Weaselhead Calgary

A great place to hike and walk is the Weaselhead. This park comprises the area around the Glenmore Reservoir. You can follow the pathways past the Calgary rowing center.

For complete information please visit the City of Calgary website for the Weaselhead.

Confederation Park

Confederation Park offers a lot of recreation opportunities inside  Calgary. A series of maintained paths offers an ice free place to walk. There are also a lot of opportunities to snowshoe, run, and cross country ski during the winter.

During the summer you could easily pass a day biking and rollerblading. There are also a lot of quiet benches where you can just sit and read a book. The city website also lists tennis courts.

The path system also meanders past the confederation park golf course. I noticed a lot of cross country ski trails and even a few snowshoe trails. The ducks are very friendly too -- even venturing out of the water toward me while I took their picture!

For more information visit the City of Calgary Website.

Devonian Gardens

Downtown Calgary hides several free pleasures. Devonian Gardens is a fantastic relaxation spot. You will find lots of quiet places to eat your lunch, take pictures or just people watch. Lunch is often very busy so it's best to go at off times if your goal is to relax.

Recent updates to the gardens has made this a much more ergonomic space. I do find that the variety of plants has been reduced, and I no longer see Coy fish in the ponds.

For full information please visit the City of Calgary Website.

Ubuntu

For those of you with an interest in computers, I have an interesting project for you. There is a free operating system called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux with a very easy to use graphical user interface, and a fairly painless installation process.

Ubuntu installs standard with video and audio players, office suites, web browsers and a decent email client. You can also download the powerful image editor GIMP, which is arguably more powerful than Adobe Photoshop. The nicest part of the operating system is the software centre  The function of the Ubuntu Software Centre will be familiar to you as it is the inspiration for the current Apple store. Linux had been famous for difficult installation processes. Using Ubuntu, you choose an app and it's downloaded and installed.

I have a five year old Dell laptop that was very powerful in it's time. This laptop  was having a hard time keeping up with today's video intensive applications. I wiped the hard drives of the old laptop and installed Ubuntu. The operating system installed perfectly the first attempt! With a bit of tweaking I was able to do pretty much everything I needed to do day to day on the Ubuntu Machine.

I so love Ubuntu that I installed it on my new laptop, and I simply choose Windows 7 or Ubuntu at startup.

Ubuntu is great for re purposing older PC's. There is a lot of free software that has been tested and set up to install. If you have a newer PC or some uncommon hardware you may need to spend some time searching the internet for solutions.

For frugality you can't beat Ubuntu. I've also been able to break the chains of the iTunes store with the advent of Ubuntu and my Android phone. I'm no longer giving Apple money to download music and I am still able to load my iPod devices.

I won't go into the technical details of the installation process or all of the features of the Operating system but you can have a look at Ubuntu for yourself.

Calgary Airport bus

Calgary transit offers a great service to the airport from downtown. The bus runs every 30 minutes and costs $3.00 from downtown to the airport and $8.00 from the airport to downtown. You are able to take your luggage with you.

The thrifty part of this service is that a round trip costs less than one day of parking at the airport. The other great benefit is that your car stays safe at home.

For more information please visit the City of Calgary website.

Skating at Olympic Plaza

Zamboni at work on a Sunday afternoon.

You just can't beat Olympic Plaza's outdoor skating rink for a fun afternoon. Grab your skates and your significant other and head out for some exercise. There is no change area but there are plenty of benches. In the evenings the area is lit up and decorated very nicely.

The best part of this idea is that skating is free to the public.

For more information please visit the City of Calgary Website.

Newspaper Direct Press Display

The Newspaper Direct Press Display function on the Calgary Public Library site is one of my favorites. This service allows you to read newspapers from around the world on your PC or tablet. You will require a bit of scrolling and zooming if using small tablet.

To access the website point your browser to www.calgarypubliclibrary.com. Along the top of the webpage you will see this bar:

Click the E-library link. In the bottom left section of the next webpage you will see a menu as follows :

Click the Newspaper Direct Press Display link. Enter your Calgary Library card and pin numbers and click Sign In.

After you log in you will see a title bar with some icons across the top.

Choose the publication from the Select Title drop down and read any newspaper or publication you find in the list.

Simple as that. I LOVE this because you can read the newspaper every day for the cost of the CPL Card ($12.00/year). Even better that you can read it at home in your jammies drinking your morning beverage! It's also nice to be able to read your local papers while you are on vacation!