipping up in the kitchen. Now people 11 and up can sign up for Steff’s one-on-one Cooking For Kids (and Adults). Check out...

I’m sitting on a loveseat in the lounge of The Dry Spot indoor skatepark using their wireless connection. This is my second day coming here, and today we brought my son’s pal. They are super excited and impressed to meet the owner of The Dry Spot, Ben Chibber, who also owns Monke Skateboards. Now...