Be it an old factory, an abandoned office-building or something completely different: In this new idea that first hit

Sitting alone in your office, feeling depressed? Come on lady, that's so OVER...

Berlin (what other spot in Germany would be crazy enough for such an idea?) people get together, form a sort of collective with a small company as an organisational frame and offer cheap office space to freelancers – mostly like themselves. An interesting new form of community – and probably a necessary one!

I know that very situation from my own experience, that, according to many claims by people who are involved with this new “scene”, lead to the invention of co-working spaces. You sit in your home-office and, as we say in Germany, “the ceiling starts to fall on your head”, i.e. you feel crushed by silence, loneliness, frustration, or you can’t get your act together and concentrate… You need not have been a freelancer in order to know this set-up. Most people studying for exams or working on papers for university will be familiar with this eerie sort of desperation.

So – co-working spaces. The means to get out, for little money. The idea used to be around for a while for small companies (office centres), but now this mode of working obviously also reached the freelance-sector and is thus also affordable for people who really don’t have a lot of bakshish at their disposal in order to rent an office.

The advantages are clear: You’ve got no fixed rent, you only pay for the time that you’re actually there. If you’re there more often, you can get a desk “fixed” for you, otherwise you’ll just have to look for a free table. Which is good, because if you know you’re gonna work on this project for a month flat, you go in and rent for the time. If you’re not sure about your workload and jobs and assignments are only coming in sporadically, you’re free to go in for a day, or for hours even (or so I gather). You can also use meeting rooms for representative purposes.

A co-working initiative in Mainz, Germany.

And of course, there are always people around, if you need advice, if you need (say, from my perspective as a writer / editor) a photographer, a web designer, a guy who does graphic design – it’s networking and synergies galore! Because: If the photographer needs a bloke who writes copy, you’re there…

Plus – you get all the equipment used by the collective: Furniture, web access, phones, fax, printers, copying machines etc. Infrastructure, basically.

Many co-working projects even have their own cantina or restaurant, where you can get good food at reasonable prices – often organic and sometimes even tuned to the preferences of growing minorities such as vegetarians or even people who live as vegans (i.e. people who even refrain from consuming milk or any other form of animal proteins).

Co-working definitely is trend in Germany. Freelancers, people in creative jobs and start-up entrepreneurs seem to go

But beware: Most co-working spaces have rules. Messy tables for instance are not considered "cool".

for it and thrive on it because often, as hinted at above, synergies occur when they’re brought together. As in that old Clash song: “Career opportunity (the one that never knocks)”. Except for the fact that in this case, it seems to quite often do just that. And you get a wide range of social life to go with it, which is interesting if you’re new in town as a freelance-guy: The individual communities organize workshops, meet and greets, exhibitions – what not. And that while all the time the thing stays unbinding and completely flexible with regard to your commitment in working hours. Wait a minute – they must have stolen this idea from the Gumboot-team…!

You can get an overview of all German Coworking-initiatives here:

http://www.coworking.de/

If you started to walk the length of Canada’s coastlines from the Strait of Juan du Fuca on the West Coast to the Bay of Fundy on the east coast, covering 20 kilometres** a day at a moderate walking pace, you would complete your journey in approximately 33 years.  That seems like a remarkably long time to cover the whole of Canada’s coastlines, especially when you compare it to how long it takes to cross the country on foot. At 5000 kilometres from coast to coast, you could walk across Canada in a little under a year. Then again, when you consider how many fjords, bays, inlets, and ice packs you’d have to cover along our country’s coastlines, 33 years sounds a little more believable. Now consider the time and effort it would take to keep these coastlines clean from human litter.

From September 18th to 26th, Canadians across the country will organize clean-ups along Canada’s ocean, lake and river shorelines in what is known as the Great Canadian Cleanup.  Last year during the cleanup, organizers covered 2, 457 km and picked up a total of 160, 914 kg of trash.

Cigarette butts take the cake as the number one item picked up by organizers with over 367, 010 found on our country’s shores. Food wrappers, plastic bags, bottles and dishes follow as the next most popular litter items on the list.

As a program, the shoreline cleanup originated in Vancouver in 1994. Over the last 16 years, it’s grown to become national in scope. Over 1,000 different cleanup sites have been registered across the country. Another 600 sites and it will smash last year’s record-breaker of over 1,500 sites.

You can join a clean-up or organize one yourself.  If you would like to read more about the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up, visit their website here.
It’s time to clean house, gumboot-style.

**Gumboots may, in fact, slow you down. They’re known for their sexy good-looks and H2O protection, but they’re not the best at long distances.

(A similar version of this post also appears on TheBigWild.org. The Big Wild is an online partnership between Mountain Equipment Co-op and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. With the help of Canadians, it’s dedicated to protecting large areas of wilderness across the country.)

Dear Readers,

First, it goes without saying that Mike Boronowski is a god amongst men (he’s like a nymph or a sprite, but one that can punk rock, toss hay bails and fix your computer) and a true hero of this community.

Second, the Daily Gumboot is not a dirty website.

There are some vile and vicious rumours flying around the Twitterverse this week (see angry image above). And I’m not talking about Fox News North or the Canadian National Basketball team taking steroids or the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE) 2010 Western Region Award Winner taking steroids or that Stephen Harper is a communist. These are just rumours – they are hilarious ones, too. They are most certainly not vile and vicious rumours.

A vile and vicious rumour is this…

THE DAILY GUMBOOT IS A VIRUS-LADEN, DIRTY ATTACK WEBSITE THAT WILL GIVE YOU DISEASES!!!

Man, yesterday our lovely online community’s landing page was replaced with a red banner, angry icons and, I think, a man with a European-style security guard hat (again, see above). Up-and-coming search-engine/Emperor-of-Galactic-Empire-from-Star-Wars, Google, even tagged us as “potentially harmful” and “a purveyor of Malware.”

Look. I have no idea who this Malware guy is and I can only assume that he is a Harry Potter villain.

Yes. You are evil.

Google, we have never subscribed to the Interscape’s black magic and we only strive to make positive connections between people, places, things, and ideas – nouns, basically – in your Twitterverse. It seems weird that you would react in such a way to such a small-potatoes blog. Unless, of course, we’re not small-potatoes at all!

Clearly, there are three – and only three – possibilities for the Gumboot being temporarily shut down yesterday. Here they are:

1. Google is on to Johnism! That’s right, people named John, the current ruler of the universe is shaken and flustered by the next, next rulers of the world (we at Johnism understand that China has been waiting to run things for a long time and that they have earned and deserve their moment). It’s about time that serious people/organizations started taking my plans for world domination seriously. People named John who work at Google: when the revolution comes be sure to choose the right side; you have nothing to lose but your, um, creative job and amazing salary. Hmmm…I’ll get back to you with a better value proposition.

2. North Korea has declared war on Kurt Heinrich! It was bound to happen. Kurt has been talking a lotta smack about North Korea and, well, the world’s ADHD-dyslexic-angry-teenager-on-meth just became an Internet Superpower. Put these two facts together and you get what promises to be an ongoing and bloody conflict with casualties on both sides. Especially since Kurt’s nuclear program is near completion.

3. We forgot to update our WordPress account and, consequently, got hacked! Possible, but not probable. They don’t call the Daily Gumboot editorial team “social media ninjas” because we just let people walk around dropping malware everywhere.

Readers, we thank you for your patience and look forward to moving cleanly past this together. When it comes to internet-transmitted-infections (ITIs), the Daily Gumboot and all of its writers have had their shots and taken their medicine – except Alex Grant, but his magical mustache protects him from anything evil – and we look forward to engaging you in some inspiring community-minded discussions in any forum and with any style that our semi-benevolent overlords at Google permit. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We promise to have fun with it if you do!

- JCH

There are two parts to my infinite tomato formula.

(Year Round Tomato Supply) + (Annual Replication of Favourite Tomatoes) = Infinite Tomatoes

I want an endless supply of tomatoes, not just during the abundance of the late summer, but also during the long dearth between harvests that comes with living in Canada. And as a “tomato connoisseur”, I love trying all kinds of tomatoes. Red, green, yellow, orange, pink, white, purple, black – large, medium, small, cherry, paste – etc. And I collect my favourites by saving their seeds.

I’m tackling the infinite tomato formula in two posts and debated which part of the formula to start with. I thought about which came first, the tomato or the seed? (I’m guessing evolution means it was the seed?) And I thought about what I do first when the small window of tomato season opens (but I tackle both components of my infinite tomato formula simultaneously). But I settled on first laying out a strategy to have delicious tomatoes for a year and my next post will cover how to have tomatoes forever.

There are a few different ways I’ve found to have a year-round supply of tomatoes even when summer is long over.

Extending Fresh Tomatoes

At the end of the summer there are still green tomatoes on the plant. By picking them before a frost and laying them between sheets of newspaper or putting them in a paper bag they’ll slowly ripen.  There are a few heritage varieties out there (with easy-to-decipher names like “Good Keeper” and “Long Keeper”) that store really well. A couple years ago I had a few tomatoes make it all the way to December.

Freezing

It is a fast and easy way to preserve tomatoes. Basically for plain tomatoes all you have to do is blanche them, bag them, and freeze them (instructions: http://www.instructables.com/id/Freezing-summer-tomato-crop/). We limit our freezing to our homemade pizza sauce (because we don’t have a pressure canner yet). After whipping up the sauce we freeze it in individual portions. The disadvantage for freezing is that space is limited (and for us is taken up by berries and Wilbur).

Dehydrating

Electric dehydrators have made drying food easy, convenient and the fairly compact design means that it can work in apartments. While we don’t own a dehydrator, my parents own two (and my dad always grows more tomatoes than he can use). So every year Jim and I get a box of dried tomatoes from my parents that we can use for pizza, sauces and soups throughout the winter.

Canning

This is the approach that we take for preserving most of our tomatoes. The jars can easily be stored in a closet but also are great decorations. Over the past couple of years we’ve done whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, plain tomato sauce, tomato paste, salsa and ketchup. If you’re interested in trying canning it is a good idea to have someone with experience walk you through the process the first time or get a book with detailed instructions and recipes (we like “The Complete Book of Home Preserves”). Basically there are two types of canning: the boiling water method (for high acid foods) and the pressure canner method (for low acid foods). Tomatoes are right of the edge of being acidic enough for the boiling water method and to be safe additional acid like lemon juice or vinegar needs to be added. The reason we freeze our pizza sauce is because we add enough other ingredients that are low-acid (like onions, peppers, garlic) that we can’t use the boiling water method. This year we’re doing 2 bushels of tomatoes over 2 weekends (1 down, 1 to go) and that should be enough to get up through the year.

And finally, you’re likely wondering what preserving a year’s worth of tomatoes and having them stored in various forms throughout our one bedroom apartment has to do with community. First, they are the foundation of many great meals with friends and family, plus they can make a great gift or contribution to a potluck. We’re also supporting our local farming community buy buying our tomatoes directly from them and carrying on a tradition of preserving that was commonplace not that long ago. And finally, I believe for our communities to be resilient in a future where we’ll have to deal with the consequences of peak-oil and climate-uncertainty, it is a good idea to have a wide variety of skill-sets including those that can keep us fed year round.

John and Kurt, duelling to the death and having fun with it!

Two days ago, a group of us Gumbooters participated in one of the coolest events in the city, the Mitsubishi City Chase. We laughed, yelled, ran and hobbled to the finish line, and have all thankfully lived to tell tales of fun and adventure.

For those of you who don’t know much about the event: City Chase is a city wide (and international!) obstacle/ scavenger hunt. In teams of two, you have to decipher clues and make your way – on foot or public transit only – to various chase point locations, where you have to complete a task to get a chase point. Once you get 10 points you race your way back to the finish line. Considering ourselves relatively young, fit Vancouverites, we didn’t really do much to prepare. In hindsight, a bit of training or even, ahem, taking part in the pre-chase warm-up would probably have helped us out a bit in the race. Ok. Probably not. But, it probably would have helped us out a the day after the race, which found us all moving as little as possible, complaining about how much everything hurt. Full disclosure: Two days later, everything still hurts. Despite that, I can confidently say that it was worth every second of post-race pain – the event was truly memorable and one heck of an adrenaline rush. 

Instead of doing a breakdown of the events – and in order to not give away any clues for next year (I have this odd competitive streak that comes out sometimes), I’ll just give you a sampling of what we experienced: running … a lot of running, orienteering, drills (of the military variety), “Stroke! Stroke!”, dancing … for tips, parkour!, and porcine fare. 

My lovely and completely hardcore partner Alison and I, I’m excited to report, beat the boys’ teams. Refer back to John’s trash talk article and perhaps you’ll get a clue as to why … as suspected, banking on dinosaurs and new haircuts to win the race just didn’t cut it. We did learn some great techniques and tips that will definitely help us all out next year though – and because here at the ‘boot we’re all about community, we thought we’d share them with you fine folks: 

1. Don’t wear gumboots
Gumboots are great. Especially the Daily kind. But they’re not great for racing. Unless you want to lose to the girls, sprain your ankle and spend six hours in hot, smelly, gumboots and wet socks. 

We really, really should have taken the warm up more seriously

2. Take part in the warm-up
And save yourself days of post-race aches and pains. Biggest. Regret. Of the year. 

3. Don’t go to White Spot for lunch
I’m not saying that one of our teams chose to do this … but I’m not not saying that one of our teams chose to do this. Clearly, not a good tactic if you want to win (or, um, even finish) the race. 

4. Special Tip for the ladies: Wear nice underwear
As overheard by one participant in a … let’s say more exposed challenge … “I really, really wish I had worn a nicer thong” 

5. Enlist your friends. Make sure they’re near a computer and a phone
The Gumboot crew had a certain architecturally-inclined correspondent act as Central Command. We called him up to help us plan the best transit routes, decipher clues, and look up locations for us. Indispensible. 

So there you have it. Feel free to add your tips in, other Gumbooters and City Chase participants – and see you out on the course next year!

Who are you?

Paul Cubbon: http://blogs.ubc.ca/paulcubbon/
Marketing Instructor at the Sauder School of Business is my job title – but is it “who I am?”
I am fun-loving, creative, problem solving, easily bored, often distracted, happy multi-tasking – I am an over-load junkie who runs hard at things allowing them to be all-consuming, and then I turn off and detox with something totally different. I need to sleep but wish that I could get by on less as there is so much to do. I’m hard-working and good at prioritizing – but I am also a lazy procrastinator. I like the simple things best of all: family, friends, good conversation, food, travel, books, movies, exercise. I like change, so long as there is a safety net! I’m gregarious and social – but love my own company and privacy.

What do you do for fun?

I run up mountains, I ski down them – picnic on the beach, eat and drink well with family and close friends – and have 10 books on the go at the same time.

What is your favourite community and why?

I think of communities in 2 ways….traditional ones built around schools, sport leagues and their virtual equivalents –online communities. Passion around shared interest is at the heart of what makes these tick – people giving without thought of getting anything in return because they believe in the cause and are happy to help. Social, sporting and volunteer communities have lots to teach business attempts at “community management” about values and authenticity.

I really like www.clubfatass.com – an irreverent community of off-road, long distance trail runners. Even though I am not a cyclist, I admire http://testofmetal.com/ for how volunteers created a large, world class economic driver for tourism based on a passion for mountain biking. In business I like the work of http://thinkengagement.com/ a social media consulting company that is building its business around identifying and nurturing passionate communities – this is why I am doing some work with them – to try and bridge personal and professional beliefs.

What is your superpower?

Ha! With 3 teenagers and teaching many hundreds of young adults each year, one is often reminded of one’s fallibility! Superpowers that I would like to have: slowing down time, or being able to live for longer at this level of energy; cancelling the need to sleep or adding more hours to the day. It would also be pretty cool to fly – superman style!

How do you use it to build community?

I guess this is a bit about dreaming or imagining – desire and drive…..these come back to mining passions….identifying what people care about – this is central to community.

My Three Favourite Things About Paul Cubbon are…

1. Funny T-Shirts. Paul is known and loved around the UBC campus for his creative, thoughtful, and downright ridiculous shirts. As a fan of ridiculous tshirts – those who know me know I have a few – I am also slightly jealous of Paul because he gets to wear them to work and is celebrated by his students and colleagues.

2. He ‘gets’ Social Media. So much so that he knows it’s not going to be called “social media” in five or ten years from now. By taking an active role in helping young people create positive digital footprints – which ideally will overwhelm all the bad ones – Paul is demonstrating his foresight when it comes to equipping our leaders of tomorrow with the proper connective tools. Ones that will help them socially as well as professionally.

3. Student Engagement. Whether it’s a teaching-focused course about general business for first year students or the simple gesture of making himself available in a common, high-student-traffic area, Paul is a master when it comes to connecting with students on their terms and through the mediums that they use. He also teaches them about a couple of other cool ones, too!

- as told by John Horn…

To help us all get even more excited about the event, here is a video to get you motivated and adventurous:

And if that wasn’t enough, here are some samples of the ongoing Gumbooteer Trash Talk from the past few days:

Baron Godfrey von Bismarck: “I’ll be sporting a new haircut. Team Regatta Bragatta will be stream lined and ready to sail. Scallywags.”

Mike Boronowski: “Not only did I read a great post about training for the city chase, I wrote it.”

Michelle Amy Horn: “Frankly, I’d be worried if we were banking on new haircuts or “training” articles to win. We have a bit more confidence, skill, and street savy than that, boys. Watch out – the Gumboot Gals are in this to win it!”

Kurt Heinrich: “Dinosaurs are faster than all of you. John and I will be riding one of them to victory this Saturday morning. Watch out or you may get smushed.”

Editor’s Note: to my knowledge, Kurt Heinrich is a mentally sound, mostly stable young man with a flare for the creative and, possibly, access to a time-machine. I’m as scared to be his teammate as everyone else should be because they’re his opponent. Dinosaurs?! What the hell, Kurt?!

Baron Godfrey von Bismarck: “T-rex is capable of short, clumsy and mostly blind bursts of speed and it all goes downhill from there. Nothing compared to Schooners or, dare I even say, Sloops.”

Michelle Amy Horn: “Frankly, I’d be worried if we were banking on new haircuts, “training” articles or, um, dinosaurs to win this. It seems like we’re taking this a bit more seriously than you jokesters. Also, Al and I have eight years of combined dinosaur-riding experience. What do you have, Kurt?”

Kurt “Dino” Heinrich: “Eight and half years of solo riding experience…. Point Kurt and John.”

Editor’s note: Dear God. Does anyone want to switch teammates? I came back from work to see a progressively more ridiculous thread of “trash talking” emails in my inbox and, well, this dinosaur tangent has really changed things for me. I’m all for cheating, but are dinosaurs even allowed in City Chase? Are they real, Kurt, or are we stealing the animatronic ones from the “Walking with Dinosaurs” show? Because I’m cool with that; in spite of my fear of robots, I’m willing to risk such spectacular rule-breaking for the team.

Baron Godfrey von Bismarck: “Ridiculous.”

Editor’s note: Yes, Godfrey, it is ridiculous.

Mike Boronowski: “Total failure to even mention the sloop John B, Nassau, or the beachboys  -1point, John and Kurt.”

Editor’s note: At the end of the Trash Talk period, Kurt and I seem to be up Two Gumboot Points – how these will help us in the City Chase remains to be determined, but our resolve has never been thicker.

Chasers. If our ridiculous commentary is any indication of our on-the-field potential, you might as well not show up tomorrow. The Daily Gumboot Social Media Ninjas have already collected fourteen clues and “borrowed” three dinosaurs from the Rogers Arena.

In all seriousness, we thank the City Chase Vancouver team for letting us be involved, we’ll only cheat a little bit, and we’re looking forward to building some community with all of you.

See you on the course!

- John and Kurt, Editors of the Daily Gumboot

We all wish we could ride dinosaurs.

City Chase is coming up and we here at the Gumboot are all pretty excited. I’m excited for a few reasons. First, I said “yes” to join in on this little competition before having a full grasp of what I’ll be required to do. Run around the city? Check. Engage in humourous challenges? Check.  Help promote the (so far) unsullied name of Mitsubishi? Check. Ride dinosaurs through the mean streets of Vancouver? I hope so.

But even if I don’t get to ride dinosaurs, that’s ok. Do you know why? Because I get to compete with my good friend and Gumboot co-editor John Horn. We’re one of three teams the Gumboot has raised for this competition. Teams are some of the greatest things about adventures. That’s why Batman and Robin had so much fun fighting crime. This time, John and I will be competing against 400 other City Chase teams spread around the Downtown core. But more importantly, we’ll be competing against our fellow Gumbooters (in a friendly way). With that in mind, I thought I’d crib a very modest and basic guide for any handicappers out there looking to wager, which of the three teams are going to finish first. Some of you may say I’m horribly biased. But that’s for you to accusingly say in the comments.

Team John and Kurt

Advantages: They are fast – ninja fast. John’s really competitive and Kurt’s curmudgeonly nature will allow him to soldier through all sorts of physical test and challenges like his forefather’s did in Stalingrad. John is especially cagey having spent a long period of his youth as a Pirate’s fifth mate. Kurt’s controversial nature will allow him to “think outside the Mitsubishi box”. John doesn’t mind cheating and Kurt doesn’t mind that John doesn’t mind cheating.

Disadvantages: None known to man. If you think you know any, you’re probably wrong, so keep them to yourself.

Team Michelle and Stew

Advantages: Michelle is lovely and brilliant. Stew’s nuanced and analytical perspective will only serve to aid their team’s quest for glory. Michelle likes puzzles and challenges. Stew threw out his back, so he may arrive at the race equipped with some sort of cyborg technology that will allow him to fly and run like the Million Dollar Man.

The dynamic duo.

Disadvantages: Stew through out his back this week. Enough said. Oh and Michelle’s actually a double agent working for Team John and Kurt.

Godfrey and Mike

Advantages: The recent birth of Mike’s child has allowed him to operate for long periods of time without sleep. His baby-tested stamina will go a long way. Godfrey’s Bay-model good looks could be used to charm unsuspecting young female City Chase organizers. Mike has a lot of tattoos and looks hardcore – other city chase contestants will avoid fucking with his team. Godfrey’s Mini car is ideal for moving from place to place in the downtown urban environment.

Disadvantages: Godfrey’s nautical knowledge and understanding of the seas will not help in the slightest on land. Mike’s curious and introspective nature will lead him on long non-City Chase related tangents losing the team valuable time.

My prediction falls solidly with Team Kurt and John. But let’s see what the rest of you have to say.

If you know what City Chase is all about then I’ll cut to the, um, chase:

Email cpayne@citychase.com with “Daily Gumboot and City Chase” in the subject and receive a Promo-Code, which will give you a discount on your registration.

Speaking of prizes and registration, the Daily Gumboot is in possession of two free registrations! Now. You may or may not know that DG Editor John Horn is not only a fan of pirates, but that also a Certified Piratologist.

If you want to win two free registrations (so, one team) skim through our archives, find your favourite post that mentions “pirates” and tell us what you think is most interesting about the piratological fact that you discovered.

Kurt and John will email the person who left the best comment.

To summarize: email Chris Payne at cpayne@citychase.com with “Daily Gumboot and City Chase” in the subject to receive a discount Promo-Code; comment on a Daily Gumboot article involving pirates for a chance to win free registration.

Savvy?