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

The e-doors are closing on a bit of history.



My decision to stop working on the high school email directory was a bit slow in coming. Sometimes we, as people, continue things merely because we are used to doing them. My volunteer work on the Virtual Sunapee Reunion website lasted over eight years. That is quite a chunk of time. The site was started the year the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit the newspapers. A current senior at the SMHS was in fourth grade. More frighteningly, should I live to be 80 years old, these eight years will represent 10% of my life.

I appreciate all those who've participated over the years. I'm most pleased with those of you who used to update regularly. Lastly, a special word of thanks must go to the free hosting offered by the folks at www.nhvt.net.

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I'd also like to take a moment to add the members who were current as of the final day of operation. They are:

2000-2006 Julie Bradford, Sasha Chait, Ashley T Esclavon, Dan Gonyea, Julie Heath, Kat Hudkins, Jolene Menard, Katrina Taylor

1990-1999 Joseph Abraham, Michael Abraham, Mindy Atwood, Christopher Barrett, Christine Frederick, Jaime W Godin, Matthew Hanson, Craig Heino, Lisa Kelley, Dustin Laro, Michael Murgatroy, Carrie Joaquin-Ocampo, Jennifer Oles, Steven Oles, Jennifer W Peck, Diana Perry, Matthew Simmons, Dan Smith, Pete Stevenson, Kate Sullivan, Megan J Williams

1985-1989 Beth Alstrom, Matt Andrus, Catherine I Ayer, Michele Couitt, Heidi C Currier, Kristi Curtis, Karen C Gates, Rebecca M Goetz, Wendy Lippincott, Dean Miller, Wendy S Sommers, Brette Twardosky, Sandy S Warren, Shelley P Wells

1982-1984 Lynda Lee D Addonizio, Maureen M Brandon, Theresa C Brush, Brenda E Cabral, Kim Cousens, Donnie Duling, Gary Gagnon, Angel G McAllister, Billie L Medoff, Carrie "Bali" Smith, Ellen K Wirta, Michele N Wood

1980- 1981 Michael Ansart, Jim Britton, Wendy Britton, Scott Dickinson, Liz I Hoar, Joseph Internicola, Lee Ann B Maroni, Dale Morrow, Annie C Potash, Kathy B Ross, Andrew Trombley, Mark Wirta

1978-1979 Randy Buswell, Janet G Butler,Cindy M Chaves, Kent Dickinson, Tim Fortier, Carl Gissler, Renee G Lecaroz, Aaron Simpson, Lynne B Thomas, Allison D Touchette, Daniel Trombley, Bob Wagner

1977 Paul Appleby, Marla Binzel, Christopher Ellis, Candy W Fuller, Dennis Hurd, Richard Kelly, Mitch Latva, Joanne N Menard, Marion C Quintas, Sherry Simms, Susan N Stocklan, Joel Thomas, Donna A Timme, Bret Wirta, Cindy B Yeager

1970-1976 William Boyce, Steven Butler, Charlotte S Clay, Robert C Ferguson, April W Freeman, David Fuller, Will Odell, Leslie Powers, Gail H Raymond, Susan Sargent,
Joanne A Stevens,

1940-1969 Bob Buswell, Chester Cheney, Charlie Colcord, Jim Cooke, Jerry Hackett, Patricia P Kosowicz, Linda C Nutting, Arthur Partridge, David Rich, Ellsworth Ruggles, David Tompkins

FACULTY Laura Davis, Anna Duke, Bill Gauthier, Karen Gosselin, Ken Greenbaum, Frank Hammond, Daniel Hudkins, Richard C Leone, Wendy Nolin, Alan Peterson, Patricia Rude.

Thank you all!

Labels: Bret, Joel, New Hampshire, Sunapee

Okay, TV has sort of replaced my interest in computers lately.

When I bought the Toshiba screen this month, I made sure that it could display in native HD resolution. It can show true 1080p. I wonder how many people, who were seeking a wide screen, have ended up with ED-TV (Extended Definition) just because it was cheaper and they didn't know what they were buying.

I was also willing to pay a third again as much for an HDMI up-converting DVD player from Toshiba just so the names would match. I figured it'd be great to have one less remote on the coffee table too. The Toshiba SD4990 was a piece of junk. I hadn't seen any bad reviews on the Internet but I got a bit nervous when unpacking. There was a huge orange paper that suggested if one encountered difficulties, not to return the unit to the place of purchase. There was a special Toshiba 800 number in a 48-point font. The unit simply wouldn't play any of my DVD+R or DVD-R discs. Within twelve hours, eight of which were night, the player was returned to Best Buy.

The cheap Prima store-brand was $50 less expensive, so I got the refund posted to my credit card. The PV935 seems to play anything I can throw at it in 1080i. The one hitch is that the Prima remote and the new television use some of the same frequencies. Simply pressing play on the DVD player will send the TV into antenna input mode. Having to get up and aim the remote just a few centimeters from the player seems to negate the usefulness of owning a remote!

Nothing's easy, is it?

Labels: complaints, review, television

This photo was taken nearly three years ago. I'm including it today as I really hope that over the next few days, a bit of cold will be able to add a dusting of snow to this month of seemingly non-stop rain.



You can see tropical vegetation in the photo although it's only a few blocks from the apartment. As I've said here a thousand times, just because we're in Canada doesn't mean we pass igloos on the way to work. Our winter storms generally blow in from the tropics; therefore the winters usually consist of warm rain. It's possible to coax non-native plants to grow here. Once in a blue moon, the weather's cold enough to force the precipitation white. This is why this photo contains a juxtaposition.

Labels: New Westminster, Quay

I want to drive. I don't mean just to the Burnaby Campus as I will do this morning. I mean I want to get out on the highway. The longest road trips we've done lately is travelling five kilometers to the Coquitlam Superstore on Saturdays. Earlier in the month, I had the oil changed in the Ranger; therefore, it's now ready and ripping for another three thousands miles.

In one way, it's nice to live here. Having a vehicle is like a passport to this continent. It'd be possible to start out at home in the morning but end the day in a place to which one has never ventured. It happens infrequently but knowing it's possible is reassuring. I have chuckled about a former colleague who spent quite a chuck of cash on a nice car. That by itself is not humourous, but he lives in a small, island country with less highway than a typical North American city. I doubt there's a stretch of tar of more than ten kilometers without a stoplight. That's a bit funny.

On the other hand, British Columbia, although a huge province is sparsely populated. In order to go anywhere it's usually necessary to head out the Fraser Valley toward Hope, BC. The majority of our road trips start and end with the same 125 kilometers of Canadian Route 1. That's a bit boring.

Labels: driving, maintenance, places, Ranger

I'm curious to see what things look like on our new television. I used to think that DVDs were the bees knees. The resolution of a standard DVD once seemed to look so fine compared to broadcast TV. We can chalk that up to the difference between interlaced and progressive scanning at the equivalent of 480 lines.

When moving to a bigger plasma or LCD screen, even an SGVA cable doesn't really cut it. I bought an upconverting player with the new Toshiba. It can output 1080i via an HDMI connector and this should be automatically converted to true 1080p on my REGZA model. A DVD cannot have true high-def though. A standard, duel-layer disc can only hold a smidgen over eight gigabytes which is only about a third of what future high definition discs will be capable of storing.

If I really want to see high definition right now, we'll have to get a Bell ExpressVu satellite receiver. However, DVDs still look pretty good and I find myself wanting to revisit films that I've already seen.

I borrowed Sweet Hereafter (1997) from the library. It's a wonderfully slow-moving Canadian film. It occurs after a horrible school bus accident in which children are killed, so it's definitely not light fare. It shows the effects on a small town. Most of the outside sequences were filmed not far away in British Columbia. Although there's no snow where we live, the mountain ranges are now white just like in the film. Spences Bridge and Merritt, BC looked fine when shown on the three-foot wide screen. If you can get hold of this disc, it's worthy viewing.

Labels: movies, television

Last Monday, I had snapped at least one photo for every one of the previous 500 days. It's an image-journal, of sorts, found on Flickr. I can wax poetic about the distant past or the unforseen future in this blog. However, my finger had to press the shutter button in the thick of the moment so I could include something in my Daily Picture Parade.



It's rather nice to be able to check on a specific date in the past. For example, a year ago in this blog I was bragging about being listed as #396 on Feedster's top blogs.

Yet, the photo above shows something that happened that day. It was taken after returning home from shopping at a speciality food store in Vancouver. A year ago November 20th was a Sunday.

Labels: Daily Picture Parade, Flickr, food

It's after ten o'clock in the morning and the lights are on. Another blustery day is upon us. The rain is again pelting the windows. Water is accumulating in cracks and crevices. The wind is whipping off any remaining autumn leaves.

On days such as this, I can see why the newspaper is full of advertisements for sunny destinations. It's a day like this when I realize why some retirees wish to get of the area from November to March.

Yet, there is a part of me that enjoys the inclement weather. It is carte blanche to laze around for the day. There'll be little guilt in doing next to nothing today.

Labels: relaxing, weather