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

I got a nice email from the UAE yesterday. It was a surprise as it was a name from long ago. It was connected with the computer bulletin board system that I initiated at Dubai Men's College of the Higher Colleges of Technology. I helped nurture modem-use in the country before the Internet had arrived.

Mr Dennis:

Hi! How've you been? It's been a long time. Do you remember me eh? You're the SysOp and I was the user! LOL The Electronic Forum BBS! You'd let me create a forum exclusively for English Language! We used to exchange mails even after you've left Dubai. But then we lost touch. I Yahoo-ed you today! That's how I got your email address again. I didn't forget your name. I wrote it in my very first homepage -- couple of years back. You used to inspire me. Still do very much. I miss you.

Sincerely,
Maqsood

It is very nice to know that one's actions are remembered and appreciated. The thing that is scary though is how quickly time passes. (I used to hear old people say that.) We left Dubai ten years ago this year. In some ways it seems like yesterday, but after seeing what present-day college students looked like at the Christmas of 1996 ...

Labels: BBS, Christmas, Dubai

My switch over to a new hosting company is complete. On my part, this change will make completing blog entries a bit easier. Blogger.com easily connects to the new server whereas before I had to publish to a temporary domain and FTP to the proper place. What will this mean to my readers? Nothing, really.



I am pleased to have more storage too. I won't shy away from making sure that every entry has an image of some sort. I have already been doing this for a while, actually. Today, I searched my collection for a colourful photo to upload. The image above was taken at the annual Kite Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This was in September of 2004.

VIEW BLOGGED TRIP TEXT & PICS:
Week: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09.

Maybe it's time to return to Sri Lanka, for a month or so, this fall. Although quite far, it makes for an excellent trip.

Labels: flying, Sri Lanka 2004, travel planning

When there's a huge variety to choose from, it can be difficult making a decision. Luckily on the www.zip.ca website, there's no rush in deciding on DVD's. It's easy to browse the selections and read about them. If it looks like it'll be of interest, one just clicks and it's added to one's personal upcoming zip list. There's so much of everything. My viewing habits have never been so eclectic.

I didn't know there was a TV remake of The Music Man in 2003. I've long considered the 1962 version a favourite. So when I saw the newer one on the site, I put in a request. That was a while back. There are 50 or 60 selections lined up on my list. The DVD arrived in the mail yesterday, and I started typing this entry while it was playing.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is good. It is colourful. The songs are, of course, familiar. There are a few numbers that were omitted from the original movie version. Some updating was to make it more politically correct. It's nice to know there were actually black people in Iowa at the turn of the last century. Still, this version doesn't seem quite 'right'.

It's funny how much we resist seeing a remake. I applaud Matthew Broderick's portrayal of Professor Harold Hill. It was reserved and smooth, yet I couldn't help but compare it to the original's Robert Preston. The same goes for Marian Paroo; Kristin Chenoweth was great but I kept wanting to see Shirley Jones. Of course it'd be impossible to update Ron Howard as the ultimate little tyke!

The 2003 version is very good and, in some ways, technically superior, but if you've missed the one that's 44 years old, do grab a copy for comparison.

Labels: movies, musical, zip.ca

As a rule, people are very quick to notice when things don't go their way. On the other hand, they're much slower to appreciate those times when things turn out well.



Last week I didn't teach as I was between different intensive courses. The weather turned out to be wonderful during these days of freedom. I took the photo above on an afternoon trip to the Buntzen Lake picnic area. I couldn't have asked for bluer skies. Now this week, I'm again in the classroom and the weather has turned horrible. It's cold and quite miserable outside.

Therefore, today's entry is just a public declaration to show how much I appreciate the way things seemed to work out.

Labels: feelings, weather

(Do you think this image matches the title?)

I've always been pretty good at saving copies of irreplaceable computer files. I must admit my d: drive does have too many music files to regularly backup. I just keep my fingers crossed that the old Maxtor will continue until I get around to put in a fast, new drive for this year's Windows Vista.

My blog backup is always a day or two from being current. This is going to come in handy as I will soon be switching web hosting and domain registration companies. I'm hoping it all goes without hitch. Those fingers are double-crossed now, I guess!

POSSIBLE SERVICE DISRUPTIONS

If you encounter trouble accessing this website later this week, then I ask for your patience while I finalize these procedures. Please feel free to pass on this information to any of the multitudes of other faithful my eJournal and images readers! You will probably be able to recognize them among the crowd because of their snazzy my eJournal and images t-shirts or baseball caps.

Labels: blogging

I teach my new class starting this afternoon. The BCIT website lists it as the second full class. In fact, my class list shows 22 students enrolled. Oh my, that should keep me hopping.

In an email to an ex-colleague who's still in Bahrain, I commented that I've been teaching this particular course for eight years now! I have done a few other levels and I frequently change the COMM 0004 materials which I use.

Still, I always laugh with my students about the fact most of them manage to move up to the new level, but I never quite seem make it.

Labels: BCIT

One side-benefit from turning manic and neurotic due to Flickr, is I'm finally, if ever so slowly, paying attention to my photo suitcase. I've resolved to use a few minutes of my time each day to scan. I find getting the image off paper and into a digital file is quite satisfying. It's nice to get a photo out of a dark storage closet and out onto the Net. It's like I'm setting it free. I am liberating it.

The downside might be having such an abundance of pictures means I may become quite lazy with my blog entries. These weekly pages used to be mostly text and now they've become mostly jpg's. Of course this might all just be a phase.

We've been quite fortunate at being able to walk many different sandy beaches such as those in Bali, Phuket, Kenya, and the Maldives. All the Gulf countries had beaches. Although we visited, we really can't count Turkish beaches as we were there during the winter. Does Juhu Beach of Mumbai count? Of course, we been to most populated areas around the circumference of Sri Lanka. Yes there have been more; for example English Bay in Vancouver, and on the opposite side of the continent, Ft. Lauderdale.



The beach above did stand out for being a bit unique. This newly liberated photo was taken at Waikiki Beach in April of 1998. Now, after nearly eight years of languishing in the photo suitcase, it's available for viewing on computer screens world-wide. This beach was special because it was the only one where I could imagine Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) of Hawaii Five-O running around in a three-piece suit!

Labels: Flickr, Hawaii, places