(Above: Somewhere in Michigan – Road trip across the USA – February 2008 Edition with
Kevin Royal, Shawn Grover and Adam Halpert)

Building on an earlier blog post, I intend on making my way across Canada solo at the end of the month, all the way from Toronto, ON to Cranbrook, BC. I will be traveling from July 26 to July 30 and will be covering approximately 4,400 kms.

The long drives each day should provide me with a lot of time to think and reflect, and on occasion, sing along at the top of my voice to the loud music blasting from my car speakers. Of course, I plan on downloading a number of audio books and comedy podcasts as well to keep me company and would be open to any recommendations. Please feel free to leave them in the comments section of this blog post.

Below is the tentative schedule of my road trip across Canada, alongside the embedded Google map that showcases the route I intend to take in order to get to Cranbrook, BC.

View Larger Map

Monday, July 26 – A. Toronto, ON  to B. Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Tuesday, July 27 – B. Sault Ste. Marie, ON to C. Thunder Bay, ON

Wednesday, July 28 – C. Thunder Bay, ON to D. Winnipeg, MB

Thursday, July 29 – D. Winnipeg, MB to E. Regina, SK

Friday, July 30 – E. Regina, SK to F. Cranbrook, BC

Six Degrees of Separation – Perhaps YOU Can Help?

As I make my way across Canada, I would certainly be open to anyone wanting to show me around their city or town as I am passing through. (Anyone have a friend in Wawa, Ontario for example?)

For the cities highlighted in bold scheduled on the tentative dates above, it would be great if it also came with an offer to crash on your couch for the night.

(Above: Sigma Chi House, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas -
Road trip across the USA – February 2008 Edition with Kevin Royal, Shawn Grover and Adam Halpert)

If you or a friend of a friend would be willing to help me out with this favor, please do get in touch with me via email – renjiebutalid (at) gmail (dot) com, Twitter, Facebook, or feel free to leave a comment at the end of this blog post.

If you are able to help me out, what you would get in return is great company and lots of laughs, and a new found friend who would be forever grateful. Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from many of you.

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My Ignite Waterloo talk on the myth-conceptions of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which took place at the Waterloo Regional Children’s Museum on March 3, 2010, as part of Global Ignite Week.

Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don’t like your face
It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home

When the wind’s from the east
And the sun’s from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night

Walt Disney’s Aladdin (1992)

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After months of hard work, we’re coming down to the wire with the organization for TEDxWaterloo, finally happening next week on February 25 at the Gig Music Hall in downtown Kitchener – and we’re definitely super excited!!!

On a personal note, it’s been quite the journey for me from my initial blog post on a possible TEDxWaterloo event last summer, to opportune meetings with an amazing group of people who are equally as passionate about ideas worth spreading. Credit for putting TEDxWaterloo together really has to go to the entire team of volunteers behind the event, who have collectively given hundreds of hours of their time, energy and commitment towards making TEDxWaterloo a success.

Our diverse range of speakers, all of whom are well recognized and respected in their fields, are also giving us their time and energy because they truly believe in sharing their ideas and experiences with the broader community.

We will be live webstreaming the entire event beginning 2pm EST on February 25 at www.tedxwaterloo.com. All of the TEDxWaterloo Talks will be made available online after the event.

For more information on TEDxWaterloo, please visit: www.tedxwaterloo.com

TEDxWaterloo Speakers

Terry O’Reilly – Advertising visionary and host of the CBC award-winning radio series “The Age of Persuasion“.

***

Philip Beesley – Professor at Waterloo Architecture creating vastly complex ‘living’ environments that can breathe and feel.

***

Raymond LaFlamme – Founding Director of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing whose insight changed Stephen Hawking’s mind and theories about our universe.

***

Paul Saltzman – Beatles photographer and two-time Emmy Award winning film & television producer-director.

***

Caroline Disler – A master of translation with working knowledge of ancient languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Edomite, Ancient Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek.

***

Madhur Anand – Internationally recognized scientist, poet, and professor of Global Ecological Change at the University of Guelph.

***

Michael Sacco – Chocolatier and social entrepreneur promoting the diversity of production of organic cacao through a structure defined as “horizontal trade”.

***

Darren Wershler – Canadian experimental poet, non-fiction writer and cultural critic.

***

Marty Avery – A connector and catalyst whose strategic approach offers remarkable insight into the human side of business.

***

Amy Krouse Rosenthal – New York Times best-selling children’s author, radio host and creative filmmaker.

***

Below is a video segment of Jaclyn and I discussing TEDxWaterloo that appeared on the Waterloo Region Record website, courtesy of Philip Bast.

The full interview with Chris Meidell of Waterloo Tech TV can be found here.

TEDxWaterloo on The Record from Renjie Butalid on Vimeo.

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In case you missed it, watch Bilodeau’s gold medal run in the men’s moguls here.

I even went as far as giving in and buying a Vancouver 2010 sweatshirt at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto earlier this afternoon. Im glad that I did however, because the Olympic Torch was on display at the Eaton Centre and I was able to get a photo with it. I have to admit, a part of me was disappointed when I missed the Olympic Torch relay when it passed through the Toronto/Kitchener-Waterloo area at the end of December (I was out west in Cranbrook, BC for the holidays then), and I missed it again when it passed through Cranbrook, BC at the end of January (I was back in Waterloo already).

GO TEAM CANADA!!!

Of course, I would also like to express my heartfelt condolences and prayers to the friends and family of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the luger from Georgia who died in that horrific Olympic training crash just hours prior to the start of the opening ceremonies. Shame on CTV for needlessly showcasing video footage of the horrific crash, sensational journalism at its worst.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Photos Courtesy of the Toronto Star

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Happy Valentine’s Day baby… I love you!

And a happy Chinese New Year to everyone as well, I hope you’re all spending today with your loved ones.

Posted via email from renjie’s posterous

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Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I wish everyone the best this holiday season, looking forward to the year ahead, 2010 is going to be amazing!

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Ongoing blog post of photos taken on my iPhone while I am out west visiting family for the Christmas holidays, December 23, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Updated with the PicPosterous iPhone app

Location: Calgary, AB and Cranbrook, BC

Updated December 28, 2009

Ive been in Cranbrook for almost a week now, and judging from my tweet on Christmas day, it seems that country music is really getting to me. This song by Blake Shelton has been stuck in my head the whole day.

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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The question of what it means to be Canadian has always been intriguing to me, given my background as a person born in the Philippines to Filipino parents, raised in the UAE from the age of five to high school graduation at seventeen, and who decided to come to Canada by myself (with the financial help of parents of course) on the basis that tuition fees for international students was much cheaper in Canada compared to the United States.

That was a number of years ago, and I am glad to have obtained my Canadian citizenship earlier this year. Early in our relationship, I used to tell Monika that the only reason I was dating her was to expedite the process of getting my Canadian papers. Jokingly of course.

It certainly makes a difference having a Canadian passport especially when traveling. Even more so when going across the border into the US. I remember having to wait hours at the border to get my fingerprints taken and eyes scanned, simply by virtue of traveling on a Filipino passport and a 10 year multiple-entry US visa. When traveling elsewhere, the reaction has almost always been positive when I mention that I am from Canada.

Copenhagen 2009

That is why when it comes to the issue of the environment, it saddens me to see that Canada is now to climate change, what Japan is to whaling

WIth the Copenhagen talks set to take place next week, the impression that the current Canadian government will do everything in its power to wreck the talks reflects very poorly on Canadians, especially since this is incongruent with the movement building and gaining momentum in Canada right now, especially among young people.

Although the minority Harper government has used stalling tactics to delay a vote on Bill C-311 (Climate Change Accountability Act), an act to ensure Canada assumes its responsibilities in preventing dangerous climate change, parliament passed a motion last week that was supported by all three opposition parties, that Canada adopt the first target from the delayed Bill C-311 as its position in Copenhagen.

That, in the opinion of the House, Canada should commit to propose at the Copenhagen conference on climate change

1. reducing, through absolute reduction targets, greenhouse gas emissions in industrialized countries to 25% lower than 1990 levels, by 2020;
2. the necessity of limiting the rise in global temperatures to less than 2oC higher than in the preindustrial era; and
3. supporting the developing countries in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate change.

Unlike Bill C-311, this motion is not legally binding. However, this does send a powerful message to other countries and world leaders involved with the Copenhagen talks, that the current Canadian government’s position on climate change does not represent the majority view of the Canadian people.

To end on a lighter note, below is an email forward that I received from a friend this morning, that helped to spark this blog post, along with the accompanying photos taken in various Canadian cities over the years, that I feel helps to capture the diversity of the Canadian landscape (or at least the places in Canada that I have visited). I am also looking forward to attending the Guelph Lecture on Being Canadian next week, featuring John Ralston Saul, considered to be one of Canada’s foremost political and economic thinkers. This lecture will certainly help to put what it means to be Canadian into perspective.

An Australian’s Definition of a Canadian

You probably missed it in the local news, but there was a report that someone in Pakistan had advertised in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed a Canadian – any Canadian.

An Australian dentist wrote the following editorial to help define what a Canadian is, so they would know one when they found one:

“A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

A Canadian may also be a Cree, Métis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many other tribes known as native Canadians.

A Canadian’s religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or none. In fact, there are more Muslims in Canada than in Afghanistan. The key difference is that in Canada they are free to worship as each of them chooses. Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognize the right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

Canadians welcome the best of everything: the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services and the best minds. But they also welcome the least – the oppressed, the outcast and the rejected.

These are the people who built Canada .

You can try to kill a Canadian if you must as other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world have tried, but in doing so you could just be killing a relative or a neighbor. This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian.”

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To provide some context, Monika and I are working towards getting our SSI Open Water Scuba Diving certification, and this weekend, we’re doing our mandatory open water dives out in Lake Simcoe, our last step towards becoming fully licensed to scuba dive.

Although I am keenly interested in the social innovation process and how transformative social change happens, when it comes to the environment, I do care, but I would not say that I am absolutely passionate it… until now that is. I joke that after having spent some time in British Columbia visiting my family this summer, I may have turned into an avid environmentalist overnight. When you’re out in BC, you can’t help but become an advocate for the environment. Everywhere you turn, you are surrounded by mountains, trees, and lakes, absolutely breathtaking.

My friend Kristina Lugo, had a brilliant guest post over at Justice for All by Akhila Kolisetty a couple of weeks ago, and she has some great insight on how to get people to care about a social issue, or any social issue for that matter:

And on that note, with a sudden interest in diving and given some of the photos below, I now have much more of an interest in preserving not only our environment on land, but in the water as well.  A little self-serving perhaps, but in the end, I believe to really get people to care or even be inspired to take on an issue, it really needs to be brought down to the personal level.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(above diving photos courtesy of Jobelle Nepomuceno, taken in the Philippines)

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It’s funny how I was at the ChangeMedium event at MaRS in Toronto yesterday, and today, I find myself face to face with a life-size replica of the Mars Rover at the Physica Phantastica Exhibit in uptown Waterloo, part of the Quantum to Cosmos festival hosted by the Perimeter Institute.

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