Category: friends

Viscount Bennett High School 50th Reunion

On By Rick McIn about Rick, education, friendsLeave a comment

Good news. There’s a concept of a plan for a 50th reunion.

Saturday, May 10, 2025

4.00 p.m. at Schanks Sports Grill, Calgary

I was one of the organizers of the VB High 25th anniversary in 2000. A lot of fun.

VB Reunion website

I was one of those kids who actually enjoyed High School. 😀

Viscount Bennett High School
Viscount Bennett High, Calgary

Viscount Bennett High School operated as a junior and high school from 1955 to 1985, closing due to low enrolment. 

In 1995, Chinook Learning Services operated out of the building until the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) closed it permanently in 2018.

We had buried a time capsule in 1975. Dug it up in 2000. Then reburied some items.

BUT it was dug up during a facility renovation, the junk dumped on the sidewalk. Brian Mason picked it up. I still have some things in my basement.

In 1975, we had something called the “Grad Notebook“.

Handmade. Something we could pass around for kids to sign as a remembrance.

Here’s mine. I took a photo of each page. Did a little editing.

The Westgate Motor Inn Bar was demolished 2004.

The CREW of the 1975 Grad Film were Ian Baird, Ron Shewchuk, Brian Mason, Richard Englehardt, Dean Cave and myself.

Many in 1975 predicted recreational marijuana would be legal by 2000. BUT it wasn’t official until 2018.

Richard Englehardt and myself won the 1975 High School car rally when the REAL winners were disqualified for not wearing seatbelts.

Loraleigh Keashly was the smartest kid in school. She went on to finish multiple degrees and became a professor at Wayne State University. Certainly her comment was the most … accurate. 😀

Ron Shewchuk was already a writer and a bit of poet:

In ’00 we will meet

All older.

Some wiser

When I see this 25 years from

Now

I will probably realize

Au revoir.

What is art? 🎨

On By Rick McIn Art and beauty, friends, videoLeave a comment

You know it when you see it?

Something that appeals to you artistically, I might consider garbage. And visa versa.

It’s subjective.

Certainly, anything I could easily recreate is NOT skillful. NOT art.

This is not art …

This is not art …

Voice of Fire by Barnett Newman.

It’s 2 cans of paint, 2 rollers, canvas, and less than an hour.

Almost everyone would agree that Van Gogh was an artistic genius.

Impressionism was an original step forward in generating emotion through art.

I’d argue that Warhol was another original step forward.

Picasso, another genius.

The artist friend I admire most is Mike Sissons. Great in many mediums including sculpture.

The artist to study in 2024 is a young guy from Mexico — Gawx.

He’s also the most skilled video editor on YouTube in my opinion. Something like Van Neistat, but even better.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

BEST Social Networks 2025

On By Rick McIn blogs, ethics, Facebook, friends, gymnastics, hiking, human rights, internet, media, things getting worse, TwitterLeave a comment

For most people, Instagram and TikTok are the most entertaining. I don’t much look at either.

If you want to avoid POLITICS, Meta (Instagram, Facebook, Threads) has definitely reduced the emphasis on political arguments. In Canada, a bonus for using Facebook is that news links are banned.

I haven’t quit Twitter — surprisingly — as my own feeds focused on Gymnastics and Hiking are still good. If I click on Following and avoid For You, the stream is valuable. Of course I quickly block anything I don’t like.

I post today as many of the people online I trust and respect are migrating to Bluesky.

Looking more for VIDEO than anything else, these are the sites I use most:

I hate advertising. Facebook doesn’t offer paid ad-free feeds, so I use ad blockers.

I hate Elon Musk and refuse to send him even one penny. So use ad blockers.

I use WhatsApp only for small group communication. It’s excellent. Messenger, as well, only for communication with very few people.

I’ll check Reddit once in a while if I’m looking for something specific.

Mastodon could be my favourite, but it’s not caught on with the people I want to follow.

LinkedIn should be best of all. But I’ve never seen much value for my purposes.

I never signed up for Snapchat. Hikers are mostly on Instagram. Gymnastics coaches mostly on Twitter.

I’ll try Bluesky. But I’m worried it will never grow big enough.

If desperate, I’ll create a browser bookmark folder and open all these social media sites simultaneously to check the latest news in Gymnastics and Hiking. OR … could I use an A.I. client to do that for me?

Brainstorming … 😀

I’ll have an A.I. Life Coach within 5 Years

On By Rick McIn ethics, friends, happinessLeave a comment

We still have NO IDEA how Artificial Intelligence will be affecting our lives in 5 years.

Perhaps Alicia Vikander as Ava will be a reality.

Kevin Roose made 18 A.I. friends online from many different services. And interacted with them for a month.

Here he sums up the state of the art in April 2024.

Amazing. But still far from human.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I might like to chat with Victoria Shi, the AI spokesperson for the Ukraine foreign ministry.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hiking / Skiing Banff March 2024

On By Rick McIn food, friends, hiking, travelLeave a comment

For the 4th year in a row, I stayed at the Samesun Hostel in Banff.

Alternated days of winter hiking and downhill skiing.

I skied one day with Kelly from Canmore. Two days with Rocco.

Click PLAY or watch Rocco on YouTube. Footage from my new Insta360 Ace Pro action camera.

April 1, 2024 conditions were PERFECT for me.

I opined that this was the best ski day at Sunshine for 10,000 years. 😀

Me and Assiniboine

Kelly introduced me to happy hour at Hello Sunshine Banff Sushi. Fantastic.

I’ll be posting 2024 hiking videos on BestHike.com.

Here’s a hike from the past that gives a good idea what it’s like to get on the trails in the Spring.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

MORE videos from Banff.

related – Spring Hiking/Skiing Banff 2023

I’m already looking forward to 2025 in Banff.

Hello Sunshine Banff Sushi

On By Rick McIn food, friends, travel1 Comment

Kelly — a BIG Sushi fan — lives in Canmore.

His favourite restaurant in Banff is Hello Sunshine Sushi during Happy Hour.

50% off many Sushi platters.

As well as beer and other menu item specials.

I’m hoping to go 3 times this week. 😀

Kelly introduced me to Hello Sunshine after a GREAT day skiing powder at … Sunshine.

Visiting Port Townsend 2024

On By Rick McIn food, friends, travelLeave a comment

Due to the pandemic, I hadn’t made it back to Port Townsend, Washington since 2019.

Since then, Doug and Diana had built a new house on one of their properties.

I was both 3rd and 4th in the guestbook, visiting both going to and coming from Coeur d’Alene.

Carrie came up from Vancouver WA to videotape a chat with myself and Doug about the start of the Tumbl Trak Ambassador Program. Actually, she drove MANY hours in the dark and rain to pick me up in Port Angeles.

I was the first Ambassador, we think, when Doug gave me an inflatable tumbling mat to take to my Gymnastics tour of Australia in 2007. I did clinics in 5 different States.

The other BIG news of my visit was that Diana was getting packed for a trip to Europe with a friend.

Also — Doug bought a new car. A Nissan Leaf.

It was my fault. I took the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton WA by mistake — and there happened to be a Nissan dealership there. 😀

As always in Port Townsend, we enjoyed some terrific meals.

My favourite was Finistère.

Carrie’s oysters with horse radish

As always, I got out running and hiking.

This is dawn down close to Fort Worden.

If you’ve never been, Port Townsend is a tourist gem hidden away off the main highway in northern Washington State.

Visiting Dave & Lisa in Idaho

On By Rick McIn cycling, friends, gymnastics, travelLeave a comment

Once again I had a terrific time in Coeur d’Alene.

Our first day, we joined in the FUN at Dave’s gourmet restaurant, Candle in the Woods.

Chef David

An amazing, unforgettable meal.

baked onion

Timing of this visit was to volunteer at my favourite Gymnastics competition in the world — the Great West Gym Fest.

It’s so well organized I didn’t really have much to do.

I DID help with the set-up and take-down of the Gym. And made a few VIDEOS of the competition, including this one.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A few photos from the competition.

staring down the judges
Jeremy Mosier and Jim McLuskey

VIPs get to check out the resort penthouse. And balcony hot tub.

We did get out for one hike in Farragut State Park.

Delaney took me climbing. AND I was not bad … aside from then time I fell from the top risking concussion. 😀

Late February the weather was … mixed. We had some wind, some snow. Some sun.

I did get to try Dave’s Fat Bike out on their property.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Danke Schoen – Munich

On By Rick McIn cycling, friends, travelLeave a comment

Ich bin ein Münchner

… And you may find yourself in another part of the world …
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house …
And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

photo – Diego Delso

A Canadian College / Gymnastics friend has lived in Munich for decades. He runs his own health Club called AJs Fitness.

While I was fading on my Norway cycling adventure, AJ offered to have me house sit while he and his husband were gone for vacation. I jumped at the chance.

Great location close to the edge of the city. Hot tub. Fancy coffee machine.

Paradise. 🙏

House sitting was a terrific break from weeks cycling Norway. And I then used Munich as a base for cycling and hiking trips.

I had the Deutschlandticket — 49-Euro / Month for all regional and municipal transportation. Brilliant.

Munich is a fantastic tourist city, of course. I cycled all over town.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

At the start, Claudia was my tour guide.

Munich has a lot of green space.

Nymphenburg Palace Park, for example.

Sadly, no bicycles allowed in the park.

My favourite destination for cycling was the Isar river. Especially where it flows through English Garden (Englischer Garten).

The 1972 Olympic venue is terrific, as well.

I’ll be back. AJ and Darin are storing my bike and gear until my return summer 2024.

Thanks guys!

I’m already looking forward to my return to Munich.

Click PLAY or watch Rick Steves on YouTube.

AJ (Dave) Green’s 60th Birthday

On By Rick McIn friends, travelLeave a comment

I hadn’t seen AJ in over 35 years. Not since he moved to Munich, Germany.

We’d coached together at Altadore back in the 1980s. And were College roommates for some months, as well.

But when he invited me to a big birthday party in southern Spain, I really wanted to go.

And it was superb. AJ is an excellent event organizer.

It started Friday night on the rooftop of the 5 star Gran Hotel Gvadalapin Banus in Marbella.

Two birthdays were celebrated. AJ and one of his original business partners from Munich in AJ’s Fitness. This is Bettina, a classy lady. She and her husband are an impressive couple.

The guests were friends from the fitness studio — as well as friends and family from North America. AJ’s husband Darin is originally from Reno. (A very funny guy. Constantly entertaining. They’ve been together for 31 years.)

Saturday afternoon was a pool party. I skipped it fearing all large bodies of water. 😀

Saturday night was the BIG party at a huge, exclusive villa.

I slept on the upstairs patio couch.

You’d be correct in ASSuming that a smelly backpacker was out of place in a mansion this impressive. 😀

Birthday presentations.

I was happy and honoured to be able to attend.

I do love southern Spain, too. If forced to live amongst the chain smoking Europeans, it would be in Andalusia.

My #2 choice would be Portugal.