A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Should you be interested in 'blog surfing' then, Weblogs.Com: Recently Changed Weblogs has an ever-changing list of thousands.

Labels: blogging

Below is a picture of H3 that I took last night. He follows in the grand tradition of the previous pets: Hamster1 and Hamster2. They may have looked similar but each has had a unique, little personality. The previous one hated cheese but as you can see, H3 is a more traditional rodent.

Labels: pets

Let's get a bit techie today: Streaming audio over the Internet is not new. I still have several, half-hour programs I converted from dusty, old audio tape to Real Audio format eight years ago! [Editor: These are in mp3 format now.] Information on the Higher Colleges of Technology BBS was discussed on Dubai FM and remains online to this day. Yet now, what's amazing to me is how increasing high-speed connections are providing extremely high-quality streaming nowadays. If you use MS Windows media, just go to the radio tuner tab and in the search box type 100K. There are a couple of pages of entries which should be available at near CD quality. Years ago, I thought this type of bandwidth use was just too precious for audio. [Editor: Therefore the original encoding is very poor by today's standards.]

Labels: BBS, Dubai, Internet, Mediaplayer

Now, I'm really convinced that blogs are a fantastic way to initiate communication.

I just got an email from a Mr. Gaurav Pahwa. He is in India and said he was looking at this blog. He appreciated the pictures and asked for more. So, here's another picture from when my sister was here last month. It is Horseshoe Bay, BC. There are provincial government ferries which leave from this area and travel across to Vancouver Island. Write again when you have a chance, Gaurav.

Labels: BC Ferries, British Columbia, India

Thanks for stopping in town yesterday. I think it was a smart move for you to switch from Zellers to Sears Canada. I also feel that you should be receiving a medal rather than a subpoena and court date. You get more of my respect than many government officials; after all, you have created an empire through your own efforts.

==Dennis

P.S. I drink a lot of wine and I'm very happy with the quality of your corkscrew. In addition, I hope you've forgiven Cybill Shepherd.

Labels: government

Finally, we're having rain, today!

Labels: weather

I got a message from Michael Ansart the other day about the death of singer/songwriter Warren Zevon. You see during my college days, a group of three ran an arcade in our small town in New Hampshire. The Harbor Gameroom was a hangout for not only summer visitors but also for the local youth in our tourist town of Sunapee. In that arcade there was a jukebox that burned the favorite tunes of those times into our brains. During the summer of 1978 one of those songs was Zevon’s Werewolves of London.

Here’s a recent email exchange:

Michael Ansart: For some reason as soon as I heard the news, I felt the pain from old bruises sustained in a cardboard "pizza disk” fight at the gameroom.

Dennis Hurd: Thanks for the news. Okay, Bret ... what was the number on the jukebox?

Bret Wirta: All this ol' brain remembers is N4. Was that Main Street? Love is Like Oxygen?

Mark Wirta: Why couldn't it have been the Heart sisters instead. Would have given me some measure of satisfaction for having to listen to Barracuda every time that Bungay kid had an extra quarter.

Dennis Hurd: You mean the jukebox used quarters? I remember just opening a little door, reaching inside, and hitting ...

Michael Ansart: Years ago I saw Warren Zevon in a small club, I went in just liking his music, but came away with a bit of admiration for the man. He was three songs into his first set, when this loud group of approx. 8 entered the club and made a big deal with the club staff. Essentially demanding that they set a table up for them near the front of the stage. The club staff, trying to avoid a scene complied. Between songs, the loud and most obnoxious of the 8 repeatedly tried to talk with Zevon. Right in the middle of one song, Zevon simply stopped playing and turned to the audience and said, “Did you ever notice how the f#$*ing a*^holes who are up front at a show, are the ones who care least about the music?” Then he announced to a semi-stunned crowd, “I’m not going to continue until this table is empty” Then to wild applause the club staff escorted the table of 8 to the door. Ever since that night, I always enjoyed listening to Zevon a little more.

Labels: Bret, games, music, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

I looked at yesterday's entry and noticed that the picture gave a limited view of downtown. This is the older part of New Westminster having reached its zenith during the 50's. Since then, uptown has seen most of the development. Most shopping moved to the malls at the top of the hill. It's quite a hill too; people need to walk bicycles (and Dennis always drives).

I thought perhaps I could show the eastern part of downtown better if I included a picture from the other side of the river. It was taken from a small park which is directly across from our buildings.

I even put in an arrow to show my window:


In other news, yesterday on the phone, Jay said that his mom's condition is worsening.

Labels: Fraser River, New Westminster

Laurie, you should recognize this scene. Doesn't it seem a long time ago that you were visiting?

This apartment is on the tenth floor overlooking the Fraser River in New Westminster. There is still some industry up river, so barges with logs and working tugs regularly pass by. The apartment faces south, but for this picture, I was looking down river. Can you see the river-boat casino that's parked at the New Westminster Quay? Behind that, you should be able to see the Alex Fraser Bridge. The river splits into a north and south branch almost within view. The Fraser's waters enter the Strait of Georgia about 18 kilometers from here.

I took the picture just seconds ago:

Labels: balcony, Fraser River, Laurie, Quay

It's Monday but I don't have to run off to work. I taught a course this summer and am taking leave until November. Then, I will teach a special, intense course that will finish just before Christmas.

The new TV-season begins tonight. There’s a lot of buzz about Nip/Tuck.

I consider the satellite PVR as the best purchase made last year. It's a satellite receiver with built in hard disk. Programs are taped as files. The clarity is exactly the same as the original broadcast. There's a three day schedule for all channels and in order to set it up for recording, one just highlights the selection. It has entirely changed the way I do television.

1) There are always 10 or 20 hours of programming available.
2) I never watch something just 'cause it's on.
3) I can time shift by picking programs on an earlier eastern Canadian feed.
4) Lastly, there's a fast commercial skip.

Did you know that an hour program is really only 44 minutes? Think how much more TV watching I can pack into an evening!

Labels: television

There was rain last night! It's probably strange to be so happy about it in Vancouver but we need more to end the drought.

Labels: weather