It’s been a good week. I rode my bike to work three times, only missing a day because I had no way to carry my rock climbing stuff with me on Thursday.

The first day of riding nearly killed me, as my legs just weren’t used to it at all. After three days, the trip is already immensely easier, and I’m actually really enjoying myself. It’s nice to get a little bit of exercise before and after work, and I’ve had a lot more energy overall this week. With the traffic I have to go through while driving to and from work, it’s nearly as fast, if not faster at times, to ride a bike, so this is definitely something I’d like to keep up.

I bought a camera a couple of days ago, a Canon SD1100 IS. I haven’t had much of a chance to take it out yet, but I’m quite happy with what I’ve seen. This is the first camera I’ve had with image stabilization, and it seems to be worth the extra cost so far.

Thursday night, a friend and I went to see Wintersleep, an indie rock band from Halifax. It was a fantastic show, even worth standing in a crowd of drunk idiots to watch.

Unfortunately, their opening band, The Most Serene Republic, weren’t great. The lead singer looked like he was trying too hard to be quirky, and they sounded really messy most of the time. I just listened to a few of their studio recordings on their MySpace page, and they actually sound pretty good, so maybe they just have to get their live act together.

I’ve attached “Laser Beams” from Wintersleep’s Welcome To The Night Sky album for your listening pleasure.

This just seems wrong, somehow.

I hadn’t heard of Schmap before, but they decided to use one of my Munich photos from Flickr in their guide. The photo they chose isn’t an especially good shot, but they only display it at a maximum width of 150 pixels, so most photos will look decent at that size.

It seems to be a great guide for tourists. It will display a map of a city, using Yahoo! Maps, with marked points of interest. You can select a destination, read a description of the area, and view a photo chosen from Flickr. Points of interest include everything from neighborhoods and parks to museums and pubs. It also has information on walking paths, cultural events, and dining recommendations. It seems like a really good resource, and I’ll try to make use of it on my next trip. It has fairly wide coverage in Europe, North America, and Oceania, but only in major cities right now.

Choosing photos from Flickr, with permission from the photographers, is a terrific idea. Not only do they have access to photos from all over the world, but they receive an enormous amount of word of mouth publicity from it. Most people are more than happy to let them use their photos, and most people, like I am today, will link to their contribution. Free photos and free marketing. Pure genuis.