Top Ten Historical Figures from Nanaimo's Past

Here is a list of the most important figures from Nanaimo's past (not in any special order).

1.    Frank Ney

2.   Robert Dunsmuir

3.   Joseph McKay

4.   Adam Grant Horne

5.   Mark Bate

6.  Pete Maffeo

7.  Coal Tyee

8.

9.

10.


A good website for information about the context surrounding these individuals is:

Nanaimo Information.com (Nanaimo History Forum)

Old Photos of Nanaimo

I've scanned these old photos from clippings from the Nanaimo Daily News as a part of Nanaimo's centennary celebrations.     Quite rare and interesing.

Some websites with good pictures of old Nanaimo

Nanaimo-Info.com

Cool Old Buildings Discussion board with pics

Photo Restorations

Gallery 223 Historic Photographs

Poetry and Spring

Poetry and spring make good friends. Here is one of the greatest classical Chinese poems by the inestimable Li Bai.

DRINKING ALONE WITH THE MOON

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me --
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring....
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

From 300 Selected Poems of the Tang Dynasty

http://www.chinapage.com/poem/300poem/t300a.html

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tonight's Dinner Visitor

We had company for dinner today.

Sunrise view from my balcony.

When I am able to rouse myself from slumber on rare winter mornings such as this, the joy is quite palpable.

Location:Nanaimo

The Restaurant

I came across a brilliant blog yesterday by a New York waiter,
Waiter Rant. Again, it humbled me and reminded me of the tremendous value of the Internet in that it allows such genius to express itself to the world and flourish almost without constraint. I understand and appreciate what the blogger has to say as I am myself a waiter (one of my many hats in being a restauranteur). If only I had the self-discipline to write down all the stories.

Today is the start of the week for my restaurant, Amazing Thai, which my wife and I have operated now for three-and-a-half years. By restaurant standards, our week is rather short in that we close on Sundays and Mondays and are open only for dinner on Saturday. We made the choice when we opened the restaurant, to allow ourselves some time. And naturally, part of that time off is spent on other restaurant matters (bookeeping, planning, purchasing, cleaning). In addition to my wife and I, we have a staff of four -- three cooks and a waitress/kitchen helper. The latter helps us on Friday and Saturday nights when it is really busy, one of the cooks serves as assistant manager and primary cook, and we have one lunch cook and one dinner cook. Normally, two cooks and one server (my wife or I) staff the place.
The restaurant has done exceptionally well since day one, with a devoted customer base that appreciates our great food and service. We are small -- only eight tables -- but cozy and classy. The atmosphere is very Thai with the walls filled with Thai pictures and the shelves with Thai mementoes. Our prices are mid-range, which opens us to customers from all strata. In many ways, our cuisine is comfort food and we are a neighborhood restaurant.

The interesting thing is that before we opened the restaurant, neither my wife nor I had any restaurant experience (other than as diners). Friends feared for our failure, aware of the stats on business failure in this field. I, however did have small business experience from ten years back, plus a business degree. And my wife is a terrific cook. We are both teachers, which helps immensely when it comes to training the staff, particularly the cooks. It has helped also, that we have had no direct competition since we opened the business. We are the only Thai restaurant in town.

The Examined Life

As I resume this new activity called blogging, I am amazed at the sheer volume of blogs on the internet and the originality and quality of many of them. They humble me at times. Being in part a restauranteur, this morning I googled 'restaurant blog' and encountered some interesting sites, the best being this humourous and creative blog by a New York waiter, Waiter Rant
I want there to be a greater purpose to this blog than a mere journal. My own website, Life in Progress generates several thousand hits per month, particularly the pages about Buddhism and the pages about Thailand. But it isn't particuarly focussed. Is this going to merely be a variation on the same theme, but more engaged and perhaps more interactive? I would like there to be a focus in order to generate more interest from the internet community.

An important part of any blog is the title, for this is in large part what google uses. The only way people will come to this blog is from googling it or from links from other blogs. The title and the focus are connected, of course. What shall I call it. The present title isn't appropriate as at present I don't want to focus on Vancouver Island, but rather on life.

And so, on to life.

The Average person is living his or her life in search of something -- from waking to sleeping -- engaged in a process of maintenance and advancement (though sometimes suffering regression) -- buffered this way and that by forces internal and external. By internal I mean the body and the mind. By external, I mind the world outside. The body says rest, but the mind says work. The boss says do this overtime, but the mind says the family is waiting. A Tsunami hits and the search for enlightenment becomes a focus on survival.

It seems trite to say all this. And yet, how many of us live a life we can be proud of and are a content with. I often fear that Thoreau's pronouncement that "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." continues to ring true.
We are ruled by fear or desire. Wordsworth: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."

Organized religion in America has grown in popularity and influence in recent years, quite unlike in other developed nations. I suspect that this is in part because Americans are seeking a meaning and direction to their lives after finding that 'getting and spending' is not enough. Doubtless for most, some sort of guidance is helpful. I have found this in philosophy and in Buddhism. Both identify the central problems of life, individually and in the world, and suggest ways to deal with the problems.

My next blog will look at what Aristotle had to say.