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Whilst I had a mate over to stay recently we decided it was a good idea to go up to the Rockies, heck he'd not been there before so we really had to. It was darn cold though, but very much worth it.

We started the day by diverting from going straight to Banff by a quick look at Lake Minnewanka from above (as the normal road we would have taken was closed for the winter):

We actually then missed the turning to Banff and so went straight up to Lake Louise where we were met by people skating, hockey being played and some epic ice sculptures...

I even walked across the ice.. really kinda cool.

After a short snack in Banff we decided that we had to go up a mountain. Fourtunately for us Sulphur mountain on t'other side of Banff has a gondolla that goes up it. Its not cheap ~$30 but well worth it.

We even made it up to the cosmic ray station...

This was topped off with dinner at Saltlik in Banff - not great option for veggies but what they have is fantastic. If you like Steak, go there, from what I'm told.

More pictures on [flickr].

A friend with an iphone sent me a .mov file today - I really don't like that format for video so of course I wanted to convert it to a nicer .avi file and this couldn't be simpler with [ffmpeg]:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -aspect '16:9' -sameq -vcodec libxvid output.avi

- this maintains the aspect ratio (I'm using 16:9 as that is what the file was) and uses the same quality as the input.

This, like most things on here is primarily I reminder to myself. This time it probably has less relevance than most times. The other week (on Sat 5th March) a few of us went to a [Bottlescrew Bill's] beerfest here in Calgary. We got to try 20 different beers for $20 so not a bad deal, not as good as some of the whiskey tastings I've been too but still not bad at all. Here is a list of beers you rather enjoyed:

Charlevoix La Vache Folle ESB
Charlevoix La Vache Folle Milk Stout
De Koninck
Big Rock Alpha Dog
Mill Street Tankhouse ale
Liefmans

and surprisingly Samuel Adams Winter Lager...

Whilst I had a friend stay recently we went to a couple of hockey games including the first [WHL] outdoor game. Was a disappointing result with the Calgary Hitmen losing but still was a lot of fun, even if darn cold (-20C ish) !

More from the game [here].

We also took in a couple of [Flames] games, alas even with their excellent form of late they didn't manage to win either. Losing to the Boston Bruins (pics [here]) in regulation and on a shootout to the San Jose Sharks (pics [here])...

Just gotta hope the [Flames] keep it going and make the playoffs.