SARATS Insider Report: London Ontario Will Provide The Mysterious Panel of Judges

As has been proven to me a couple of times now, Internet voting can present some problems. In order to avoid said problems I had been percolating about how to collect my SARATS votes this year. Had been. I now know what I'm gonna do. My intention is to take to the streets and collect video of impartial local strangers as they vote for their favourite trees, which will be presented to them in hard copy form in a binder or something using a laptop slideshow.

I will attempt to spread my vote collecting around; shopping malls, the University of Western Ontario, Dundas & Richmond (the most interesting downtown intersection), and any other spots that pop into my head. The one neighbourhood I might avoid is my own, because this activity is going to prove for once and always that I am a total freak and/or weirdo. I'm thinking I should leave the cam on the helmet and wear it as I do my vote gathering and maybe even create a RANTWICK T-Shirt to wear while I do it... there's no such thing as bad press, you know.

When I'm done I will create a dramatic and suspenseful video that tallies up the votes and declares the winner of 500mL of pure joyjoy tree juice, to be released early in 2012. Such is my dedication to you, dear reader, that I will happily humiliate myself in order to represent your tree in the Second Annual Rantwick Autumn Tree Smackdown. Mrs. Rantwick is somewhat vexed, but as always will roll with my stupidness because she is awesome. On one of her Birthdays (years ago now) I did something similar, collecting video of strangers saying "Happy Birthday L****", and she loved it.

Please keep your eyes peeled for trees and spread the word... our esteemed judges must be given a reasonable number of choices!

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - Guesses at Mrs. Rantwick's first name might be my next contest, although the winner will have to keep that secret right to the grave.

PPS - Since I'm going to print the pictures, smaller, email and Internet friendly pics probably won't look as good, so feel free to send larger attachments. I'll smallify them for the web site, but keep the big 'uns for printing.

PPPS - Never mind that PPS print thing... I'm gonna use a laptop instead.

Better Cyclists? Am I Crazy?

Or are there more cyclists out there doing it "right"? I don't really care to get into a debate about what "right" is... in this case I mean 1) riding on the street rather than the sidewalk 2) riding predictably and 3) using hand signals.

I still see lots of sidewalk riders, salmon, and other reckless riders, but I also see what seems to be a real increase in "good" cycling. Does it seem that way where you live too?

While cycling instruction is available if you look hard enough, I seriously doubt that most of these cyclists I enjoy spotting so much ever had any. I'm betting that many of them are like me, people who were pretty good to begin with but who in the course of googling stuff because they were getting more serious about commuting learned a whole lot more.

The Internet can be a really great thing, especially with very helpful and informative sites like Commute Orlando among many others. For all of you who take the time to instruct, online or in person, thank you very much. I'm all for "butts on bikes" advocacy in some ways, but what you do reduces the number of "buttheads on bikes", which is good for everybody, two-wheeled or four, period.

Hey, if you stumble across this post and have good information to share on where people can go for in-person training, especially in Canada, let me know and I'll add it to my sidebar. I confess I haven't looked very hard, but I'll bet there are some good resources here in Ontario and Canada that I should be promoting in my own small way. Who knows, maybe I'll show up for a little schoolin' myself. I would like to learn that emergency "snap turn" thing people sometimes refer to...

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K