Dropping Off the Teenager in the Mornings

Adele is in grade 9 now and takes the Mississauga bus to school.  She has to catch the 7:15 am bus in order to get to school on time.  Since the bus stop is about 1 km away, I had decided to drop her off in the mornings.  It's a short 3-minute roundtrip and it's one of the most mundane things in the day, but I have grown to cherish it.

On most days, we just sit in the car silently because both of us are not fully awake yet and feeling a little grumpy.  On some days, I will ask her what's going on that day or nag her for the umpteenth time about when she was going to start looking for a summer job.  On rarer occasions, we'd be racing down Tenth Line trying to beat the bus to the next stop, because she dragged her feet going out the door and missed the bus.  But what it is on each and every single day is that it's our one-on-one time.  I would prefer to see it as time I get to spend with her, and not time I have to spend driving her to the bus stop.

Do I wish to sleep in a bit more everyday?  Yes!  Or do I rather have uninterrupted "me time" on the days that I wake up earlier to work on my own stuff?  Yes too!  But at the end of every drive, when she steps out of the car, she turns around and peers into the car again and says, "Thanks Dad for dropping me off.  Have a good day!"  I wouldn't trade a million dollars for that.

Adele, thanks for letting me drive you every morning and be the person you can rely on to help you get to your destination.  I love you and happy birthday!  (Sorry for embarrassing you with this post! 😂)

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My New Project: AI Bible Summary

AI generated image of AI summarizing the Bible 😂

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has really come into the forefront of tech last year, when OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public. As most of you know, it's basically a super smart chatbot. It is able to understand the context of your questions and requests and provide very useful, albeit sometimes inaccurate, answers.  

Since ChatGPT's release, I have spent quite a bit of time with it.  At work, I will sometimes need to write code and I've used it to generate a good portion of the code that I would use in my programs.  It's also quite good at writing Excel formulas.  It's like having a really smart coach, who knows pretty much everything there is to know, ready and willing to help.  The best part is: you can just carry on a conversation with it.  You don't actually need to learn how to communicate with it, unlike with many unintuitive software.

Now, hold that thought on AI for a bit.  Recall that I completed the Bible in a Year podcast last year.  Although it was my second time going through the entire bible, I still feel like I haven't really absorbed a lot of the content into my brain.  For example, aside from being called by the Lord when he was in bed as a child and later anointing David, what else did the prophet, Samuel, do in his ministry?  Or what did St. Paul write in all those letters of his (aside from the "Love is patient" passage that is used in 98% of all weddings)?  And so, recently, I was thinking to myself, "wouldn't it be nice if there is some sort of Cole's Notes on the bible?"  Although I'm sure there are probably countless of them on the internet, a thought came to mind: can I use ChatGPT to do exactly that, create a summarized version of the bible?

So, on the anniversary of the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima (October 13), I have started my new project: Catholic Bible Summary or @catholicbibleai.  I will post a summary of a chapter of the bible on X (Twitter), starting from Genesis all the way to Revelation. The goal is, of course, not to create a replacement for the bible, but to make the bible more accessible, in bite-sized chunks once a day.  I will also include a link to the full text of the chapter for those who want to delve into the original text.  I hope I can do my small part in the New Evangelization that is so needed in this crazy world of ours.  This project will take approximately 3 years to complete.  Please keep me in your prayers so that I can persevere...and remember to follow me!

Finally, I leave you with the first chapter of the bible, Genesis 1:

GENESIS 1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and covered in darkness, but God's spirit moved over the waters. God spoke, and light came into existence, separating light from darkness, calling the light Day and the darkness Night.

— Catholic Bible Summary (@CatholicBibleAI) October 14, 2023

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Goodbye, Pope Benedict!

Meeting Pope Benedict, August 9, 2006

Ask any Catholic our age who their favourite pope (who lived in their lifetime) is and 9 out of 10 will say Pope John Paul II.  Saint John Paul II was indeed one of the greatest popes to have ever lived.  His long and productive reign was unparalleled in modern times.  However, I am the one out of the 10 people who will say that my favourite pope is Pope Benedict.  With his passing today, please allow me to share some of my thoughts and memories of my favourite pope.

Perhaps what shaped my opinion of Benedict was my meeting of him shortly after Renee and I got married.  Our honeymoon was planned somewhat around meeting him at the Wednesday papal audience.  We got married on August 5, 2006 and flew to Rome the day after.  The day before the audience, we toured Rome for some time and went to the church office to pick up the audience tickets.  A sister met us there and told us that for that summer, no tickets would be required and we just need to show up the next morning.  Having done some research prior, we knew we needed to get there early for the late morning audience in order to get front row seats.

Waiting for the Audience to Begin in Paul VI Audience Hall

The next morning, on August 9, we woke up before 6 am and took a cab to St. Peter's Square, dressed in formal attire to line up to get into the Paul VI Audience Hall.  We were met by a line of old Italian ladies who had gotten there before we did, but we were the first newlyweds there to queue up.  If I recall correctly, the audience was scheduled to start at 10 am.  I didn't want to leave things to chance so we got there 4 hours early!  After standing outside for a couple of hours, the Vatican staff started to let people in.  By then, the line had grown substantially.  After passing a security checkpoint, we noticed the old Italian ladies started running for the audience hall.  Not to miss out on the action, we started running as well and we successfully outpaced the 70 year old ladies beside us!  As we turned a corner, a staff saw us and waved us towards him.  Although he didn't speak English, we understood that he was trying to tell us that we could enter the hall through a special door.  We entered that door and was shown to the front row of the audience, while the old Italian ladies had to fight for the sections farther back.  We guessed correctly that the front row was reserved for newlyweds.

The audience started on time and we were very excited to see the pope walk into the audience.  To be very honest, I don't remember much about the audience itself.  Perhaps it was because it was not in English (that part I can't even recall with certainty).  In any case, the audience ended and with our good fortune, the pope decided to walk to the front row to meet the newlyweds, which was not always the case.

The Best Picture I took of Pope Benedict

When he got to us, we held his hands and spoke the words that we had rehearsed earlier, "Your Holiness, we are Chinese Catholics from Canada...", to which he responded, "That's very nice!"  To this day, I enjoy telling others that the words we received from the pope was, "that's very nice".  We concluded with a request for him to pray for the Church in China.  And thus, our brief encounter with Pope Benedict concluded.

There were a couple of things that I experienced that day.  It was that Pope Benedict's humility was very palpable.  The way he carried himself, his expression and his sincerity in speech all contributed to it.  If he weren't dressed in his papal attire, you could not tell that he was the head of the Catholic Church.  It was not required of him to come greet the faithful after the audience, but he did so nonetheless.  

Secondly, I felt that he was a very gentle person, as he greeted us with a genuine smile.  Over the years, there have been articles written about the pope and former Cardinal Ratzinger that he cracked down on dissent in the Church, even to the point that his nickname was "God's Rottweiler".  I could not reconcile that assessment with the pope whom I met on that August day in 2006.  Pope Benedict was uncompromising with Catholic doctrine not because he was a tough traditionalist, but because he loved the Church and did not want it to go astray.  When he ascended to the papacy, he confused a lot of people with the selection of "Benedict" as his papal name.  If "God's Rottweiler" was his true persona, would he not have chosen a name like "Michael" or "George", who were God's soldiers, ready to do battle?  Yet, he chose "Benedict" in honour of St. Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism.

This was the Pope Benedict that I met: humble and gentle.  He was not the "best" pope who ever reigned, but he has a special place in my heart.  In the bible, it was not often that Christ described himself, but one passage stands out right now: "Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

And so, Pope Benedict, we bid you farewell as Our Lord welcomes his humble and gentle servant back home!  We shall meet again someday!

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Family Alberta Trip 2021

 Heaven on Earth: Spirit Island, Maligne Lake

After being mostly cooped up at home for a year and a half after the COVID pandemic started in 2020, we made our first out-of-province trip in September 2021.  The last time Renee and I were in Western Canada was before we had kids, about 13 years prior (although I had been several times in between for work), and we really wanted to go back.  The scenery is quintessential Canada!  I believe that when foreigners think of Canada, the Rockies and its vast beauty is usually what come to mind first.  We definitely wanted to share this with our kids.

Getting There

As you may know, I'm a frugal person and the way I travel is no different.  Part of the fun to planning a trip is finding deals (recall the time we flew the entire family to Orlando for $350 USD) and getting my money's worth!  It was no different this time.  Our itinerary was really to go to Banff and Jasper and not visiting the cities; so, it didn't matter which airport we flew into.  Google Flights or Kayak are great tools to help find the best option.  We ended up choosing to fly Flair into Grande Prairie, which is about 4 hours north of Jasper.  The cost for the 7 of us + 1 baby and my parents came to a grand total of $1287, including luggage, or less than $150/seat.  My credit card also has a perk where it provides a $100 reimbursement of luggage fees and so, the costs was even less than that.  Not as good as $75/seat to Orlando, but not too shabby either! The one risk that we did take with Flair was flight delays and cancellations.  Upon reading their reviews, either of those were almost a certainty, but we weren't in a rush to get anywhere so we were happy with throwing the dice.

The flight there was indeed a bit delayed, but certainly within tolerance.  I'm not quite sure why but I feel like Flair purposely split up our seating because we didn't pay to choose our seats.  Our party of 9 + 1 were not seated contiguously and were split up across many different aisles.  That was entirely unnecessary and not the right way to encourage travelers to spend more by choosing seats.  Flair went out of their way to make our trip less enjoyable.

We landed in Grande Prairie in the late afternoon and picked up our 2 Caravans (my cousin Wai Yee, her husband and my buddy Matthew and their son, Ewan, tagged along as well) and started our drive to Jasper.  On the way there, we saw a black bear at dusk, which was a nice treat.  However, once it got dark and started raining, our drive became a bit treacherous.  The only road from Grande Prairie to Jasper was an unlit single lane highway.  Much of the drive was through uninhabited nature with only a couple of small towns in between.  For a few moments, I did wonder what would happen if our van broke down or if we drove into a ditch, etc.  Luckily, we didn't end up having to experience that and arrived safely in Jasper!

First Stop: Jasper SkyTram

Our plan was to go up to Whistlers Peak via the Jasper SkyTram the first morning we were there.  The weather wasn't super nice and was overcast. I was a bit disappointed and considered whether we should go up the mountain at a later time.  Renee called and was told that the booking cannot be changed and so I reluctantly agreed to go.  Boy, was I wrong!  I now think overcast skies is the best condition to go.  Since Whistler Peaks is at a high elevation, all of the clouds were actually beneath us when we got to the upper station.  Once we were up there, the skies were clear with an occasional cloud drifting over us (reminds me of Jesus' Transfiguration, but I digress).  The best part was that we stood on top of a sea of clouds!

Maligne Lake: Nothing Bad About This Place!

Our next stop was Maligne Lake. We had actually been there back in 2008, but unfortunately, it was tremendously foggy that morning and we decided not to take the boat ride to Spirit Island.  It was so foggy that we likely would not have even seen Spirit Island at all.  This time around, we planned as best as we could for better weather.  When buying the boat tickets, we found that the morning trips were less expensive, and we concluded that it was either because of the possibility of fog and also the direction from which the sun was shining.  When we got there, we weren't disappointed!  The view was absolutely stunning and felt surreal.  It was so beautiful that it really felt like heaven on earth!  Having now been to Spirit Island, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, I would have to say that Spirit Island/Maligne Lake is the most beautiful!

Dinner After Maligne Lake

Sulphur Skyline Trail: Early Snow

The next day, our plan was to spend a few hours hiking the Sulphur Skyline Trail.  I did quite a bit of research and concluded that with our hiking experience as a family, the 8km out-and-back trail, with 650m elevation was quite doable, given enough breaks.  We would get to the top of the mountain and be rewarded with some really great views.  The last 400 m would be a steep climb to the top, but certainly achievable.  We got to the trail head just after lunchtime and started off enthusiastically.  Before long, we were already 1.5 km into it, which would be more than a third the way up the mountain.  The slope was not steep and everyone was still smiles.

As we continued, we saw a bit of melt water running down the side of the trail and also some snow beside the trail.  We weren't expecting that as per the photos we saw online.  We continued on and as we climbed higher in elevation, there was some wet snow on the trail.  Some of the kids' shoes got wet and we started hearing some complaints.

We pressed on and as we climbed higher up the mountain, the snow also rose higher above our shoes.  The younger kids were now really whining as they slipped repeatedly and got much of their socks soaked.  The group eventually split into two with the faster ones in front (me, grandparents and older kids) and the slower ones in the back.  Our progress slowed considerably, and eventually, the slower group decided to turn back as the going was just a bit too slippery.

We finally reached the plateau just before the summit.  The snow was about 20 cm deep at this point.  We got there after about 4 hours on the trail.  As you can see in the picture at the plateau, not many smiles! LOL!

The grandparents and younger kids decided to take a rest there on the plateau while Adele and I tried for the summit.  Although the trail cut across the side of the mountain, the slope was still very steep, especially with the trail being snow covered.  After giving it a try, I decided against it, as I had Andrea strapped to me and also had to lead the group back down the mountain.  I wasn't about to find out how we would fair if I hurt myself and/or Andrea.

By the time we finished taking some pictures, it was already 5 pm.  Since it took us about almost 4 to get up, I thought it might not be too wise to stay for much longer.  I would hate to be walking in the middle of a forest at dusk.  Who knows what wild beasts would be lurking in search for a nice meal!  We were probably the last big group that descended down the mountain.

Renee, Wai Yee, and Matthew were waiting for at the bottom of the mountain.  After seeing countless number of hikers come down the mountain, they were starting to get worried that one or more of us had gotten hurt at the top.  They were getting ready to call the authorities to get help.  Luckily, it only took us 2 hours to descend the mountain, since we slid down the snowy trail for a good part of the way.  All of us were so happy to come back down all in one piece!

This hike was definitely the most exhausting and treacherous activity of the entire trip.  The kids cried and complained, my dad slipped and fell on a rock hidden under the snow, and I didn't even get to the summit.  However, at the end of the trip, a number of the kids thought the hike was the highlight!  I guess what gives us more joy isn't comfort or pleasure, but rather, accomplishment and persevering through setbacks.

One last interesting note...after the hike, we spoke with some locals and they told us that it was very odd that that much snow had fallen in early September.  Not sure if we can consider ourselves lucky or unlucky.  I'm sure if it hadn't snowed, our hike would have been much easier, but would it have been as memorable?

View from (Almost) the Summit of the Sulphur Skyline Trail

More Sightseeing

The next day, we left Jasper and headed south for Banff.  Over the next 2 days, we saw the Athabasca Falls, Bow Lake, Canmore, and Takkakaw Falls.  The drive between Jasper and Banff, along the Icefields Parkway, was a sight in and of itself.  Ontarians will all agree how boring it is to drive along Highway 401.  Aside from farmland and buildings, there really isn't much to see in Ontario.  The Icefields Parkway is the complete opposite with mountains, rivers, and the occasional wildlife.  Although the distance between the two towns is less than 300 km apart, we budgeted more time since we knew we would make frequent stops to take in the scenery.  Breathtaking and jaw-dropping are adjectives I would use to describe the drive!

Athabasca Falls with Mount Kerkeslin in the Background

Mom and Me at Bow Lake

Mandatory Pic of Kids Lined Up

Mount Rundle and Amelia and Adele

Andrea in Front of Mount Rundle

Enjoying Ice-cream in Canmore

Takkakaw Falls

Emerald Lake: It's Not All About Alberta!

While the title of this post refers to our "Alberta" trip, we did drive over the border to visit Emerald Lake (and Takkakaw Falls) in British Columbia.  The water in the lake was indeed an emerald colour and it was a real treat canoeing in it.  Emerald Lake has become quite popular as compared to the last time we were here.  However, once we got out on our canoe, we got away from the crowds and the feeling was very serene as we took in the beautiful scenery!

Canoeing on Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake: Looks More Like a Painting!

Daddy Time!

What would a trip be without some shopping (insert sarcasm), right?  As Renee and others went shopping in Banff, I took the 4 younger girls to visit the Cascade of Time Garden.  It's a bit off the beaten path as we wouldn't have visited this garden had I not had some time with the kids to myself.  To be honest, we were looking for a playground initially, but ended up coming here after not finding too many choices.  It was actually a really nice garden!  I appreciated the time to bond with them and just simply spending quality time together.  Being in an incredibly scenic place was an added bonus!

Quintessential Banff: Lake Louise and Moraine Lake

Lake Louise and Moraine Lake are 2 quintessential places to visit when you're in Banff.  This is our second time here and we still enjoyed it very much.  Lake Louise is the more popular spot and very touristy.  I personally prefer Moraine Lake.  Although there are still a lot of visitors, Moraine Lake is a bit less developed (i.e. there is no giant hotel sitting right next to it).  You will get great pics at either lake.  We got to Lake Louise first at around 3pm.  As you can see in the photo below, the sun was just above the mountain looking out at the lake, and the mountains were a bit in the shadow.  So, there was a bit to be desired from the photos. Similarly at Moraine Lake, the sun was situated a bit behind the mountains as well.  If you ever go, I would recommend going earlier in the day and perhaps early morning to avoid the crowds.  I did get a few decent shots there and so, wasn't too disappointed. The weather was great...another plus there!

Just a fun little side note.  I brought my Panasonic Lumix mirrorless digital camera that I had bought some years back.  Although I only have the kit lens with the camera, it's supposed to be a pretty good camera.  However, I have to say, my LG Velvet (not even a top tier phone) took pictures that were "better" to the untrained eye. Sure, it's got more post-processing and likely more artifacts upon closer inspection, but the versatility and ease just couldn't be beat!  All of the pictures in the post were taken by my phone camera.  Technology has indeed come a long way.

Athan on the Shores of Lake Louise

Moraine Lake

Glacier and Skywalk

Our last sightseeing day consisted of driving from Banff north to Hinton (town past Jasper).  On the way there, we stopped at the Columbia Icefields where we took a tour onto the Athabasca Glacier.  It was quite a cool experience (excuse the pun), especially for the kids!  The tour also included a visit to the Skywalk, which was built after we visited the last time.  It's got a glass floor lookout that juts out from the side of the cliff.  I really enjoyed that as well.  Again, something that I would recommend doing.

Atop the Athabasca Glacier

Panoramic View on the Glacier

Skywalk

Audrey and Amelia and the Athabasca Glacier

Flying Out (Almost)!

The next day, we drove 4 hours back to Grande Prairie to hop onto our flight back to Toronto.  Typical of Flair fashion, the flight was delayed.  We sat in the airport patiently waiting for the flight to be ready.  Eventually, we realized that the plane wasn't even at the terminal.  At about 7pm, they finally announced that the flight was cancelled.  At first, they said that we would need to get to Edmonton to catch a flight from there to Toronto.  As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of commotion.  The Flair ground crew was pretty clueless as to what had to happen next.  First, they told us we had to find our way to Edmonton on our own.  Then, they said they would provide us a bus ride to Edmonton.  After a few hours of waiting, we were finally told that a plane was going to fly in the next morning to take us back to Toronto.  That was a much better solution than a 4.5 hr drive to Edmonton.

However, that was not the end of the long day at the airport.  According to regulations, the airline must provide us a stay if a flight is cancelled.  The ground crew again appeared to be fairly inexperienced with this.  We later found out that Flair had only started flying into Grande Prairie the month prior and so the crew had likely never encountered a cancelled flight before.  I guess we were the "lucky" ones to experience this.  Eventually, we were sent to a local hotel to stay the night.  That should have been an easy thing, but again, the crew told us that they would arrange a shuttle to take us all to the hotel.  After waiting for an hour or so, there was none to be found.  A lot of people started taking taxis there.  Uber and Lyft were not operating in Grande Prairie, which made it a bit more difficult to order a cab at the same time as 100 other people.  Finally, we got to the hotel safely around 11 pm.  We had not had dinner and everyone was exhausted.  We ended up buying a bunch of instant cup noodles at the hotel pantry and had that for dinner.  The kids didn't seem to mind that at all and I would have to confess I enjoyed it too!

The next morning was quite uneventful.  We got to the airport and saw the plane land at the terminal.  All travelers gave the crew a round of applause.  Everyone was glad that we now had a way back home!  After a few hours we were home and felt pretty glad to be back.  

Would I take another Flair flight?  I think so, but just like we did on this trip, we would ensure that we did not need to be at the destination or home on a tight timeline.  The experience was generally pleasant (outside of the cancellation) and travelers just need to know what to expect going in.  You do get what you pay for.

Athan Reacting to Our Cancelled Flight

Finally Boarding Our Return Flight!

Final Thoughts

I really do enjoy traveling with the family.  It is a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun and a sure way to make lasting memories.  In everyday life, I feel like I get caught up with everything that needs to be done, whether it's work, getting the kids to their next activity, church responsibilities, housework, etc.  Everything just seems to be a blur and there's little time to enjoy each other's company.  When I'm on a trip, I can be there and present, instead of thinking about the next thing.  We really only have one thing to do while we're on a trip and that is to enjoy ourselves while experiencing something that is new or at least, outside of the ordinary and mundane.

There will come a time when we no longer will be able to spend as much as we have with each other. Whether that is me with my parents or with the kids.  Life changes, kids will move out, and not everyone lives forever.  We really do need to cherish these moments.  I take this as my responsibility as a father, husband, and son to maximize this joy.  Sometimes, we also get to learn a few things when we go on trips - like not underestimating hiking uphill in 20 cm of snow!

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Collecting Comics: Picking Up My Childhood Hobby

 

Me and My Prized Possession - Amazing Spider-man #361, 1st Appearance of Carnage

Like many kids growing up in Canada, collecting baseball cards and comics was a big part of my childhood.  Particularly, when I was in grade 7 and 8, I spent much of my spare time reading, drawing, buying, and trading comics.  I was so passionate about comics that my mom enrolled me in art lessons on Saturday afternoons.

It all started in 1990 when Impel came out with a set of trading cards with Marvel characters.  It was all the rage at that time. Any kid who was in grade school at that time must have either collected them or at least seen their friends bring them to school to trade.  I was no different.  Soon, I was sucked into the world of Marvel and I guess have never left since then.

Soon after that, I started collecting comics and began with the most popular titles like Amazing Spider-man and the Uncanny X-men.  Not going far from the beaten path, Spider-man and Wolverine were my favourite characters.  I certainly enjoyed reading the comics, but I was even more interested in the investment aspect of the hobby.  I guess I've always been an investor, even when I was a kid!

Learning the Trade

As with most things, there was a learning curve that I had to climb. Initially, I was buying all sorts of comics.  Whenever there was a #1 issue of a new series, I would buy it just because I thought it would increase in value.  Eventually, I figured that the most valuable comics often had the first appearance of a character (much like the rookie card of a sports player).

At the top of this post, you can see a picture of the Amazing Spider-man #361.  That issue was the first appearance of the character, Carnage.  The latest Venom movie introduced this character to the big screens.  Back in those days, there was no internet to read up on the latest comics news.  So, I would buy the monthly Wizard magazine that talked about the hottest upcoming comics.  I remember that whenever there were hot issues coming out, I would ride my bike to the local convenience at Bamburgh Circle and pick up several copies of the comic.  With the first appearance of Carnage, I picked up 3 copies from the convenience store.  Of the 3 copies, one of them was graded at a 9.8, which is essentially a perfect score (there are 9.9 and 10.0 scores out there, but they are exceedingly rare).  The 9.8 was worth as much as $1900 last year, but now, like stock prices, comic values have come down and is currently worth around $1200.  I believe I bought them for $1.75 each; so, not a bad return on investment!

In 1992, a few star artists and writers started their own comic company, Image Comics (The Walking Dead and Kick-Ass are notable series from Image).  I immediately bought a bunch of #1 issues that were published that year, including 7 copies of Todd McFarlane's Spawn #1.  Other than Spawn, none of the comic series that came out that year made it too far.  Although Spawn continues to be a popular comic, they printed so many copies of the #1 issue that a copy with a 9.8 grade sells for $200 only.

Although my collection may sound like a pretty good collection to someone unfamiliar with comics, it is figuratively and literally child's play.  To put things into perspective, a 9.6 graded copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 (first appearance of Spider-man) sold for a cool $3.6 million.  Ok, so that was the most expensive comic ever sold, but a low grade Amazing Fantasy 15 could easily go for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spider-man #1 by Todd McFarlane - One of My Favourite Comic Covers

My Most Valuable Collection

Passing the Torch

For many years, my comic collection sat inside a couple of boxes in my parents' basement.  In fact, I had not really looked at it since I was in grade 8.  You can probably guess how it happened: I hit puberty and girls became a lot more interesting than Spider-man!  So, the comics sat there until my parents renovated their basement and needed to clear it out.  Those boxes then got transferred to my own basement, where they sat for another several years or so, until...COVID!

Since we were stuck at home for so long, I pulled out the comics to look at them and even posted a few pics on Facebook.  My childhood buddy, Julian, who is an even bigger comic book collector than I am quickly noted how much some of the issues were worth.  I did some quick searching on eBay and that was the start of how my passion got re-ignited.

For much of my adulthood, my love for comics had never been truly extinguished.  I had watched all of the X-men films that were made in the 90s and early 2000s, and of course, all of the Tobey Maguire Spider-man films.  With a bit (a lot actually...) of my influence, Athan has grown to love all things Marvel.  Below are some pics of us dressing up as Spider-man and Wolverine!  I'm so grateful that I'm able to share my love of comics with him and also everyone else in the family.  A week hardly goes by without a couple of MCU movies playing on the TV throughout the week!

Spider-man Themed Birthday Party for Athan with Me as Spider-man

Athan and I Dressing Up as Different Versions of Wolverine

Our First Comic Show

Gift for My Boy's 11th Birthday - A Marvel Encyclopedia

Deeper Lesson

Not sure if this is a bit of a stretch, but I think collecting comics (or any other collectibles for that matter) may have a deeper lesson, that which is related to economics/finance.  Comics are simply assets to which people attribute value.  Are they not as tangible or intangible as a stock certificate (not that any of us has ever held a physical stock certificate)?  The value of a comic often follows simple rules of supply and demand.  So, hopefully, the lessons that my kids can learn from comics would help them navigate the world as they grow up.  I certainly would like to think that collecting comics have helped me become a better investor!

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Update: 2021 New Year Resolution - Bible in a Year (and a Half)

Hello Everyone!  Hope you are all enjoying a relatively COVID free summer!  My writing seems to come in waves and the past year definitely has been a trough.  Hopefully, I will make it a priority to do some more blogging this latter part of the year.

As a quick update to my 2021 New Year Resolution of following the Bible in a Year Podcast, I have finished it in pretty much exactly a year and a half (early July)!  I first read through the entire bible when I was in my teenage years.  As you can guess, this second time around was a much different experience.  As a person, I have matured (or at least hopefully), going from a son to a father of six!  I have had much more exposure to the teachings of the Faith and the many challenges our Church is facing today.

Father Mike Schmitz, the host of the podcast, not only reads the Scripture to you, he also spends an equal amount of time commentating on it, which is very valuable, as there is so much richness in Scripture that one often glosses over many important points.  Sometimes, maybe even more importantly, one can hear the passion in his voice (and at times, he even chokes up with emotion), which clearly demonstrates the realness of his relationship with God.  I would definitely recommend any adult Christian (Protestant friends absolutely encouraged) to do this podcast.  It's about 20 to 25 minutes a day and totally do-able if you incorporate it into your daily commute or other routine.  As I had incorrectly assumed initially, the podcast actually does go through the entire Bible!

3 Lessons from Bible in a Year

Of course, I can't really write a blog post without giving my thoughts on listening to the Bible in its entirety.  Here are 3 lessons that I learned.

1. Pre-requisite for All Christians - This isn't really a lesson, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  How many Christians are there who have not read the bible in its entirety?  Can we really be serious in our faith if we haven't read the most important book ever written on the faith?  It's like saying that I really like Malcolm Gladwell but have not read his books (Gladwell is great, by the way.  Would recommend Outliers and David and Goliath).  With this podcast, it has become so accessible that we really don't have a good excuse not to read it.
   
   
2. Humanity is Broken - if you thought reading the bible would give you the warm and fuzzies, then I'm sorry to report that you may get the opposite, especially if you're reading the Old Testament.  Don't believe me?  These are the things you will encounter after reading the first half of Genesis, the first book in the bible: fratricide, countless cases of polygamy, wiping out of the entire human race save one family, sexual abuse, lying to steal another's birthright, incest, and many accounts of deceit and violence.  More surprisingly, a number of these sins were committed by the patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith.
   
   Knowing this perhaps gives us a different perspective into the challenges we see today.  Our faith did not originate from a line of righteous and perfect people.  In fact, most of them were pretty horrible.  Take King David, for example; he is perhaps the greatest figure in Israelite history.  However, what is he best remembered for?  It would be his great sin of killing of Uriah so that he can take his wife, Bathsheba, to be his own.  Sin, therefore, is the rule and not the exception.  However, this just doesn't seem right...how are we to make sense of this?  Read on.
   
   
3. Christ is the Fulfilment - Another thing that I realized after reading the Old Testament is that there is no conclusion in and of itself.  The nation of Israel never really recovers its prior glory after it was invaded by the Babylonians.  There is a great sense that there should be some sequel to the Old Testament, like a movie with a dissatisfying ending.
   
   As with point #2 above, it seems incredibly sad and pointless if our faith doesn't answer these most basic questions in life.  What is the point?  Why do people suffer?  Why is there so much evil in this world?  Why do good things happen to bad people?
   
   Fortunately for us, God does give us an answer.  Although sometimes it is difficult to really understand, especially when the circumstances in our lives give us moments to pause, the answer is plainly there in the Gospels.  John the Evangelist tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  In Christian theology, we understand God to be love itself.  If God is love, why could he not create a world where there was no pain and suffering?  Why does God permit evil to exist?  He does so such that a greater good can come from it.  He allows evil to exist in the world so that He himself can be betrayed, tried, scourged, and finally crucified and killed, in order to reconcile Himself with us.
   
   Imagine you are an athlete training for the 100m dash and you end up winning the track meet.  Would you rather have won because you were naturally gifted with superior genes and really did not need to train very hard, or because you had given up sleep and woke up everyday at 5am to train for the meet?  Which scenario would be the one that has greater meaning and satisfaction?  I'm sure most of us would say the latter.  And so it is with life itself.  It is not meaningful despite the brokenness and disappointments, but because of them and the redemption Christ offers us.
   
   It is easy for me to say this, but fully comprehending this is not only difficult, but may seem impossible at times.  With this, I leave you with a final quote from the Gospel of Matthew, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).  One cannot only use one's mind to understand this great mystery, but must open one's heart.  Will you start by trying the Bible in a Year podcast?
   
   

Now What?

So, just as I was breathing a sigh of relief knowing there's no looming podcast with which I need to keep up, Father Schmitz goes and decides he will do another "in a year" podcast.  Starting January 2023, he will be starting a Catechism in a Year podcast.  Oh boy!  Not many Catholics have read through the entire Bible, but I am sure even less have even picked up and read the Catechism.  What is the Catechism, you may even ask...in short, it's a summary of the teachings of our Faith.  It's a great reference when you have questions, which is what I've used it for mostly.  I definitely see great value in reading through it in its entirety.  In a world where Christian beliefs are at odds with a lot of secular society's beliefs, it is essential to any practicing Catholic to know why we believe what we believe.  Whether it's to ensure you are not shaken in your faith or to help you defend that faith, it will be invaluable.  As you can guess, I will be, maybe a little begrudgingly, following this podcast when it starts next year.  See you there!

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Are Electric Cars Really Better For the Environment?

 

As you know, we bought a Tesla Model 3 back in 2018.  It now has just above 80,000 km on it.  I've driven about half of the mileage while the other half have been driven by my guests on Turo.  Recently, I exchanged a few comments on Facebook with my university buddy, Dennis, regarding how environmentally friendly driving an electric car really is.  I really didn't know at that point, but it just seemed to me that not producing CO2 from burning 6400 L of gasoline (thus far in the car's life) was not a bad idea.

Of course, there are skeptics in this world, perhaps caused by misinformation spread by conspiracy theorists, right leaning media, and the oil giants of the world.  So, I decided to do some quick research just to see on a very general basis, whether driving an EV would benefit the earth.

Carbon Emissions

First, I wanted to look at carbon emissions, namely the amount of carbon dioxide emitted directly or indirectly by driving an EV vs a gas-powered car.  This turned out to be a not-so-tough task.  There is a free app called Tezlab that I use and it provides a charge report.  It basically tells you what the carbon impact is for your charge.  The neat thing is that it actually looks at your location, and by using publicly available data on the electricity grid, determines the equivalent volume of fuel burned.

In the screen capture below, you will see that I recently charged my car from a state of charge of 38% to 90% (i.e. 52% of the battery capacity) which is an approximately equal to 250 km of travel range.  It cost me $3.77 of electricity and had a equivalent carbon impact of burning 0.6 L of gasoline.  0.6 L!!  How far can one drive with 0.6L of gas in a Prius?  I think maybe 15 km under the best conditions, and that's a Prius.  It is an order of magnitude better to drive an EV.  Let's say I put 250,000 km on my Model 3.  It would mean that I would save about 10,000 L of gasoline worth of carbon being put into the atmosphere, when compared to a Prius.

This huge difference in carbon impact is actually due to the fact that Ontario produces 95% of its power using fossil-free resources such as nuclear, hydro and wind.  Only 5% of the power generated comes from natural gas power plants.

I guess the next question is: well, that's Ontario; what about in places where they burn coal to generate power?  It turns out that driving an EV will have a lesser impact, from a carbon perspective, in 95% of the world.  Most countries are de-carbonizing their electricity grid due to the great economics caused by the declining costs of solar and wind power generation.  So, this will only get better in the future.  Eventually, we will get to 100% non-fossil fuel power generation.

What About the Batteries?

Another often cited downside of EVs is the sheer volume of battery cells used in an EV.  Since batteries contain harmful materials like cobalt, lead, copper, etc., that would be a problem in itself.  A quick read of the Wikipedia article on battery recycling informed me that battery recycling technology today can achieve up to 96% of the materials recycled.  With EVs scaling up, I can only believe that battery recycling technology will further improve.  There is no shortage of new battery recycling companies starting up.  Since the battery pack is the most expensive single component in an EV, there are great economic incentives for companies to solve this problem.

Recycling batteries, in my opinion, is also a much easier engineering problem to solve than removing or capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, where the concentration is merely 400 parts per million (0.04%).

Often Forgotten Benefits of EVs

As I mentioned above, I've put about 80,000 km on my Model 3.  Thus far, the only maintenance task I've had to do on the car is replacing wiper blades and changing to-from winter/summer tires.  There is no engine oil, transmission oil, and engine coolant to change and dispose of.   In fact, there is no regular maintenance schedule for Teslas.  You bring the car in as you see fit.

There You Have It!

To me, it was quite intuitive that EVs are a great means to reducing my carbon footprint.  However, there's much misinformation out there.  Hope this quick post will help you transition to a cleaner future!  Also, 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds or less is also pretty darn sweet! 😉

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