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

The group shown in yesterday's picture really is special! They arranged for dinner reservations after the final examination. We ate a delicious meal in a restaurant on Kingsway. In my six years at BCIT, many classes have discussed doing something special, but these people were the first to move from a plan to real action. Additionally, they insisted on paying for their instructor which I thought was very kind and generous!

Labels: BCIT

After seeing the intense hours spent acquiring technical writing
skills, I find a great deal of respect for my classes. This batch, however,
was especially memorable. At BCIT we do lots of group tasks and
these students were very earnest and great at staying on task.
Today, we complete the final examination for COMM 0003.

Labels: BCIT

A month ago, I wrote about a free program that reads RSS syndicated feeds. Subscribing to feeds allows one to keep up on the titles of late-breaking news and blog stories. If a story appears interesting, a simple click transports one to the originating site. My feeds are as varied as:

Wired News - http://www.wired.com/news_drop/netcenter/netcenter.rdf
Christian Science Monitor Headline News - http://www.csmonitor.com/rss/top.rss
The Peanuts Comic Strip - http://dwlt.net/tapestry/peanuts.rdf
National Geograpic Environmental News - http://xml.newsisfree.com/feeds/89/3489.xml
Dictionary.com Word of the Day - http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/wotd.rss
THIS BLOG - http://www.dennissylvesterhurd.com/blog/index.xml

I've now deleted NewsDesk, the stand-alone program. It seems as if the most convenient RSS News Reader applications are online and viewable via a browser window. This makes perfect sense to me because personalized subscriptions become available on any net-enabled computer. I saved my OPML list of over 70 subscriptions and loaded them into BLOGLINES. It's simple, neat, efficient and free. It only takes a second or two to sign up, so give it a try:

Bloglines | Free, Web-Based News Aggregator

I live near Vancouver, British Columbia. It really doesn't make any difference what the groundhog saw the other day!


This picture was taken last Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver.
(See the entry from January 31st.) We gloat about our warm winters; whereas,
at this time the rest of Canada is often digging out from under winter storms.
If this scene looks good to you now; just wait till I include a picture when the
spring and summer flowers are blooming!

Labels: flora and fauna

Some guys my age run out and buy themselves a Porche. I'm grateful that I don't have the means for such a useless extravagance! Actually, if I had more cash than I knew what to do with, I still don't think I'd own a swank vehicle.

In my mind, pieces of metal with attached wheels are simply transportation. Could this belief have germinated because dad provided me with a Ford Pinto in high school? Being able to get to another place was more important than the style in which it was accomplished. (Actually, simply getting there and back was sometimes an accomplishment!)

Don't even get me started talking about the fools who buy more car than they can afford and then have to work their butts off to pay for it (while it only sits in the parking lot when they are working.)

I do like the look of the Chevy SSR though. I think the design of the SSR reminds me of a Pug puppy; it's so ugly it's cute. One is even my current Windows wallpaper. Maybe when I decide to replace my 1996 Ranger in 2012, there will be cool new vehicles on the road.

I always thought by then I'd own a little spaceship like the Jetsons had!

Labels: cars, opinions

HAPPY
BIRTHDAY,
LAURIE

I'll never forget your birthday 'cause it's also Groundhog Day!
You are pretty old now, aren't you?

Labels: Laurie

This is our friend, Jiwan. He attended Vancouver Community College a few years ago.

VCC's downtown campus specializes in training for careers in hospitality, health, business and technology and other areas. In many of the programs offered at City Centre, content is primarily one-third theory and two-thirds practical experience gained in working situations.

Here's the contact information:

City Centre Campus
250 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1S9
Tel: (604) 443-8300
Fax: (604) 443-8588

As you can tell by the photograph to the right, Jiwan took a program to qualify as a baker. Look at the size of that rolling pin; it could be a lethal weapon! The picture was taken by the college for their promotional materials.

They've made use of it too. Can you imagine seeing a life-sized cardboard cutout of yourself? We once spotted one at the Pacific National Exhibition Fair. The PNE is an annual 'county-fair type' event which takes place just a few kilometers from downtown Vancouver.

Jay occasionally walks through the downtown VCC Campus on his way to work. He maintains that a copy still haunts the hallways of the college to this very day!

Labels: Vancouver

This is the latest trouble maker. I've been the recipient of quite a bit of mail containing this virus. If people just wouldn't open mysterious message attachments, then there wouldn't be trouble! We teach kids to be careful near strangers but ignore such reasoning when reading our own email!

Information from Microsoft

Labels: software

I was trying to decide what song would
fit with yesterday's picture of an indoor
jungle. I passed up the obvious one by the
Steve Miller Band and went with this by
Harry Belafonte who has an interesting
biography. Click the graphic above to listen
to the Banana Boat Song.

Labels: music