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

Sometimes, I'm amazed there are as many hobbies as there are. People eventually find their own personal niche in developing things to do as an interest. Here in New Westminster, our school board runs adult-education classes. I'm always impressed by the variety of things people do in their spare time. For example, I'd have never thought of creating stained-glass windows as a recreational endeavor.

To the right, you'll see a photo I stole from a friend's test blog. He is very keen on fountain pens. I would've thought this was a personal idiosyncrasy, but apparently there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people with this as an interest. These folks collect. swap, and sell. They also spend time learning about the different companies which created their writing instruments.

Tim's Fountain Pens & Curiosities

Labels: Tim

It's amazing how quickly we adapt to changes in technology and then would find it difficult living without. For example, think of banking. Do you remember when you had to stand waiting for a person in order to get your money out?

The image to the left is a slice of a computer screen shot. It shows just part of a page for the current Communication class I'm teaching. How did we function as an educational institute before instantaneous email? The system is exceedingly efficient as students are automatically granted access as soon as their data hits the BCIT registration system. Furthermore, only these students are allowed access to the information at our course homepage. I'm making a determined effort to completely use the facilities this term. Already, I can't imagine living without it.

a) The announcement feature is very important this summer as we only meet on Saturdays and Sundays. This allows me to keep them informed of important schedule changes or just about any important news.

b) Why photocopy an information sheet when I can upload the original file which can be read online? My class has 100% Internet access from home.

c) Instead of writing down a useful URL on the blackboard, it's much easier and more efficient to add it to the links on myBCIT.

d) I remember collecting portfolios in which I would get the students to write a series of short answers on different topics. I had to collect the binders at the end of term to look them over. Now, it's all there, online, under a message board area. I type in a question, they write the answers, and we all can read the results.

Labels: Internet, myBCIT, software

Yesterday afternoon the weather was nice. I decided to do some hunting. I loaded up no gun as this is not a rural area. Rather, I popped my new Gateway notebook into a carrying case. I wanted to see what sort of wireless networks I could find in the neighbourhood.



This building itself was quite a goldmine with around six. Yet of course, the further I wandered from residential towers the fewer connections were available. I had to completely give up on the idea of Internet browsing up at my favourite little park. There were two networks with fair signal strength; however, both Justin and Sexmachine were secured by password. That is a real shame, isn't it?

Labels: Hardware

Once in a blue moon, I've got to recoup some of the investment in my Canon scanner by giving it an occasional task. So, here's something from a by-gone era. By clicking the image to the right, you'll load a full-page .pdf version.

This is the copy of a clipping from the Argus-Champion. It was a local newspaper which used to be published in Newport, New Hampshire. The clipping is a very kind review of our 'senior play' that was staged in 1977. I was in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap years before I'd seen a real production of it. I wonder how come I got to play the role of Christopher Wren?

I'm including this here as perhaps some fellow thespians from that place and time will find it interesting. If you wish to see a broader collection of my historical .pdf documents, please visit the main site's pdf Storage area.

Labels: file archives, New Hampshire

We've now lived in New Westminster for nine years and we'd not choose another city in the Vancouver area. We have always enjoyed the feeling of true community. Things are in the midst of change and the reputation of the city also seems to be changing for the better too. The whole region is experiencing growth. However, I was a bit surprised to learn that eventually we'll be just a few blocks away from the new height in chic urban living!

Azure at Plaza88

Does that mean they'll chase away the crystal-meth sellers from the New Westminster Skytrain Station soon?

Labels: New Westminster, transit

Where in the world am I? Any web page can include information about it's geographic location in the form of an ICBM code meta tag. Since the beginning of this blog, I've included the following in my blog template:

"meta name="ICBM" content="49.205, -122.906"
"meta name="DC.title" content="my eJournal and images"

It's just the longititude and lattitude and an associated name. Now, with the wide spread use of GPS equipment, I'd think the practice would be more widespread. The information can be used in various ways, for example GeoUrl provides easy access to sites near 'my eJournal and images'. Additionally, I found this interesting map and notation which combines site location information with GoogleMaps:

Labels: blogging, GPS

This is a scanned black and white shot taken with one of my first cameras. This was Mt. Sunapee in the very early 1970's. The view was from my bedroom window at the time. After living here for so long, all mountains back east look much smaller than I remember!

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee