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

Earlier this week, I was saying here how we've been in Canada approaching a decade. As I've got this growing online reservoir of recollections, people searching for data often stop by to ask questions. After a few more years of story-telling, I'll be nearer a complete autobiography; it just won't be in sequential order. Here's an email note I received out of the blue from a stranger this week:

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Dennis,

I see you taught at TINS in Saudi Arabia too. I was there 12 years ago. Meanwhile I've been in Germany and am now back in Dhahran in KSA. I left the medical school at Arabian Gulf University on Bahrain after just 4 months. Terrible place. The worst ELT department I've ever encountered. That is apart from the students. They're mainly Saudi girls. Some the most gifted students I ever taught.

Anyway, over there I was living down the road from the BDF base near Riffa and heard that they run English courses. I'd be really grateful if you could let me know who I could contact there. I'd love to get back to Bahrain some time. I'm eagerly waiting for my exit/re-entry visa so I can go over for the weekend.

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Labels: blogging, Q1_2006, Saudi Arabia, sharing, technology

Work this week is really cutting into my free time. This also means that it's negatively affecting the quality of my blog entries! When I'm teaching an intensive course, I generally go to campus four days a week. This week is an exception and I have class today as well. I'm not knocking my situation as I really enjoy the students, materials, and program.

I am very thankful for so many things in life. I have met far too many people who act as though the world owes them. They believe they should have automatic entitlements just because .. well .. they were born. I've never felt this way. I'm extremely humbled by the fact there are:

a comfortable roof over my head and warm blankets on my bed.

food in my stomach (obviously enough) and clothes on my back.

so frequent opportunities to visit different pastures.

those who walk though the journey of life with me.

It's not that I have set my sights low, I am just honestly appreciative with the hand life has dealt. In fact, I used to consider it a miracle that I can do a task I like and find someone willing to pay me for it. I wish a bit more of our society shared my gratitude.

Labels: feelings, Q1_2006

Oh no! He's not going start singing the praises of Flickr again, is he?

I've got over 1300 photos on my Flickr account now. Some are daily digital pictures while many are old, scanned photographs. It's nice knowing that if I were anywhere on the globe, I could show people the view from my balcony, my childhood dog, or Jay and me atop the Empire State Building. Although images are added as one gets the chance, locating a specific one is as easy as typing in a tag word.



I found the picture from a trip through Washington State when I looked for photos tagged with 'highway'. (Try clicking the word yourself.) Other images that come up include roads in France, Kuwait, the UAE, Sri Lanka, and northern British Columbia.

I see this as an exciting new way to interact with personal pictures. This method cannot be duplicated when pictures are all tucked away in silly albums. It'd be a logistical impossibility. Flickr gives rise to a complete shift in the concept of photo storage and retrieval, eh?

Labels: Flickr, Q1_2006, road trip

I was recently wondering how long a person has to have lived in an area before one could be considered as hailing from there. I suppose different aspects of life require differing amounts of time. For example, as far as one's bank is concerned, it's as soon as they receive the newest mailing address. While, there may be other aspects that will always harken back to more formative years. For example early schooling will always determine a great deal of one's feelings of place.

Although it shouldn't take me by surprise, I am a bit astonished that we're aproaching a decade in New Westminster, British Columbia. In July of 1996 the plane landed at YVR. It is most certainly home and has felt so for a number of years. That point was recently driven home.

The area is approaching a weather record that's been in effect since 1953. We are nearing the record for back-to-back rainy days. I am pretty confident that I can be considered a local because I'm now rooting for continued rain.

Labels: New Westminster, Q1_2006

I met with them for the first time yesterday afternoon. If first impressions are valid, they will be a fun and hardworking group. The thing that amazes me is that my records seem to indicate this is the twenty-seventh course I've taught at BCIT.

Of course the numbers add up more quickly than one might imagine. This occurs because many courses do not run for an entire term but rather are specialized, intensive courses. For example, this course meets only 21 times over 5 weeks. Each class is four hours long, so we will be able to accomplish a great deal of work.

Labels: BCIT, Q1_2006

How much of your time at the keyboard now takes place on the Internet? The change has been a while in coming but I'd say it's here. Nowadays, I spend much more time typing in www.blogger.com, www.gmail.com and my.bcit.ca than in Microsoft Word on my local drive. If my Internet connection were to fail, I'd consider my computer broken.

Whatever did I used to do on pre-Net computers? How did I spend so much time on a PC in the decade from 1985 to 1995? Oh yeah. It was possible do do things with local software only.

Here, I scanned a picture of Jay playing Moonbugs on an old XT-compatible in Bahrain in 1990. Click it to see it on Flickr.

Labels: Bahrain, games, Q1_2006, software

There really is magic in photos. How lucky kids are growing up with digital cameras today. I hope they take more pictures than I used to. Each print cost money, so maybe that's why we seldom snapped ordinary life.



This twenty-five year old, scanned image was taken when I worked at my very first job in Kuwait. These guys were mechanics and became friends. I didn't learn much Farsi but they were happy to use English. Without this image, I probably would've completely forgotten what they looked like!

Labels: Kuwait, Persian, Q1_2006, scanned