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

... right after this brief commercial announcement.

I come from a long line of pack rats. The 'junk gene' is dominant. My dad has an old shed just to keep near-useless crap. Old snowmobile parts, Volkswagen engines, and deals too good to pass up fill it to the rafters. I've got no barn but the digital equivalent. Hail, Adobe Systems, you are blessed! You've made it possible to keep paper documents on computer disks. Now, I've got tremendously large spaces to try to fill up.

Click the little thumbnail to see the PDF file of a hotel brochure. We picked up the original last weekend when staying at the Quality Inn and Suites of friends. If you'd like to sample other PDF files, you can visit a whole page of online storage links.

I was checking photos that I've uploaded to Flickr. They've been viewed a total of 8,800 times and this particular one is the 19th most popular.



Taken in 2004, the baby and mother monkey were not in a zoo. There were at the Dambulla Rock Temple in Sri Lanka. The caves are a short walk up a mountain and in back of a more recently-built temple.

Labels: Flickr, monkeys, Sri Lanka 2004, temple

I never know from day to day what will become part of this blog. I think, in a way, not knowing is good. It allows me to think of each entry as an opportunity. For example, I could write poetry tomorrow. I could share newly-found wisdom with the world. It'd be possible to use the space to explain a photograph. Or I suppose I could just complain about something or someone.

Today, I've chosen to do none of the above. I will include a response I got to yesterday's entry. Thank you for writing, Mr. Dusan. How humbled I feel to have a regular reader in Slovakia! Getting a personal note from a place to which I've never been demonstrates the power of this medium. This message will prove to be great encouragement on those days when I need a little coaxing to get something online.

Dear Dennis,

I've learnt English for many years (with some longer pauses about 25 years). But I'm not very gifted to learn languages. I've learnt something and after some time I've forgotten it! But now I have strong motivation. I have to learn English in my job. I have 5 strong and busy classmates and an agreeable teacher.

I agree with you! - idea to keep things moving. The best lesson for me is that one if I don't watch the time. And grammar exercise can be very boring topic...

I like to listening podcasts. My favourite one is www.eslpod.com. I've never been to any English speaking country yet and so I am not very experienced listener. It is very good idea to speak slowly! But I'm trying to pick up Voice of America's MP3 files or NASA podcast too.

My learning is time-consuming (reading, listening, preparing for classes). Thanks to Internet is my learning nearly connected to real life and therefore it is more enjoyable.

So, have a nice day
Dusan.

Labels: blogging, sharing, technology

I'm proud of my classroom management. I feel as though I can organize a class well. I mix activies in a way that keeps things moving. My thrill of teaching comes from classroom interaction rather than a love of the materials. I seldom find time to sit though. There's nothing less interesting than a teacher who just hands out grammar worksheets!

In ESL when we refer to authentic materials, we're talking about using real documents such as articles from newspapers. Although less controlled than textbooks, the motivation is increased by using things from real life.

I called BCIT's Audio/Video Department and arranged for a TV and DVD for each of my classes this term. Yesterday, I brought in my first homemade DVD containing stories from the Canada's Daily Planet which is broadcast on the Discovery Channel. They have kindly made this program copyright free for use in schools.




There are some excellent 5 to 6 minutes segments. In fact, over the past week, I've been recording the program on my satellite hard-disk recorder. Next, I've selected and copied off interesting stories to my computer's hard drive though a video capture card. This means they've ended up as mpeg files. I selected about a dozen of these last night, created a menu, and burned a DVD. Now I will be able to bring a bit of the real world into my classroom. Finally, I will be able to duplicate these for other teachers and perhaps provide copies that my students can borrow and take home.

Labels: BCIT, technology

There are lots of factors that affect the number of views a photo will get on Flickr. First, having a large number of friends and contacts may increase the number of times an image is viewed. Next, the day and time of the upload may have an impact on the number of views. This is due to the fact some people surf the most recently uploaded ones. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the quality of tags can greatly affect the number of times an image is seen as searches play an important role.

I'm only mentioning these because at times there are photos that I like, which don't always perform well. The photo below was taken at Deception Pass. It's located nine miles north of Oak Harbor, WA and nine miles south of Anacortes, on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound.



I like this photo but after 24 hours only one person has bothered to look whereas silly photos uploaded at the same time have been seen dozens of time. Who can figure?

Labels: Flickr, places

This afternoon, I'll be happily beginning a new COMM 0004 course at BCIT. I look forward to meeting my new students.

On a different note, I'm very happy we were able to get away over the weekend. To see a thirty-two-picture slide show from the trip to Sequim, Washington, just view the Sequim Trip tag at my Flickr account.

Labels: BCIT, Flickr

We had a nice trip going to Sequim yesterday and returning late this afternoon. It was about 250 kilometers (150 miles) each way excluding the half hour ferry between Keystone and Port Townsend, Washington.

This picture to the right comprises my two high school buddies, their wives, and Jay. I took the picture overlooking Dungeness Spit, a five mile strip that runs along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We want to thank Bret for organizing the event and for the wonderful suites in their hotel.

Labels: Bret, Joel, places