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

A crowded Kuwaiti souk in the evening. - 1982


In case of an apartment flood, copies of my pictures will get soggy and I'm not so sure what'll happen when the big one (earthquake) hits California. I'm trying to say that I uploaded a few more pictures from paper to Flickr's data-centers. I wish I had organized and kept the tons of negatives I shot over the years. Trying to coax a suitable image off 25-year-old, yellowing paper is not always easy.

Every so often I upload a few fragments of my image past to An Old Box in the e-Attic. It's more than convenient to have a representative collection online. Wherever I am, as long as there's an Internet connection, I will have my photo albums with me. Quick! How quickly can you locate a photo of your grandmother? I can do so in seconds.

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, photos are best when shared. After all, you are reading something called, my eJournal and images. Honestly, what good is a photo album if the cover's never cracked open? The whole concept of sharing took on added meaning yesterday. In the evening, I scanned and uploaded eight more photos from Kuwait. I lived in that country from 1981 to 1983 as I was hired for my very first teaching job. I don't have many high-quality pictures from that era. I must have owned a very cheap camera at the time.

The resulting images may not have been stunning but they certainly did attract attention. In fact, I had an email waiting when I woke up. That is considerably different than when I worked there. It used to take two weeks for a postal letter to get to the US and another two for the return trip. Telephone calls used to cost a fortune. Going overseas was a much greater commitment than nowadays.

Now that nearly a quarter of a century has passed, my old photos have become valuable to others as well as me. Most people like looking at their past. The country has undoubtedly changed. There was even a war and all. People yearn to remember a time which seems simpler. My photos were re-posted on a Kuwaiti message board. Imagine that! And I didn't know that Google was working on Arabic to English translation.

Labels: camera, Internet

It was a year ago yesterday that I took some pictures on a trip over the mountains to BC's Okanagan region. After getting home, I sought a better way to share them than email. I discovered a site that has substantially changed my life. I'm approaching the one-year anniversary of being a member of Flickr.

It has changed my whole perception about digital photos. Photos aren't of much consequence unless they can be shared. I have been doing just that. I've decided that scanning and adding pre-digital photos is important for my collection too.

Another milestone occurred yesterday in my relation to Flickr. I uploaded my 2000th image. It was a photo of Hick's Lake, BC from our trip to Harrison Hot Springs over the weekend.

Labels: British Columbia, driving, Flickr, Okanagan, road trip

I am so organized that it's frightening. My body must've known that I wasn't going to teach this week; therefore, it scheduled a little down time. I've been lounging around since Tuesday afternoon feeling rather unhealthy. Cuddled under a blanket on the couch with a gas fire roaring isn't really the way I expected to spend my time. Yet, I suppose I'm lucky. It sure wouldn't have been fun trying to go to class. I'm sure I'll be as fit as a fiddle by next Monday.

I haven't had much gumption. Even sitting at the computer is a struggle. I did have time, though, to get back on orkut.



I first talked about social networking websites about two years ago, but for some reason I never actively pursued that curiosity. I like the concept. You have to be invited by a friend to join meaning that you have at least one connection to the community. In fact by connecting to an existing member all of their connections become part of your network. There are only a few degrees of separation between me any of the 21 million members connected through three contacts. It's like the adult equivalent of starting a tree-house club.

Unfortunately the sum total of interest among my real-world friends, is somewhere between zero and nil. In fact, I don't fit into the demographic well either. The average orkut user is between 18 and 25, single, and from Brazil.

Labels: complaints, Internet

Sunrise 5:07 am
Sunset 9:21 pm

Happy summer! Today is as good as it gets.

Tomorrow, there'll be one less minute of daylight as we begin the long slide back towards shorter days. As proof, the sunset photo below was taken at 4:13 pm on January 2, 2006.

It's supposed to be a free day but there are little errands to run. First and foremost, I want to get to BCIT to turn in my marks package for the course that ended last week. While there I'll also print up my new course outline as it has to be signed by my supervisor and administration before photocopying.

Other little tasks include returning materials to the library, running to Safeway, and negotiating at a bank for the best deal when rolling a 4-year GIC into a 5-year one.

(Apparently, this blog entry will not have the chance to rank highly on my 'Immense Wit and Profundity' scale.)

Labels: BCIT, errands

We're hardly up with the birds this morning. There was no need. We soaked in various pools, both indoor and out, a lot yesterday evening. I'm sure my skin looks at least 20 years younger! (Would that mean I'd have to Oxy 5 acne medication by the drum?) The town is also cute and feels touristy.

We are going to breakfast soon. The second floor Lakeside Cafe looks out over Harrison Lake. What a nice place to have eggs and all that goes along with a breakfast buffet.

What a nice, one-night getaway this is! It'll have to become an annual event.

Labels: food, places

It's nice to have something planned. Last night we were provided the most delicious barbequed food and wonderful selection of wines. I'd like to thank the hosts in Richmond for having us all over.



Today, we'll be driving out the Fraser Valley to Harrison Hot Springs. We'll stay in the resort and see what's going on in town too.

Labels: food